Social Media Chaged the World

In the past year I have doubled my social media outlets, and I am not the only one. Most people check facebook, twitter, blogs, and ect. multiple times a day. Social networks are a great way to stay connected with friends and colleagues and provides quick and easy ways to share ideas and information.  Social media often leads to a disconnected analog world as well exposing more of ourselves than is wise. Social media is being utilized by business to attract new clients and developing personalities and a brand. With the right methods social media is a great place for customers and brands to get a long and stay informed, but social media is easily falls prey to over-zealous posting and bland personality that can alienate customers even further.

1) More Connected: Getting reconnected with old friends and distant family draws most people to social media. Different networks are adding diverse tools to help you share thoughts, images, videos, and more to keep your friends to connected to your daily life and big events.

2) More Disconnected: Sitting at a restaurants I was looking around and noticed that about 20% off the customers were bending over and entranced with their mobile phones. My own husband was taking a photo of his beer to post on facebook. Because we are busy letting a multitude of online friends know what were are up to, sometimes we are neglecting the friends and family who have come to see us face-to-face.

3) Easier to gather and share information: My new favorite social network is Pinterest. It is a great spot for me to shave images of interest, recipes, and design inspirations. (They need to work on an app for android since not everyone has an iphone!) Social networks have coded in ways for the community to share links, images, and videos so that we can organize our ideas and share them instantly. Which can be good and not so good.

4) More Exposure (Good): Social media sites such as LinkedIn can be a great way to get noticed whether you are a company or a potential employee looking for hire. The other sites are well used by business to build on their customers basis because their current customers have friends and they might become customers too.

5) Over Exposed (Bad): Social media has lead to a large epidemic of verbal and visual diarrhea. We are sharing more and faster than we ever could have in the past. I still have not discovered the point of Foursquare except to let people know you are not at home, and could rob you right now. Also letting out details of your life makes it easier for hackers to steal identities and personal information.

Social media can be a great tool, but you must use it wisely. Oh, and Happy New Year!