“Once you can understand where the conversation is, who leads, the type of voices and the best place for you to add your voice, you can then start becoming a more active participant.”
– Mitch Joel, president of Twist Image
A couple days ago, I had someone very proudly explain to me that they didn’t have Facebook- they didn’t “believe in it.” Now, there are a lot of things I don’t believe in: the end of the world, ghosts, Sarah Palin‘s bizarre behavior… but I digress. What I am unclear of though is how someone doesn’t BELIEVE in a form of social media. It’s everywhere; from ad campaigns, to class projects, to the floors of Congress, where congressmen are able to tweet to their constituents, right from the house floor. Pretending it doesn’t exist or just altogether avoiding it seems altogether uninformed.
Facebook alone has more than 500 million active users. To put that into perspective, if Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd most populated. The average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events and they are developing up to 90 pieces of content in a given month. Most crucial to my argument though is that there are more than 30 billion pieces of contents (i.e. web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) shared in just one month. But it’s not just Facebook that people attack. When people find out about my love of Twitter I get similar reactions. “Aren’t you basically just updating a status constantly?” “I don’t know why anyone would care what I’m doing or thinking.”
Social media is about more than just broadcasting your own life though and viewing it through that narrow of a lens is naive. Communication is currency for getting things done and right now the way the majority of people remain connected is through social media. Companies have campaigns conducted soley through social media. They hire people, or outsource to companies like CoTweet because they view social media as a catalyst for the branding of their company.
“More companies are discovering that an über-connected workplace is not just about implementing a new set of tools — it is also about embracing a cultural shift to create an open environment where employees are encouraged to share, innovate and collaborate virtually.”
– Karie Willyerd & Jeanne C. Meister, HarvardBusiness.org
It is also useful for personal interests. For me, the beauty of Twitter is that it allows me to stay up-to-date on public relations, political and current events. Thanks to the wonderful program TweetDeck, I even have the ability to categorize those into separate lists, and have updates sent directly to my phone of appear on my desktop with issues I care about. Further, it is in large part the way you, the reader, found my blog. My work experience, my writing samples, my resume? It is all on here so that, hopefully, I can direct a future employer here. I hope that by showcasing my abilities and expertise, someone will be impressed with what I can bring to the table. And that is the sort of rapid branding that can make social networking so useful for individuals.
Now that isn’t to say that posting one’s every move is advised. To quote the movie Easy A, “I don’t know what your generation’s fascination is with documenting your every thought…but I can assure you, they’re not all diamonds. “Roman is having an OK day, and bought a Coke Zero at the gas station. Raise the roof.” Who gives a rat’s ass?” There is absolutely some savy and most of all common sense necessary to successfully navigating social media. Those pictures from spring break? Probably not what you want for a first impression. Your plans, minute by minute, for the next hour? Quick way to get people to stop following you.
So think before you post and embrace all the opportunities of the social media world. It’s growing, changing and expanding whether you like it or not.
