I recently read an article on Digg talking about the uprising in Turkey and how a peaceful “sit in” became a very non-peaceful situation very quickly due to violence from regimes. The sit in crowd was vast, why? Because of social media word quickly spread about the “sit in”. In this very same article, Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, was quoted saying: “There is now a menace which is called Twitter,” Erdogan said. “The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society.” Said the man who was overthrown by the power of the people….and the power of social media gave the masses a very loud voice screaming to the world Erdogan’s uncompromising dictatorship approach to ruling his country.
Clearly, social media is shifting the world, culture and the people within these cultures. It is changing the way we communicate, the way we read news, the way we share and spread news, it is changing how we market, how we socialize, how we begin and end conversations; social media is the most fascinating thing to hit the planet since the internet and it has no intention of stopping.
My entire career is built around social media and how people utilize this miraculous medium in their businesses, small or big. Social media is that annoying kid brother that just hangs around and never goes away, and is always talking. I think it’s funny that Erdogan mentions Twitter as if it a new form of social media, goes to show how backwards and insanely inward his mentality is, I mean the news and media have been lying to us for a number of years with sensationalized media and techniques to get us riled up as a society. Now, the people have control over the content they decide to read and the source they choose to receive it from, as there are now countless sources. This poses huge threat to the top dogs. why? Because they actually they don’t have a real dog in this fight. Social media is changing the way we do everything, and for the better and for always, if you ask me.
For instance, if you are a small business with a small marketing budget you can create an effective marketing structure around creating social media content about your business. Most social media sites are free of charge, it just takes time to post content and write unique and interesting posts relating to your business. I talk to business owners all of the time about using social media and the fact that they balk at it still, not all, but some, is beyond me. I was recently elected to speak at a conference about social media to a nay saying crowd of dentists. My approach is very simple, use social media to your advantage, find someone you can trust to work your social media marketing and you will see the fruits of your labor. I have seen it first hand.
The fear surrounding social media?
The fear is uncomplicated, it is the unknown, and as social media molds our generations old and new, we have to keep up with this ever-changing technology because it evolves every day and every second of our techno minded lives.
Another fear of social media derives from lack of knowledge on how to utilize it. How do you use Facebook to market your business or Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumblUpon, YouTube, Google+? It’s all a matter of baby steps. I always explain to clients use what you know the best first and then build on that. If you create a parallel medium across the board this is always effective because you are hammering your message out on several different levels on several different platforms. The more your message is printed on the Internet the higher you rank in Google and Bing, think about it? There are many uses for social media, uses most people haven’t even considered, but that’s why there are thousands of bloggers like myself writing about this very topic. We are in turn using social media to get our message out, in hopes of boosting our image and notoriety so we too can become successful within our own niche.
Social media is shifting the way we communicate which in turn is changing our cultures around the planet. You don’t have to involve yourself, it’s true, however, if you are a nay sayer and haven’t tried jumping on this awesome ride, once again you are missing out on an implausible journey. Social media is altering how we communicate yes, however that doesn’t mean this is a bad thing this just means we are finding different and more effective ways to get our message, brand, identity out into this vast world. Because let’s face it, the world is immense, and you might be a small fish in a big pond right now, but with the use of social media, you can and will be heard; no matter how undersized you think your voice is, it can be as loud as you want it to be on the internet it’s just a matter of effort and perseverance!
