Let me get it straight. Social Media isn’t just about getting social. It’s much about getting professional too. I know, you just fell into the HOW pit in your brain. Don’t worry, I got your back. Hold onto this article and it will pull you up as you go reading down.
Before HOW, let's understand WHY. Why Social Media? Because everyone is there! And by everyone I don’t mean every person on this planet. Our everyone here are people you could ever need in order to make your life better. Specifically in case of your professional life. Also Social Media is one of the technical skills that you must know if you wish to give your career a boost.
Read our article to know about other technical skills too.
https://www.eatmy.news/2019/03/important-tech-skills-that-can-give-you.html?m=1
Remember earlier when people had to socialise or get in touch with people, they used to go out at public gatherings or social events. They would talk about what they do to earn and thus spread the word. They would make likeminded friends. And all this helped them in increasing their income and gaining popularity. This method has never gone out of fashion. And every well wisher of yours would suggest you the same and so are we!
Before we dive into our ways to use social media we need to know the platforms first. Because every popular social media platform is different.
FACEBOOK has got everybody’s face hooked on their screens. Again, by everybody I mean almost one third of the world’s population that uses Facebook each day.
YOUTUBE is on number 2. It is also known as the second largest search engine after its owner Google. This platform is used by billions of people to watch a billion hours r of videos every day.
WHATSAPP and MESSENGER are on number 3 and 4 respectively. These let you connect to people which are closer to you like family and friends and colleagues.
INSTAGRAM on number 5, lets you share content and create a community of people similar interests. Through photos and videos it becomes more appealing.
TUMBLR, the number 6 in our list, lets you share audios, texts, links, videos, photos and more. It is a fusion of microblogging and social networking.
LINKEDIN is purely a professional platform. It's evolution from a resume and job searching site to a professional social media site has got it number 7 on our list.
PINTEREST has been getting popular recently and people are using it for discovering new things and finding inspiration. Therefore this number 8 on our list has earned almost 250 million active users .
TWITTER is the most influential site which has timely information on almost everything. Its limitation on characters only lets the important information make it to the board.
This makes it number 9 on our list.
Surely being on all these platforms would be totally a waste of time if you don’t know how to use them to your benefit, which makes it impossible for us to analyze what benefits can be derived from them .
GETTING MOTIVATED
It is said that we are average of the 5 people we spend most of our time with. With the limitations of human form it is physically impossible to be with people you admire daily because someone stays in Toronto and the other one flies 5 times a week. One might be not at all interested in keeping touch with you and the other might not have the time to do so. But you can always be in touch with their work. Because these successful people use social media to their advantages. And they showcase their work there. They inspire and motivate others. And it is free of cost. You can always follow the people you admire or want to be like. Like the pages that keep you in touch with your goal. Watch how people do it. Social media is flooded with images and videos which make it easy to visualise your dream. You get to know what the world is doing currently and how. Social media is not only about finding friends or soul mates, it’s about finding goals too.
BOOSTING CONFIDENCE
We all know the struggle of making the people around us understand our dreams. Their narrow understanding often narrows our confidences too. This is because even today, people don’t know many career opportunities and job titles. But on social media, you are able to find people that know what you are doing and they admire it. The likes and comments that you get erase all those moments when you thought of quitting. Also the response you get for sharing your knowledge is worth a million dollars. The probability of people responding is always high on social media because of the great number of people using it. And also the probability of people finding it useful is even higher. Announcing your accomplishments on social media gains you reputation. And it directly instills confidence in us.
REACHING PEOPLE
In a world driven by people you need to get in touch with people in order to achieve something. Social media creates a far reaching network of people that are into the same thing that you are working on.
BUILD A COMMUNITY
In villages people maintain their relationship with the community so that they have the support in good times and in bad times too. Social media has worked miracles for many businesses and start-ups with its super power of reaching people. Social media is also the best way of getting traffic on ones website or blog. Create your account and begin as a follower. Make sure your details on the homepage give the exact idea of who you are, what you want to be and what you do professionally. Establish your presence. Like, follow, comment, follow back, post, share. And how much you want the people to know about your personal life is upto you, but letting people in makes them connect to you personally. Make them feel like you are a friend and not just another working person. Give them a sneek peek in your day so that they are not hesitant about contacting you. Whether you reach to people or people reach out to you, you are hitting it both ways.
STAYING UPDATED
Social media is so much about trend. You see and read about what is trending at a particular point of time . Their algorithm works in a way which keeps updating your walls or screens with recent arrivals. And that helps you know what is going on in your profession too. Because here you are hit with the kind of stuff that you react to most. Just like the way people come to know what you do, you too can understand what others are doing. That keeps you updated on the competition. Even news houses post news on their pages considering the time people spend on social media.
UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET AND ITS NEED
We are all either working for our business or someone else’s if we look at the larger picture. And for making it big, we need to make sure that you deliver what the society needs. As the saying goes, do not sell the product, sell the solution to the problem. And don’t we need to understand the society for the same? Social media plays an important role in it. It is the best platform to interact with the consumers directly or indirectly. All the data that people create or respond to, helps in understanding the targeted segment for the business. Consumer behaviour is highly tracked and taken in account. Social media helps us do the same easily because of its reach. On direct basis people could be easily surveyed on social media than any other way of doing so.
MARKETING AND ADVERTISING
Social media is the most amazing platform to promote anything. Be it you, your skills, profession or your product. It is the most popular type of e-marketing or digital marketing. Social media marketing helps improve brand loyalty. Engaging with your customers help you build stronger customer relationships. And the bonus point is that it offers low-cost advertising features which are cheaper than traditional advertising. Most of these social media platforms have their own data-analytics tools which help in tracking the progress. If your complete target audience is on social media, you don’t even need to engage in any other kind of marketing. Social media is completely effective. Because this is where people willingly spend their most of the time.
Sharing links among people and sending timely updates about your work can lead to getting traffic on your site or say work and spreading awareness about what you do respectively.
All the naysayers who curse this generation's reliance on technology and its current phenomena like social media blame it for everything that is wrong with the Youth. However, it takes no expert to tell us that this notion is flawed, and when used to its full potential, social media can be extremely powerful and effective.
- Manali Shelke
Want to get published on EMN and join the community? Here is an opportunity to join the Board of Young Leaders Program by Eat My News. Click here to know more: bit.ly/boardofyoungleaders
Want to get published on EMN and join the community? Here is an opportunity to join the Board of Young Leaders Program by Eat My News. Click here to know more: bit.ly/boardofyoungleaders
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