What do you know about social media? Before you answer to that question, let me tell you that you know more than you may think. Social media is simply another way for us to communicate and connect with one another. If you are a smart communicator and understand the power of connections, you already know a lot about social media.
Social media are internet-based tools for sharing information. It includes various social working sites on the internet. Some of them well-known social networking sites are: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, messenger, What's App, Instagram, Skype, Viber, etc. Presently, more than 2.5 billion people navigate through the internet.
There are many advantages of social media. A few of them are as follows: the biggest advantage of social media is connectivity. You can communicate and share things with other freely. Second, you seek any kind of help or advice from the community you are connected with. Third, social media is an effective means of education. You can connect teachers, scholars and students to seek their help about various issues. Fourth, social media is an easy to access to a large numerous of audience. You can promote your offline or online business easily. Fifth, social media is a big source of knowledge and awareness. You may share your experience about an undertaking. You may ask others to tell their observations in this regard.
Social media is a mixed blessing. As it has many advantages, it has also many disadvantages. Some of them are as follows:
First, one of the main defects of social media is cyberbullying. Anyone can create a fake account without being traced. He can threaten others. He can spread rumors and create disturbance in society. Second, hacking into other people’s accounts is common on social media. Sometimes, the hackers manipulate other people’s personal data. This affects people’s personal lives or sometimes causes them heavy losses. Third, frauds are common on social media. Several such examples are available where people have committed fraud through the social media. Fourth, an excessive use of social media causes addiction. The social media addicts waste much of their time in surfing the internet. Fifth, an excessive use of social media causes health problems. It damages eyesight and makes people lazy and slow. It disturbs persons physically and mentally.
What are the things we do not know about social media?
1. Where is social media taking us? Where will we be in 5 years? No one has a clue.
2. Which media tools will survive? Is Twitter a passing fad? Will the little bird be eaten by the big cat, Google? MySpace is already on the decline. What about Facebook? My hunch is that each of these tools will find the right niche. MySpace will survive for the very young. Twitter in some form will survive for instant message type communication world-wide.
3. How will social media affect advertising, public advertising, public relations, marketing, and sales? My guess is that broadcast, intrusive advertising as we know it today, will not survive. For some products (not many) it will continue in some form. Social media adds a new component to the “marketing” mix. By doing so, traditional marketing efforts must adapt. Time will show us how and who will survey. To
4. What’s next? We now have Web 2.0 which means an interactive Web. It’s much more engaging to read a blog in which you can comment than to read a static website. For that reason, blogs have shared in popularity. What will Web 3.0 or 2.5 or whatever look like? I’m sure that there are some gurus out there who can share what they see in their crystal balls. But, for most of us, it remains a mystery. The challenge is to be ready. Two things we can count on: we are on the cusp and there’s more to come. As a communications expert, all this excites me. Social media provides new opportunities to communicate and to connect.
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