| The emergence and evolution of social media have been possible due to the human intellect and its increased desire for communication, fueled by the never-ending advancements in information technology. |
| Through various social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more, users create a somewhat virtual world of communication. This contributes to these social networking platforms’ ideas, information, and media. |
| If you need content services, don’t hesitate contact Diana Rangaves DRangaves@DianaRangaves.com 707-494-2696 |
Table of Contents
Top 4 Social Media Strategies for Businesses
1. Use chatbots.
2. Offer a personalized experience for your clients.
3. Implement a well-thought-out content marketing plan.
4. Create a great community for your target audience.
Impact of Social Media on Business.
How social media impacts businesses.
Positive Impacts of Social Media.
Empowerment through education.
Social media boosts worldwide connectivity.
Social networks build engaged communities.
An opportunity to learn new skills.
Negative impacts of Social Media.
The negative impact of social media on kids.
The negative impact of social media on teens.
The negative impact of social media on adults.
The negative impact of social media on the society.
Social Networking Catfishing: Here’s what you should know.
What happens during catfishing?
Social Media and Bullying among Teenagers.
Social media can amplify bullying.
Mitigating the Negative Effects of Social Media.
Spend less time on social media.
Avoid scrolling social media before bed or first thing in the morning.
Turn off all notifications and check social media at specific times.
Create a ‘feel-good’ social media follow list
Safety on Social Media: 4 Tips to protect yourself
Stay safe on social media.
Top 4 Tips to be Smart on Social Media.
1. Learn the art of social storytelling.
2. Repurpose high-quality content
3. Go live.
4. Your personality.
Wrap-up
Winning at Social Media: A Powerful Communication Medium
The emergence and evolution of social media have been possible due to the human intellect and its increased desire for communication, fueled by the never-ending advancements in information technology. Through various social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more, users create a somewhat virtual world of communication. This contributes to these social networking platforms’ ideas, information, and media.
A powerful communication tool
Over the past decade, social media has taken over the marketing sphere, business sphere, and education industry. It has a lasting impact on how people communicate and has become an integral part of our daily lives.
For example, WhatsApp has entirely redefined the instant messaging culture and taken this concept to an entirely new level. Indeed, you can text anyone worldwide as long you have access to the internet. This level of digital transformation has been brought by other social media giants such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
The ease of communicating online via social media platforms has brought information to audiences that couldn’t be reached previously. These platforms have created awareness among users about what’s happening in different regions worldwide.
An excellent example of such awareness can be seen in how the Amazon Rainforest Fire story spread. It began with one social media post, and within a short period, that post created a sensational response that showed up in nearly everyone’s newsfeed across different social media platforms.
Products, advertisements, and movements are all being broadcasted on various social media channels, thanks to the increased number of social media users. Currently, businesses rely on social media platforms to create brand awareness and promote or sell their products. These platforms allow profit and not-for-profit organizations to reach their target audience regardless of their geographical location.
Summary
Undoubtedly, the internet has facilitated social media, a resource to humankind with unfathomable benefits and reach. Its influence has given rise to a unique communication genre characterized by quick conversations and massive information. Indeed, social media has become a powerful communication tool for users.
Top 4 Social Media Strategies for Businesses
Social media is very crucial to the success of your business’s digital marketing plan. Despite this, some brands aren’t using this marketing tool to its full potential. While the number of engagements such as shares, likes, and follows is still crucial, the credibility of a given brand can be distinguished by far more than the number of engagements.
Today, social media strategies require a unique set of skills whereby businesses must fully comprehend their audience’s needs. Here are the social media strategies to implement, whether you are a well-established brand or a young entrepreneur.
1. Use chatbots
Chatbots are a unique digital tool that can easily communicate and resolve issues for your clients without the need for human interruption. They integrate with various social media platforms, and your customers are likely to feel comfortable using them. Remember, chatbots don’t require coding knowledge, can respond to customer queries, integrate with most payment systems, and can take orders from Facebook Messenger.
2. Offer a personalized experience for your clients
If implemented correctly, chatbots are a great way to automate some tasks and allow you to create a personalized experience for your clients. To achieve this, you should stop linking your ads or other forms of advertisements solely to your website landing pages and direct your target audience to messenger with a chatbot.
3. Implement a well-thought-out content marketing plan
Generally, quality is key, and content isn’t an exception. Content marketing is a prominent form of online marketing that has been around for many years and is here to stay. High-quality content that is optimized for search engines coupled with social media can help bring more customers and maintain the existing ones.
4. Create a great community for your target audience
While your social media followers and other metrics are crucial, they’re not the only measure of social media strategy success. You must show your target audience that you’re not a robot. Consider integrating your personality through emotions and humor in your social media content (posts) so that your audience can relate to your brand. You can do this by creating a community that allows you and your audience to ask questions, respond to those questions, gather opinions on various matters, and share relevant information.
Summary
Other social media strategies for your business include adding relevant content to your social media timeline, using brand advocates, maintaining an authentic profile on relevant social media channels, and telling stories by going live. By following the strategies outlined above, you will set your business up to compete with other brands and implement a social media strategy that can stand the test of time.
Impact of Social Media on Business
Questioning the growing power of social media in business is like questioning the role of sunlight on planet earth. It is no longer a want but an actual need for every business.
Think about what life would be like if there are no platforms that let users worldwide connect and interact. Imagine having to pay thousands of dollars on bills to reach and engage with your friends, colleagues, and loved ones. Or having to email all your recent photos so friends and loved ones can see what you have been up to. It’d be a lonely world.
But with the dawn of social media and online networking, catching up with your family, interacting with friends, connecting with customers, and learning about recent updates is easier. There are over 4.55 billion social media users, which is over 53% of the world’s population. These numbers prove that social media is here to stay, and its significance to business can’t be ignored.
How social media impacts businesses
1. Even without paying for ad advertisements, social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn still offer businesses a decent organic reach as long as you are sharing great content.
2. Social media has made it easy for marketers to slide into a prospect’s daily routine unconstructively. This facilitates a more personalized interaction.
3. Social networks help businesses generate more loyalty by creating private groups and social media pages that encourage engagement.
4. Social media can also impact businesses whose growth relies on collaboration. These platforms facilitate influencer marketing and other forms of collaboration.
5. Social media platforms allow businesses to take control over their reputation management. They can help generate reviews and ratings, which play a crucial role in an organization’s reputation.
6. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms are virtual word-of-mouth platforms that could increase referrals.
7. Social media could help businesses gauge audience feedback.
Summary
Your business’s social media following may not take off overnight, but the long-term growth or payoff is worth the effort. The secret is to stay consistent and reap the benefits of social media for business.
Positive Impacts of Social Media
Could you go a few days without using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media network? It is a big question, and one that evokes thoughts such as, ”how would you stay in touch with your fans and besties?” What about the live-streamed workouts you wanted to tune into? Heck, how will you fill those hours watching television on your couch without something to scroll through?
You no longer need to evaluate your Screen Time to know you spend a lot of time on social networks. Here are the positive impacts of social media.
Empowerment through education
Just think about the accounts you follow on social networks. Whether it’s fitness bloggers, fashion brands, or business organizations, each of these profiles has helped you learn something exciting or new. Indeed, you can learn from a virtual workshop, brilliant captions revealing practical tips about a specific topic or how-to-style tutorials on Instagram stories.
Social media boosts worldwide connectivity.
The chances are that you are already connected with social media users in different states, cities, and countries. With nearly the entire world at your fingertips, you can easily share ideas, communicate, and collaborate with people from different geographical areas.
Social networks build engaged communities.
Another positive impact of social media is its ability to foster, and build engaged social communities. So, whether you are a new member of a Facebook Group about your favorite talk show or just joined a book club (virtual) on Instagram, social networks offer users the power to find and connect with various like-minded users worldwide.
An opportunity to learn new skills
Do you want to master a new musical instrument? Or do you intend to give yoga a try? Thanks to social media, you can quickly learn a new skill online and for free. This is because social media users can share expertise on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more.
Summary
There you have it; when it comes to social networks, there are many benefits to both individuals and brands. Whether you want to strengthen your brand’s marketing strategy or connect with other people, try focusing on the positive impact of social media discussed in this article.
Negative impacts of Social Media
About 64% of Americans believe that social media has a mostly negative impact on how things are going on in the country, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center survey of adults in the United States. Those with a negative view of the effects of social media mention misinformation, hate, and harassment they may have seen on social media.
They are also concerned about a growing number of social media users who believe everything they read on social media platforms. Here are the negative effects of social media.
The negative impact of social media on kids
On the one hand, social media platforms can help children learn various forms of connections with friends they have never met and valuable communication skills. However, the biggest challenge comes from regulation. Children need a top-down structure to help them put dangerous online interactions into perspective and unplug whenever necessary. Bullying, cliques, and sexual content are other significant risks of social media use among children.
The negative impact of social media on teens
Teenagers have greater freedom and access to electronic devices than children. However, it is easy for them to get caught up in dangerous interactions online, particularly on social media platforms. Remember, teens often see the current moment as a long-term reality instead of fleeting. This is why bullying, and different forms of exploitative online interactions hit teenagers harder than adults.
The negative impact of social media on adults
Most adults who consume too much social media content may find themselves impulsive and sometimes unable to drive joy from their daily routines. After all, nothing is as funny and strange as some corners of the internet.
The negative impact of social media on the society
Across different age groups, the negative impact of social media on society may include widespread mental health issues. For example, individuals with ADHD are likely to see worsening symptoms, particularly if they must self-motivate or work remotely. Improper use of social networks can also worsen loneliness and depression.
Summary
Social media is both good and bad. When used assertively, actively, and mindfully, it can help you establish deeper connections with people and reap the benefits of such connections. However, social media has a dark side. Improper use of social networks comes with a long list of negative effects discussed above.
Social Networking Catfishing: Here’s what you should know
Although the public face of social media is warm and fuzzy, it is a category of internet service with a serious dark side. It can not only destroy your productivity, have a negative impact on your mental health, and damage your privacy, but it can also make you a target of bullying and scams. What most social media users don’t know is that catfishing can do all those damages.
The term catfish was popularized by a 2020 documentary film by the same name. It refers to an individual who is intentionally deceptive when creating online profiles, often with the goal of establishing a connection with his or her victims. This deception can be elaborate and might involve the use of fake biographies, fake photos, and at times, fictitious supporting networks.
What happens during catfishing?
Although not always the case, it is primarily the catfisher who makes the first contact or move on the victim. The victim often gets a private or direct message with some kind of opener. Examples of common openers include “I can’t stop looking at your display picture” or “Hi there, handsome.”
Once the victim engages with the catfisher, the perpetrator will begin weaving their web. It is common for a catfisher to play the long game, which means the scam is perpetrated over a lengthy period. Note that the catfisher takes the time to build trust with the victim.
Remember, catfishers are experienced in manipulating and exploiting various personal weaknesses of the specific people they target. Most victims include people who are lonely, have a deceased spouse, or have other forms of vulnerabilities.
Summary
If you suspect that you are a victim of catfishing on social media, cease communication with the catfisher and block them. It’s also recommended to report the user to the social network. Be sure to talk to someone you trust about the incident or contact the police, especially if you have been scammed out of money.
Social Media and Bullying among Teenagers
A recent report from The Wall Street Journal revealed that Instagram made body images worse for one in every three teen girls while citing Facebook’s data. Self-image is just a single factor in what may be making some girls and young women feel bad because it coincides with increased bullying on social media. Generally, cyberbullying has increased among teenagers due, partly, to increased access to devices, the advent of the internet, and sometimes lack of supervision of their online activities.
Social media can amplify bullying.
As mentioned earlier, bullying existed before the advent of social media and may have included trolling on message boards, forums, and chat rooms. It may have included sharing inappropriate content with adolescents, sharing secrets, and spreading rumors online.
But as more people, particularly younger Americans, connect on social media, it has resulted in an uptick in bullying. Statistics reveal that most cases of bullying are taking place on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and other popular social media platforms.
While these social networks allow teenagers to share fun and informative posts, photos and connect with friends, they’re also a hotspot for bullying. Indeed, cyberbullies often make hurtful and emotionally scarring posts and comment anonymously. Such comments can be made public on a photo or sent privately in a direct message.
Another stressor related to bullying is the unlimited access adolescents have to social networks via smartphones and other mobile devices. Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying is often ongoing even after the teenager has left school (where it often happens), making the victim feel helpless.
Summary
If you’re worried about your safety or that of your child using social media, speak to someone you trust. Remember, the first line of defense against cyberbullying is you. And by taking the right measures to protect yourself or your loved ones against cyberbullying, you will be positively contributing to the fight against bullying on social media.
Mitigating the Negative Effects of Social Media
Socializing is an integral part of our daily lives. It helps us create a community and feel more connected. When we are apart, social media makes it easier to connect with friends, family, and colleagues and maintain those connections. As much as social media is associated with an endless list of benefits, it also has downsides. So, how should you address the negative effects of social media?
Spend less time on social media
A recent study found that minimizing the use of social media could significantly decrease feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and depression. For instance, you can use social media for a maximum of half an hour daily. If you find it challenging to track those 30 minutes, just use your phone settings to get alerts whenever you have reached your quota for the day.
Avoid scrolling social media before bed or first thing in the morning.
Most people use wake-up alarms on phones, making it easy to reach their phones in bed. Unfortunately, a constant stream of news, selfies, and updates don’t set the best conditions for gearing up to begin your day or wind down. It’s recommended to establish more mindful routines around your bedtime and morning. Generally, screen-free activities like meditation, journaling, and practicing gratitude are a great place to begin.
Turn off all notifications and check social media at specific times
You probably know how easy it is to check and respond to notifications showing the latest comments on your posts. Remember, you are in control, and you can turn those notifications off and only check your social media accounts at certain times. This can prevent a lot of social media anxiety.
Create a ‘feel-good’ social media follow list
If you are worried that using social media could be contributing to anxiety and other negative feelings, you can audit your following list. Consider unfollowing the accounts that could be leading to those negative feelings and follow people and brands that make you feel good, offer entertainment, or motivate you to reach your goals.
Summary
Now that you know different ways to mitigate the negative impact of social media, it’s easy not to open social media right away the next time you feel the pull of the updates and feed. Rather than grabbing your device and scrolling social networks, take a breath or two and do something else.
Safety on Social Media: 4 Tips to protect yourself
Social media has grown significantly, and many have paid a steep price few saw coming; the loss of privacy. You probably know that the impulse to share has caused many people to inadvertently expose themselves in ways that can compromise their online safety. Although many social networking sites might feel like an invitation-only group of friends accessible 24/7, it is not necessarily a closed, safe universe.
Stay safe on social media.
Here are tips for managing the information published on your social media profiles and staying safe when using any social network.
- Know that all online activities leave a trace
Think of the internet as an elephant – it never forgets. Although spoken word leaves a little trace and may be forgotten easily, the written word can endure the online environment. Therefore, whatever you tweet, share, post, or update, even if it’s deleted immediately, can be captured by someone without your knowledge. Therefore, be careful what you share on social media.
- Be discreet about your location.
Take care to avoid revealing or sharing your address, which can make it easy for burglars to target your home. Remember, you can share this information inadvertently, even without typing. To prevent that, disable location tagging on your device.
- Handle your passwords carefully.
Never keep your passwords in your web browser. If your laptop or phone is stolen, the saved passwords can offer access to your social media accounts, emails, and shopping platforms. All these platforms often contain a lot of information that identity thieves could use.
- Use private messaging
It’s recommended to make it clear to your family members and friends that the best way of communicating with you is via email or private messaging instead of posting on your page. Never hesitate to delete something too personal, even if it was posted on your timeline by a loved one.
Summary
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms are fun. That’s the reason more than 50 percent of the United States population uses social networking sites. However, don’t be lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to protecting your personal information on social media.
Top 4 Tips to be Smart on Social Media
One of the top hurdles on social media for businesses is the pressure to “keep up.” Different social media platforms come and go, and user behavior changes over time. That means the way businesses and individuals approach various social networks has to change. So, what tactics should be the cornerstone of your social media strategy that can keep you smart and relevant on these platforms?
1. Learn the art of social storytelling
Blasting countless promo links on social media channels is far from an effective social media strategy. People are sick of impersonal brands and spam. For this reason, mastering the art of storytelling will improve the chances of your target audience viewing you as relevant, authentic, and a thought leader in your field.
2. Repurpose high-quality content
You probably have a ton of content to fill up your social calendar. So, if you are running on a tight schedule or your financial resources are thin, repurposing your best content is an effective way to squeeze the most out of your social media strategy.
3. Go live
The popularity of video content isn’t a secret, and brands are pushing the boundaries of live video as social media platforms increasingly highlight and add live video features. Remember, live videos are more compelling than other forms of content as they are presented as must-see pieces of content.
4. Don’t hide your personality
Never neglect the importance of revealing the personality behind your business or brand. The old days of suit-and-ties branding on social networks are over. After all, most brands that shine today are not afraid to take the occasional risk to remind their audience that there is a person behind the brand or social media account.
Summary
Businesses and individual social media accounts are constantly scrambling for the greatest and latest ways to drive more engagements on social media. By implementing the strategies highlighted above, you can stay relevant and smart on social media.
With a quality ghost-writer on your team (or even a freelancing contract), many companies might find it easier to seal investment deals, attract new clients, and so on. Find one for building up your brand today.
Here’s how to get in touch with me to learn more. DRangaves@DianaRangaves.com (707)494-2692 contact Diana Rangaves.