Social media!!!! You love it! I Love it, and since it’s taken over the lives of many people in the modern day world no one can shake it.
Social media allows like minded people to interact in a space in which they can, talk, share, create and exchange information, ideas and emotions. Social media can be focused towards special interest and hobbies, i.e car enthusiasts, or sports. But generally to appeal to all audience, commonly seen as blogs and forums and photo sharing site, where information is aggregated across various types of individuals. Social media has spread throughout the world like wildfire, I know I must be signed up to every single site going (I would like to note that all these site are PG-13). But many of us fall in to the misconceptions of what we believe social media to be.
Older generations don’t trust such intrusive technological advance, whereas the younger generation get bored and follow what’s hot and what’s not. So let’s look at the bigger picture.. what are the 5 biggest misconception of social media:
1. To have any real presence you have you need to be online 24/7.
I don’t know if anyone is capable of being online to manage his or her Social accounts 24/7. By that, I mean we would have to skip eating, sleeping, socialising, washing etc., to be consistently active on our accounts all the time. That’s why there are management tools for scheduling. Hootsuite is a general “go to” but there are other options. But there are other options like Tweetdeck, Buffer and SocialFlow to name a few
2. Social media is the same as Social Networking
When we say social media, most people think we are talking about Twitter and Facebook. While these networks are a part of what social media is, they only make up a slice of the social media cake. Facebook and Twitter are social networks, which means that they connect people to other people. Social Media is more broadly defined as the entire conversation that we are seeing from all over the Internet. Social media can include blogs, user forums, and even your own website if it is facilitating any of that conversation.
3. All Social Media starts with Facebook
Part of the reason Facebook is losing younger generation’s attention is the fact that there are other networks now. Think about it like this, two years ago some kids weren’t old enough to have a Facebook, But a magical thing called Instagram had just come out … and parents had no idea there was an age limit, rapidly overnight everyone got Instagrams. Younger generations are normally the catalysts for all new trends, this has lead to a spawn of new social media such as Vine, Tumblr, Ki, Snapchap and up and coming site ‘PHEED’.
4. I’m too old for this
According to research, ’a whopping 56% of Internet users 50 years or older use Facebook.’ Hard to believe, isn’t it? Well, think about it. A study discussed the fact that 67% of women aged 18-29 use Facebook. Now, I don’t want to dwell on this point as the thought of my dad and social media is just weird….
5. Social media is ‘just’ a fad.
Social media is an digital evolution of our desire as humans to communicate with one another. It is a desire that we always had and will always continue to have as long as we are human. So let me state the facts:
a). 2/3 of the global internet population visit social networks and time spent on social networks is growing at 3x the overall internet rate, accounting for ~10% of all internet time.
b). Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity – ahead of personal email!
….I could go on..
…But you could probably tell me more as by reading this you just join the 2/3 of the global population…
