What is Social Media?
This is an online collaborative platform which allows influencers or users to create and share ideas and information in the form of content like pictures, videos, blogs and more. You can interact with virtual communities through internet-based applications by liking, commenting, sharing or tweeting digital posts and photos. This also aids in branding when specific user profiles are created and maintained by social media organizations.
Such immersive technologies help one keep in touch with loved ones living far away, advertise products for a company, sign business foreign business deals, explore innovative fashion trends, search for academic opportunities and forge life-long friendships through web blogs, podcasts, instant messaging apps or gaming sites. Some of the most popular social media sites with millions of followers worldwide include Facebook, TikTok, WeChat, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Baidu Tieba, and LinkedIn. Other well-known platforms that are sometimes referred to as social media services include YouTube, Quora, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Snapchat, Pinterest, Viber, Reddit, Discord, Microsoft Teams and more.
Advantages of New Social Media
As a direct consequence of Covid-19 and the subsequent social distancing enforced in 2020, the usual socialising that people were so accustomed to faced serious disruptions. Face-to-face communication was an integral part of the human social circle and when it seemed impossible, new social media apps took the central stage in order to fill this void in communication between people.
1. Reach a larger target audience
Social media is your best policy to enhance your business reach by spreading the word about your products and services to a larger pool of interested customers. For instance local brands and shops can attract tourists and other natives by boosting advertisements or posts directed towards clients within a specific radius. The percentage of US adults who use social media apps online are significant: YouTube: 73%, Facebook: 68%, Instagram: 35%, Pinterest: 29%, Snapchat: 27%, LinkedIn: 25%, Twitter: 24%.
2. Direct connection with audience
The best marketing strategy as you are aware of who is interested in your products since they keep up with your updates, like your posts and have subscribed to your channel. You get familiar with your customers and can curate services and posts which fit their specific tastes. You can also deliver better customer service by engaging with your audience directly and thus resolve their issues without any ado. This way you can personalize your brand and portray it in a more positive light. You can also learn about how the audience perceives your business. You can maintain or even enhance the elements they appreciate and fix the ones that might not be very up-to-the mark. Therefore, through capitalizing on people’s feedback you can improve your overall marketing campaign.
3. Create organic content
One of the best ways to connect with leads without much advertising or commercializing cost is through social media apps. Posting organic content without any unnecessary expenses benefits businesses. You can post photos, videos and more depending on the social media network to engage your audience.
4. Improved mental well being
As an aftermath of the pandemic, people were driven to isolate themselves and cases of aggravating mental health were on the peak partly due to loss of jobs, financial constraints, dropping academic records and most importantly due to loneliness. However, the introduction of newer social media apps served as a stress reliever when people could video call or text others at any time of the day and build stronger relationships despite the geographical distances. People can also join mental health awareness group chats and online communities that help deal with symptoms of anxiety, depressions or other psychological disorders.
5. Information and updates
You can have access to news within a matter of seconds. Be it weather forecasts, political decisions or any catastrophic updates from every corner of the world. You are guaranteed to receive authentic content and resources similar to the traditional ones on televisions, newspapers or radio. Social media is a great medium to help create awareness about social or government movements, scientific innovations, climatic changes or on matters of injustice in society.
Disadvantages of Social Media
The excessive usage of anything has its downsides and hence, social media may pose hurdles in one’s progress or daily life if it is misused
1. Cyberbullying
These days it has become a norm to create fake profiles and accounts to reach out to unknown people and spread fabricated rumours and lies about them. This is extremely harmful to the healthy and peaceful environment in society. It has led many teenagers to immerse in unlawful activities after being blackmailed for leaking of personal content therefore leading to rising depression and suicide rates around the world. Cyberstalking is another dilemma on the rise which is categorized as Facebook stalking, instagram stalking and WhatsApp stalking. Never accept friend requests or share your private data with strangers online.
2. Distraction
Checking your phone frequently for any messages or notifications amidst work or while completing an assignment is distracting at its fullest. Everyone is so invested in their virtual profiles and social media created lives to maximise their reach and number of followers on Instagram or Twitter that they forget about their real-life capabilities. Even in their free time, instead of spending more quality time with loved ones, refreshing one’s mind through physical activities or sleeping, people prefer scrolling through their social media feeds. It thus creates distances with the people who are present with you at the moment as you converse with someone online.
3. Lack of understanding or thoughtfulness
Understanding or conveying thoughts and feelings through words or even voice messages is not possible. Facial expressions and gestures are a major source of relaying how one feels at the moment. It is also easier to comprehend someone’s discomfort, sadness or anger which they might not be able to directly articulate just by a face-to-face interaction. People can make online friends and chat with them for lengthy periods of time but it isn’t the compensation for physically being present in the other person’s company. When you get to meet that person, it might be hard for you to interpret their emotions, intent or the overall connection.
4. Receiving negative feedback
People not only spread the word about what they love online but also about what they dislike. They may be displeased by any slackening in your company’s services or products such as poor quality or delivery times. The negative feedback they post can be in the form of Facebook reviews. This can be a potential drawback for your company as when new customers visit your social media page, they will notice the negative reviews and may somehow be discouraged to shop your services due to a lack of credibility. On Twitter users can even tag the company name in their posts and many users even feel it their obligation to let others know about their poor experience. This may be an obstacle to your future marketing efforts.
5. Investing a lot of time on campaigning
Inorder to maintain a social media presence for your company or brand you need to constantly create new content, post it and also engage in communication with your audience for keeping your marketing functional. Although investing time in your social media is taxing, it is worthwhile for improved customer loyalty. If you are a small budding business with a small marketing department that has limited resources, it will be rather challenging to produce and post new posts while responding to clients. You will be at a disadvantage to those companies who are running a successful social media campaign. One solution is to hire a social media agency that excels in managing such social media campaigns so you can have sufficient time to focus on running your business.
Does social media assist in studying?
E-learning has gained momentum since the arrival of coronavirus and remote learning has become the only alternative. Although social networking sites if not used in moderation may be damaging, students can gain lots of benefits for their academic journeys and ambitions.
1. Learning and networking
Breaking barriers through social media is an amazing breakthrough. This has allowed beyond the classroom learning where students can access different channels or websites even those which are run by foreign trainers to clear their doubts and queries on specific topics. Through Udemy, Coursera, Khan Academy, Zoom and Youtube live videos can be shared and Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Google classroom and Microsoft Teams assist students to exchange notes or study materials. Students can also stay connected to their peers or approach inspiring tutors world wide. Therefore, by being part of a learning community such as on Reddit people can share effective study regimes, time management strategies or tricks for improved concentration. Moreover, students can be aware of internship opportunities or inter-school and state competitions like Math Marathons, Spelling Bees, Debating contests or Sports events.
2. Employment opportunities
The gap in academia is a major concern and to fulfill this vacancy, one must have an entry into the job market for beginner’s experience to add to their individual resumes. Even after going through a rigorous curriculum to finish a degree, students still face difficulties in gaining respectable well-paid jobs for which they aren’t overqualified. Social media provides such endless opportunities such as through LinkedIn where students can apply for internships or permanent employment. Students can research into the company and look for the field of work they are primarily interested in. Reading online reviews of other employees can also be useful to learn about the overall office atmosphere and job expectations. Students can stand out on social media, portraying their talents and building connections. They can even post their research or models they are working upon.
3. Organize course materials
Through social media you can keep your learning resources organized and accessible. You can save and share resources through collection-building tools on Pinterest and Tumblr. To gather course content which isn’t posted online use Google Drive or Dropbox for collecting them. And to share and edit notes frequently and conveniently with other team members use Google Docs often such as for writing essays. To extend your knowledge look for YouTube playlists for extra learning on challenging topics. Search on all your social channels for keywords or special course names so you get updates and notifications when any new study is posted.
How does social media benefit children?
1. Connect children and teenagers to online global communities
Children’s exposure to a diverse range of people will help them be more empathetic and have an understanding worldview. This may help them build friendships and secure entry into different groups such as those catering to children with mental or physical disabilities, LGBTQI community or people belonging to various cultures and religions.
2. Collaborative learning
Either as part of academic curriculum or learning outside the school, children can share educational posts online and connect with similar like-minded people who harbour the same political or social beliefs. This may lead to constructive debates such as eradicating child labour or endorsing women’s rights.
3. Familial Connection
A child perhaps living in a hostel or college dorm far away from his immediate family can easily communicate with his loved ones through a single text or call. This will help incorporate family values in the child even if he is miles apart in a foreign land. He will not feel homesick and have an improved sense of belonging.
4. Raises critical thinkers
Apart from the conventional textbook materials, reading about what you can visualize on social media platforms makes it ten times more interesting. Integrating social media into the classroom in elementary school is a good investment. For instance skyping a National Geographic reporter whilst learning about polar bears enhances engagement of children and makes the lecture even more interactive.
All New Social Media Apps:
- Triller
- Periscope
- Vimeo
- Valence
- Untappd
- Elpha
- Yubo
- Peanut
- Houseparty
- Steemit
- Baidu Tieba
- 23snaps
- Likee
- 8tracks
- Academia
- Amikumu
- aNobii
- ASMALLWORLD
- Athlinks
- BAND
- beBee
- Blind
- Diaspora
- Fark
- MeWe
- Tumblr
- Snapchat
- YouTube
- Mix
- Tagged
- Nextdoor
- DeviantArt
- Quora
- Meetup
- ReverbNation
- Flixster
- Goodreads
- Twitch
- CaringBridge
- Wattpad
- Viadeo
- Crunchyroll
- Skyrock
- VK
- MyHeritage
- LiveJournal
- Classmates
- SoundCloud
- Bubbly
- Flickr
- We Heart It
- Influenster
- FilmAffinity
- Open Diary
- Yelp
- CollegeHumor
- Gaia Online
- MocoSpace
- CouchSurfing
- Funny or Die
- Italki
- eToro
- MeetMe
- Ravelry
- Care2
- YY
- Vero
- Medium
- GIPHY
- Tribe
- Tencent QQ
- Qzone
- TikTok
- Sina Weibo
- Kuaishou
- Skype
- Viber
- LINE
- LINE PLAY
- The Dots
- Telegram
- Foursquare Swarm
- Douban
- Discord
- Badoo
- Myspace
- Mixi
- Ravelry
- Cellufun
- Xanga
- Imgur
- Ello
- WT Social
Conclusion:
New social media apps are designed to provide convenience and satisfaction to users through their many benefits in the educational, corporate, services, or industrial sectors and digital marketing. And it is also best for social media marketing. To minimize physical distances and allow communication free of any misunderstandings, provided that social networking sites are used morally and ethically.
