The introduction of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. have changed the way people interact and the way you view your life and other people. Everywhere you go people are either busy speaking on their phones or too busy checking the latest updates online or texting. From the old to the toddler, everyone seems to have been swept by the social media storm. This has had a tremendous effect on your life, culture, business, and the world. Social media is becoming an essential part of modern society especially when it comes to socializing, the way you do business, access to information, politics, innovation, and many more areas.
Here are some of the ways social media is
impacting parts of our lives.
Social media and politics
Studies have shown that most of the people get their daily news from various social media platforms. When you compare with other media avenues, social media has a lot of influence on political campaigns and a big role in electoral politics. People are able to freely communicate with each other and discuss relevant issues that affect their lives which creates influential social organizations among once marginalized communities.
Politicians are now using social media to
pass on their agenda to their voters and gain new votes from other registered
voters across the country without having to meet them face-to-face. Countries
like the U.S, India, and Iran have made social media play a significant role in
their elections. Politicians in many countries are using social media to rally
their cause, inspire massive movements, and create political unrest.
Social media and business
With the rise of companies using social media to do business, reach their customers, and find prospecting ones, social media has become an important tool for connecting with customers and increasing revenue. Social media has made it easy for businesses to advertise their products, build customer loyalty, generate insights, increase demand, and create targeted products for specific customers. Interacting with customers and getting their feedback has help businesses have a better understanding of the market, change marketing strategies, and be able to customize the products to suit the customer’s needs.
Companies are coming up with contests and giveaways on their social media sites to entice customers to visit their site. When it comes to advertising, television and other forms of marketing are very expensive but social media is very cheap and effective in reaching a wider range of diverse customers. They can also increase their company’s popularity on Instagram by subscribing to auto likes ig that will help their company grow and gain leverage with Instagram followers.
Using social networks in the workplace encourages knowledge sharing, removes boundaries, encourages interaction, and creates more skilled and knowledgeable employees. At times negative social media sharing can at times destroy the credibility of a business when a product doesn’t attract many positive shares, but if it attracts a lot of shares it can increase sales exponentially.
Customers are able to do online shopping
using social platforms which makes it easier for customers to shop and for
companies to push sales. Companies include features in their websites that make
it easy for customers to purchase their products instantly.
Social media and socialization
You’re able to reconnect with old friends and make new friends, share ideas, contents, and photos on various social media platforms. You can stay in touch with your old friends, classmates, even romantic partners. On the down side, this can be a bad thing when married people still keep in touch with their ex’s and has also made it harder for people to move on with their lives and leave the past behind.
You can stay well informed about the current affairs globally and locally and participate in various activities online. Thanks to social media you don’t feel alone with your views, you can share them and have an audience that can create publications and have a world view that can be heard on mainstream media.
Social media can also be used to expose political, social, ethical, and environmental ills that go unnoticed. By increasing social awareness on issues has shifted the balance of power from the control of a few people to the masses. Although social media activism creates awareness about issues affecting society, there is the question of how this awareness translates to real change. Some say it encourages people to share their concerns on social media without having to actively campaign in real life.
Professionals can use social platforms like LinkedIn to advance their business prospects and careers and also interact with like-minded people. Students can use social media to improve their communication skills and academic proficiency. As for you, you can learn and connect with different people from around the world and learn about new cultures and languages.
Social media bridges the gap of distance
between people by using social platforms like Skype and other video chatting
platforms to communicate with people from long distances. You’re able to
communicate in real time from someone across the world and it’s much better
than writing an email.
Social media and training and development
In the job market, the more skilled you are on the latest and most advanced social media techniques the more employable you are. There is a significant increase in using social media to learn because social sharing encourages interaction which creates a good environment for learning. Different social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn have podcasts, an online learning tool for long-distance online learning. Although there are some challenges when it comes to privacy and cheating among long-distance learners, many social media platforms still use them to educate people.
The bottom line
Social media is a necessary tool of communication that is here to stay. It has the power to change society, your life, and your business for the better but it can also affect it negatively. It all depends on how wisely you use it. Social media platforms give you access to instant information which can benefit your business by increasing revenue and help you pass on information to others while at the same time keeping in touch with family and friends.
