Have you ever think about how many hours you spend on playing social media? Well, for my part, the first thing I did when I woke up is to check the messages from my social media iPhone apps and the last thing I did when I fell sleep is also to check those social media apps. So, in honesty, it hard to count how many hours exactly I spend on social media, but I can say social media is definitely a part of my life. So how about you?
One day, when I hung out with my friends, I found out an interesting thing that my friends and I didn't communicate face to face even through we seated next to each other. So did we ever speak to each other? Of course, we did. But, we used the social media----we commented on each other's Facebook 's page or @ others on Twitter. Is it seems weird? It's absolutely true that social media get people much more closer than before, but in other view, social media is weakening people's physical connection. Social media is changing us! And without our notice, we can't leave it anymore!
This is a video from Youtube called The Social Media Revolution 2012. Check it out, it you surprise you!
Remember the amazing datas showed in this video? Over 50% of the world's population is under 30 years old who are the main users of social media; 96% of millennials have joined a social network; 1 out of 8 couples married in U.S. met via social media and the most unexpected fact is that social media has overtaken pornography as No.1 active on the Web. Moreover, if Facebook can be a country, it will become the third largest country in the world. Look at these numbers, we have to face the truth and admit that Social Media is not a fad but a huge development since the industrial revolution.
Let's go back to our human beings history. The way people communicate with each other has been changed rapidly. We have been through the oral time, written time, print time, electronic time and finally we got to the digital time, which is also called social media time. But why the social media makes such difference to us? Let's use the comparison showed in the video. How many years does these communication media reach the 50 millions users? We can find out that radio is 32 years, TV is 13 years and Internet is 4 years. But Facebook added over 200 millions users in less than a year and iPod application downloads hit 1 billion just in 9 months. So I can't more agree with what Erik Qualman said that "we don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it."
But did you ever count how many social media are there in our life? Maybe you can give me a long long list of all the social media you have used or you have heard before. However, the number of social media is too big for you to imagine. Here is a picture of the social media world. But, please remember, it's just a piece of it.
Social media is not always a good thing in our life. Did you have such experience like the social media makes you crazy or your normal life was messed up by the social media or you felt exhaustion to deal with your social media life or even sometime you can't segment your social media life from you real life? Don't surprise why I know what you feel because it happens to me and also happens to others. What does social media bring to us are more than these. It's brilliant that people create social media, but on the other side, it's important for us to let the social media under our control. Since social media became popular, the problems never stop.
The first issue pops up in my mind is privacy. Have you ever worried about any words you post on your social media? Well, I think we should. Did you ever think about how these thounsands of social media make money? We know that there is no such ting as a free lunch in this world. Since we don't need to pay for these social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog... And Then, it turns out that we become the product, the product brings money to these social media. Every single word we typed on social media has been recored, and has became the precious database for those marketers who need to target their consumers. Did you recognize that there are flash ads on you Facebook side bar? Or did you ever receive any trash mail to convince you to buy anything? Did you curious why these things come to you? Well, the answer is so simple. Social media collect and analyze our information and then use these information to chase our purchase behavior. Social media likes a scope, it can see through every detail in our life since people like to share their personal stuff in public. Sometime, we even need to pay what we did on social media both the good and the bad.
Here is a animation that tells about the privacy issue in social media. This video shows a chat between President and Bill Gates. Of course, it's not real but it's real enough to explain this hot issue.
Speaking of social media, it's not fair if we don't mention its benefits in marketing area. Most of brand and manufacture has their own Facebook page, Twitter and Blog. The social media provides a perfect chance for marketers to follow their consumers feedback and also makes it possible for marketers to fix their consumer problems in time. Social media is a channel that the sellers and buyers to build up a long-term relationship which is so important to manage a good business. Sometime, people tend to exaggerate the good side of social media and try to disregard the unsatisfied points. Let's hear what the insiders said about the advantages that social media brings to business.
Social media, the most well-known term in the world. Believe it or not, social media is a big part of our life. It won't be overstate that people are living on it or trying to live on it or can't live without it. Since social media can be so powerful in our life, we need pay attention on our behavior in social media or at least don't let it over control ourselves.
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