Steemit Engagement Challenge S8W1 - The Power Of Social Media

In Nigerian lingo, you will probably hear someone ask who social media epp?, that is who has social media helped? Most people believe that nothing good comes out of social media, but that is not true. I can proudly say, It has helped me tremendously. Although, it wasn't always like that.

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I started using social media at 17, a year after I graduated from Secondary School with a Nokia X1. Around the time, the social media account I had was on a chatting platform named 2go. It had this game features where you move from level to level, it was the same for 2go, you move from novice to Professional with the number of time you spent and chatted with people. I couldn't flow with the app which prompted me to open a Facebook account that I can at least understand. At first, I was confused but with time, I began enjoying the time I spend on Facebook.

I believe that kids from ages 0 - 14 years should not be allowed access to social media unless there is a parental guidance check. To be honest, this is in two ways, it is only a child who is not easily moved by peer pressure can stand not being on social media when all their friends rave about it In school, making them feel inferior and rebellious. As a parent, you should carefully explain to your child when and why they will have access at a certain age.

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With lots of brands and businesses springing up, with a dire need for social media presence, there is a need to get social media managers on board because not all brands and businesses will have the time to handle their social media pages themselves. The advice I would give to people who do not manage their accounts is to;

• Carefully vet whoever they will employ to manage their accounts.

• Give them access to passwords that will only be used for posting content and nothing else.

• To connect their account to emails, this way they can also receive notification of every activity that happens with the account.

• Enable a 2-step authentication also called 2FA so only the owner can answer the questions and provide the codes.
  (2FA is usually required if a sensitive action wants to be carried out. It is a series of codes and questions that only you is privy to and can answer. Sometimes, It is also linked to your personal contact.)

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The increase of business presence on social media has also brought a high demand for social media managers (people trained to handle a business social media account).
This is a skill that I learnt last year and it has proved effective a lot. Before I onboard a client, there are certain steps I follow.

• First, schedule a strategy call with your client. Here, you will ask the necessary questions of

  • their aim and goal as a business.
  • Their followers' target
  • Prospects who will turn to leads
  • How many times do they expect you to post on the account?

• Set concrete goals as to what you expect to achieve after a certain period. The business page that I managed was able to increase its followers from 300 to 4000 in a space of 6 months I managed their account and also got leads who came for their products.

• A social media manager must define who the business's target audience is.

  • Who is the business for: Males, Females, teenagers, writers, business owners, single moms, students, etc.
  • Their location: Nigeria, Lagos, or London.
  • Their age range: 20- 30, 13- 20, the 50s

• Research their competition. Discover what they are doing that you can implement too, and also figure out how to make your work more attractive and better.

• Prepare the tools that will make your job easier for you. These are the tools that I use

  • To create content: Google docs, Writer+, and Grammarly for editing.
  • To create reels: Canva, Capcut, and Inshot
  • To design my content: Canva
  • To schedule my content: Hootsuite, Buffer, Facebook Creator, and Metricool.
  • Keyword and Hashtag research: Keyword.io and hashtag generator

• Create a content calendar of what to post and when to post them. The content you can post ranges from a single post, to carousels, reels, clips, video content, and written content.

• Set your time on the Schedule tool so that it can automatically post when the time reaches.

Technology is advancing and does not seem to be taking a break anytime soon, neither is social media rather they will keep upgrading and improving their services. Now, we have access to AI and Robots, which also threaten to take us out of our jobs. There's not much we can do other than upgrade our knowledge too and work together with social media to make life easier for us.

It helped me learn new skills, expand my network and boosted my business as a freelancer.
It also made me dependent on social media for miat of my business making it hard for me to back on anything tangible offline.

Currently, the most commonly used social media platform in my country is WhatsApp, alongside YouTube. 8 out of 10 young people are using WhatsApp. It houses amazing features that make it impossible to stop using. Recently, they rolled out voice notes that you can post on your status if you are tired of writing. It has made connecting with a lot of people across the globe so much easier.

I invite @yakspeace, @josepha, and @confydence to participate in this contest.