Social Media and your social presence!
Hi Steemit community!
In my last blog, I went over briefly the importance of a website and how establishing an internet presence can help, but I barely touched on social media.
What is social media?
According to Wikipedia, Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people, companies and other organizations to create, share, or exchange information, career interests, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks.
In other words, that thing you and your family all log into to share pictures, what you're doing and where you're going is most likely an example of a social media tool, or platform, and it has changed the internet in more ways than I can explain here. (Maybe I'll wrote another blog about that.) You may think Facebook or even Twitter are the most popular social media tools, but let's take a moment to look at some additional history you or may not even know.
The late 70's, there was a bulletin board system (BBS) that you could login with and view other postings. Swing into next decade, the 80's where we began to see MultiUser Talk (MUT) up until the launch of IRC a few years later. Then a few more years later, we had ICQ. This was actually the first instant messenger I used to chat with others while I played some old early multiplayer computer games.
Let's fast forward passed the creation of Live Journal and Wikipedia to 2003, the year of the great MySpace and LinkedIn. YouTube and Reddit came in 2005. (Did you know the original idea behind YouTube was to find a video of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show?) Facebook and Twitter was given to us in 2006. Tumblr in 2007. Snapchat and Tinder in 2012. You get the point.
Social media platforms have steadily grown and become more robust. Businesses are being promoted on these platforms now, not just that kitten video with a thousand views and likes. Artists and musicians take advantage of this tool to connect with their fans. Millions of people have access to the internet, to these platforms, why wouldn't you take advantage of this free marketing?!
Your social platform is how you reflect it. If you want to post pictures of your new kitten, or pictures of your favorite foods, by all means do it. If you own a small business detailing vehicles or creating tourist groups, build a social media presence for that business, because today people aren't looking for your help with their local or Yellow pages, but rather connecting online to Yelp. Or they might be sharing their recommendation on their walls for others to see, and seeing who their friends recommend. Millions of people are using social media, are you, and many more are starting to take advantage of this marketing tool, are you?
Thanks for reading everyone,
Todd H
PS. I will continue to publish more opinions and educational points, if you find these helpful in any way, please vote for it!
