Social Media, The term symbolizes many factors but on a whole it’s known to be a medium used to share the users view to everyone round the world. There is no any special reason for the emergence of social media but though a global answer for this is the need of people. The world has embraced the new tools that help thousands interact each day no matter where they are. There are so many merits that come with social media and this is undeniable. However, what many forget are the down sides. All good things will have flaws and the following are insights into the disadvantages of social media. Statistics have shown that young people form the bulk of the fan base when it comes to social media outlets. However, those who are in all kinds of businesses are also avoiding users to further their cause. Let’s discuss about both the high flyers and pitfalls as a detailed sketch.
So where did the word media raised up. It’s been brought up in different parts of the world in different ways in different forms and serving different culture only with a common notification as information exchange. They were in together called as traditional media. Commonly they include news papers, television, radios and all such mass mediums.
RECENT STATISTICS:
Socialnomics, this past week, released some staggering statistics on the current impact of Social Media. Erik Qualman has done a fine job of compiling the data and its presentation. I think you'd agree with me how amazing some of these statistics are. A few of these include:
1. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
2. Years to Reach 50 millions Users: Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
3. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia
Also, a few interesting facts concerning education:
1. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
2. 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
3. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen
Social media communities enable all types of companies from a simple free lancing unit to a big scale enterprise to connect with their customers in an impactful way. They are a global phenomenon happening in all markets and almost all industries. Here the term global phenomenon refers to the attribute of being published on net as well been watched by millions of users following them. Basically Show and event planners should keep in mind that by allowing exhibitors and attendees to interact with your brand, the opportunity for growth and engagement is tremendous.
For event handlers:
In the event industry, social media initiates organizations to build relationships, favorably position their brand and allow for the possibility of an care, support, and exciting experience with their customers. These include social networks, micro-blogs, blogs, podcasts, forums, social review sites, photo/video sharing, discussion boards, widgets and RSS feeds. Forty-eight percent of adults have a MySpace or Facebook account page and over the past few months, approximately five million people joined Twitter each month. The number of adult Twitter users is projected to grow from 12.1 million in 2009 to 18.1 million in 2010. Additionally, women 55+ is the fastest growing demographic for Facebook, reinforcing that it is not just Generations X and Y benefiting from social media usage.
Show organizers:
Utilizing a social medium correctly and effectively offers a significant opportunity for show management organizations to communicate with their exhibitors and attendees where they are and where the greatest opportunities for engagement exist. For instance I have got selected to an International conference on computer applications (ICCA) and I was been in touch with them using a social media like FBK.
A Perfect Platform to move with:
An impactful social media plan should always include a listening strategy. In the social media world, listening is just as important as speaking. Listening and speaking is gradually Writing and understanding the Comments received. It is critical to know what is being said about your brand and who is saying it to develop a smart way to respond. There are several social media listening tools that aggregate the data you receive and help you make better sense of it. Some include Google alerts, Twendz, Technorati and Lexicon that allow you to observe how much your key word is being discussed on Twitter and Facebook, as well as monitoring rising links and top blogs.
Some steps to support fresher’s:
• Various advertising opportunities
• Discussion boards allowing open/moderated conversations
• Introductions/common interest engines that allow participants to share contact information prior to or throughout the show
• Interactive session track pickers that allow attendees to choose the speaker, topic and schedules
• Attendee meet-ups or “tweetups”, ”retweets”, that can faster professional networking
• Real time messaging and audience response during the event via mobile is highly great application to cope up on, Twitter walls, streaming videos or blogs.
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS:
• Online Social Communities: Global social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn provide an open forum for users to create group pages, share information and establish new connections.
Credits: These communities help people to publish their instant view on the things they see new and anything it might me, irresponsible to where ever they might be round the world.Consider setting up discussion boards on Facebook or LinkedIn for attendees to share best practices and relevant content. Also, specific Twitter event pages, set up by a hash tag provides an excellent channel for real-time announcements and event promotions that engage attendees and exhibitors.
• Video Distribution Channels: One of the best-known video distribution sites is YouTube(http://www.youtube.com/). This is where one can upload videos at no cost for anyone to see.Additionally, Flickr is another image and video hosting website to share photographs and is also used widely by bloggers as a photo repository. Similar to YouTube, MetaCafe also started satisfying users on a high scale.
Credits: These video distributing channels perform as such they will be hosting a task based utility. In that aspect these mediums carry all the corresponding videos that can be uploaded by any authenticated user and tend to be published as results when someone trying to search those hits. This acts as a pre-pruning site for viewing video presentations, Tutorials, media guides etc. on an brief manner.
• Blogs (web logs): Online journals typically written by an individual or a group. Typically, the entries are dated with the most recent on top, and there is usually an opportunity for readers to make comments. There are millions of blogs. Technorati (www.technorati.com) is an Internet search engine for seeking out blogs in multiple industries and allows for your comments to be posted on your favorite blogs.
Credits: Most positive side of blogs are they used for marketing, On-line money making schemas, And self developing the art of writing their views similar to maintaining sites. Bloggers do concentrate on their work to be prelude by some other visitors.
• Widgets: Custom widgets can be created for your desktop to develop real-time information, as well as industry and association news. Most widgets can include pop-ups of important dates (registration, move in dates, early order deadlines, etc), as well as a countdown counter for the show date.
Credits: Widgets reinforce brand recognition, value and top of mind recall. Day to day updates on all the gadgets and current trends and some many will be provided via various applications.
PITFALLS:
Secondly, the risks that may be involved in undertaking certain laws in social media practices should be considered. Show management organizations should understand that the social media forum can be open for negative comments and complaints to be posted. Simply showing their dissatisfaction about the products similar to spams might add disgrace to the enterprise. They should be prepared for such instances and how best to manage and respond. This can be by making an acknowledgement of the issue and repairing the problem or to start a discussion or dialogue around the issue to bring both perspectives to light. Some of these negative comments can provide valuable customer insights. This policy should center on listening and establishing a dialogue, and not selling your product or service. This is mostly because it really is for the people. Bringing every kind of social group together in one place and letting them interact is really a big thing indeed. Everything about it lies on the advantages and disadvantages of social networking, and what it can do for you.
Here are the advantages that can be more than enough for you to want to join in.
Less Costs:
Definitely, it’s cheaper to use online social networking for both personal and business use because most of it is usually free. While personal use is rather simple for anyone, the business functions are underestimated by many. In a social networking site, you can scout out potential customers and target markets with just a few clicks and keystrokes, adding a boost to your usual advertisements and promotional strategies. It lets you learn about their likes and dislikes, which is tremendous. Whether on a budget or not it makes no difference, if you want to fine tune your business then this is the way to go.
Builds Credibility:
You definitely can gain the customers confidence if you can connect to them on both a personal and professional level. Despite having to do a bit of work, it definitely pays off as you can be tapped for an offer if someone catches the tit-bits of your products or services. Just like promoting the accessories via internet to attract customers round the world.
Connections:
You are friends with people who have other friends, and so on. There is huge potential in such a common situation. By using a social networking site, you can do what you can and get connected with these people to form a web of connections that can give you leverage if you play your cards right. It is important to give as well as you receive, then they will most likely stick with you. These connections are definitely valuable in the long run.
This sounds very enticing indeed. Similar to two faces of a coin, there are some disadvantages though?
Lack of Anonymity:
The methodology of putting out information about your name, location, age, gender, and many other types of information that you may not want to let others know. Most people would say be careful, but no one can be certain at any given time. As long as people can know who you exactly are, then some can find ways to do you in by interrupting in your privacies by chance.
Scams and Harassment:
There is a potential for failure of security in both personal and business context. While many sites apply certain measures to keep any of these cases of harassment, cyber-stalking, online scams, and identity theft to an absolute minimum scale.
Time Consuming:
Majorly bloggers got arrested to this defect. If this is not your kind of thing that it would just be a waste of time for you. Because blogging is an art and you must be committed to it. The key to social networking is that it is supposed to be fun, whether you are just doing it for kicks or clicking around for business purposes. That should be reasonable enough for anyone, but there are those people who don’t see the point. They lag behind showing interest towards a face to face conversation with his friend rather then having live chat with him.It can be a disadvantage though for them.
Now there’s something to really think about. Nothing is without a blemish, but those of social networking shouldn’t really be that much of a concern regarding your safety. Everything will go well as long as you go along without making any big mistakes. You can take advantage of the Internet phenomenon that continues up to this day.
ஈரோடு தமிழ் வலைப்பதிவர்கள் குழுமத்திற்கு அன்புடன் வரவேற்கின்றோம்.
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