I recently read an article called "Think Again Before You Post Online Those Pics Of Your Kids" that made me think. It made me think A LOT about what I have been posting about my family and friends on social media. How many of you have posted a funny video of your kids that might be slightly embarrassing for them, but it is just too good not to share? I know I have. But what I have failed to do is to think about how many will view and share that particular video, and for how long it will be available for anyone and everyone to see. The carbon footprint, so to speak, that we leave behind of ourselves on social media is there for the public to view forever! That ‘fun’ video you posted of your kids will be on the internet for your kids’ friends to view forever, even when they are teenagers and most likely do not want anyone to see it.
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Your business created a Facebook page months -- or even years ago -- and no one is actively managing it. Does that mean you’re "on social media?" Not really. The key to a social media presence is just that - being social. The Sandwich Board Approach to social media (where you create an account for everyone to see but do not use it) is worse than no presence at all. It gives the impression that your business does not understand marketing in 2018. A true social media presence is one that is consistently active and relevant. It is a continuous process of refinement to find, keep and engage your target audience.
Here are five pieces of advice for making the most of your social media presence:
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The bright red notifications. The 'likes.' The comments.
It’s no surprise that we all get a little giddy when we receive a mention.
"With great power comes great responsibility." I knew all along that I wanted that to be the title of this blog post, and I was certain that it was a quote from Obi-Wan Kenobi. This worked well for me because I was going to work Star Wars® into our Christmas blog post for the third year in a row.
Except that it wasn’t Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was a different Ben altogether. Well, sorta.
A distracting two-hour voyage down the Google/Wikipedia rabbit hole taught me that it wasn’t Obi-Wan at all. In fact, conclusive evidence was hard to come by. It was possibly Voltaire or something to do with the French Revolution, but it has also been paraphrased by President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and the US Supreme Court. And perhaps most famously, in pop culture no less, it was attributed to Uncle Ben Parker, the short-lived father figure of Spiderman’s secret identity. Although even here, he didn’t actually say it; it was just a narrative box in the original comic book.
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The growth of social media has been an integral part of our society over the past 10+ years. From keeping up with friends and family; to getting a new job; to finding new clients, people across the globe have found one reason or another to be on a social network. Recently, people in the lines of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma used social media as a way to seek help during the storms.
With limited cellphone service and electricity out for thousands of people, social media came as a form of rescue by providing real-time updates on storm tracks, and a place for people to state where they were located so emergency crews could provide help.
One of the best examples of social media coming to the rescue was when a photo of residents at an assisted-living facility were shown sitting in waist high water due to floods went viral. According to USA Today, Twitter user Tim McIntosh tweeted the photo from Tampa, FL just before 9am Eastern along with a cry for help. His mother-in-law actually owned the facility in Dickinson, Texas, just outside of Houston. Thankfully, the tweet was retweeted almost 3,000 times and the residents were rescued a little after 12 pm.
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