We’re rapidly making the change from traditional to digital whether it’s marketing, content, business or socially just to name a few. This new change can be great to the way we live our everyday life; however, it also has its downsides.

Your online identity is available at all times to those who can conduct a simple ‘Google‘ search, just look at this horrible past time that I can’t seem to get rid of (due to lost a password/email address).

Now it’s not a huge deal, but it’s definitely something I wouldn’t want any future employers/employees to see. That’s just one way in how our online identity can be reviewed by peers. Unfortunately, due to the nature of our uncontrollable internet presence – we are forced to live with potential life-changing, career altering or simply embarrassing content that shows up during a name search.

However, there are some positive sides to social media presence — because of LinkedIn, I’ve connected with some people that I deem to be high value and to top it off I have also got a couple of interviews with some companies. Because of Facebook, I have stayed in touch with friends that I otherwise wouldn’t have and without MySpace (back in 2007), I wouldn’t have been introduced to HTML and CSS. Life has a way to keep things unorthodox and unpredictable.

I was recently on a forum and saw a comment that I thought was relevant.

That last part — Facebook wasn’t made to be a tool for networking, but here we are. I use LinkedIn to establish the business side of myself – my online resume and I plan to use Twitter as another way to connect with those who aren’t in my real life world. I want to use Twitter to connect with my business side.

My intention for my online identity is to establish my business side, I freelance — so my Instagram no longer contains pictures of memes or my food, it’s very limited right now, but I fully intend it to be for my work. My Instagram handle can be found here.

One way to keep a professional profile is to stay relevant — for example, if you’re a Gaming business you shouldn’t be posting about Politics or food. There are two reasons:

1. Your followers aren’t interested — they WANT Gaming related content.
2. You don’t want to offend anyone.

See how I’m keeping it real. I’m not voicing my Political preferences because one of my future clients could have opposing views. Relevant!

However, the great thing about Social Media sites is that you’re not limited to one way of using it — you can use Facebook to find events, friends, partners or simply just to share your favourite meme of the day. Whatever floats your boat.

However, this wasn’t always the case — sites adapt to what the need is. Facebook was originally started for College students, FACT: you needed an education email address to sign up. This all changed in 2006 when they needed to expand their userbase (Wilson, Gosling and Graham, 2012) — this shifted the way this site functioned. Facebook wouldn’t have the same impact if it had not made the change. The way we use it today would be limited to connecting to other University/College students. Had it not shifted, our nonsensical conversations may exist on a whole different platform, thus our whole experience potentially shifting with it.

HAD FACEBOOK NOT EXPANDED

WITH THE EXPANSION

Compare those two different conversations. One is an open-ended and simply just an NFSW casual conversation. While the other one is more formal and simply about one topic at hand, education. Those would be the implications without the 2006 expansion. Would there be a whole other Facebook that allowed us to find long, lost relatives? Post funny memes? Or simply just having a casual chat with our technologically inept grandparent?

Would you claim ‘insanity’ if I told you that Social Media is a representation of a country and their culture? Japan has very little users registered with Facebook, but instead, they use a platform called ‘Mixi‘. Brazil has a huge following in a platform called ‘Orkut’ with Facebook miles behind. There is no one solution to Social Media, different people have different needs and wants. It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ industry (Berthon et al., 2012).

Social Media platforms were created for one reason and each serves a purpose — for example, Facebook is for those wanting to stay in touch with friends. If you want to interact with your favourite celebrity or share a small thought — then Twitter is generally the platform used. If you love to share photos, memes or pictures of your furry friend – Instagram is your platform. Or simply you can utilise all social media platforms however you wish. That’s called the freedom of choice.

Thankfully for me, I decide to be somewhat professional in my Social Media presence (with the exception of my 2009 Twitter antics) and keep my mischievous self to my real life presence. But that’s the great thing about Social Media – you can decide who you want to be, where – if you want to advertise yourself on Facebook, who’s stopping you? If you want to post funny memes on Twitter or spam the hashtag on Instagram — go ahead!

Companies also use the likes of Social Media — in fact, some businesses are built through Social Media platforms.

Customer Service – A lot of Companies use platforms such as Twitter and Facebook as a means of interacting with Customers.

Brand Awareness – Interacting with people through liking photos, commenting on posts and even searching/hashtagging relevant queries can increase your brand awareness, there’s potential to find customers that may not have been there otherwise.

Sales – A brand’s Marketing relies on Social Media these days, which in return yields sales.

“Using Social Media is not an easy task and may require new ways of thinking, but the potential gains are far from being negligible.” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Find new ways to stand out, this doesn’t have to be a company — this can relate back to me and my Freelancing, in order to succeed; I need to stand out while adding value. Dell has generated over $1 million in just text-based Twitter posts (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010), that’s the power of Social Media — it reaches millions or even billions and can reward you or punish you greatly.

But with great power comes great responsibility, use Social Media wisely and we can benefit greatly. If you misuse it or use it as a way to stir trouble — it’ll come back to bite you and have an everlasting effect. Be wise when publishing your life to the potential of millions.

 

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REFERENCES:

Berthon, P., Pitt, L., Plangger, K. and Shapiro, D. (2012). Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy. Business Horizons, [online] 55(3), pp.265-66. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681312000080 [Accessed 9 Apr. 2017].

Kaplan, A. and Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, [online] 53(1), p.67. Available at: http://michaelhaenlein.com/Publications/Kaplan,%20Andreas%20-%20Users%20of%20the%20world,%20unite.pdf [Accessed 9 Apr. 2017].

Kaplan, A. and Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, [online] 53(1), p.67. Available at: http://michaelhaenlein.com/Publications/Kaplan,%20Andreas%20-%20Users%20of%20the%20world,%20unite.pdf [Accessed 9 Apr. 2017].

Wilson, R., Gosling, S. and Graham, L. (2012). A Review of Facebook Research in the Social Sciences. Perspectives on Psychological Science, [online] 7(3), pp.206-7. Available at: http://00t0holtgrav.iweb.bsu.edu/492/Perspectives%20on%20Psychological%20Science-2012-Wilson-203-20.pdf [Accessed 8 Apr. 2017].