Social Media Developing Role in Business World

Companies do well because they invest in their brand image. Marketers want to humanize their brand. Why do you think about 80% of the top 100 fortune companies are using at least one social media platform to engage with their customers (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and YouTube ? The power of social media campaigns is stronger than anyone can imagine. It creates more room for the business to grown and gain prospective clients all across media platforms. Executives believe more that social media engagement leads to increased sales.

Social media plays a large role in the marketing and community functions for a company internally and externally. Companies use social media to communicate to their employees and their customers. All in all, social technologies have improved communications and collaboration within and across enterprises.

Furthermore, social media is used as a recruiting tool. HR departments use social media to connect with job seekers and streamline the application process. While other departments such as sales, operations, and distribution uses social media to track and forecast sales. It’s serious as to how social media is being viewed as a business tool in today’s generation.

The amount of information that social media provides the company is endless. Companies can stay on edge with the latest trends and fashions by maintaining their social sites. They have a direct connection with their customers and prospective customers. Which is why social media is such a asset to companies.

It has become a must have for any business to manage the “big three”, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. These platforms are playing a vigorous role in the business world. It changed how we interact and work altogether. The possibilities are endless because social media is opened to a large network of people around the world.  Social media has a developing role in the business world.

Interested in knowing which top companies profit off of their social media outreach? 

The following list is the biggest numbers of impressions in clients:

• Kellogg – 1.89 billion impressions
• Comcast – 1.89 billion impressions
• Dell – 1.9 billion impressions
• Fab.com – 1.95 billion impressions
• American express- 1.97 billion

There are many other companies that produce billions of impressions.

But, which media is mostly utilized? Take a wild guess… YES, FACEBOOK! Companies are advertising through their company pages. Facebook gets $1 billion/quarter in advertising revenue. They use this platform for heavy promotion. The likes create clickthroughs to their page and etc. This will expand their customer base. You can meet the 30 biggest advertises on Facebook here.

Moreover, companies that want to enhance their brand image and strengthen their customer relationship will adapt in social media.  As new technologies are changing the world, companies must accept the change and adapt accordingly. 

Facebook & Twitter More Addictive than Alcohol?

Social media is indeed very addictive. This generation (Y) feels the need to constantly be plugged in. It’s hard for people to resist the urge to check social networking sites for updates, it seems more difficult than turning down a drink nowadays. You would think the top two things the young generation long for during the day is sleep and sex, But, social networks are the hardest to resist. 

According to a new research on people’s daily struggles withself-control and desire, Facebook and Twitter are harder to resist than alcohol and cigarettes.  The findings explore the thin line between self-discipline and addiction. The researchers gave BlackBerrys to 205 adults and signaled them seven times a day at randomly selected daytime hours for one week. When they were contacted the participants reported whether they were experiencing any desires or urges for something and what it was they yearned for.

The majority of the reports proved that some felt strong desires for sex and sleep but cravings for cigarettes and alcohol were unexpectedly low. But in terms of behavior the participants had the hardest time refraining from checking social media when they preferred not to, and from working.

When you think of an addiction, one may think of it as being located in a substance or perhaps an activity and displaces everything else. In this special case, an addictive drug is viewed as changing the brain to make it unable to resist social media. However, addiction is a matter of imbalance between your personal desire to engage in the addictive behavior and your conflicting desire to avoid the negative consequence of the said behavior.

The participants in the BlackBerry research were mostly college students and employed people between the ages from 18-55. Aha! So, it’s evident that the younger generation fall victim to the unhealthy addiction of social media.  

A co-author, Wilhelm Hofmann of Chicago University said:

“Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not ‘cost much’ to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist. With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs — long-term as well as monetary — and the opportunity may not always be the right one. So, even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still ‘steal’ a lot of people’s time.”

All in all, social media is harder to resist because it’s easily accessible and doesn’t cost much like other addictions such as alcoholic beverages. When the opportunity presents itself which is often, people are checking their phones to be constantly updated.


Below are interesting results signifying how addictive Facebook and Twitter are:

How often do you check or update your Facebook or Twitter? Do you check it after you go to bed...?

Post Later, Remind Me Later

I find it funny that I too find myself caught up in a trend. I used to tease my friends about ignoring my calls and texting me right after. Ugh! But, now, I too prefer to text than call. It’s crazy! I blame the influence of this generation. They prefer to communicate with each other via text message in place of causal conversation:

• What time are you out of class?
• Do you want to eat lunch together?
• What are you doing?

But as I get heavily involved in my professional career I find myself exchanging direct communication:

• Running late, on my way
• Review the attached document and edit it to your liking
• Confirm that you will be in attendance at our next meeting

If it wasn't for caller ID, you’d never know who called you because you barely answer the phone or at least I don’t. I also get impatient and find myself just deleting the voicemails before listening to it and just texting back, “What did you call for?" 

I found an interesting article that I’d thought was relevant to share, Disruptions: Digital Era Redefining Etiquette. This article uncovers the un-normal norms. What was once normal is now foreign to people.

Voicemail lost its purpose because people expect a text message rather than a voicemail.  I mean think about how long it takes to access your voicemail and actually listen to those lengthy messages. It may seem time consuming compared to shooting a quick text message to someone. Phone companies made it even easier for us to comply with this lazy way of communicating. For iPhone users, have you noticed the reply with message option and for droid users, have you noticed the reject call with message option? They are encouraging us to ignore calls! Why?!

It’s amazing how many socials norms just don’t make sense anymore. People are SO wrapped up in  digital communication that they lose touch with the polite and civilized ways people used to interact. Rather than just asking someone for directions, they prefer to Google something on their smartphone. Technology is taking away from our interpersonal skills. The author mentioned when he asked a friend for something that could be easily discovered on the internet, his friend responded with, lmgtfy.com, which means Let Me Google That For You. Aha! Now, that’s rude!

Fun Fact: "Google" became a transitive verb on June 15th, 2006 in the Oxford English Dictionary

But it's true! People lost their touch. Take the smartphone for instance, there’s an app for everything! You have a widget for weather, contacts, maps, store hours, and so much more. People no longer have a reason to have a conversation with someone nor ask any questions. It seems as unnecessary communication to this generation!  Why ask someone something that I can simply access by the ends of my fingertips? It’s even a verb! When my fellow classmates ask a question and are not sure about the answer, they would suggest, “You should Google that!”

The article hits home for me and I’m sure it will for you too. Will our politeness die out? Is it no longer a trending topic? Let’s hope our forms of communication become important again. 

Is Social Media Taking Over Our Lives?

Is social media taking over our lives? Recently, social media has become one of the most powerful sources for news updates through media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. For instance, companies and organizations are using Facebook Pages to update their employees and prospective employees. Nowadays, social media has a HUGE influence on networking and job searching as well. Companies are utilizing LinkedIn to screen employees for potential job opportunities.

Below you will see an Infogrpahic by Morrison & Forester’s popular Socially Aware Blog that captures American’s true obsession with social media.

Again, is media taking over our lives? Let’s see how much time we really spend on social media…

I thought to share this with you all because I found the statistics to be so fascinating! The numbers actually amaze me in the sense that I thought we spent more hours a month on social media networks. All the time spent interacting digitally hinders the face to face interactions and even creativity! It makes me think about those who are introverted and can network on line from inside their comfort zone but when in person they cannot articulate or communicate as effectively. As social media is relatively new I still feel there will be a impact sooner than we think. 

Just some food for thought! 

world UN-PLUGGED

The world we live in is very media driven. Especially young students who NEED it to construct and manage their friendships and social lives. If you were to ask a student "Can you go a day without using social media?” they might respond, "Oh No!". This is the generation that we live in now, where students are so plugged into their devices that they are no longer connected to the world. It's not just an addiction, but it's a way of life! It's sad how someone can be deeply involved with social media 24/7. Students are constantly on their phones whether its in between classes, during class, in the bathroom, and etc. Today's generation has definitely pushed the limits on the use of media and its importance. Imagine not being able to function correctly without logging into Twitter or Facebook. The moment the young student feels unplugged they grow cravings. This blog will discuss our high dependency on media. In specific, the blog will examine college students and how they are constantly plugged in. Look around any college campus and you will be sure to find students connected to one another via media outlet. Are you plugged-in?