Week 2: Overview of Social Media
To be perfectly honest, I am not sure which social media platforms are only for personal use anymore. Perhaps SnapChat is geared toward personal use, but I really know very little about it. I suppose Facebook and Pinterest are very much geared toward personal use, even though they are also used for business, given the way in which someone can share a lot about their personal goings on at length on Facebook, or share about personal things like home renovations, crafts, and recipes on Pinterest. Instagram seems like it would be meant more for personal use given how it's basically set up as a digital show-and-tell, but it perhaps more than the others is very business driven these days.
LinkedIn seems to be the platform most obviously geared toward business, since it's whole context is the workplace/marketplace. It doesn't seem appropriate to use it very expansively on a personal level.
In reality, they all seem to be used for both business and personal use. Instagram serves as a very handy, ever-changing, tiny billboard for any entrepreneur, solopreneur, celebrity, nonprofit or business. Pinterest provides a nice way for a business to slide an ad in on someone's specific search as if it's not an ad at all. Twitter can start a real conversation between a business and its customers or competitors in real time. And Facebook, with all of its ads and algorithms, really provides the whole package. It's a place to sell wares to people who purposely come looking for specific businesses, as well as a direct pathway for a business to find specific demographics of people whom it wants as customers, all the while letting consumers interact with businesses directly and spread the word about them to their friends.
The world of social media is a fascinating one.
LinkedIn seems to be the platform most obviously geared toward business, since it's whole context is the workplace/marketplace. It doesn't seem appropriate to use it very expansively on a personal level.
In reality, they all seem to be used for both business and personal use. Instagram serves as a very handy, ever-changing, tiny billboard for any entrepreneur, solopreneur, celebrity, nonprofit or business. Pinterest provides a nice way for a business to slide an ad in on someone's specific search as if it's not an ad at all. Twitter can start a real conversation between a business and its customers or competitors in real time. And Facebook, with all of its ads and algorithms, really provides the whole package. It's a place to sell wares to people who purposely come looking for specific businesses, as well as a direct pathway for a business to find specific demographics of people whom it wants as customers, all the while letting consumers interact with businesses directly and spread the word about them to their friends.
The world of social media is a fascinating one.
Hi Shana, I completely agree that most of the social media platforms are used for both business and personal use. Each platform has ads, promotion opportunities, and audience reach which is useful for companies. Even snapchat has ads and celebrities basically use it for marketing and engaging with their audience.
ReplyDeleteHi Shana, I like your points about Facebook's algorithms and ads. They're such effective marketing tools. I also commented on LinkedIn being a more business oriented platform. In this class, I'm more intrigued with the marketing aspect of social media, but the impact of social media in growing a business through human resources can powerful as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Shana! I like your comment about Instagram being a "digital show and tell." I've never thought of it that way but that's exactly what it is! LinkedIn is definitely not the place for personal use. I agree that it's geared much more towards professional networking and business. I used to have Snapchat, and then deleted it because I found no value in it. I'm curious to learn/see how some businesses use it as a marketing tool.
ReplyDeleteHi Shana,
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that Twitter is a place where a business can start a conversation with it's customers. Twitter is really a social media platform I have overlooked and not paid much attention to, but it really can be a great tool for businesses.