Social Media: Good or Evil?

We all can see that social media helps marketing for almost all companies in existence. However, I still find myself wondering if social media is a good thing. From a marketing standpoint it’s a great thing. It helps me reach my audience, it helps me understand the consumer and it helps me interact with the people that buy my product. Most people would see nothing but good and entertainment from the world of social media, and sometimes it scares me.

1.     Driving Safely

In the state of Georgia there is a law against texting and driving, but I think a huge problem for this generation is also looking at social media while driving.. People post pictures of them stuck in traffic, or the pretty sunset they’re driving into. They update their status and tweet about that dumb car who won’t use their blinker. Many drivers probably don’t see this as a problem, but it is still a distraction on the road. It’s like the billboards say (kind of) is this tweet worth your life?

2.     Family Dinner

My family has a rule about using our phones when we sit down to eat dinner together. My parents want us to talk to them, not to our phone. They want our full attention and they want genuine conversation. I sometimes feel that social media as stolen this traditional family dinner. I work as a server and the number of times I have walked past a table where all four members of the family (including parents) are sitting there not talking, but staring at their phones, is ridiculous. They aren’t even looking at each other. This also happened when I see a group of friends. They aren’t telling stories, they’re laughing at their phones. It’s just sad. 

3.     Depression

Social Media has often times been linked to depression, making people fel left out of lied to. This has a lot to do with being able to see pictures of our friend hanging out, when we weren’t invited. Also, there are adults out there who use Facebook to reconnect with their high school sweetheart even when they’re married. This leads to divorce in many cases. We also have the chance to feel sad when nobody likes our status, wishes us happy birthday, or retweets our super clever tweet. W are staring at our computer screens, sad.

            So now we’re left with the question, is social media worth it? Does the good far outweigh the bad? Well honestly it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s too late to go back now, we can’t undo what has been done. Nobody would allow for social media to go away, it’s too much a part of society now and we just have to survive it. 

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

            We all know that old saying, meaning it doesn’t matter what you say sometimes it’s all about the picture. In this time period, it can’t be more true. We don’t want to take time and read about what our friends are doing, we just want to glance at a picture for 5 seconds and know. This is why Instagram is so popular. Would you rather read a paragraph about your friend cooking chicken pesto pasta, or see a beautifully filtered image with #yum. Our generation has become lazy, we can only spare as much time as it take to scroll past a picture.

            So, how do we use this to our advantage as social media marketers? We know what they like and why they like it, so we just have to use it. Many brands already have Instagram accounts, but they probably aren’t using it to its fullest potential. Here are just a few ideas to get more involved on Instagram and why it’s a good idea.

1.    So people can tag your brand. The most important reason to have an Instagram account is so that your followers can tag your brand. If it’s a clothing boutique, they could buy a dress and then post it to Instagram and tag your store. This puts your store’s name out there and people can easily click on your name and find your profile which can eventually link them back up to the store.

2.    Contests. A very big trend right now is for people to take screen shots of a contest and then reInstagram it and tag the store in hopes of winning money or prizes. While this would work, it could also be a little annoying if all of our Instagram friends were doing it. Nobody wants to see the same picture ten times in a row. My suggestion would be to have a contest where they simply tag your account name. Again, if it’s a clothing store, you could have an OOTD (Outfit of the Day) contest (a very popular Instagram hashtag) where customers could post themselves wearing the brand in some way and then a winner could be selected from those who tagged the store. This way it would still get the name out, but it would also be showing off the clothes.

3.    Behind the Scenes. As people, we live for the extra stuff. We want to see those secrets and surprises. Instagram is a great place to post entertaining pictures. In turn, these pictures will increase brand awareness and will make them feel more emotionally attached. If a brand is shooting a new commercial, showing backstage pictures is fun. If it’s a store and the employees are up late stocking shelves, it’s cute to see all the hard work they put into it. If it’s someone’s birthday and they get a cake and a party, seeing that makes us like the brand more. We feel like we’re part of the team.

             These are just a few reasons to get an Instagram. It just breaks down to the fact that people in this day and age love pictures. If a company wants to reach their audience, this is the new place to do it. Just remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. 

Kristen Williams