Social Media is the buzzword these days and not for a silly reason. The sheer amount of people and activity on it is stunning. If you are here you might have already heard of the 320 million people on facebook, 55 million on twitter, 5o million on LinkedIn and a million social networks on Ning etc. The numbers though dazzling are not exactly true. Not everyone who registers keeps using the site and among those who use it very few do use it to the full potential. But even those fractions are too big to ignore at this point of time when you see numbers like 45 million status updates and 30 million daily visitors on Facebook.
Imagine the almost certain future where the internet penetration is going to be universal, literacy shall be booming and Governments are all operating on virtual space. By then the adoption of these media in whatever prevalent forms they are* and urls they have. They shall open up a stream of information which gets better in quality everyday and would have wrecked havoc on traditional media which refuse to change. Imagine that day everyone you know is already on your ‘friend’ list and those who you meet will add you on the network instead of handing over rectangular pieces of hard paper. Those days are imminent. Early adopters know that.
We know Social Media is actually a plethora of services on the internet medium covering various platforms like blogs, forums, social networks, microblogging platforms, photo sharing services and so. The word social is so precisely apt because these tend to focus on the interaction aspect instead of soliloquy. Yes! Interaction on internet has been serial soliloquy in a way but those time are changing as everything becomes real time right from your comments on blog integration with twitter to facebook live feed. These changes have made conversation on the internet particularly social media uncannily close to real life conversations. So in a way the modern social media mimic real life and this is just the beginning. Soon we all shall have digital identities instead of aliases and everything in our life from finances to entertainment will get integrated. This will happen because the fundamental tenet of good social media platform is to replicate real life and those who do it are successful. So that is the direction in which whole worldwide web is moving. We believe that is the reason Social Media is here to stay cos it obeys the rules of real life and the virtual world is no longer a different place but just a part of your daily routine.
Where there are people, there is business potential in different ways. It could be in form of customer service, reputation management, brand building, lead generation or even straight forward sales. Various brands are proving it left and right this thanksgiving. Marketing yourself on these platforms is very powerful because it is just the digital incarnation of word of mouth. However, like every field we know there is a learning curve, a plan to reckon with and the question of resources and that is why people like us, ie Social Media consultants/strategists are important. And were are here in this business to do precisely one thing: “Help Enterprises benefit from Social Media”.
This blog shall contain various insights on the power, business, trends etc dealing with Social Media. We believe in the power of Social Media and I personally plan to dig deep and research on this to prove it to the agnostic world. I shall share my findings and observations as and when they come. If you too believe in it, come help us and lets together show what the future beholds.
Image courtesy: Realtechguy.com and thefuturebuzz.com