5 Tips to Boost Your Business on Social Media

 

We all know how the world has been taken over by social media. But how can you hoist your business up to the top of this storm? In this article I will give you 5 tips that can help you do so. Through vast research I have collected different opinions from scholars, such as Nathan Jurgenson, and my own opinions to create the 5 practices to follow that will help you boost your social media presence as a business. 

 

5) KEEP YOUR MESSAGE CONSISTENT 

When reaching out to your customers on platforms it is imperative to always have the same message from your business. You only have a short amount of time with each viewer so keeping your message the same will help your audience get the point of your business and what your motives are. Short and sweet is always the best way to go. But don’t be afraid to hyperlink more in-depth resources about your company because, you never know when someone wants to read more in depth! 

 

4) CHOOSE YOUR PHOTOS WISELY 

Believe it or not, sometimes a lower quality image tells a better story. High resolution focuses on one subject, while a lower quality image tends to invite the audience to create their own idea of what is going on according to Nathan Jurgenson. Always have your intent in mind and chose your image quality accordingly to get the best message you can across. Maybe even incorporate your photographer into some of your pictures to create a more personable experience to help you connect with your audience. 

 

3) CONNECT ALL OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIAS TOGETHER

This goes along with being consistent, but it is important to interlink all your social medias. You could advertise for each application on other applications to try and get more followers on each platform. If you keep them consistent and almost interchangeable you can avoid any confusion from platform to platform!! Some tips to draw in various customers to other platforms would to be to host a poll on Instagram. No other platforms really allow you to do this so you could advertise your Instagram poll on Facebook to bring them over to your other platform! With this poll you could get your consumers more involved and give them a say on what products you possibly produce!

 

2) ASSIMULATE YOUR “SELFIE” 

Social media is ultimately a snapshot of you and your business. Essentially a selfie is a manufactured snapshot of how you want to be presented to the world. As you are posting on social media you have this brochure of your business on constant display. So, assimilating this according to exactly how you want it is very important. Charles Horton Cooley has a great quote that depicts this “I am not what I think I am and not what you think I am; I am what I think you think I am”.  View other social medias that are similar to your business and look at some things they have done and bounce ideas off of their ideas! Be creative and try new things will your followers to develop a more unique “selfie”. 

 

1A & B) CONNECT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

Honestly this is a two-part tip because your audience is the BIGGEST PART OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE. Your audience is your consumer, and it is imperative to connect with them on all levels. The two biggest ways are-

·      Let them know that you are a real person too. Connect with them, introduce yourself and why you created this business. People are more likely to respond positively to companies if they know who is running it! For example, when social media influencers create a business, it normally takes off and pretty fast! Their audience has been following them for so long that they can recognize the face on their screen so, when this person decides to follow their dreams of course they want to support them because THEY KNOW THEM, and they truly want to support you. Be vulnerable with your audience and show them that you are a real person trying to make ends meet.   

·      The second level of connectivity that is imperative to making your business boom is to actively engage with your audience. Whether it is creating polls to get them involved in your next product drop, or even just actively responding to comments on your page you will see a major impact when you treat each person like a real person and not just another follower. Ohana means family so treat them with Ohana. 

 

With all of this being said I think that if you utilize these tips that I have gathered you can dramatically increase your business on social media. Try it out yourself and implement these into your social media marketing and let me know how it goes!!

The Spreadability and Importance of Memes

Spreadability of Memes

     It took many years before internet culture became heavily prominent and inescapable. It was not until the 2000s that the internet became widely accessible and nearly everyone had a smartphone or computer. When that change came, along with it came to the internet culture that would be cultivated and eventually grow into the beast it is today. A long time ago, in a galaxy exactly like ours, before an egregious amount of memes and comedic videos were all competing for virality and uniqueness, the internet was a fairly predictable space in terms of media that was shared. There were of course cute cat videos, people getting pranked or hurt, dogs riding skateboards, and of course, the earliest forms of memes. I must admit, just doing a quick google search of 'old memes' to get into the mindset for this post made me cringe. How the hell did we ever think that depicting Chuck Norris as an all-mighty and powerful being was funny? How did we think that a stock image of a random person with big captions on the top and bottom of somewhat relatable text or stereotypes was hilarious? Well, everything looks better (or worse) in hindsight, however, hindsight also gives us the power to analyze the past and identify actual causes. 

    As discussed before, the internet was not widely accessible for a long time, so internet culture was nearly nonexistent before social media and smartphones started becoming mainstream. After that boom in internet access and the further development of social media, normal people were now given a shared space to spread and distribute media. As the authors mention in Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, "The shift from distribution to circulation signals a movement toward a more participatory model of culture, one which sees the public not as simply consumers of reconstructed messages but as people who are shaping, sharing, reframing, and remixing media content in ways which might not have been previously imagined" (Jenkins, Ford & Green, 2013). Within one quote, the life and meaning of memes are revealed clearer than ever before. The earliest memes are examples of infantile internet culture, the beginning of poking fun at others for the sake of entertainment that is relatable and "funny" to mostly everyone. However, the reason most of these early memes are cringeworthy and outdated now is that they were some of the first types of content that people were able to participate freely in ever! Memes quickly evolved and developed within the pressure cooker that is the internet, and their purpose and unique spot in internet culture were cemented.

    Memes, typically, feature a recognizable image paired with a caption that enhances the comedic value of that image. While memes have a huge variety of formats, most of those formats have a basic framework that people have to abide by to create an acceptable new meme within the format. This reflects what Jenkins was discussing in the previous quote. Now, within internet culture, memes themselves can be shaped, shared, reframed, and remixed to create new content that we did not have before. In the past, around the 2010s, memes were fairly mundane and reflected cultural attitudes towards certain people, events, and concepts, whereas now, internet culture has transformed memes into this: 

An amalgamation of various internet-based inside jokes jumbled into a singular meme that only people who spend too much time on Twitter or Reddit will understand. 

    Evidently, the craft and methodology of curating memes have evolved exponentially, and they are themselves a catalyst for spreadable media. They are quick to read and understand, and nearly anyone can create them if they put in the effort. Now, only a few memes/meme formats that come along have the chance of becoming viral or widely known across the internet and general public, however, all memes are examples of how easy it is for anyone to create media that can be shared and spread around. 

    Arguably, memes are one of the only types of internet content that have high spreadability and can be accessed easily by everyone. Each social media platform has a certain uniqueness to it, however, all of them have become spaces in which memes and jokes alike can be shared and spread, even across platforms. It is not uncommon to see a meme on Reddit or Instagram and notice that it is just a screenshot of a Twitter post. That being said, those who create memes are hardly well-known or praised, so it creates a system where everyone feels as though they can participate in the fun. These little snippets of comedy not only spread like wildfire and represent the large magnitude of internet content, but they actively reshape, remix, and reform internet culture within that process.      

  

    Memes represent the status and condition of internet culture at any given moment, while also serving as a curator of said culture. Going back to the Jenkins quote from Spreadable Media, memes represent the idea that anyone can create, share, and circulate media in this new age. Simultaneously, memes also contribute to and shape the progress of internet culture and what it looks like at any given time. 

twitch streaming is it profitable?

 lately ive been watching numerous twitch streamers and seeing how they make so much money just by playing games and talking with their viewers. i play games a lot on ps4 such as destiny 2 which I've become super addicted to and cant stop wanting to play it, and I play other games as well with my friends. we were all in a party chat one day when we had the idea of becoming streamers. and remember anyone can become a streamer but not all will grow to be famous and make millions off their gameplay. we came up with this idea when my buddy told me he was watching a streamer play destiny and said he wasn't very good but had over 40k people watching him play, i then thought to myself being the sweaty tryhard player i am, what if i started streaming? would i make it big. but then i thought to myself i don't have the time schedule to be able to play for numerous hours on end and talk to chat all day and i wouldn't be able to keep up with all my viewers. twitch has been something I've just recently gotten into and after really taking a while to analyze it i found out these streamers have their lives set up to where they are able to play for literally days straight without getting off and they are able to communicate with their viewers while playing the game. i would love to be a streamer but my main concern is if i really want to get into it id have to find a whole fan base to start off so i could possibly make profits off of what I'm doing. and i don't know too many people myself that actually watch streams and are able to really put in the time to find my channel and watch me every time i decide I'm going to stream except for my buddy that I'm close with. see being a streamer takes a lot of your life away i feel like because, one you have to be able to keep a certain amount of time on the game for you to be able to entertain and keep the followers and viewers that you have, and two i feel like it would cost a lot of money to turn being a streamer into a career as you'd have to get a cool gaming chair and an awesome setup and things to put in your wall so the viewers can see your surroundings. even though it sounds fun to be a full time streamer i don't believe that its an easy thing for teens to do or even people in there 20's that arent set up with money. and that's my blog on twitch streaming! yall should definitely find my twitch if i ever start to stream again!

Is social media addiction actually serious?

 I am sure we are all familiar with the term social media addiction, but is it actually a serious addiction?

Let's talk.

There is no actual diagnosis for being addicted to social media, but people are able to classify who they think are and are not more addicted to their phone.

I think some people rely on their phone for allot of their contact and communication - which makes sense, but can appear as if they are just addicted to screens.

If anything I feel like young children are the ones who become the most addicted to social media, because they are less self aware, and do not have as strong of an ability to self regulate or monitor their screen time. 

First I just want to bring up a few things that can be classified or seen as an addiction to social media.

1. Losing hours of your time scrolling through apps, even though you think it has just been minutes.

2. Not wanting to do anything beside being on your phone.

3. Not being able to interact with others in person, without the use of electronics.

4. You are not able to take a break from your phone.

Socially media can appear to be both physically and mentally addicting. Harvard talks about this because when an app bring us joy our body generates dopamine. And we all know you can get addicted to that feeling. 

While I have not personally met someone with a social media addiction, I think it is more a of a habit or dependency on the social platforms than a hardcore addiction. And I don't mean that in a rude way, I think at some point the user or the platform will get boring or disperse some. In some cases some one who is "addicted" to social media could actually end up turning it into a high paying job. I think social media needs to be used in balance like everything else. I also think the alternative or solution to help someone curb a habit of being on their phone 24/7 is not a hard fix to make.

Why businesses should be using Discord

 Isn't Discord just something for gamers?

The correct and current answer to this question, is no.

Discord was mail used by gamers to quickly and audibly communicate over a chat box. Discord is highly customizable for the users experience and is heavily run off of customizable bots. Discord keeps an open chat history so you can easily see previous messages, unlike having to go back thru a million years.

Now that you a know a little why Discord was designed let's look at how and why businesses should implement discord into their services. 

- Easy to use messaging platform - similar to slack.

- Ability to create a custom experience for user- can create themes, bots, and threads.

-Multiple topics at once- You can use channels/threads to keep different topics organized all in one place.

- Reach a different group of customers- You could ultimately advertise/ build a group of loyal fans that you know are primarily on discord.

-Reach a new demographic- If your company has recently made the switch, get used to a whole new world of invites, discussion, and ways to communicate.

Why shouldn't the company just use slack then you ask?

Discord is mainly known for gamers, whereas Slack is know for business communication.

Here are the benefits to choosing Discord over slack.

1. The voice chat on Discord is much simpler to use and better quality than Slack.

2. It has 140 million active users.

3. Discord is tight knit and very organized.

4. It has text, audio, and video chat options.

5. Better server management.

Youtube actually uses Discord for their business communication.

Overall Discord is a fun, quick platform to bounce ideas, or interact with your team or customers. I think we will see more and more companies make the switch to Discord.

Are you familiar with Discord? And if so what do you think the pros and cons are for using Discord in a business setting? 

Friends or Followers?

 Friends or Followers?

When we visit our social media apps like instagram, twitter, and facebook, do we refer to our followers as "friends" or just "followers?" Are your followers on these social media apps just followers or do you consider all the people that follow you your friends? These are the questions I ask to get your attention on what followers actually mean in social media apps. Think about it, how many people who follow you actually know you. For example, when a celebrity has over 100 million followers on instagram, they only personally know less than 1% of those followers, staggering. Having this many followers on a social media platform doesn't mean that these people have that many friends. Friends and relationships come from a simply form of interaction through face to face intervals through communication. 

How Does this work?

Well, surprise! As of 2021, over 82% of the Untied States population uses social media on a daily basis. That means of that 82%, everyone has made some kind of connection through social media. Having followers throughout these social media platforms has created some good things and some bad things for all of social media users in the United States. As Shannon Correia states, "There is a distinction that separates the two, which comes down to a basic principle: Facebook friends are those you know personally, while those you follow are people of interest to you, though they're outside your circle of real-life relations." With that being said, the moral self brings out the true kind of friend you are in a real life relation while having followers is following the people you know or just enjoy to know about. You may not know much about a celebrity figure like let's say, Lebron James, but the thing you know and why you follow him is because of him being a great basketball player. This is the case for most people you follow. Let's think, if you have 1,000 followers on instagram, realistically, how many do you actually know and have a relationship outside the phone in real life. This number could be different for everyone of us normal people who use instagram, but let's just say of those 1,000 followers you have, you only know 250 of them. That means that over 70% of the rest of those followers are people you really don't have any relationship with. Would you hang out with them outside of the phone or are they people just you talk to over the social media app?

All We Need Is Followers

If you have more followers does that make you on more of a pedestal in the world of social media and society? Combines these two thoughts together, do followers make you a better person in a real world setting? We live in a world where social media has taken over people's lives. I can tell you a personally story that I learned in my first year of college in 2017. There was girl that I graduated high school with and one of my good friends growing up. She went to school down in Southern California and she blew up on Instagram in her first month of college with followers after she posted a picture of her in a bikini at the beach. She went from 2,000 followers to 50,000 in a week after this picture was posted. Later to find out that she would buy followers by dming people to post her picture on their account "for clout." Today, she has over 600 thousand followers, dropped out of college, and is consider an "instagram model." This is one of those things that everyone has their own opinion on, but the truth is men and women buy their followers throughout social media apps because it makes them cooler. Although these people have zero personal relationships with any of these followers, they are considered to be "famous" in our society because of their followers. Followers are just people who like your feed and dm you weird things.

Society

In today's world, we all know social media is here and it really isn't going anywhere, we are stuck with it, for all the good and bad it brings. So, I just want to say that whether or not you think friends and followers are the same thing, we can all agree that having personal relationships are stronger than one's over a social media platform. Followers can create longtime relationships that last a lifetime for the good, but also for the bad. For some, followers and likes are everything to their lives, and having these followers can create bigger brands and money in social media. What I want everyone to take from this is that stronger relationships are still found through face to face interactions. Someone who may seem happy on social media with tons of followers may not be happy in their personal life, and as a follower, we don't know that unless we know them personally. 

Keep on scrolling through, following, and liking, but don't let your life take you over because of followers, remember that personal relationships are strong. 

Do you even know your self(ie)?

If you have ever had the opportunity to go to a family reunion or meet that one relative that lives really far away. You might know that awkward feeling when your relative knows you but you don't know them, and they know little things about your childhood, but you don’t remember. The conversation always starts off with the opening line of “When you were little we used to…” and now you are stuck listening to a story that you may not even remember, but you smile and grin. Quickly into the story, they pull out their phone and start going on their Facebook to show you pictures of the time they spent with you. Now you are still smiling and listening but searching in your brain for a sliver of a memory of the day you took the picture. 

Maybe the story is making you uncomfortable because you don’t remember, so you might throw in a laugh as you listen, just to shake off that weird feeling of another person knowing stuff about you, that you don’t even know about yourself.

Or maybe you start remembering and are laughing because you can’t believe how much you have changed. Maybe it’s the picture that they show you that sparks you to remember but whether you remembered or not. The fact is that we all probably have photos of ourselves that we have no memory of but each has a story. But the next time you see that photo, you’ll probably be able to relay the story whether you personally remember that day or not. This brings me to the question of whether or not a person can really know themself or not. 

If we have to be told about our behaviors and hobbies that we had growing up then we are having to have a reckoning moment. Referring to Humphreys, a reckoning moment allows us to see things about ourselves and others that we may not be able to remember in our own lived experience. So when your relative is showing you that photo from the one time they saw you as a kid, it's a reckoning moment. 

If you grew up going through the beginning phases of social media all you have ever known are these awkward encounters of relatives pulling up pictures from their social media accounts and showing you the photos that they posted of you. Prior to social media and smartphones, easy access to photo memories was not so accessible. Before smartphones and social media, a person would have had to prepare for such an occurrence, they would have had to actively pull the photos out of the box in the closet or brought the whole scrapbook from the year 1975, just to show you the one time they met you.  Now, social media has become a way for a person to post and share all personal moments and achievements with others. If you were alive prior to MySpace then you probably will have a mix between having the virtual or old fashion photo reckoning moments, but for kids who have no idea what MySpace is then you probably have millions of photos of yourself that you have no memory of. 

How does social media change reckoning moments of childhood moments? 

Most everyone has social media and more kids now are having social media accounts. If you are still keeping up with the Kardashians, you’ll see North who is 8 is on TikTok expressing who she is, under parental supervision. For someone whose life may always be under a lens, it really might be empowering to be in control of how people see you. Or maybe it will be something that you constantly have to reckon with once you outgrow that character of your life. (Sharing the opinion of kids on social media is another conversation) The fact is that kids now are more in control of documenting their life than ever before, so will this lead to fewer reckoning moments? 

I remember making a Facebook account after I turned 13, only then was I allowed to join social media. After that I remember following my parents and family on social media, I remember looking on their pages at all their photos, including ones of me. So now I will constantly refer to their Facebook Page (especially my mom) to show photos and memories of my childhood. But now you have an eight-year-old kid interacting and posting on social media, regardless of whether you think this is a good or bad thing, kids are sharing from their perspective. 

So now kids will have more access and more knowledge to the moments in their early childhood potentially causing fewer reckoning moments. Will this cause kids to have a better understanding of themselves and their lives or will it just cause them to remember the stories that other people shared about their life?