Social Media: How It Went From Being Optional to the Optimal Branding Tool
I love social media and the countless advantages it provides, but for the last 15 years, our relationship has been very complicated. My first real social media experiences began in undergrad when I was introduced to Facebook. Facebook was a huge deal to a budding young professional like me. Initially, it was a social platform that enabled college students to stay connected with friends. Aside from staying connected, I would also use Facebook to casually express humor as a means to get through tough workdays. Soon after I joined, Facebook started to move beyond its student base. Even after noticing a shift, I still didn’t view Facebook as a branding tool.
As more social media platforms were launched with enhanced features, my reasons for using them didn’t change. I utilized social media much less because my job responsibilities increased, which negatively affected my social life. Other circumstances drew my focus towards things that I deemed more important. Those situations caused me to vanish from social media altogether. I deactivated my accounts on and off occasionally for months at a time. I didn’t have a reason to consider building a brand. For those reasons, I hadn’t acquired the skills to implement any professional branding to my lackluster social media habits.
For 12 years, I was under the impression that I didn’t need social media, social media needed me. In 2017, while working to establish my own sports media brand, I was introduced to the marketing benefits of social media. I had to learn how to network and establish meaningful connections using my social media accounts. I sent messages to business leaders using Twitter and Instagram in order to generate conversation and establish relationships. I never received any responses, but the daunting process led me to other websites and influencers that placed me in the right direction. I started to realize that social media had become much bigger than it was back in 2005. It gradually became the engine that powered my professional branding goals.
Currently, I use my social media accounts for different purposes. Whether I’m expressing a thought or checking sports highlights, I always try and stay engaged on Twitter because I’m unhappy with my follower count. Although I’m rarely active, I use Facebook and Instagram to stay connected with family, friends, brands, and celebrities. Studies show that millennials use Facebook and Instagram for 2–3 hours daily, which shows just how important they are for businesses. Millennials are shaping the future of how we do business. They are the dominant generation using social media and the most likely to make online purchases (Loeb, 2020). This discovery led me to realize that social media is no longer an option for me. It is the optimal tool for raising awareness and appeal to my brand.
Sources:
Boyd, J. (2019, January 25). The History of Facebook: From BASIC to Global Giant. Brandwatch. Retrieved from https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/history-of-facebook/
Cooper, P. (2020, February 20). 140 Social Media Statistics that Matter to Marketers in 2020. Hootsuite. Retrieved from https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-statistics-for-social-media-managers/
Loeb, W. (2020, January 21). Social Media Plays A Big Role In How Millennials Shop, But So Do Stores. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2020/01/21/why-millennials-shop-on-social-media-but-also-like-to-shop-in-stores/#680c553b350c
