What would happen if social media disappeared tomorrow?

With the number of users using social media, being a whopping 2.46 billion worldwide and expecting to increase to 3.02 billion by 2021 (N/A, 2017), it really makes me wonder… What would happen if social media disappeared tomorrow?

Today, social media is used for EVERYTHING! Staying in touch with friends and family, staying up-to-date with news and current events, networking, entertainment, to share photos and videos, to meet new people, to share one’s opinion, to find reviews on products you’re interested in buying, or places you’re interested in visiting. On average, teens and young adults spend upwards of 9 hours per day on social media platforms! (Magazin, 2017) In a poll by GlobalWebIndex.net, 39% of social media users between the ages 16-24, use it to fill up spare time! (McGrath, 2017) If social media disappeared, they will have a lot more spare time to fill up and no social media to fill it up with.

Now, what about the people whose job revolves around social media? According to dreamgrow.com, there are 40 million active small business pages in Facebook alone. (Hainla, 2017) Its somebodies job to be posting content for those businesses, what would happen to them? What about social media influencers, who’s only source of income is what they make off of social media? Here’s a little insight from Dummies.com (Kristy Sammis, n.d.) Showing, on average what influencers can make:

• Blogggers: $175.00 – $5000.00+ per month (depending on number of blog impressions)
• Instagram: $75.00 – $3000.00+ per image (depending on number of followers)
• Youtube: $500.00 – $5000.00+ per video (depending on number of channel subscribers)

Needless to say, there would be a lot of unemployed people if there was no more social media.

So what do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Please fill out this quick 4 question survey!
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Sources
Hainla, L. (2017, June 7th). 21 Social Media Marketing Statistics You Need to Know in 2017. Retrieved from Dreamgrow.com: https://www.dreamgrow.com/21-social-media-marketing-statistics/

Kristy Sammis, C. L. (n.d.). HOW MUCH MONEY DO BLOGGERS AND SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS MAKE? Retrieved from dummies.com: http://www.dummies.com/business/marketing/influence-marketing/how-much-money-do-bloggers-and-social-media-influencers-make/

Magazin, M. (2017, January 5). How Much Time Do People Spend on Social Media? A lot! Retrieved from Marketingmagazin.eu: http://marketingmagazin.eu/2017/01/05/infographic-much-time-people-spend-social-media/

McGrath, F. (2017, June 07). Top 10 Reasons for Using Social Media. Retrieved from GlobalWebIndex.net: http://blog.globalwebindex.net/chart-of-the-day/social-media/

N/A. (2017). Number of global social media users 2010-2021. Retrieved from Statista.com: https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/

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Social Media For My Line of Work

Being an aspiring entrepreneur, social media plays a crucial role in my line of work, in more ways than one. By this time next year, my goal is to start my Virtual Assistant & Social Media Coordinating company. So, with that being said, I not only need social media to promote my company, but social media will also be a service that I provide to clients.

It is astonishing, the number of small businesses (mainly in my area), that have a very poor or don’t have any kind of social media presence. Mostly, due to the fact that they cant find the time, they just don’t know where to begin or fear. And yes, although there are many negatives to social media, like for instance, hate/negative comments, it’s better to be able to address them publicly and help resolve the issue than do nothing about it, or pretend it doesn’t exist. People are going to talk about your company whether you’re on social media or not, at least being on social media you can have a chance to respond. If consumers see that you are open to resolving the issue, you have a better chance at keeping and gaining more customers. Below, are some interesting stats surrounding the importance of using social media from growthgurus.com,

• 78 % of small businesses use social media to attract new customers. Furthermore 33% of customers have identified social media as how they identify new brands products and services.
• 63% of consumers who search for businesses online are more likely to use ones with an informative social media presence.
• 71% of consumers who received a quick response on social media would recommend the brand to others.

It is my goal to help local, small business overcome their fears and reach their full potential, using social media. I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject, if you have minute to answer the poll question below, and if you would like to elaborate on your answer, you can leave it in the comments below. Thanks in advance!

 

Sources:
N/A. (2017). Business Brand Need to Understand the Importance of Social Media. Retrieved from growthgurus.com: http://www.growthgurus.com/blog/business-brand-need-understand-importance-social-media/

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What is Social Media and What Does it Mean To Me?

According to Merriam-webster.com, Social Media is described as, “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal mesages and other content (such as videos).”

To me, from a personal standpoint, Social Media are various platforms that allow friends and family to connect around the world. It can also be used to network with potential employers or clients.

From a business standpoint, Social Media has become a vital tool for businesses to market their product or service. Below are some general social media marketing statistics, pulled from dreamgrow.com, that provides proof of how beneficial the use of social media can be for business:

1. Online adults aged 18-34 are most likely follow a brand via social networking (95%).
2. 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to
recommend it to others.
3. There are 1.65 billion active mobile social accounts globally with 1 million new active mobile social users
added every day.
4. 96% of the people that discuss brands online do not follow those brands’ owned profiles.
5. Visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content.

So now that you have a rough idea of what social media means to me, what does it mean to you? Do you use it for personal use, business use or both?