The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

How social media affects your small business can be a positive experience (the good). It can have some wayward stories (the bad). Finally, the dangers (the ugly). To be successful, we need to be prepared.

Photo by Mizzu Cho on Pexels.com

The Good

Lets start with what’s good about social media. In the beginning it gave us a way to stay connected to family and friends. It gave us access to endless information. Who among us has not participated in online banking? What about fundraising and awareness? https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vH2. Thanks to Covid-19 we all learned that remote learning and employment is possible and almost normal. Now take all of those points and relate them to your small business.

Connected to family and friends becomes customer relations. Access to information gives us ways to research our brand awareness. Online banking and finances makes setting up online stores a breeze. The endless options for online learning continue to help us grow our product and brand. Finally, thanks to many social media platforms we have all the tools we need for great marketing campaigns

The Bad

What is the worst thing that can happen to your small business via social media? Negative feedback! Think about how much time and money you have put into building your brand. You are making sales, dealing with the day to day functions of your business and trying to stay on top of multiple social media platforms. Then an unhappy customer comes along and a negative comment or feedback has landed on your brand.

Never ignore a negative feedback. Take the time to start the dialogue with the disgruntle customer. The best advice from the attached article is do not respond in haste when your emotions are high. No one likes a bad review, in business or in life. Take a moment, take a deep breath and respond appropriately. https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vH2

https://www.groovehq.com/

The Ugly

Sometimes the bad trickles over to the ugly. We have the “Trolls”. They thrive on conflict and intend to incite anger on your page. Don’t bite them back!

INTERNET TROLL Road Sign – 3D Rendering

However, our main discussion for the ugly is hacking and leaking of information. Here are some of the numbers according to https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vH2

• Hootsuite reported that in 2016 all types of scams and crimes on social media rose by 150 percent on the most popular social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
• The cybersecurity firm Norton recently revealed an eye-opening report stating that a staggering 40% of social media users have experienced some type of cybercrime on social media.
• According to a report from Javelin Strategy & Research, some 15.4 million consumers were victims of identity theft or fraud last year costing victims $16 billion. This is an increase of 16% from last year, with a growing percentage of this criminal activity occurring on social media.

How do we control the threats? Passwords are your friend. Stay on top of everything. Train your employees about best and safe practices when it comes to online activity. Also, make sure your IT and cybersecurity are up to date.

Moving Forward

Take advantage of all that is good with social media. There is so much potential, so many connections to be made. We live in a world where there are not many original ideas, but don’t stop trying to be the next Steve Jobs, Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. Know what to do with positive and negative feedback and finally, be prepared for the unexpected.

Facebook: Be Prepared for everything with your small business. https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vH2

Twitter:  #NoTrollsAllowed https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vH2

Resources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48871456

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/turbotax-taxes-13771756.html

Investing On Social Media

Hedge Funds (the old boys) vs Meme Stock (the new kids)

Image via canva

Lets go back in time to 2021. Many of us are stuck at home dealing with the pandemic known as Covid-19. What happens when we have too much free time? We turn to social media. With the down time, some of us may have become amateur investors. I myself during the pandemic downloaded the app WealthSimple Trade. To be honest, I know very little about the stock market. Where do I turn? Reddit? Is this where the trouble begins? It was called the Reddit revolution.

This is where that “Old Boys vs New Kids” comes into play. First lets get some definitions.

What is a Hedge Fund? A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as short selling, leverage, and derivatives. Financial regulators generally restrict hedge fund marketing to institutional investors, high net worth individuals, and others who are considered sufficiently sophisticated. https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vBP

What is a Meme Stock? A meme stock refers to the shares of a company that have gained a cult-like following online and through social media platforms. These online communities can go on to build hype around a stock through narratives and conversations elaborated in discussion threads on websites like Reddit and posts to followers on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vBP

With the power of social media behind them, the new kids acted as modern day Robin Hoods. With a steal from the rich and give to the poor mentality they stormed the market. Case in point is the GameStop phenomenon. To keep it simple, the Hedge Funds/Old Boys were betting against the small companies like GameStop to make money. The Meme Stocks/New Kids banded together, pooled their dollars and invested in these companies that were being shortened by Hedge Funds. A perfect storm of new buyers and panicked sellers pushed stock prices sky high. This created another group of FOMO (Fear of missing out) buyers.

Source: https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vBP

What does it all mean? It means social media has power. Power to the good and power to the bad. One simple tweet from someone you know, or someone you trust and respect and you are ready to follow their advice. This advice could tell you how great a product or company is and you run to invest. It could also be a bad review that makes you quick to sell any stock you may hold. Both situations have consequences.

Quick tips on investing.

1. Learn. Learn as much as you can about the stock market. Remember it is gambling, easy to lose money and hard to win.
2. Research. Avoid FOMO. What’s that old saying? “If it’s to good to be true, it probably is”. Don’t rush into buying stocks. Research your investment. Take time to learn about the company.
3. Be Smart. Never invest more than you can afford to lose.

What would you do?

This is your mission, if you choose to accept it. You are given $1000 to invest. What would you do?

https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vBP

Facebook: Who do you trust with your investing dollars? https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vmB

Twitter:  #GetRichQuick See my new blog: https://wp.me/p3QRy0-vBP

Resources:

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/07/06/are-meme-stocks-harmless-fun-or-a-threat-to-the-financial-old-guard

https://www.forbes.com/sites/roomykhan/2021/03/08/social-media-fueled-stock-market-trading-the-unsuspecting-need-to-be-protected/?sh=4a098d3227dd

Fundraising With Purpose

Why is social media important for fundraising?

Over $9 billion was raised from more than 120 million donations in 2020. https://www.gofundme.com/c/success

http://clipart-library.com

With easy access to your target supporters, what better way for organizations to raise money for their cause. Before social media, one had to knock on doors and ask for donations. As a child you might collect empty beer bottles from your neighbors or get your mom to take the girl guide cookie order form into work for you. Fundraising has been a large part of my life. Obviously I have done the above, but I have also been involved with bake sales to raise money for the food bank. Texas Holdem tournaments for Breast Cancer and even setting up a booth in front of the local liquor store and soliciting the patrons coming and going. It seems easier now, set up a gofund me page, post it to your facebook page and ask your friends to share, share, share.

Lets look as some steps to get the money rolling.

1. Create a Plan for your Campaign – This will include a title, a timeline, schedule posts on multiple platforms and track your goals. This is a great time to use Hashtags.
2. Decide on your Social Media Platforms. You need to reach your target audience. Check out my previous blog on how each generation uses social media. This will help you decide on your target audience. https://wordpress.com/post/algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/120564
3. Engage your supporters. Show your supporters how their donation can make a difference. Add photos and videos to your campaign page.
4. Celebrate The Milestones. Keep your donors up to date and be sure to thank them. Thanking them can be a simple re-tweet or a Facebook comment.

Yes it can be that easy

Many platforms now have fundraising options. For example, Facebook – you can now set up a fundraising page on your birthday for your charity of choice. This allows you to ask your friends and family for donations instead of a gift. How easy is that?

https://www.facebook.com/fundraisers?source=search_shortcut

Image by Diedra Cruwys

Sometimes fundraising isn’t just about money, sometimes its about awareness. How many of you did the #TheIceBucketChallange for ALS. I was proud to be part of this and thanks to YouTube, it is forever searchable. What a great way to spread awareness.

There are so many elements to Fundrasing. Aside from the obvious of raising money and awareness, in my personal experience i have met some of the most amazing and inspiring people. If we all do a little bit we can achive great things.

It’s your turn

I would love to hear about the causes and charities that are important to you. Hashtag your charity below in the comments and tell me why it is important to you.

Facebook – https://bit.ly/3JHhvzT

Twitter – https://bit.ly/3JHhvzT

Resources:

https://flockler.com/blog/how-do-nonprofits-use-social-media-for-fundraising

https://www.goodbox.com/2021/10/the-best-social-media-fundraising-campaigns/

How Different Generations use Social Media

We are broken down into different groups. Each group has a different social media presence, preference, comfort zone and need.

The Generation Z (Gen-Z or Zoomers), 18-24

The Millennials, 25-40

The Generation X (Gen-X), 41-56

The Baby Boomers, 57-74

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Let’s break them down and try to figure them out.

The Zoomers, or GenZ. They are our future, on and off of the social media stage. If you want to change the world, social media can help. Just look to one of the major influencers of this generation, Greta Thunberg @gretathunberg. This inspiring young lady is fighting for the environment and building awareness around the globe. But would we know her without social media? This is generation that only knows social media, they are comfortable with it and know how to use it. If you want their attention, you will find them with their smart phone on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

The Millennials, the biggest group. They use social media to communicate with friends and family, check out the latest trends and stay on top of breaking news. Gone is the traditional television viewing and onto streaming Netflix. Being the largest group, is this the group marketers are targeting? The number of influencers in this group is endless. Find your favourite topic and you will find an influencer. Being the largest group, and the group most comfortable with the growth of technology and maybe some dollars to spend, it just makes sense to target them. Many social media influencers are Millennials, suddenly, it’s your friends that are sharing with you. And you trust your friends, right? The millennials are everywhere, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and TikTok.

GenX, what can I say, that’s me. I grew up making mud pies, playing for hours outside with my friends and riding our bikes to the corner store. I remember my dad (a baby boomer) bringing home the latest and greatest… Atari. We are the generation that got the best of both worlds. We may be small in numbers, but we make up many of the users. Are we the Facebook generation? Are we the ones that can balance the real world and the computer generation? We can blog about travel, beauty, nature, money. We have it all covered and are not afraid to be transparent. Yeah, that’s grey hair and we like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, endless Blogs and watch out Zoomers your parents are dipping into TikTok.

Baby Boomers, the wise ones. They have seen it all. Are they comfortable on social media or do they still like a good old fashioned traditional media, television, radio, books and newspapers. I can look to my own family for this. They use social media to stay in touch with family and friends, they browse and learn. They can watch a YouTube video to learn some recipe trends. You might even catch them doing a selfie (I call out my mother on that one).This group tends to stick with Facebook, YouTube and Blogs. As for influencers, they are sticking with faces they know. Are they still looking for that familiar celebrity face?

There are a few other generations that we can touch on. Younger than GenZ and older than Baby Boomers. Generation Alpha, by the year 2025 there will be over 2 billion people in this group. They are growing up in Smart Homes with technology everywhere. They are the generation, due to a world in crisis that have embraced home schooling. Then the other extreme. Do they even have a name? They grew up in war and depression and still have a land line for communication. Some might have been forced onto the social media stage due to the pandemic. FaceTime with family was the only way to have contact. I am proud to say my older generation was not afraid. My grandfather in his 90’s had a Facebook account and did all of his banking online.

Taking in all the different platforms and your target audience, there are endless possibilities on getting your message across. Stay Gold, Pony Boy (if you know, you know, if you don’t, google it).