Week 2A - Social Media - Business or Personal?

Facebook and Instagram offer benefits for business, but seem more heavily geared toward personal use. As a relatively new Facebook user, I notice the "People You May Know" section the most. This section appears to characterize the overall goal of Facebook of connecting as many people socially as possible. Once connected, the ease at which people can respond and interact, or just "Like" others' posts, encourages the friendly interaction. Other functions such as Facebook groups, events, and messaging help people stay engaged in community and other social organizations. While Instagram does not spark as much interaction between individuals, the goal seems to be keeping people in touch with others through photos.

Facebook and Instagram can assist business promotion, too. Instagram can draw a customer to a product or service particularly if the marketing relies on imagery. My goddaughter has built an extremely successful photography business with Instagram as one of her core marketing tools. The imagery of beautiful wedding pictures sparks emotion that Instagram can help capture and draw in an audience with. Facebook allows businesses to create pages, which consumers can then "Like". This "Like"  then becomes an effective word of mouth tool for marketing purposes as well. The ability of Facebook to tell someone what businesses their friends like can be powerful promotion.

Twitter and LinkedIn appear more beneficial for business rather than social growth. In my limited Twitter knowledge, the main goal seems to be for short messages to reach a large audience. As a business, the ability to market service or product information quickly to the masses enhances sales. I think Twitter exchanges are more open, which would enable a company to closely monitor consumer tastes and other trends, and update their marketing plans quickly and accordingly. Twitter does not facilitate as much of the personal interaction that a Facebook posts allows. From an employment perspective, LinkedIn seems effective in growing a business. As a military spouse, I've seen that LinkedIn is a great source for retired military to follow what organizations their peers are working for after their active duty service. LinkedIn enables people to make their professional work experience more public. Most people do not want or need prospective employers seeing their day to day social posts that they might include on Facebook or Instagram.

I want to expand my knowledge on these and other platforms to learn more about what else they can offer to businesses and individuals. There are so many other aspects of business such as customer service, business strategy, and communications,  that social media can impact. I hope to have more comprehensive opinions on these and more platforms by the end of the semester.