Nels Blog

For effective social media content, the 3 main goals to keep in mind are to make sure you’re connecting with your audience, make sure all posts reflect the brand and its values, and to make sure you have a strong strategy. 

I think connecting with your audience on a human level is one of the most important aspects because they are your customers and the way they view the company is a major factor in their purchases. To connect in this way, its a good rule of thumb to keep content 40% created and 60% curated and to make sure self promotion is only 1/3 of content. This will ensure that your company has more human qualities that the audience can connect with. 

A strong strategy will be based on research and analysis of the current content. It will also include target audiences by platform and content specific goals. An example of a content specific goal would be to reach 30 more people on twitter within 1 week. A content calendar is a great way to keep track of goals, posting, research, etc. 

I thought this infographic perfectly tied in to what we learned about effective social media content. 

Hello Everyone,

After completing the Hootsuite/Podium modules 3 & 4, I have been able to expand my knowledge on many concepts related to content is displayed. The modules focused on the importance of how effective content is developed and shared. Effective content is developed through different strategies and shared through different social media channels. Each social media channel has specific ways to reach out to certain audiences. Content plays a crucial role in achieving business and social media objectives such as brand recognition, thought leadership, audience engagement, and lead generation.

My biggest takeaway from both modules on Hootsuite is the four key components of a social content strategy. The first two components are research and analysis of current content reception and strategy and your target audience identified by platform. Both of these components are super important when it comes to having a social content strategy. The next two components are a list of content-specific goals and objectives and lastly, plans for the distribution of your content. Both of these components allow organizations to stay organized and have a clear understanding of their goals, how they will meet them, and a timeline for these goals.

Becoming a social organization means you involve your community in the conversation in a meaningful way. Once a business or organization has a clear understanding of how to post effective content then this will eventually lead to them having a larger audience. Developing and sharing content is a form of communication that can be used to speak with individuals. Social media is a great way for businesses to reach out to consumers who are Gen Z and Millennials. Having Effective content will help the organization build long-term relationships with its audience, ultimately leading to an increase in revenue for your organization.

Thank you,

After reading chapters five and six of The Social Organization, I was able to get a better idea of what it takes to build an online community. The first subject the book covered was community collaboration. In order to write a vision statement for your organization’s goals, you must consider community collaboration. There are four things to consider: 

1. When community collaboration is appropriate

2. Where community collaboration will bring value

3. Consider your organization’s culture and objectives

4. Construct a vision statement that implements collaboration

Next, The Social Organization emphasizes the importance of purpose. Your audience needs a driving cause to participate with organizations online. Page 71 highlights four questions a purpose should answer:

1. Who are the target participants?

2. What is the focus of their collaboration?

3. What do the participants get out of it?

4. What value will the business get from this?

If an organization does not have a set purpose that aligns with their business goals, it is likely that their online efforts will fail. 

After completing the fourth part of Hootsuite, I learned methods to building an online community. This chapter discussed the advertising side of social media. Ads allow businesses to reach a wide variety of individuals. Your ads should align with your business objectives. On the other hand, not every organization is ready to begin advertising. There are other factors to be considered, such as budget. 

From reading chapter 4 and 5 in the Social Organization book, social media community collaboration is what was the most interesting to me. The importance of community engagement of is very important for a business. It increases brand awareness and overall establishes a positives reputation for the brand. The feeling of community provides a feel-good sense of supporting that business and involved in something. This helps a business stand out in compared to its competitors. This engagement on social media for the business is very beneficial as it will create loyal customers and encourages social media users to get involved. But at the same time can have downsides and backfire on the company. When done right, like Ben and Jerry’s ice cream brand does on via Instagram, the pros will way out the cons.

Prior to watching The Legal Side of Big Data lecture, I did not have an awareness of all of the well-known companies that had been regularly hacked to steal their data. Yes, I heard the occasional news story which of course was troublesome to learn of, but I had no idea of the large names of everyday stores we shop at being hacked. Names like Target, Neiman Marcus, and The Home Depot really hit home for me because I regularly shop at a couple of those. Doug LaLone’s lecture really started to shine a light on this issue for me on the information companies gather about you, that we likely don’t pay much attention to at the time, and how important it is for those companies to do all that they can to protect that information. I’d also never really thought about the fact that when companies go away, either from going out of business or being acquired, that the data they have gathered becomes an asset that other people will pay millions for to attain. For me, there is a major moral issue there. If I choose to do business with Business A, which ends up being acquired at some point by Business B, why does Business B have a right to any of my data? If Business B is a company that I would not choose to do business with, they still have my personal data. This is something that consumers definitely need to be aware of and I believe businesses should be legally required to create policies that address this before they are legally able to capture any personal data from customers. Even in a case where the customer is made aware of a specific data collection policy and agrees to it, the onus is still on the company to protect that data at all costs. But with hackers constantly looking for a new angle, how do you measure is what companies are doing is “enough” should there be a breach of their systems. If companies like the NYSE can get hacked, anyone can get hacked. In some cases, it may not even be a true “hack” that breaches the system but being done through malware that can be opened by human error in an email. One such attack happened in 2016 when the Lansing Board of Water and Light had their computer systems effected by malware. The attack was done by individuals outside of the US and demanded a $25,000 ransom payment to be done via bitcoin. While this particular case didn’t seem to be a data grab but freezing the companies computers and in turn business operations, there is no way of knowing if consumer or business data was compromised, even though their executives say it was not. They paid the $25,000 ransom and were back up and running within a few days however the overall cost to the company was roughly $2.4 million dollars. The company even had an emergency plan built into their protocols but it had gaps that were not accounted for. To me, this makes it all that much more important to see that companies need to protect information and consumers need to determine what information they are comfortable providing to others.

I think it is fairly obvious to any user of social media that each platform is dependent upon revenue generation from advertising. Reading The Internet’s Original Sin by Ethan Zuckerman and watching The Internet With a Human Face presented by Maciej Ceglowski cemented advertising as the driving force of revenue, even more for me. The irony I found in both the article by Zuckerman and the presentation by Ceglowski was that they both played a role in creating social media but they are both extremely disappointed in the outcome and insistent that it needs change. Surveillance and data gathering leads to strategic advertising leading to a higher value for that consumer information. We have all heard the phrase “money is the root of all evil” and there is likely some truth to that, at minimum. If data leads to more money, how can we depend on social platforms to make ethically based decisions about what information they gather and share. And even if they do ethically sound decisions, they are still gathering information at some level. Information that has a large value that could be susceptible to hackers and must be protected by these companies. Our reality is that the internet as a whole is an intertwined web with advertising at the center, and that’s a problem. Ceglowski said it well when he stated, “The foundations the web are rotten because they’ve been built on advertising.” Advertising that leads to revenue. As the old adage goes, “nothing in life is free.” Consumers need to fully understand that the web is indeed, not free, and determine what they are willing to sacrifice as a payment for using it because, whether you know it or not, there is a transaction being made every time you log on.

After watching “The Legal Side of Big Data” I think it is important for businesses to be aware of first, how likely they are to be hacked. In addition to that they should also consider what it would do to their business if they were hacked? What would it cost them? How will this affect your customers? It is also important for businesses to ensure that they own their data, because if they don’t then it is very likely it might get sold to a competitor. So, assure that contracts are in place that confirm confidentiality.

Consumers should be aware of the fact that we as citizens can’t do anything about these data records being hacked so we should be very mindful of the fact that it can happen and it does happen, more often than we think. Consumers should also be aware that it is possible they are being lied to about what their data is being used for by different companies.

The best way to balance the opportunities and threats presented by the development of big data is to first get ahead of the problem and spend the money to be preventative. Although big data does allow for making faster advances in many areas and in improving the profitability and success of many businesses through allowing a better analysis of the large volumes of data that have been made available. This amplifies the need for these businesses to clarify what is going to happen to your data in the event of bankruptcy. In addition to that there should be very strong security where the data is being housed.

Social media is a phrase that has been so huge for at least the past 15 years so it’s a little bit challenging to think of qualities that are the most important. If I could narrow it down to a few, I would have to say coachability, being a quick learner and being proactive are most important. One has to be coachable when consulting for whatever industry because who knows what the client may want to change or do differently based off the consultant’s suggestions. This may even require doing more search or deploying new tactics. Directly relating to the next quality, being a quick learner is necessary if and when one needs to learn something new or maybe collaborate with an outside source to get the job done. Lastly, proactivity is just as important as the previous two. As a consultant, you’re hired to come in and add value to complete an organization’s desired results so getting at it and tackling the day is vital. The earlier and harder a consultant works to meet the needs of their client, the better the result would be.

I’m sure there are other important qualities a consultant would need but these three stood out the most because they’re universal for every industry. There are probably more specific qualities for social media professionals but I think the ones I mentioned provide just as much value.

The only true social media platform that I use is LinkedIn. If I were a consultant for myself, I would try to post content daily to improve and build on my personal brand. During my previous internships, I’ve had numerous workshops that preach the importance of developing a personal brand since that carries a significant amount of weight about one’s professional work style. For me, I would post content related to things that were interesting to me such as motivation, certain books and maybe some spiritual guidance. I would deviate from the professional side of LinkedIn to be more personal. Also, I would try and have more authentic connections with people and try and do WebEx meeting’s to actually learn from them.

All I really do on LinkedIn right now is mindlessly scroll and save certain posts that I like or resonate with me. It’s not very fruitful or productive at all. I give myself some grace since I’m in my last semester and have other things to prioritize. Post-graduation, I’m looking forward to developing my presence even more without a doubt.

I loved how you included being coachable as a characteristic of a social media marketer. You never know when a brand wants to change all of their content, or add different values to the company. The WebEx meetings are also so helpful when wanting to get information in the quickest way possible. 

Reason 1: Algorithms

My opinion of algorithms are they are not very beneficial in the ways that matter most. As stated in the article “instead of promoting the free flow and exchange of ideas that is necessary for a healthy democracy, the personalization of content has created filter bubbles that limit information flows and perpetuate bias.” I think it is important for businesses and more importantly people to be aware of the fact that algorithms and how they are formed are not a result of human activity, instead they are created by machine learning models. These models improve and get better at reading us every day. Instead of humans selecting information and news that they deem important for the public to know and giving it to us, complex algorithms take on the role of that job and dictates what we see and what we don’t. I would say we can respond to these conditions by realizing that not everything we see is true and not to take everything we see online serious unless we have other sources of proof as well.

Reason 2: Advertising

This section reminded me a lot of the Social Dilemma video that we watched last week. As crazy as this sounds, I have never even thought about why social media is free before watching that video. I don’t agree with how social media platforms are built. As stated in the article we are “paying with our personal information”. This allows for fake news to go viral and turn into a bunch of clickbait. Individuals and businesses should be aware that these social sites are built around collecting their personal information and it is being strategically used to target users with manipulative messages. We should respond to this in the same way as we respond to algorithms. Don’t believe everything you see online.

Reason 3: Exposure

The third reason given as to why junk news spreads so quickly is due to exposure. What individuals are exposed to on the internet on a daily basis often is in line with their personal preferences. As stated in the article “As a result, voters do not get a representative, balanced, or accurate selection of news and information during an election, nor is the distribution of important information randomly distributed across a voting population.” As a result businesses and individuals should make notice to the fact that during times when there are things like elections individuals are only being shown advertisements/ posts that are in line with their pre-existing beliefs. Individuals should respond to this by voluntarily looking for new information that doesn’t necessarily agree with their current perspectives and preferences in order to be informed about more than just what they prefer to see.

Overall, algorithms, advertisements, and exposure should be regulated by humans as well and not just machine operated. They have affected individuals and society as a whole more than any of us even realize. Individuals should be aware of the power that these three tactics have in determining what they see on social media on a daily basis. They should respond by not being so close minded when it comes to their beliefs and what they see on social media. Instead they should look beyond their current perspectives and preferences and expose themselves to information that is new and challenges their current beliefs.

Resources

Howard, P. (2018, March 26). Three reasons junk news spreads so quickly across social media. Oxford Internet Institute. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/three-reasons-junk-news-spreads-so-quickly-across-social-media/.

From the documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ we can see how harmful social media is in numerous ways. They explained how data, algorithms, and other tactics used by social media companies are continuing to become more and more accurate and how with more accuracy, they take more of our time. These social media platforms are not just for connecting with people. These companies are trying to get more of our time and data- which makes us the product being sold. The algorithms used are tailored to each individual which will make you see whatever you want to see on social media which gives you a false sense of harmony within your community. I think this is especially harmful because along with misinformation, this can lead to extremist groups to band together and cause harm. We know that diversity leads to growth and innovation, so a lack of diversity, or in this case- being surrounded by people that think exactly like you in social media communities- leads to a lack of innovation, growth, and learning.

I thought this photo was also interesting because it shows how much the amount of paid government commentators has risen over the past few years and as a result how much misinformation is circulating. 

This photo is very interesting and I am glad you included it in this post. It is important for everyone to know that the information they are seeing on social media can be false. I also think it is crazy how much influence this generation has on bringing awareness to this subject.