Social media is embedded in our daily lives. It is no longer the trend, it is the web and continues to weave and wrap itself itself into every corner and crevice of the internet as we know it.

It is on your smart phone as a Facebok “app”.  Twitter streams compel you to click on the link, to respond to questions from strangers. YouTube viral videos videos offering  distraction from your tasks at hand entice you to click when you should be working and to view when you should be productive.

The addiction, like crack cocaine has spread and 650 million people on Facebook,  225 million on Twitter and 100 million on LinkedIn are evidence of  this compelling attraction and distraction that disrupts our daily lives. Quite often it has crossed my mind in a quiet moment as I ride or drive and observe people with heads bowed as they peer into their 3.1 inch screens that an interesting research study would be to see how many people have been hit by a car or a bus while checking their Facebook updates while using their phone.. but that’s just me I guess!

What are Other Signs of this Evil Addiction?

• When you leave your iPhone behind at home do you feel a sense of loss and isolation because you can’t check your Facebook or Twitter updates while out and about
• You check your Facebook account 20 times a day
• If you don’t receive a comment on your latest blog post within 12 hours you have suicidal thoughts
• You go away for a weekend without your laptop or iPad and your suffer severe heart palpitations
• You have more social media icons on you iPhone than productivity apps
• You stood in line for an Apple iPad for 24 hours just so you could update your Facebook on a bigger screen while on the move
• You have more online friends than you have in real life
• You Tweet on your mobile while walking
• You log on to Facebook before you have brushed your teeth in the morning
• You check your Facebook or Twitter updates ‘after’ going to bed

The reality is that this evil (humor here!) and addictive behaviour is exactly what makes social media so powerful as a marketing medium.

3 Reasons Why Social Media is Essential

1. It Spreads

Television can reach an audience of millions but that’s where it stops. You cannot hit retweet or Facebook share on your TV remote (not yet .. but watch this space).  Television is also mostly local or national and is not global unless you are watching the Olympics or the ‘World Cup’. Social media’s viral capacity lies in its ‘one to many’ and then the ‘many to many’ amplification of ideas and content on a worldwide scale. The low friction of sharing (how easy is it to hit a ‘like’ button or a retweet icon) with social media provides the power to make ideas spread that dictators of the past and present would admire.

2. It Lasts

I don’t know if you realize that Google is now indexing and archiving your tweets. The tweets may be fleeting but Google’s 1 million servers are quietly buzzing and working away in dark rooms in distant corners of the earth digitally filing away your superficial tweets along with those ones with great links to YouTube videos and great blog posts that make a difference in people’s lives. The blog posts you write are saved, maybe not for eternity but certainly for decades to come. Think of your content as a digital asset that you should be continually investing in as you build up your online properties net worth.

3.It Helps You Get Found

Ranking on the first page of a search engine is the holy grail for businesses (it is where 90% of all clicks to websites occur). Google along with Bing is now placing a higher priority on all things social ( you may or may not have noticed that YouTube videos and Blogs are often appearing high up in search along with other social networking channels). The search giants have realized over the last 12 months that people’s ranking of content on websites and blogs with Facebook likes, Twitter retweets and Google +1′s that social recommendations are valuable as a ranking for search. An active and persistent presence on social media channels increases significantly your chances of being ‘found’ online and we all know how important that is on a world that is continuously connected, searching and clicking.

Do you ‘get’ social media yet? Does your boss ‘get it’?

Social media is way beyond fluffy, fun and superficial… it is now serious business!

More Reading:

Google Becomes More Social And It’s Hurting Your Business

Is Facebook Bing’s Secret Weapon To Beat Google?

Google Gets More Social and Copies Facebook’s “Like” Button

10 Facts Reveal the Importance of Ranking High in Google

Image by steena