Social Media and Millennials: Should we be concerned?

Social media can be distracting.

Just how productive are we when surfing social media sites? As Millenials, we may think we are great at multitasking. While multitasking is an important skill to have in the PR field, surfing social media channels isn’t multitasking—it’s “multi-distracting.” Students can often find themselves surfing various social media channels instead of working on homework or projects. 

Social media has become one of the biggest distractions for not only public relations students, but all students. According to Julie Morgenstern’s blog, we experience an interruption every eight minutes and each interruption can take away five to 15 minutes of focus. 

On the other hand, social media can also help improve one’s grades. When group projects are assigned, it’s difficult to get everyone in the same room due to conflicting schedules. Social media can help bring groups together online.

Social media can create a false sense of reality.

Another important aspect to consider is that social media can negatively impact our mental health. When scrolling through your newsfeed, do you notice your friends bragging about their accomplishments or participating in activities you wish you could do?

Social media gives users the opportunity to reconstruct their own self-image and therefore enhance their own self-worth into a positive light. When we only portray the positive aspects of our lives online, outsiders may become anxious, jealous or depressed.

We naturally want to display our presence in a positive light. While this is good for our own self-worth, we must understand the difference between our online and real life perceptions.

What about our lives outside of social media? One thing to take away from this is the cliché that “not everyone is perfect.” Our social lives should be just as transparent as our real lives.

How can college students learn to properly use social media?

As public relations students and future professionals, it’s up to you to learn how to use it wisely. If you are interested in learning more about using social media on a professional level, seek out internships that will give you hands-on experience.

Keeping Your Target Audience Engaged

How to Keep Your Target Audience Captivated 

Content is essential

There are various forms of content to post to your business' social media sites: statuses, images, videos, blogs, info graphics, etc. The most important thing to remember is that the content is relevant to your target audience.

If you want to captivate your "fans," make sure that it's interesting. While posting statuses or tweets about what your business does on a daily business is relevant to your business' interests, you also need to find content that your target audience finds appealing.

An example of effective content

One example of content that a target audience would find appealing is creating a video that shows a behind the scenes look on what your business does. In the video, you could include a customer testimonial.

What makes this example effective is that it involves two important things:

1. story telling through video content that can be easily viewed by a click of a mouse
2. business and client interaction

Video content is very easy for your target audience to engage in. Instead of taking the time to read about your company, they can simply click "play" on  a YouTube video. Making things easy on your target audience can give the impression that your business wants to make things easy on them. In return, this could generate new clients and potentially gain more loyalty through current clients.

When you take the time to create a video, make sure that it looks professional and that it accurately reflects your company's brand. What can you do to make your company stand out from others when you create a video?

Do something unique. Don't be afraid to do something outside of the box. Go to popular spots in the community and film a couple of small parts there.

Another idea is to reach out to local businesses or charities and help them with donations or events. When you get involved with the community, your business will gain even more visibility. At these events, take pictures and post them to your primary social media outlets.

If you can, find a way to involve your target audience in these pictures. These are only a couple of ideas that will help you relate to the target audience you are trying to reach.

No matter what direction you take this, make sure you post it to YouTube and your company's primary social media outlets.

Questions? 

If you are a growing business and need social media advice, there are a variety of resources to choose from. When I first started researching social media strategies, I was an intern that had to start from a blank slate. I built up social media sites while referencing the book "30 Days To Social Media Success" by Gail Martin. I found the book very useful because it outlined all of the basics needed to create an effective social media strategy. Outside of that, it's all about practice and research. The more you read, research and practice, the better. 

Social Media Analytics and Strategy

Analytics Keep Track of Progress

Analytics are important because it helps your business understand if it's properly engaging its audience or attracting the right people. Analytics help your business understand how many people are (for example) visiting your sites on a monthly basis. 

You can look at analytic reports to see if progress is or isn't being made. Social media analytic tools help you see the bigger part of the whole picture. It's comparable to being on a rooftop, looking down on your audience. 

What are some of the best tools to track analytics? As far as usability and budget concerns go, HootSuite and Google Analytics are by far the most popular and I highly recommend them both. 

Google Analytics and HootSuite Basics

Adjust Your Strategy When Necessary

After evaluating analytics, you may find that revisions need to be made. Maybe you aren't effectively reaching your target audience and need to make an adjustment or two.




Re-write your social media strategy based on the evaluation of your social media analytics. Make a list of things that worked, things that didn't work and a list of things that need to be improved.

In order to make improvements, make a list of goals for the following week, month or whatever the period you tracked was.

How to Keep Your Target Audience Engaged 

Basic Tips for Social Media Success

Basic Tips for Social Media Success 

Planning

The most important thing that a growing business must do before launching social media content is to execute a plan. Executing a plan may prove to be the most difficult aspect in developing successful social media outlets. A list of tasks for planning your business' social media strategy should include the following:

Clarify your business' social media goals

Examples of social media goals could be raising awareness of your business' brand, increasing web traffic, increasing brand loyalty, increasing the rate of customers talking about your business through social media, increasing your business' web presence, etc.

Develop your content strategy

Developing your content strategy helps accommodate and evaluate business and customer demands. When you can distinguish between business needs and customer needs, you can find which direction you want to go with your content. So where do you start? First of all, it''s important to post content that will engage your audience.

In other words, don't just post about your business; post content that is relevant to your target audience. In your strategy, you should outline a time frame for how much time should be dedicated to each social media site. The best way to do that is to plan out your posts ahead of time. Work with a team to gather your resources and decide the best time to publish your content. It may be helpful to draft an editorial calendar. Once you narrow down the timing, it's time to draft some posts. If you're a small business owner, you won't always have time to write Facebook posts or tweets on the fly. Fortunately, there are ways to save time. One to manage future posts is through social media management tools like HootSuite.

Social Media Strategy and the Importance of Social Media Analytics 

Social Media and Growing Businesses

Online Users Are Using Social Media Now More Than Ever

Why is this important to growing businesses? 

For starters, social media helps get the word out about your business and helps enhance your credibility. What's even more significant is that social media helps build a concrete relationship with the business and its target audience. In order to form and sustain a concrete relationship with your target audience, your business must give the audience a reason to care about the content you post. Your audience will respond better if you talk with them, not at them.

More than 73 percent of small business owners are using social media sites. How are they using these platforms? For the most part, their goals are to expand brand awareness, establish trust, increase website traffic, give their business a unique identity and to communicate and interact with their audience.

Social media can enhance a business in a way that other marketing strategies can't.

Other media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest also give businesses a chance to reach new audiences. With hundreds of millions of eyes glued to a computer or mobile screen, why not utilize social media marketing? In a digital world, small business owners should consider focusing their marketing dollars to inbound marketing rather than outbound marketing.


Basic Tips for Social Media Success