The impacts of social media can be seen in nearly every aspect of human interaction, from interpersonal communication, to how we think and act — even in the ways we do business.
“It’s affected everything,” Sinclair Community College Marketing Professor Kevin Stephens said.
In the past, Stephens worked for Cox Media and others maintaining interactive media websites. He said business and marketing tactics have changed completely since the introduction of social media.
“We’re at a point where everybody involved in marketing knows they’re supposed to be using social media, but the majority don’t really know what they’re supposed to be doing with it,” he said.
In the rush to join the new marketing trends of the digital age, Stephens said only businesses with clear marketing objectives will know whether social media is working for them or not.
“Are they trying to build awareness, generate leads, interact with customers or what? The answer should depend on an organizations particular marketing challenges,” he said.
In recent years, many businesses have found profitable ways to interact with new audiences through social media. Stephens mentioned companies like Doritos, Heinz Ketchup and Converse, who have all had success encouraging customers to create their own ads and share them through Facebook, Intagram or Vine.
“Eliciting user-generated content is a great way to leverage the internet in general, and social media in particular,” he said.
Other companies like Panera Bread have found more direct ways of using social media to interact with their customers.
“A few months ago, I tweeted about how good my sandwich was at Panera,” Amanda Beers, a business major at Sinclair said. “A few days later they tweeted me back, thanking me for the compliment and giving me a gift card.”
Beers then took a screenshot of the replied tweet and posted the picture on her Instagram account.
“I wanted to show it off,” she said. “It was just so cool.”
According to Stephens, this is exactly what modern marketing is aiming to do.
“They might have paid only $20 for that gift card, but the buzz created by everyone who saw it on Twitter and Instagram more than pays for itself,” he said.
Stephens acknowledged that social media can be an effective marketing tool in the hands of smaller businesses as well.
Former Sinclair student Mallory Landis, who started her own photography business last year, said social networking has helped her expand her business by reaching more clients.
“Just by tagging someone in a picture using Facebook, it shows up to most of their friends and sometimes friends of their friends,” Landis said in an email interview. “I typically get more people interested that way.”
She said one post could expose her photography to hundreds, sometimes thousands of people, giving her a wider audience — bettering her chances of finding new work.
“The key to growing my business through social media has kind of differed between what social media I’m using,” she said. “For example, using proper hashtags on my work when I post onto Instagram, so that way other people interested can find it; with Facebook, tagging the person in the photo so that person’s friends can see it as well.”
Although Landis is a believer in social media, she still finds it frustrating when Facebook prompts her to pay to reach more people. According to her, Facebook limits how many people her posts can reach.
“Social media hasn’t harmed my business in any way, but I still think the good ol’ word of mouth advertising can be the best — especially for starting out,” she said.
According to Stephens, the level of interaction made possible through social media can be an effective tool not just to businesses, but to grass-root organizations, bands, individuals, even schools and colleges. Sinclair itself engages with students and the community through social media on a daily basis.
“It plays a big part in reaching out to students in engaging ways, from a college-atmosphere standpoint,” Sinclair’s Social Media Specialist said. “Anything from events, to dates, to funny stuff happening around campus, just to engage [or] get messages out that maybe they wouldn’t have seen otherwise.”
However, the specialist finds that there are frustrating aspects as well.
“We get complaints about stuff that we can’t necessarily handle, so it’s hard to hand that off to other people,” the specialist said. “It does allow us to give a little more personal customer service, but it seems that people [over-share] information.”
The specialist said it’s important for students not to share personal information online such as their financial aid details, and added that Sinclair is also careful about what they post.
“We get a lot of requests from outside businesses, but we really try to keep it [focused on] Sinclair,” the specialist said. “We try to stay away from posting individual department [or student group] stuff, because then it’s like if we post one, do we post them all? We don’t want to exclude anyone … it might leave some people feeling left out, but that’s not the goal — it’s actually to include everyone.”
The specialist wishes their identity to remain anonymous so students feel they are connecting with Sinclair, instead of an individual.
On another level, the effects of Social Media have gone beyond the changes seen in business and public relations, influencing how people interact and communicate.
Whether someone is “liked” has taken on new meaning in the year 2014. Generation Y, those who range from the age of 18 to 32, have taken over the internet by using social media, often for their own personal benefit.
The numbers increase daily. The Huffington Post reports that there are 575 likes and 81 comments by users every second on Instagram alone.
Communication Faculty Member John Ulrich said students feel connected through social media because it enables an alternative outlet for emotions and interaction.
“I see this as a group who is not concerned about privacy anymore,” he said. “Now in this generation, people put their life on public display.”
The report by the Huffington Post agrees, adding that 25 percent of users on Facebook don’t bother with any kind of privacy control at all.
According to Psychology Professor Mark Humbert, the lack of privacy should be one of the biggest concerns to people today.
“A little privacy is needed for dignity and self-respect,” he said. “It may take a while for people to find a balance in how personal they get on sites like Facebook.”
Still, many agree that social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can be a useful tool in connecting people world wide, and can also serve as a benefit for those who may not be as skilled at traditional interaction.
“People who are not as adept to communicating face-to-face have an outlet now that they didn’t have before,” Ulrich said. “The downside is that we have become increasingly focused on creating an image of ourselves to put out into cyberspace, and for some people that’s not a good thing.”
He said individuals are now able to present their own ideal image of themselves online through social media by carefully constructing what they say and how they appear, but in doing so, have become less accountable for their actions.
“People should really start thinking about this a little more, and the implications,” he said. “I think it is hurting this next generation because they don’t know how to constructively deal with conflict.”
Many are concerned that Generation Y, or the “generation like,” is one seemingly absorbed with creating this image and the status gained in doing so, whether it be through likes on Facebook, pictures on Instagram or getting retweeted on Twitter.
“You can get into this environment and become dependent upon the responses that you get from other people,” Ulrich said. “Is the culture as a whole becoming too narcissistic? Are we thinking too much about our [physical appearance], and not thinking enough about how we are interacting with other people and the impact of those interactions?”
Humbert agrees, and said he also worries about the sense of alienation created through too much digital interaction.
“How do people cuddle on Facebook,” he said, “Is it through likes?”
Ulrich believes this system of “likes” that has become a social media norm is too simplified and no longer about true connection, but rather the instantaneous benefits.
“This is a sense of immediacy, and assuming that you’re as hooked as I am when I send a text or comment or like — if you immediately send it back, that’s instant gratification,” Ulrich said. “Our brain likes that. It’s immediate payoff for what you send.”
Nursing major Rachel Greene agrees, believing instant gratification received from using social media can feel almost addicting.
“If I post a picture on Instagram, I’m constantly checking to see who liked it,” she said. “I remember when I used my first hashtag and got more likes than usual, I thought I had found the ultimate secret.”
Social Media jargon like hashtag, retweet, newsfeed and selfies, among many others, are another aspect of social media that when used, help users feel part of the community.
“As technology has evolved, there are certain words that have evolved with it that are specific,” Ulrich said. “It shows that you are part of the co-culture — it’s your right of passage, or your way into the group.”
Although he admits many downsides still exist, Ulrich believes that we as a culture can adapt.
“If the people agree as to what is acceptable and correct, then maybe there will be some standards that will evolve and become the new norm,” he said.
In addition to certain standards becoming the norm, Ulrich believes that technology will continue to advance and benefit those who learn to use it correctly.
“There’s enormous possibility,” he said. “Technology has created a global sense of community [for us] to participate.”