How long will this revolution last?

Is Social Media a fad? 

The semester is almost over and I feel that I have learned a lot in this class and I am very happy that I have taken it.  Even with everything I have learned, I can't help but ask myself one question...It's obvious what a power Social Media is, but will it be around in ten years?  

Personally, I do not think Social Media is a fad.  Half a billion people utilize some form of Social Media which is an insane amount of people.  However, I do not think it will be as popular or as powerful as it is now.  Lots of things will change in the next ten years, and I'm sure there will be another revolution in communication.

Be Careful what you post...

With the slow economy and the unemployment rate hovering at 9.6%, todays job market is tougher than ever.  Its more important than ever to monitor what is on your social media pages, i.e. Twitter, FaceBook, Blogs, and MySpace.  I used to think that I could just post whatever on my pages and tag myself in all sorts of pictures.  But the older I get, I fully realize how clean my pages must be, because I know that employers will be checking it out.

Most potential employers and employers check out their employee's social media pages on a regular basis.  In fact, according to CNN, a girl was fired from her job a few weeks ago for talking trash about her boss.  Honestly i'm not sure what to think about this.  On one hand I think that freedom of speech should be respected, but on the other hand, if you are stupid enough to post negative things about your boss on FaceBook then you probably deserve to be fired.  Listed below are some tips that I found online to keep yourself protected at work:

1.) Think before you post.
2.) Be picky about who you friend.
3.) Use social media on your own time, not at work.
4.) Be careful what you post at home.
5.) Use Privacy settings
6.) Utilize employee rights.
7.) Keep the dialogue positive.

Article on Social Media and Work
Another article on Social Media and Work

Spredfast: A company that offers Social Media Management

I'd say on average I spend between 15-30 minutes a day managing or just looking at my Face Book account, my favorite message board, Linkedin account, or my Blog.  I think this is way too much time, and I can't even begin to imagine how much time some people must spend if they are really into Twitter and location based networking on top of the others I listed.  I've realized that it just takes a lot of time to manage all your accounts and to keep them from being static.  I figured there must be some company that offers a social media management product that can streamline all your pages....

Thats when I stumbled accross Spredfast.  Spredfast is just what I was looking for, a company that will take care of all your social media platforms, and to streamline the communication that comes from it.  According to their website, "Spredfast is an enterprise-class solution that empowers your company or organization to communicate across all of your social media channels, measure the effectiveness of each conversation, and prove the value of social media." .  They also offer ways to assign adminstrators to each platform and to manage multiple product initiatives at once. 

I think this is a great idea that more companies should look at.  However, I do think that if all companies used a service like that, then perhaps they will not hire as many social media type workers, which doesn't help the job market.  Does anyone really see any cons to using a service like this if you owned business that has multiple social media platforms? 

Example of the Spredfast Interface

Example of managing different platforms using Spredfast....

Is there too much Social Media?

Today it seems like almost everyone is using some sort of Social Media platform.  FaceBook has over 500 million users and there are millions of "tweets" sent everyday.  One thing that confuses me is why every business thinks they need to have a FaceBook page.  It seems like every resturant or business I walk into, there is a sign in the place that says "Friend Us" or "Find us on FaceBook".  I just don't see the benefit in some companies having social media as part of their marketing strategy.  Sure its cheap and all, but why would I want to friend State Farm insurance on FaceBook which is what many signs told me to do the other day when I was in there office?

I think too many companies are just using social media because it is the popular thing to do.  They make their pages, and then the employees forget to upkeep them and they become static pages very quickly that are worthless.  For example, the other day in Mr. Hall's class we took a field trip to Southern Foods.  Southern Foods is a regional food distributor and they talked at lenght about their new FaceBook page and their quest to find more followers.  Why would a company such as this, who claims only 20% of their business comes from online orders, need a FaceBook page?  Can anyone give me examples of companies in Bowling Green who have greatly benefited from a FaceBook page?