Zen of Social Media

‘The Zen of Social Media’ by Shama Hyder Kabani

The book was about understanding how people think when it comes to using social media, and then using it to your own gain. It said you should “alter your own attitude and how you market’, and then you’ll sure to succeed. It’s described as an effortless job, just gather a lot of people and go with the flow it says. I think that that part was right, because in this day and age, we there is always that competition (it may not be real, but it’s there) about who had the most followers, or who has the most friends, etc, and this kind of thinking puts you on top. If you think about it, the more people you connect with, the more you’re exposed to, and the more you know about how to spread things.

The good thing about social media is that it’s fast and easy. Before you’d tell a person or two about how awesome something is, and hopefully word would get around without any response on how they felt. But now it has become a whole new world, where people can find a Facebook or Twitter or blog page on practically anything, read about it, and comment. It gathers more customers, keeps them informed, and allows you to improve you product by their feedback (faster too). Also now, people have changed, and since then, you locating your demographic isn’t a one-way street, it’s many streets; streets that you can target at once, instead of searching one by one. I liked how it said that we are “savvier”, because we are. We don’t believe everything the TV tells us anymore. There are ways out there to get the truth, and we will goo far to get it.

I personally love the traditional media; it helps me have a ‘more natural’ grasp on things because it was physically there, or maybe having no control over it, made me feel I had control over it. With everything going online, I felt that the traditional stuff would be extinguished, but then again it was just a feeling. It’s has now become a vicious cycle of radio spots and direct mail leading you to Facebook or blog spots. They’ve added more to the torture, just in a more organized way.

Social media is ‘online platforms where people connect and communicate’. Examples are blogs and social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube).
The point is to create a conversation with the consumers, not ‘a monologue’.
Why Social Media? Because it’s where the people are at, ALL the time. With cell phones have Internet now, almost everyone can and definitely will access their favorite social networking site, or blog, etc. Secondly, no one trusts advertising anymore, but we trust our friends. If you treat us badly, we’ll treat you badly. It’s as simple as that. Third, join the conversation. People are bound to talk about products, it’s kind of a automatic thing, so the best thing for us to do, is add your comments.

I liked the “respect people online”. You wouldn’t want someone bugging you in real life about a business, let alone flooding you’re feed. Show some respect, and don’t spam, randomly add people, and respect their ‘virtual space’. There was something about not treating everything as a ‘shiny toy’. So like don’t grab at every opportunity, it may not work out. Research and learn, then move forward. I kind of don’t agree with using your real name. It said that people prefer to talk to someone real, they want to be able to connect with a specific person. Myself personally, I don’t care if I’m talking to Apple or John Smith, if either one screw up, it’s both that take the blame. And using your real name really puts the pressure on doesn’t it? And whose to say that you’re the only using that account? It could be a company deal working under your name. Yikes. I’m just saying. Also it’s true about being ‘proactive’. You shouldn’t wait and see what the sites do for you, because only you yourself can take action. Setting up an account is one thing, but you’re not going to create conversations, and connect with people, then what’s the point?

There is a lot more to this book, and I advise you to read it. This was but the first three chapters, and it had some really interesting stuff/facts about social media, and how it can help you/your product/company/etc. All in all, it was really interesting ans insightful. Although at times I did not agree, it’s really about trying things out, because we all learn from the things we do or don’t do.