Social Media in the Workplace

As we all know, social media has increased in usage throughout the years. This is because there are so many benefits to using social media. A social media app I like and am going to use as an example is Instagram. Instagram allows for you to promote yourself or your business and socialize with people at the same time. This is what most social media apps do today. Which is why they are so prevalent in our communities. In this week’s blog we are going to talk about the benefits of social media in the workplace, the different mediums of social media like Instagram and how to take advantage of what social media has to offer.

Promotion

While Instagram is a pretty cool social media platform, there are many other platforms as well. To list some, there is Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. Each app has many different features, but the one thing they all have in common is allowing people to connect with one another and promote parts of their life. This is a huge support to businesses and organizations alike. If a business were to use these platforms to promote themselves, they have already put themselves at an advantage. These platforms not only allow businesses to extend their resources and meet new potential customers, but they also may provide another source of income.

 

Audience

The best way to take advantage of these awesome apps and platforms is to start small and grow big on one platform. What I mean by this is build a following. Start off with occasional posts that promote you or your business on that platform. Then, while also making your posts welcoming or relatable to others, follow other people. Following other people can start a new relationship between you and that person or business which can lead to benefits in the long run. In simpler terms, it allows you to branch out. Also, following others encourages them to follow you. This helps to build your following just as much as theirs. After all of that, start branching out. Start exploring different platforms and see if they fit into your business and how you run things. If you can make the time for it, I suggest you do it. Having multiple platforms to promote your business increases the chances of someone hearing about it.

Negative Use

While we have all of these spectacular benefits of using social media, there are a few negatives as well. The main two being copyright infringement and negativity. When you post products or personal ideas for yourself or your business, you run the risk of someone stealing your work or saying something negative about it. This risk is always a factor of using social media, but it can have a big impact on you or your business. In my opinion, I believe the good of using social media outweighs the bad even though there is definitely some bad.

 

So, are you going to use social media? If so, make sure to remember the positive and negative side of things. Get out there and support yourself!

Guest Blogger: Gabe Alvarado