Social media is a new trend in the current world order that should readily be embraced by individuals it has positively altered the forms in which people interact, connect and share information globally in our daily lives. It is a channel that has granted many business entrepreneurs a chance to nature their businesses, a universal tool allowing individuals to communicate efficiently and quickly, a conducive place for expression, and identity theft as well as catfishing. While it has faced a lot of absurdities and pitfalls, this is unnecessarily true.
Social media provides a powerful strategy for business growth and enhancement. Most businesses integrate social media platform, for instance, Facebook and Twitter to attract website traffic, create awareness about the products that they are dealing with, increased customer engagement, and maintain the brand of the organization. Statistics show that social media integration boosts the business’ lead conversions rates to 13% or higher corresponding to the average lead conversion rates. Consequently, access to universal markets, research, increased sales, instant client feedbacks, telemarketing, and trade shows are likely to be initiated using social media channels. However, this requires most entrepreneurs to deploy specific social media strategies and daily monitoring operations which, if not appropriately considered, it can lead to cyberbullying, fraud, and decreased business benefits.
It provides an opportunity for individuals to communicate easily and quickly. Nowadays, relatives and friends, no matter how far they are, they are closely connected with enhanced social media channels. Furthermore, we effortlessly meet various friends and people, know the current trends, update, and news globally at a swift rate. For instance, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provides a channel whereby one can share pictures and updates about his or her current trends to others. Moreover, we can be able to chat, and video calls our long distance friends and relatives from the comfort of our homes. Though social media makes communication convenient, its frequent usage leaves cyber footprints without our realization, and consequently, our privacy is subjected to risks.
Channels of social media provide individuals an opportunity to express themselves. Myriads of people have deviated their interest in social life, where they express themselves in a way that they can easily be recognized worldwide. Social media provides a channel for one to express themselves and provide insights into their situations freely. This results in the universal recognition of a particular individual and makes it possible for them to attract necessary attention to potential followers, which will always follow up someone’s trends. This freedom of expression of social media made most of the individuals to be celebrities while providing a public space for them seek for global attention. However, this can result in unnecessary cyberbullying.
Finally, social media enhances identity theft as well as catfishing by providing necessary aid for crimes identification and reporting. For instance, police departments like NYPD have embraced the use of social media to examine crimes. Over the recent past, NYPD was able to catch sixty criminals that were boasting of their Illegal activities in social media. Furthermore, most states in the USA police department also use the social media to track drunk drivers who bragged publicly while it allowed for the patriotic individuals to report any illegal practices and crimes occurring at a particular place. However, despite this advantages, most of the criminals use the same social media platforms to plan for their illegal activities, for instance, cybercrimes, fraud, and cyberbullying.
Therefore, social media is an effective tool for enhancing business marketing, communication, individual’s expression, and criminal identification, and as a result, it should not only be incorporated but also be accepted in various aspects within the world. As long as we yearn to leave the world to a better place, we must embrace social media and utilize it with the correct purpose to achieve the best from it.
