It’s after 8:15 PM, and I break with convention.
I’ve been posting articles for One Woman’s View, and I have converted my beloved to the charms of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Its been a gradual process updating my husband with the ingenues of social media and I’m used to the tongue in cheek comments like “when’s the next big deal going to happen” to the sarcasm of “don’t you have anything better to do”, all you seem to do is tweet, my personal favourite, connect on LinkedIn or “like” on Facebook.
I am quietly soliciting my obsession.
Social media can be empowering, but it is also overwhelming.
It’s empowering.
The importance of social media and personal branding cannot be underestimated.
In the UK, there are over 4,000,000 users on LinkedIn, 10,000,000 tweeters on Twitter and a further 26,000,000 and counting Facebook users; almost half of the population of the UK.
This means businesses can’t afford to ignore its effects.
The social media explosion is here; it’s happening whether you want to be a part of it or not, and businesses have to embrace what it can do for their brand.
Failure to do so could mean that in less than five years, the brand or company will be obsolete.
SMEs to large organisations appreciate the benefits of social media.
As the incumbent CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai says,
If you’re not on Google you don’t exist
Online marketing and social media are bewildering especially when you start on the quest for “likes”, “links” and “connections” but it is compelling and is highly addictive.
The quest for wanting fame and acknowledgement is overwhelming.
Social media beckons with her articles of interest and ambiguity, frivolous and misleading headlines designed to reel you in.
Social media piques your curiosity and desire.
You don’t need a good book to read, you can find it on social media.
Which brings me back to my enduring love affair with my best friend beginning with a small “i”.
You see, I find myself reaching for it as soon as I open my eyes in the morning.
And it’s the last thing I say good night to, it never answers back and it’s always on.
When bouts of insomnia strike I find myself at it again at 3 am.
I sneak to the bathroom with my ‘i’ friend instead of a magazine; it can be found in the kitchen craftily hidden behind my recipe book as I pretend to read whilst really checking in to see what’s going on in my online world.
I’ve got it bad; I’m bitten by the SM bug, that’s SOCIAL MEDIA by the way, not some other well-known acronym!
Recently on my Facebook page, I updated my status as follows ‘you can turn off your iPad, but you can’t switch off your husband’.
It’s true.
But until such times as the current CEO of Apple and others invent an on/off switch for husbands’ my iPad is staying well and truly on!
