Getting Social About Social Media

For digital marketing professionals to make the most of social media, it’s important to understand the way it is currently perceived as well as its potential per the following insights.

“Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service to community.” Simon Mainwaring

“Social media is called social media for a reason. It lends itself to sharing rather than horn-tooting.” Margaret Atwood

“Being effective at social media, whether for business or personal use, means capturing people who have short attention spans. They’re only a click away from a picture of a funny cat, so you have to make your thing more compelling than that cat. And that can be a high bar.” Alexis Ohanian

“It’s fine to have social media that connects us with old friends, but we need tools that help us discover new people as well.” Ethan Zuckerman

“Social media is itself as temporary as any social gathering, nightclub or party. It’s the people that matter, not the venue. So when the trend leaders of one social niche or another decide the place everyone is socializing has lost its luster or, more important, its exclusivity, they move on to the next one, taking their followers with them.” Douglas Rushkoff

“Like all technology, social media is neutral but is best put to work in the service of building a better world.” Simon Mainwaring

“Human relationships used to be easy: you had friends, boy- or girlfriends, parents, children, and landlords. Now, thanks to social media, it’s all gone sideways.” Susan Orlean

“With the evolution of social media that includes blogging, Facebook, and Twitter, who and how information is delivered has changed tremendously. The landscape for news is a different place, and people have to accept that.” Michael Eric Dyson

“Very few people use landline phones for much of anything. So when you talk about things like online chat and social media messages and emails, what you’re really talking about is the full extent of human communication.” Glenn Greenwald

“It’s a dialogue, not a monologue, and some people don’t understand that. Social media is more like a telephone than a television.” Amy Jo Martin