Social Media? Prepare Yourself for the Chaos

26, Jun. 2012

Like many other social media addicts out there, I share the same passion for being online and connecting to hundreds and thousands of people from different cultures, backgrounds and professions through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc… I consider myself lucky because when I first started dabbling into the social media world, there wasn’t too many options to choose from and I only had to familiarize myself with a few popular channels. The land of social media was still predominantly empty and there was a lot of room left for the medium to grow. My main concern back then was figuring out how to best disseminate news postings in order to reach and engage the most people.

I came across a tweet from my twitter stream, which led me to this infographic,from SlideShare, that illustrates the present social media landscape:

For the last 3 years, without even realizing it, social media has become a jungle around all of us. New channels, new tools and new apps that promise the easiest and more convenient access and interaction appear left and right. Today, there are literally hundreds of choices to choose from which makes it immensely difficult for someone who is just starting out or for a company/brand just realizing the importance of a strong social media presence for maintaining and growing their business and deciding to join the game. How will they go about this? My advice would be go talk to an adviser who has been and is still actively involved in the social media field. They will help you simplify the chaos and clear out the confusion – get the help you need to do it right! This will help you avoid the frustration of wasting your time and resources trying to understand the complicated social media landscape, which could eventually discourage you from utilizing valuable social media platforms altogether. As complicated as it is right now, and likely even more so in the future, social media is and will be the #1 vehicle for the consumer engagement with your products and services.