Social Media for Younger Members and New Generations BEN BURGER

Social Media is Changing  On the side of my bag of chips at Moe’s I saw an ad saying, “Don’t be antisocial, follow Moe’s on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr.”  The definition of being “Social” is changing in the minds of younger people  Therefore it is necessary to use social media to reach out to new generations  Similarly, the forms of social media are changing quickly and it is sometimes difficult to keep up

Forms of Social Media  Facebook  Twitter  Instagram  Snapchat  LinkedIn  YouTube  Reddit  Blogs

Social Media Statistics  89% of people ages use social media, according to the Pew Research Center, compared with 82% of people ages and 65% of people ages  The national percentage is 74% of all internet users use social media, with 71% of all internet users using Facebook  There is a large drop off to the next most popular social network which is LinkedIn with 28%  Twitter is at 23%, with 46% of Twitter users tweeting at least once a day

Comparing the Different Social Media sites  Facebook is known as being one of the originators of Social Networking since its creation in 2004  Twitter was created in 2006 and quickly caught on because of its simplicity and lack of censorship, Instagram quickly followed  LinkedIn was actually created in 2003 before Facebook but has created its own unique audience in the business world  Recently Reddit has surpassed blogs and Tumblr as the most popular way to share news and post in a blog format, while YouTube continues to be the premier way to share videos  Snapchat has recently arose as a way for friends to share pictures quickly, sometimes replacing texts and calls with the sharing of “selfies”

Most Used/Useful Features of Each Site  Facebook  Home Page  Profiles  Pages  Groups  Messages  Twitter  Personal accounts vs. Group accounts  LinkedIn  Similar features as Facebook but geared towards jobs and professionalism  I will mainly focus on these aspects of Social Media

How I (A Young Person) Use the Home Page  Most people have a routine when scanning though their Facebook home page  First I will check to see if I have any new friend requests, check my messages, and check my notifications  I will also check the groups I am a part  I will look at the Trending section  Lastly I scroll down my news feed

Facebook Profile  When you sign up for Facebook, you will create a profile in which you will share personal information, pictures, posts, links, and whatever else you would like  This is the main page that people will look at if they would like to learn information about you  It also contains a record of every single thing you have ever posted on Facebook, so be careful about what you post

How I Use My Profile  This is where young people will manage how they are seen by their friends, including pictures, posts, likes, and links  I can use privacy settings to set how much information about me that people can see  Basically I will make decisions about what to post, like, share, and tag myself in based on how it will look on my Facebook profile in order to stay both cool and professional at the same time

Facebook Pages  Instead of posting from a personal profile, you can create a Facebook page to promote your group or organization  Very similar functions to a Profile but represents a organization instead of an individual person  Information and posts by the organization gives them a stronger presence on social media

How I Use Facebook Pages  I will look at Facebook Pages to learn information about the Organization  By Liking the page, I will get all of that page’s posts sent to my home page news feed  The pages that I like are also seen on my Profile, so I need to be careful about which pages I Like  It is important to make a Facebook Page for your organization so that you will be tagged in posts, which will allow more people to be exposed to the group

Facebook Groups  A Facebook Group is the best way to bring together people who have a common interest  This is very good for planning events, keeping groups of people informed about topics, and keeping in touch with a group of old friends  Groups are a way to narrow the audience to whom you are posting, as only the members of the group will see that post

How I Use Facebook Groups  I think Facebook groups are one of the most useful features of Facebook due to their versatility  I have used them for coordinating RYLA, scheduling times to hang out with friends, and planning surprise birthday parties  Share info, pictures, ideas with only specific people  Different privacy settings make it possible to make the group public, private, or secret

Facebook Messages  These are very similar to a text message, as your messages are only sent to one or more people  Convenient for contacting someone with information that is private of nature and not appropriate to post on someone’s wall for everyone to see

How I Use Facebook Messages  Facebook Messages are a convenient way to contact someone with information that is private  I will use this to talk to someone who is may Facebook friend but I might not have their cell phone number to text them  Group messages are also very convenient on Facebook  I use them to coordinate group projects, gather friends, and other ways that would not quite require a Facebook Group

Twitter Personal Accounts Vs. Group Accounts  Similar to Facebook, Twitter is split up into personal and group accounts  Instead of having Friends like on Facebook, Twitter users have Followers  Personal accounts can follow group accounts and group accounts can also follow personal accounts  Despite there being a limit of 140 characters per tweet, it is also very easy to promote a group or organization on Twitter, especially by using pictures

How I Use Twitter  Most young people use Twitter as a more informal social media in which they are able to tweet what they want  Thus in the news you see many cases of people not thinking before tweeting and later regretting it  Twitter relies on “Favoriting” and “Retweeting” other people’s tweets  A popular twitter group account is one whose tweets are Favorited and Retweeted by its followers in order that other people see their posts

LinkedIn  LinkedIn is not as popular among teenagers, especially high school and early college students but becomes increasingly more popular as people are trying to find jobs  It is rarely used as a way to communicate with friends, but more as a way to bolster a resume and make connections with potential employers  The layout of the site is much more based on promoting personal information as opposed to posting statuses  Profiles include work experience, education, honors and awards, certifications, volunteer work, and skills

Bringing it all Together- Why you need to be on social media  Every young person will use social media slightly differently, with different preferences and posting rates but practically everyone under 30 will use some kind of social media everyday  Especially with the rise of smartphones, social media is only going to gain popularity in the future  Many young people are becoming more comfortable communicating with their thumbs than with their lips  Thus people need to create an online presence for themselves personally and for their businesses and organizations

How to Survive in the Changing Environment  Just reaching out to younger people in a social media that they understand will be a success because they will get the information in a way they are more familiar with and understand it better  Giving it your best shot will go a long way  Although they will be reluctant to admit it, most young people are just as confused with the changing social media environment as you are  Young people will be very forgiving if you make a mistake on social media, as trial and error is the best way to learn

Closing  If you ask a student today, they will tell you that Facebook is on the decline and will be obsolete in a few years, yet the next big social media site most likely has not been invented yet  Social Media will be constantly evolving and will forever be evolving