Being in the social media game has some definite advantages, and some absolute disadvantages. The advantages include getting to write for a living, obtaining and recalling odd knowledge about a multitude of different subjects, and having the inside track on what’s happening in the social media universe. The disadvantages are almost the exact same items as the advantages, as I’m constantly forced to detail exactly what I do for a living and I’m also expected to know the definition of everything regarding social media, which brings me to the top five social media mysteries, or the words that you don’t understand.
Hashtags are the number one question I get when people want to know what I do for a living. What are they? What are they for? What purpose do they serve? There’s a long answer, and a short answer, so I’ll spare readers the lengthy and verbose description and jump right to the short answer. They work as identifiers; they identify common interests, the help when searching for a certain theme, and they can find people that have a shared location. For instance, when I search #StephenKing, I am able to find people that are reading a current novel, people that have met him, and people that also enjoy his work. Hashtags are essentially a mini search engine that only returns very specific results.
What is trending? This is one of my favorite questions to answer, because people often believe that the answer will be a great deal more complicated than it actually is. Trending is exactly what it sounds like it is; what topics are the most popular on the internet at a certain time. During different times of the day, different topics will trend, and that is the basic way of telling us what is important to social media surfers that day. Trending is a great way for a social media manager to gauge what is happening, and what people are interested in.
Twitter is much more misunderstood than other social media mediums like Facebook. Tweets, retweets, DMs, and Favorites are all part of the Twitter vernacular, but many people have no idea what they mean. A tweet is the content you send out on Twitter, a retweet is when someone shares what you’re saying because they like it that much, a DM is a direct message or a message on Twitter that no one else can see, and a Favorite is when someone decides that your content is something they like a lot. The Twitter dictionary isn’t difficult once you get the hang of things, but it can be complex at first, especially for the novice user.
Each social media channel has its own way of defining the friend making process. For instance, with LinkedIn, you make a connection while on Facebook you’re making a friend. On Twitter, you gain followers. It’s all an individualization technique, but they basically all mean the same thing. Just as in real life we make pals, acquaintances, buddies, and friends, the same goes for social media. It’s not all that complicated when it is stripped down into plain terms. A friend is a connection is a follower.
How many times have social media managers been approached and asked to create a viral video? This goes to show that many people don’t understand the meaning of the word viral when used in conjunction with a YouTube hit. Viral, like a virus, means it spreads without a tremendous amount of effort on the part of the video generator. Typically, a viral video is one that one person catches onto, and then starts spreading around, making it “go viral”. Viral isn’t something we can make happen, it is an organic progression that we have no control over. The best advice to make something go viral is to do something no one else is doing, but in which people are interested.
Social media is a complicated business to be in, at the same time that it is incredibly simple. Once you get the knack for the terminology and how to choose the best channels, social media irons itself out. The terms become easier to understand, and actually begin to make sense when taken in the context for which they are intended. However, if you’re a new user, social media can be a lot to handle and a lot to absorb. With a patient teacher, social media is easy to master. I try not to make it too easy though, as I require some sense of job security.
