I think at this point for me, social media is just about keeping up with my friends and family and also keeping up with the news. When I first joined social media in high school I was just like everyone else and really was all about posting and getting likes but slowly that started get less and less interested by it.I think looking into the future, social media is going to keep taking over. It already really runs society so I can’t really imagine it slowing down anytime soon. We also see how big of an impact it already has in the business world so I can only assume that it will continue to be this powerful moving forward. When I look 5 years ahead I really am not sure just how much I will be using social media. I would assume that I would use it the same way that I do now. I will mainly use it for news and entertainment but will post occasionally.

When we think of marketing and specifically target marketing we often think of the prototypical business. What we often don’t think of is college’s and university’s using target marketing in their own way. Stonehill is no different, as they use target marketing to attract potential students and their families. Stonehill like any other college would target high school students who are mainly juniors or seniors as this is the age where people begin to think about where they will be going to college. They target these students mainly through things like emails, college fairs at schools, or through social media. When they do so their message is is simple. They try to convince you that Stonehill is the best fit for you and include images and information to back their claims up. Stonehill like all other colleges also makes sure to keep in constant contact with their potential students to show that they really want them to come to Stonehill and that they really care about you. For the most part it seems like Stonehill is pretty successful in their attempts to lure students to the school as the number of incoming freshman seems to be on the rise from year to year.

If you hail from New England and don’t know who Tom Brady is (no offense) but you are living under a rock. Tom Brady is the quarterback of the New England Patriots and is considered by many as the greatest quarterback to ever play the game of football. Brady has multiple MVP’s, countless AFC championships, and SIX Super Bowl trophies and counting. With all of this success, Brady has kept a level head and until a few years ago couldn’t be found on any social media sites. When he finally joined Instagram and later Twitter and Facebook, the sports world started to freak out.

As far as what Brady uses his social media for, he uses them for very normal reasons. Looking over his posts, he is either posting about his family, his team/teammates, or his own personal business called the TB12 Method. While Brady is often seen as an approachable and nice guy, he rarely interacts with fans on his social media sites. He commits to either his family or his job which is pretty commendable. While Tom Brady will always be remembered for his play on the field, Brady wants to remembered as more than that. He wants to be seen as a winner on the field and the ultimate family man off the field.If you ask me, so far he has been extremely successful at both.

Relationships are how the entire human race stay together and function. Without relationships, what do we really have. Relationships of all kinds surround us whether than be relationships with family, with friends, or with strangers. An important relationship we all have and may not always recognize, is our relationships with certain brands. While we may not always be conscious of these relationships, the brands need to be aware and engage in these relationships in order to have any sort of long term success. So how do these brands engage with their consumers? There are plenty of things they can do, but some of the more common practices could include, interacting with consumers on social media, following up with consumers after a purchase, asking consumers how their experience with the brand was, etc. By doing this, these brands help create loyal customers that will want to return and do more business. Making a consumer feel important and as if the brand truly cares about their likes,issues, and dislikes creates strong relationships that ultimately help both parties. While brands use social networking communities to build relationships with consumers, they also use these networks as a means of promoting themselves and brand themselves. As a brand, keeping your name in the minds of consumers proves to be useful as consumers will be able to remember you and maybe later engage with you. In today’s society everyone finds themselves on social media so for a brand, having consistent posts and engaging with other brands or consumers proves to be important because so many different people will be able to see it. So, keeping your name out there for people to see will usually translate to success for most brands.

Today’s generation relies heavily on interactions and likes. This was highlighted in the Frontline documentary “Generation Like”. Now more than ever, likes are generating many different types of fame, fortune, or viral content. People find comfort in how many likes they get, people rely on how many likes you get, and people are always striving to get more likes. Why do we do this though? Some do it for personal satisfaction, but in a case like Tyler Oakley, it can lead to a career. This documentary was able to show that now more than ever, social media has allowed interaction with all sorts of people. You can tweet your favorite celebrity, you can be a franchise’s number one fan, or you can just engage with friends and hope the likes are enough to keep you happy.

These social consumers also pose some problems for marketers in the world today. Marketers have to do a lot of extra work in order to make sure they are building strong social media relationships with their customers. Additionally there has to be a follow up to make sure their customers are satisfied. Social consumers are now able to do more research than ever before buying or interacting with products so it is important for companies to make sure their product looks great and have answers for any and every sort of issue that could arise. Overall, while social consumers do give companies some problems, for the most part the information companies are gathering from these social consumers is too crucial to pass up on.

Human relationships are very important for societies to function properly. This is why social media is important as it can help keep relationships no matter where a person may be. Your best friend may move far away from you, but today you can still keep that relationship by following up on them through Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram. However, I feel that today social media is not really used for that reason. Instead, it is all about how many followers you have and then how many likes you may get on a post. While many people worry about such I thing, I have never worried about how many followers I have or how many likes I get on a post. I follow people for a reason. I follow people that I know and in most cases have a relationship with. I feel as if people online look for very weak relationships as their followers are only their followers so the number gets higher. There is no real relationship between the two other than the fact that they now have a higher follower count. For me personally as I stated before, I follow someone online because I have some sort of relationship with them and having that relationship online ultimately makes our face to face relationship stronger. I can see what they are up and use it in conversation to really catch up with them. Overall, online relationships today really don’t mean much to most people which is sort of scary to think about. Instead of having meaningful relationships people would rather have a strong following which ultimately can hurt real face to face relationships.

Social Media is a great luxury that many people enjoy using every day. What people sometimes don’t notice however, is how much time can be eaten up using these social media outlets. I am no exception as I use Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter daily. Usually when I wake up in the morning I will answer any messages I have and then go right into social media to catch up on what I missed throughout the night. However, as far as my posts they are scarce and usually only include pictures and engagements with friends. Of the three outlets I am a member of, I find myself most engaged in Instagram as I’m sure many other people are as well. Ultimately, I really try to spend minimal time on social media as I have noticed in the past that it can really eat up a good amount of my day. While I do love being engaged on social media and really do enjoy digital life, I don’t want social media to run my life.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton