Have you ever been interested in learn about social media as a communication tool for students? Or social media as an effective communication medium for starting and expanding a business? Are you looking to learn the ways do you use social media as a tool or medium for communication?
Social media can be used as an educational tool by students. But it is not just the classroom that benefits from this — businesses in all sectors are finding that social media is an excellent way to communicate with a wide customer base. And the great thing about social media as a communication tool is that it’s devolved into more of a medium for communication — which means that businesses can have real-time interaction with their customer base using social media channels.
Sprinklr And Spredfast
I’ve had the opportunity to use multiple enterprisewide social media management tools. Most recently, one I’ve found to be comprehensive and valuable is Sprinklr. Sprinklr has all the bells and whistles and allows you to listen, respond, manage assets, publish and report. It’s easy to collaborate among team members. Another tool, Spredfast, has similar capabilities. They are both great. – Lizzie Roscoe, Meraki.Social
Hootsuite
I am a complete fan of Hootsuite. I have found it meets my needs effectively for organizing multiple campaigns across every platform. I also like the prompted suggestions it provides for content as well as the monitoring features. However, being able to simply just click the owl when you organically find content online is key. – Cynthia Salarizadeh, KCSA Strategic Communications
Buffer
One of my favorite tools for managing social posts is Buffer. It’s lightweight yet contains some incredibly powerful features, and it works across platforms. It has a great mobile app that makes it easy to create and schedule content wherever and whenever inspiration strikes. Keeping a consistent cadence of content posted throughout the week takes less than an hour using Buffer. – Scott Schoeneberger, BlueWater Technologies Group, Inc.
Sprout Social
Our team really enjoys the experience of working with Sprout Social. Sprout provides all of the tools that have become table stakes in today’s environment—management of all mainstream social networks, ability to easily schedule and manage content, analytics support—in an easy-to-navigate interface. More importantly, their team has been incredibly responsive to and supportive of our specific needs. – Colby Reade, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
Clearview Social
It’s critical to have a tool that helps organizations spread and amplify messages on social media as well as track and quantify engagement. This has become a crowded space in marketing tech. Most solutions are offered by juggernauts, and few of these offer personal support and reasonable prices. Clearview Social is scrappy and dedicated, and their tool works. – Adam Giffi, Alexander Mann Solutions
Hubspot
We recently switched over to Hubspot for our social media management. As we were vetting tools for our email marketing, we realized the capability that Hubspot provides in connecting all of our channels was so valuable that we chose to move as many of our strategies as possible under one roof to better track our efforts and have all of our reporting in one place. – Maria Juan, Peerfit
MarketBeam
One of my favorite tools is MarketBeam. It allows me to manage multiple social media accounts (executives and employees), and each post can be randomized. This helps because I manage 200-plus people on the platform, as well as multiple groups. Also, there is a feature that enables me to customize a post per person without having to create separate posts. – Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brand and Buzz Marketing, LLC.
Here are the Factors which make social media so influential:
The colossal level of membership
Social media platforms are immensely popular and have absolutely colossal followings which continue to grow month on month:
- Facebook: 1.19 billion active users (10/30/13)
- YouTube: 1 billion active users (3/20/13)
- Google+: 343 million active users (1/26/13)
- Twitter: 215 million active users (10/3/13)
- LinkedIn: 259 million active users (10/29/13)
- Flickr: 87 million active users (3/20/13)
- Pinterest: 70 million active users (7/10/13)
It’s an excellent asset for businesses
More and more businesses are making use of social media as a tool to connect and engage directly with their clients and customers:
- 65% of small or local businesses stated that social media helped them keep connected with their customers.
- 50% of Facebook users under 35 were reported to follow online recommendations for products or businesses made by friends.
- 51% of Facebook users and 64% of Twitter users are more likely to purchase products and make use of services from business they follow on the platforms.
Percentages of which platforms businesses use
- 78% make use of Twitter
- 75% make use of Facebook
- 30% make use of LinkedIn
- 28% make use of WordPress
- 13% make use of Flickr
- 11% make use of Tumblr
Social media influences the lives of its user offline
When directly compared with the internet, social media has a far greater effect on its users. Statistically social media users are:
- 75% more likely to spend their money on music
- 47% more likely to spend their money on clothing, shoes or related accessories
- 45% more likely to go on a date
- 44% more likely to provide personal opinions on televised programs or films
- 29% more likely to provide their personal opinion on politics or current events
- 19% more likely to attend a professional sporting event
- 18% more likely to make efforts to exercise, through working out at either a gym or a health club
Benefits of social media for brand building
1. Increase brand awareness
With over half of the world’s population using social media, platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter a natural place to reach new and highly targeted potential customers.
Think people only connect with brands they already know on social media? Consider that 83 percent of Instagram users say they discover new products on the platform.
When Stillhouse Spirits ran a Facebook campaign to increase brand awareness among outdoor enthusiasts, the company achieved a 17-point lift in ad recall.
2. Humanize your brand
The ability to create real human connections (a.k.a. Meaningful Relationship Moments) is one of the key benefits of social media for business. Introduce your followers to the people who make up your company and showcase how existing customers are using and benefiting from your products.
Authenticity builds trust. Trust, in turn, builds marketing receptiveness and drives new business. And social is the best place to get real!
Show how you’re embracing your brand values, how your product works in real life, and how you’re putting the interests of your employees and customers first.
3. Establish your brand as a thought leader
The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer found that while there has been a recent swing towards distrust of government, NGOs and media, business is an institution with a 61 percent level of trust. People are looking to brands for insights and information… and there’s no better place to share that than social media.
No matter what industry your business is in, social media offers the opportunity to establish your brand as a thought leader—the go-to source for information on topics related to your niche.
LinkedIn—particularly the LinkedIn Publishing Platform—is a great network to focus on when aiming to establish your thought leadership.
Hootsuite chairman and co-founder Ryan Holmes has more than 1.7 million followers on LinkedIn, where he shares his insights about social media and entrepreneurship.
Conclusion:
Social Media has come to play an important part of how people interact and communicate with each other on a daily basis. Social media communication designed for students, however, has a different purpose altogether. It is designed both as a medium and tool for students to express themselves, learn from others and showcase their talents.