What makes someone want to be a "blogger"?

Have you ever wondered why some people just absolutely LOVE to blog? It's as if every event of their life needs to be documented, photoed, and posted for it to even be considered a real event. Social media is becoming more and more involved in personal lives, I sometimes wonder what's next. Don't get me wrong, I love to blog--obviously. However, I often wonder why social media plays such a role in our lives these days. So much so, that we often find ourselves thinking in Facebook statues, calling dibs on profile pictures right after they are taken, thinking about possible names of photo albums, and thinking how we are going to blog about whatever significant event just happened in our lives--whether that be the start to a new diet, the problems with split ends, or furniture arrangements in the living room (all very significant events of course).

Now, though I am being a little sarcastic I really do find it funny sometimes what people choose to blog about.However, when it comes down to it, blogs really are a great way to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues as well as a great marketing and networking tool. The http://www.thedaybookblog.com/ started as just a normal blog, but has actually become very popular and has been the stepping stool to many job opportunities for the Author --Sydney Poulton. Not only that, but there have been blogs that many have followed not just for interesting stories, but for humor-- http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/was very popular in the LDS culture because of how it mocked LDS mothers blogs and blogging topics. However, in recent months the author of that blog has stopped posting.

Blogs can range from anything from an online photo journal, an advertising tool, or simply an online journal for others to come and read. Blogs are one of the most popular forms of social media these days and can be a very useful tool for providing the foundation to many careers and writing opportunities.

Organizational Uses

One of the most talked about issues in news media as of recently ia how different oganizations use social media to promote their businesses. In this article the author clearly talks about whether or not social media is right for your organization. http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page7935.cfm The article goes through a check list of ways to determine this. Such questions are asked like whether the audiences that your companay wants to target are frequent users of social media, or how much time are you willing to put in to getting social media up and running, and continuing with updates frequently. What is unique about social media is that because it's so previlent, it needs to be constantly undated and changed in order to be recognized and reliable. This article was real helpful in how to go about making the decsion if social media is right for your organization. It also, gives a brief overview about the advantages and disadvantages of social media.
This article, http://www.sminorgs.net/home.html talked about the statistics of how many organizations use social media. They provided a very interesting youtube video in relation to how big social media is these days. Statistics such as if Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest. The video is posted below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3SuNx0UrnEo


All in all, I think that the articles and statistics state the truth when they talk about how much more successfull companies can become when they put a lot of effort into their social media. I think one day soon, it will be almost impossible to continue a successful company or organization without social media.

The Big 7

The Big Seven

There are many different kinds of social media these days. Social media serves as one of the most important ways in letting customers know of a company’s services or products. A New York Times article on Facebook states that “Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with more than 800 million active users around the world, and roughly 200 million in the United States, or two-thirds of the population, as of December 2011. “

It’s no wonder why Facebook serves as one of the best social media sites when it comes to awareness. However, there are many different opinions when it comes to Facebook. Some think Facebook can be harmful to its users due to the fact that its privacy settings aren’t very strict and it has often been referred to as being “addictive”. In this article http://www.christianpost.com/news/is-facebook-harmful-for-your-teens-social-disorder-concerns-53655/ the author talks about the dangers of Facebook if it isn’t used properly. Even though the article is directed more towards children and teens, I think a lot of the argument holds true that if Facebook isn’t used with the proper intent, people, and companies can be harmed.

Also, in this article http://www.bitrebels.com/social/twitter-vs-facebook-a-social-media-revenue-comparison/ the author compares Facebook to one of the other “Big 7” --- Twitter. The author gives pros and cons on the two sites as social networking sites but concludes that Facebook will reach a larger audience, given how popular it is throughout the world.

It’s interesting to read about the pros and cons of Facebook and the other “big 7” as means to social media, however I have concluded that as long as Facebook, twitter and all the other social media sites are used properly and with the correct intent, it can really help a company in its success.