Social media has changed the way people interact. It seems all we ever hear about is how it negatively impacts our lives. Buzz words like cyberbullying, identity theft, and fake news are often used when social media comes up in conversation. Yes, without social media some of these issues would be less prominent or may not exist, but social media has also brought many positive changes to our lives as well…and we’d like to talk about five of them.

1: Education

Social media has made it easier than ever to become more educated. You can easily find experts and professionals via their social media profiles and dig in to learn more. Once you find those experts, you can follow them and keep up-to-date on the latest information regarding the topic that interests you. Social media is also easy to access. As long as you have an internet connection, you can educate yourself from anywhere at any time.

2: Innovation & Creation

To be active on social media, you have to participate in the conversation by sharing different content. Users are inspired to express their individuality by capturing creative and engaging content to share with their friends. Social media offers users the opportunity to reach and learn from billions of other people from around the world.

3: Connection

Social media offers worldwide connectivity in the palm of your hand. Social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the fastest and most convenient ways to stay connected to our loved ones – no matter how far they are away. These connections can be used for more than just staying in touch with distant friends or relatives. There are social platforms to help connect professionals, which proves useful when you’re searching for a new job. There are also social networks that can help you decide which new restaurant to try or which body shop does the best work. Social media has made it so easy to keep connected to friends, while also providing a platform to connect and meet people.

4: Awareness

There are 1.96 billion people on social media, providing a huge opportunity to spread messages because that’s where users’ eyes are already focused to consume information. Social algorithms tailor the content fed to you based on the trend of actions taken while you’re on their platforms, meaning you and your network are already most likely interested in the content you’re seeing. For example, your favorite football team is playing, but you have to go to a birthday party and aren’t able to watch it live. Chances are you would be able to hop on Facebook at the party and get nearly real-time updates from your friends who are sharing and commenting on the highs and lows of the game. The same goes for political news or retail sales. Information relevant to you will likely find its way into your social media feed, which keeps you in-the-loop with little effort.

5: Mega-Advertising Platform

From a nonprofit organization to a small business owner, there is no better way to get a message in front of millions of people than by using social media. Like we mentioned earlier, consumers’ eyes are already there and the social media sites’ algorithms do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to making sure a message is seen by the right people. So, if you have an attentive, specific audience, reaching them costs merely a fraction of what traditional TV and print advertising costs. Social media advertising platforms also allow you to optimize your advertising efforts to reach a specific objective. For example, if you are starting a new company and need to raise brand awareness, there’s an ad tailored for your objective and will reach as many people in your target audience as possible.

Social media is what we make it. We have the power to tailor our feeds and choose what kind of content we engage. Tired of seeing negative posts from your great Aunt Sue? Stop liking or commenting on her posts. Want to see more information about trends in your profession? Like more of those posts. Want to learn more about Quantifi Digital and how we can help with your social media advertising? Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+!