I’m almost ashamed to say it… but yes, 4 years ago at the age of 16 I, Jess, became a social media/blogger addict.

It all started when I was sick in bed for two weeks with tonsillitis and I started up my own Tumblr; a visual blog that became a way for me to collectively display online my visual design, art and fashion inspiration. After two weeks of continuous blogging, ‘liking’ and reposting I had gone from 10-20 followers that were close friends to around 5000 followers who were complete strangers. It was baffling to me that there were people out there that I’d never met (and probably will never meet) who were interested in actively following and interacting with a stream of what inspired me visually and made me ‘tick’.

Now, almost 4 years later, I can safely say I’ve grown out of my Tumblr addiction, but definitely not my social media addiction. I use Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Soundcloud, Snapchat and Youtube, just to name a few, daily. I check Facebook and Instagram at least once every half an hour. I allow an extra half an hour in the morning when I wake up to catch up with the social media notifications that I got while I was sleeping. I even spend a good amount of time each morning scrolling and playing the new songs on my Soundcloud stream. I find myself taking photos of the most mundane things, just in a hope I may get an Instagram post out of it. I can tell what social media notification I’m getting purely by the sound my iPhone makes. I use social media platform titles as verbs… “I’m going to Instagram this!”. I even talk about people I follow on Instagram as if I’m friends with them… “Did you see Margaret’s outfit today?” (Speaking of Margaret Zhang, here is an interesting article on her social media approach on the Sydney Morning Herald website.)

It’s probably close to crazy and you’re most likely shaking your head about how I embody the oh-so-typical Gen-Y’er with the dependance I have on Social Platforms like these, but is it really so bad?  I see the pro’s out-weighing the con’s. Especially when it comes to the business side of things…

 

I started my internship at Newgroup almost 3 months ago and I never would have known before working at a creative marketing agency just how important social media is in business too. How did I not know I could work in my dream industry but also with social media at the same time?!

I’ve been google-ing facts about social media marketing for a couple of weeks and I’m still amazed that generally speaking, 7% of all businesses still haven’t embraced the art of social media marketing (and I say “art” for good reason). Who would have known there was such a process behind posting the perfect Instagram or the most effective Facebook post? At Newgroup I’ve learnt (and am still learning) the process we go through to plan and execute a post for a client’s social media page and believe me; it’s not as simple as you’d think.

The majority of social media marketing is also organic and therefore free. Is that not enough reason to embrace social change and hop on the social-media bandwagon?

Yes, we may spend a lot more time with our eyes glued to our smart-phones, tablets and laptops but the social media revolution is helping people, brands and businesses get their name out there on an insanely larger scale than 15 years ago when nobody used the word “Friend” as a verb (see this.)

So, after interning at Newgroup I not only see social media as being a way to communicate between my friends and family and a way to connect virtually with like-minded creative individuals, but also a highly effective marketing tool that is still growing, evolving and becoming immensely more popular.

I may be a self-confessed social media addict, but the fact that I admit it makes it not as bad… right?