From "social media idiot" to "social media immigrant" ;-)

Looking back on the quarter, I've honestly learned far more than I expected to. While many people may believe that social media is inherently intuitive, and that everyone should easily be capable of being a social media pro as long as s/he has accounts on the various social media platforms, it's not easy. Social media masters must pay attention to their content curation carefully, and they need to be aware of the 80/20 rule. A great saying that applies to being an effective social media user is that, "You have 2 ears and 1 mouth, so you should be listening twice as often as you are talking." The very same thing applies to using social media sites.

Despite this rule, though, it's still obviously important to think up great content. It is important to tell a story and help your followers connect personally with your brand. Each of your followers should people with whom you aspire to have a lasting friendship, and like any human relationship, virtual relationships must also be nurtured and tended to.

Another important aspect of internet marketing is having a consistent theme or message across all of your social media platforms; but each message should also be tailored to be most effective on the different social media platforms. E.g., a company's website should have an easy-to-use look-and-feel, and its Twitter page should have a similar style sheet with consistent and relevant content; its Facebook should also be similar but it should be also focused on the user-experience; the company's LinkedIn account should be focused on satisfying the needs of business professionals, etc.

The term "digital natives" was also new to me during this course, but since I have become aware of the term, I have had a lot of fun teaching my coworkers at Microsoft (all of whom are "digital immigrants") the difference between the digital generations. In fact, they coined their own term, "digital idiots," to describe individuals who are ignorant to technology altogether. ;-)

All in all, I learned so much from this class, and I am more aware of the advantages and disadvantages of using the different social media sites. I've already increased my tweets from about 20 to nearly 100, and I've gradually started using more mobile applications, etc., because I have a better knowledge of how I can develop my personal brand, and also how I can be benefited by the posts that companies make as well.