How to success with social media such as my father - Essay Example

?Ted Talk How to achieve success like my father’s with social media (About This Talk section) I am going to talk about success, the most pleasant word a person who aspires to achieve what he has been dreaming all his life wishes to hear. Of course everybody wants success – businessmen, young adults, students, parents – just everybody. However, each has his own way of measuring success. One may view it as ‘making loads of money,’ (Watson 2004), while others may perceive success as fulfillment of goals and maximizing one’s potential. But to be particular, what I’ll be discussing here is about the success achieved by my father through the use of the social media. Social media are the ‘media for social interaction using web-based and mobile technologies for interactive communication’ (Wikipedia 2011). In other words, these are the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Cyworld, LinkedIn and others. (About This Author section) You see, my family was poor when I was a child. Though he was already a plastic surgeon then, he had very little patients. But when the “.com” boomed, my father joined the bandwagon and built a plastic surgery website. Through the website he advertised the services he offered and established a good network of clients. He also promoted community network service in the site, thus increasing his visitors’ traffic. Now I am proud to share with you guys, that my father gained success in his endeavors and now has a big network of marketing service team. Though we may view my father’s success as because of the websites, I will still say that the website is only half of his success. The other half is because of the inner qualities that he possessed to achieve his goals. As Richard St. John (2005) puts it, ‘passion, love, hard work, practice, focus, push, ideas and persistence are the secrets to success.’ (An Introduction) To succeed, a person must have passion for whatever he is doing or promoting. It is the ‘energy that comes from bringing more of you into what you do’ (The M.A.P.) It lights the fire to make you do what you want to do and do it to the best of your abilities. By doing your work passionately shows your love to your work. And when you love your work you’ll continue doing it irrespective of monetary rewards. Also, success entails hard work. Not only work but hard work. During this process when you realize you need a lot of practice to get perfect results. Getting perfect results need focus. Focus to attain perfection. But whatever it is, always remember that great things come from good ideas. Whatever the idea is, whether big or small, it’s just right to pursue it because nobody knows what will happen unless you give it a try. In addition, being persistent can lead you to success. Had my father were not persistent enough to try his luck in the social media, then he would not have achieved his status today. However, Will Edward has a different listing as to what success means to him. To him it needs ‘commitment, open mind, persistence, flexibility, faith, thankfulness and passion to be successful’ (Edward 2006). The number one in his list is commitment. To be fully committed, a person must bind his emotions and mind in fulfilling a certain goal. You need to take action relevant to your wishes to make it happen. But you’ve got to have your own dream and commit yourself to its accomplishment. As soon as you’re committed, you need an open mind to consider every possible solution available to achieve the goal. Like in the case of my father, he showed his open-mindedness when he tried using the social media even though it was still at its infancy stage and have not proven results yet. And he proved to be right. Next in the list of the keys of success of Edward is persistence, the act of being firm in the decision to do what he thinks is the way to the achievement of his goal. Persistent people are sometimes called hard-headed because they refuse to give up even in the face of continuous failure. Just in the case of my father, he didn’t give up even if he barely had patients in his plastic surgery clinic. Instead, he continually pursued his profession and looked for ways to improve his situation. Flexibility is the ‘ability to respond to changes in demand and be adjustable’ (Edward 2006). A person should know how to adapt to the changes in his environment. Persistence without flexibility is nothing. If you kept on doing what you’ve always done and be contented with what it is, then don’t expect a change in the results. Most probably, you’ll remain a mediocre forever. Just in the case of my father, if he continued to do his conventional way of marketing his plastic surgery clinic and did not experiment on the social media, do you think he’ll be on top? My guess is as good as yours. When we speak of faith, it is always somehow related to God. But there is faith that deals with your belief with yourself. A faith that deals with the acceptance of something which has no proof or evidence yet. But you have a gut feeling that you are right and will succeed. A lot of people may look down on you and tell you face-off that you can never realize your dream as what happened to many in the past. But if you have faith, you have a strong belief in yourself that in spite of all the odds, you will triumph. You are going to make a difference and you will still achieve what you have set to get. And if you already succeed, don’t forget to be thankful because grateful people attract better opportunities. More on the issues of success, Shawn has different guidelines in achieving success. According to him, ‘success is affected by our emotions’ (Shawn 2008). And Shawn may be right because if we are angry or feeling bad, it is reflected on how we think, perform and function. I remember a friend who kept on telling me never to make major decisions when upset. You need to learn to control your feelings to get the business deals. You need to be happy all the time, positive all the time to attract good energy. And in doing so, always remember to be persistent and never give up. Try to control your emotions and be prepared to strive for success. (Topic problem) In starting a movement, it is important to ‘stand out to be ridiculed’ (Sivers 2010). It’s not easy and really needs lots of guts but leadership emulates followers. And this first follower becomes the “lone nut” to be the leader because it takes guts to stand out. As what Derek Sivers said in his Ted Talk, ‘as more people join in, the lesser it becomes risky. And those who did not join will be ridiculed because of not joining’ (2010). Leadership is the ‘process of social influence in which a person enlists the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task’ (Wikipedia 2011). Today’s generation, computers and internet play very important roles in the lives of every individual, young and old alike. They have become necessary items in our daily lives, such as in studying, working, researching, playing and communicating. They have also become effective tools in the business world. Through internet and computers, businesses are able to market and sell their products throughout the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in just one click. And my father’s business is a proven testimony to this. To be globally competitive, a business must include online selling because most of the advertisements of products are now on web sites. The social community is on the upswing and it is still the cheapest and fastest way of getting to your target markets. Some of the popular social networking sites in the internet are facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Youtube, Ning and Multiply. ‘Social networking service is the way the 21st century communicates’ (Social Networking 2011). It is a community of people, millions of individuals who are willing to meet people, get and share daily status updates and share experiences in about any topic available. This is a very useful site to promote products and services. Facebook is the most popular web site in the world. It is a free social networking site connecting people all around the world. It became popular because it allows the user to upload photos and post notes. It also allows the users to find friends and long-lost relatives. You can ‘get the latest news from friends, post videos on your profile, tag your friends and make photo albums’ (eInvestigator 2011). I’m sure you all have accounts in Facebook. If you don’t have, then you’re bound to be ridiculed for not getting one. Remember the TedTalk on starting a movement? Yes, it is. While there are networking sites that are devoted to buying and selling like the Multiply, twitter is also being used for business by its users. It is a communication tool that allows maximum messages of 140 characters and aside from just saying “I’m here waiting for you” or “just watching the birds fly”, there are those who are using twitter to promote their businesses. Some restaurants tweet their special menus for the day, a realtor tweets what’s the latest in homes on the market, a ticket agency tweets their promos or some organizations tweet their latest events and seminars. ‘Tweeple or the twitter users have 140 characters to answer the question, “What are you doing?” and allows following other tweeple enabling them to update their status and be followed’ (Web Marketing Advice). In social networking, people with same interests share information, views, and interact as much as possible. Since the popularity of social networking is high, new uses for the technology are being tested. ‘At the forefront of emerging trends in social networking sites is the concept of “real-time web” and location based”, the former, allowing users to contribute content which is uploaded to live radio and television broadcasts (as online views from home audience) and then followed by their “live feed” where users’ activities are streamed as soon as it happens’(Wikipedia 2011). While twitter is more focused on words, ‘facebook maintains its photo sharing site which is estimated to reach 100 billion photos by summer 2011’ (Wikipedia 2011). It is also used now by companies in creating awareness on their brands, for hiring employees, and as a lead generation – a tool used to intercept potential prospects. Moreover, teachers have also joined the social network fanatics. They use the network as their communication tool to their students and parents and being utilized in chat-room forums, and posting of assignments, quizzes and tests. And here’s the latest in social network. The dog is now in the internet. It’s called Wuphf.com. It is a ‘crazy, revolutionary program that ties all communication portals together, linking your emails, text messages, voice mails, faxes, chat programs, tweets and other pages with a single “wuphf” (Howard 2010). But don’t forget to press your cellphone button to hear that “wuphf”. Now we go to the effects of social media to participants or users. The social web influence content posted question if 2011 is like 1994 for apple, twitter, facebook and the Web. ‘In 1994, apple was going to own it all but by 1999 most magazines thought it was dead; in 1994 Microsoft was beta testing Blackbird but they killed it before shipment’ (Scoble 2010). It seems that there’s a fight between closed and open systems going on just like the competition in 1994 between Pointcast, Blackbird and AOL in one group and the Web on the opposing side. But it’s obvious, Web won. Now, what about this time? Now, have you ever wondered why people have thousands of friends and followers on social networks and they still want to increase these number? What do you think is the importance of that? Well, Zain (2011) said, it is ‘simply because of one word: power.’ They need the power to influence other group of people. If they have the power then they can set trends, opinions and behaviors. And Zain (2011) ‘called these people with large number of friends as social network heroes’. They are heroes in the sense that they influence the buying decision of their other friends and followers. ‘People want to know that their influential friends are buying before making their shopping decisions and they do this by polling their friends on social networks for suggestions and recommendations rather than searching the traditional way’ (Wortham). ‘Michael Wu lists 6 factors of social media influence as the following: credibility, bandwidth, relevance, timing, alignment and confidence’ (Zain 2011). So do you think user feedback important? Of course it is. Through their feedback that we’ll know how do you perform, are you getting your target market, or are you sure you’re properly sending the right message to your users. But there is a product team that does not like user feedback. ‘And when I asked why they didn’t do user feedback they responded “we are users too”’(Owyang 2007). But whatever their reason may be one thing is sure, though, ‘they are not the correct personas, target audience and are of course biased’ (Owyang 2007). This is of course, very true. ‘Receiving feedback gives a person a clearer idea of how well they’re doing the job and if there are still rooms for improvement’ (Volunteer logue 2007). Also, it is a way to acknowledge and appreciate job well done. Like in the case of my father, the good feedbacks from his clients were reflected in their continued patronage and word of mouth testimonials of how good his service is. References 1-Edward, Will. The 7 keys to success. 2006. White Dove Books. 2-e.Investigator.com. Most popular social networking sites. 2011. Web. www.einvestigator.com. 3-Howard, Ryan. Social networking from the office. Wuphf. Web. www.youtube.com. 4-Kate. The importance of feedback. 2007 June 28. Web. www.volunteerlongue. 5-Owyang, Jeremiah. Is user feedback important?. 2007 May 30. Web strategy. 6-M.A.P. Maker. What is passion? 2011. Web. mapmaker.curtrosangren.com. 7-Scoble, Robert. Is 2011 like 1994 for apple, twitter, facebook and the web?. 2010 Apr 11. Web. Scobleizer.com. 8-Sivers, Derek. Leadership & how to start movement. 2010. Ted2010. 9-Shawn. 12 keys to success – control your emotion. 2008 Jul 15. Web. www.themillionairesecrets.net. 10-Social Networking. What is Social Networking. 2011 Jun 26. Web. www.whatissocialnetworking.com. 11-St.John, Richard. 8 secrets of success. 2005 Feb. Ted2005. 12-Victus Spiritus. The social web influences content. 2010 Apr 15. Web. www.victusspiritus.com. 13-Watson, John. What is success and how do we achieve it? 2004 Dec. 14. Web. Ezinearticles.com. 14-Web Marketing Advice. How to use twitter for business. 2011. Web. www.flyte.bing. 15-Wikipedia. Leadership. Web. enwikipedia.org. 16-Wikipedia. Social networking service. 2011 July 10. Web. En.wikipedia.org. 17-Wikipedia. Social Media. 2011 Jul 11. Web. enwikipedia.org. 18-Wortham, Jenna. Search takes a social turn. New York Times. 19-Wuphf. Wuphf. 2010 Nov. 20. Web. wuphf.com. 20-Zain. Social Network Heroes: Influence and power in the digital world. 2011 May 13. Digital media theory. 21-Zengestrom. Why some social network services work and others don’t. 2005 Apr 13. www.zengestrom.com. Read More