How to Achieve Success with Social Media - Essay Example

Ted Talk Title: Social Media, My Father, and Will Edward's 7 Keys to Success (About This Talk) It's a given that everybody wants success – businessmen, young adults, students, parents – everybody. However, each individual has his or her own way of measuring this success. Some may view it as making loads of money, (Watson 2004), while others may perceive success as the fulfillment of their goals and maximizing their potential. This talk will not question any particular view of success, but will suggest how social media and Will Edward's 7 Keys to Success can be used to achieve it, using the speaker's father as an example. (About This Author section) Saehon's father was a plastic surgeon, but despite this had few patients and made little money. When the “.com” boom began, though, he built a plastic surgery website and drastically improved his business and revenues. (Introduction) To succeed, a person must have passion for whatever he is doing or promoting. The “energy that comes from bringing more of you into what you do” (The M.A.P.), passion lights the fire to make you do what you want to the best of your abilities. Working passionately also shows that you love your work, and will give you benefits for doing it other than purely money-based ones. But success is not easy. It requires a lot of work, and not just any work, but hard work. It takes a lot of practice to get perfect results, and you need a lot of focus. My father knew all this, and he also knew the importance of being persistent. He would not have succeeded at his dream of being a plastic surgeon if he had not. Will Edward defines success using 7 principles: “commitment, open mind, persistence, flexibility, faith, thankfulness and passion to be successful” (Edward 2006). It's important to note that the number one thing on his list is commitment. To be fully committed, a person must bind his emotions and set his mind to fulfilling his goal. You need to take relevant action for your wishes to come true. Having a dream is not enough: you've got to commit yourself to seeing it accomplished. My father knew all this as well. He was dedicated to his work, although he never made much and tried not to neglect his family. Even so, the lack of business success must have been difficult. For years he struggled just to keep his small practice open, trying to find a way to attract more customers and make it profitable enough to make his family safe and happy. Fortunately, he always kept an open mind, considering each new innovation in the business and technology world, and asking himself how each could help him with his life's work. For my father, the breakthrough came when he tried using the social media even though it was still at its infancy stage and did not have proven results yet. In fact, his own willingness to innovate provided these results. At the time, the only sorts of social media that existed were basically blogs. My father set up a blog for his business, and a website for the blog to lead people to. Customers could visit his blog to see what he was up to, and then go to his website to make use of his services. By keeping track of his visitors and what attracted them, my father was able to drive people to his business and succeed at his dream. Now, of course, computers and the internet play very important roles in the lives of every individual, young and old alike. They have become necessary items in our daily lives, making it easier than ever for us to study, work, research, play and communicate. 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. My father’s business provides excellent testimony to this knowledge. To be globally competitive, a business must include online selling because most of the advertisements of products are now on web sites. Social media, with its cheap, fast access to target markets, and its still-increasing popularity, is an excellent way to do this. Popular social networking sites liked Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Youtube, Ning and Multiply are used by many millions of users daily. This all shows that ‘Social networking service is the way the 21st century communicates’ (Social Networking 2011). Because of the ways communities of people, millions of individuals who are trying to meet other people, get and share daily status updates and share experiences in about any topic available, social networking sites are very useful ways to advertise products and services. Some networking sites, like Multiply, are even devoted to buying and selling. But social media isn't just about buying, selling, and advertising. Twitter, for instance makes it very easy for businesses to stay in touch with their customers, or to promote special services. Twitter is a communication tool which allows users to send messages with a maximum of 140 characters. Although this may seem useless, it can be used effectively for things other than saying “I’m here waiting for you” or “just watching the birds fly.” For example, some restaurants tweet their special menus for the day, or a realtor may tweet the latest in homes on the market. A ticket agency might tweet their promos, and even non-profit organizations can benefit by tweeting their latest events and seminars. Twitter users, or “Tweeple,” can also be tagged in a post, allowing someone to use 140 characters to answer the question, “What are you doing?” and allow tweeple who are watching their status to follow what they are doing and see their status changes. (Web Marketing Advice). In social networking, people with same interests share information, views, and interact as much as possible. Of course, all this came after my father's success. All he had was a blog and a website, and his passion. His early success with social media illustrates two more of Edward's keys to success: persistence, or the act of making firm decisions and following through with them to achieve your goal. Persistent people are sometimes called hard-headed because they refuse to give up even in the face of continuous failure. This was the case with my father, who didn’t give up even when he barely had patients in his plastic surgery clinic. Instead, he continually pursued his profession and looked for ways to improve his situation. Most importantly, he was flexible as well, keeping the ‘ability to respond to changes in demand and be adjustable’ (Edward 2006). Persistence without flexibility is nothing. If you keep on doing what you’ve always done without being able to change when you environment does, then it would be insane to expect any change in your results. You would be more likely to remain mediocre forever. My father's story illustrates this, as well. If he had continued to try conventional marketing, instead of experimenting with the web, where he would be now is anybody's guess. The same is true of flexibility with social media, and it is certainly true of taking a chance in general. As Derek Sivers puts it, when you start a movement, you have to be willing to “stand out to be ridiculed” (Sivers 2009). What this means is that you have to be willing to take a chance on something not everyone has accepted. When my father switched to social media for advertising, he no doubt earned scorn and laughter from other more established plastic surgeons who did not need to use these non-traditional methods to get business. But if he had listened to their negative laughter and given up, he would never have succeeded. Although the first person to adopt a new technology may be ridiculed as a “lone nut,” that person may eventually be a business community leader if the technology catches on. It takes guts to stand out. As Sivers himself puts it 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). Of course, Since the popularity of social networking is so high, it no longer seems strange to advertise using social media. It is now well accepted that social media can be an efficient and cheap way to reach a large number of people. However, new uses for the technology are being tested all the time. “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). Many types of social media are also used now by companies to create brand awareness, hire employees, and to generate leads for sales and investment. Even teachers have also joined the social network fanatics. They use the network as their communication tool to students and parents and utilize chat-room forums, and discussion boards for the posting of assignments, quizzes and tests. Another of Edward's keys is faith. Although most people relate the word faith to God and ideas of religion or the afterlife, there is also a kind of faith that has to do with your belief in yourself. This kind of faith deals with the acceptance of something which can not be proved yet, for which evidence has not yet been found. It is more of a gut feeling that you are right and will succeed. As with the importance of practice and dedication, this aspect of success is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, where you need to believe in your own ability to do what you want to do. Even though a lot of people may look down on you and tell you to your face that you can never realize your dream because of what happened to many in the past, if you have faith, and a strong belief in yourself in spite of all the odds, you will be much more likely to triumph. You are going to make a difference and you will still achieve what you have set to get. If you have already succeeded, don’t forget to be thankful because grateful people attract better opportunities. In the social networking world, this kind of faith comes through in another way, as well. Have you ever wondered why people have thousands of friends and followers on social networks? This comes from a faith that what you are providing the user is interesting and relevant to them, and will be something they need. This kind of faith enables you to reach out ever further with your social media and attract ever larger audiences. In other words, faith can turn into something more than just self-assurance. As, Zain (2011) says, it is “simply because of one word: power.” Faith leads to power because larger groups of people following your account will allow you to influence more people. With this power, you can set trends, opinions and behaviors. Zain refers to “these people with large number of friends as social network heroes” (2011). That ma seem odd because seeking power is not normally considered heroic. But these users 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). This is the principle of user feedback, which is very important because it is only through regular feedback from users that those trying to succeed can know how well they are performing. For instance, if my father had received lots of e-mails from people asking why he was trying to sell plastic surgery to blind people, he would have known that he was going after the wrong target market. If he had received e-mails from people who wanted plastic surgery but thought he was trying to provide medical surgical techniques, he would have known that he was not sending the right message to his users. “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. In the case of my father, the good feedback he received from his clients was reflected in their continued patronage and word of mouth testimonials of how good his service is. Social media, and sticking to the keys of success outlined by Will Edward—even though he didn't actually know about them—really helped my father succeed at his business as a plastic surgeon. References 1-Edward, Will. The 7 keys to success. 2006. White Dove Books. 2-Kate. The importance of feedback. 2007 June 28. Web. www.volunteerlongue. 3-M.A.P. Maker. What is passion? 2011. Web. mapmaker.curtrosangren.com. 4-Sivers, Derek. Leadership & how to start movement. 2010. Ted2010. 5-Social Networking. What is Social Networking. 2011 Jun 26. Web. www.whatissocialnetworking.com. 6-Web Marketing Advice. How to use twitter for business. 2011. Web. www.flyte.bing. 7-Wikipedia. Social networking service. 2011 July 10. Web. En.wikipedia.org. 8-Wikipedia. Social Media. 2011 Jul 11. Web. enwikipedia.org. 9-Wortham, Jenna. Search takes a social turn. New York Times. 10-Zain. Social Network Heroes: Influence and power in the digital world. 2011 May 13. Digital media theory. Read More