Why I Love Social Media

Social media gets a bad rap.

A lot of people dismiss it because they think its only purpose is for people to put mundane, boring information on the Internet and expect others to read it, waste time and follow up with their own useful blather. It's true, this part of social media is kind of silly. *stepping on to my soapbox now* But there are so many other possibilities! I, for one, would actually venture to call social media "Rev.ol.ution.ary."

By social media, I'm of course talking about MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. etc., and, the biggest people-love-to-hate site, Twitter. What the heck, ignore the rest. I'll just focus on Twitter. I'm a journalist and have found Twitter to hold the most potential! I use it strictly for work (check me out at twitter.com/deedee_jacobs). I'm constantly using Twitter to send out new content from our Web site and blog. I tell our readers what stories I'm working on. They give me story ideas and news tips. They give me feedback on stories. We get dialogue happening about the news I am writing about. This is what real journalism is. It's getting people engaged in what's happening around them! Think about it. We publish a newspaper, and then people pick it up and read it, and then what happens? They put the paper down and move on. Online, they read the news, and then they go on Twitter and they TALK about the news, and they tell us what kind of news they want to read next, and they have discussions with other people that eventually lead to things HAPPENING. News + Twitter = a community that uses the news to create change.

Twitter and the rest of social media isn't just a great tool for newspapers and other media. It's a great way in general for larger entities (companies, governments, organizations, families, etc etc) to disperse information and get PEOPLE TALKING!

OK, sorry. I'm really passionate about this and had the urge to ramble about it a little! Honestly, I'm not a social media junkie. I Twitter probably 5 or so times every day at work, which takes about 15 minutes total. Once a week or so, I'll go on Facebook for a few minutes. I really don't commit a lot of time to it -- which is why it's great. It's a useful tool requiring very little commitment. But get me talking about the IDEA of social media, and I can waste a lot time doing that :)

Here is a link to see me on TV talking about how Springfield companies are using social media! :) I was on KSPR last Sunday. Pretty neato. The video contains a lot more than just the social media story -- my interview starts at about the -1:51 minute mark.