Social Media Trends: Can You Hack it?

Apparently, hacking has become a social media trend as of late. Not only have a strangely high number of personal email accounts been compromised by foreign sources, but major credit card and payment sites have been bombed due to the Wikileaks fiasco breaking the news this week. As far as the current email account situation goes, there doesn't seem to be one particular target: Gmail, Yahoo (nevermind that Yahoo has been struggling with its spam filters for quite some time now), Hotmail and other services have experienced the utter violation of a hack, the opportunistic strike of an unknown foe, the untraceable parasite that leaves a contact list ravaged, an inbox untrusted and a username black-listed. All this for, in recent cases, a misplaced advertisement that doesn't even include relevant pricing information. There are better ways to snag potential customer's attention.

The referent, of course, is social media. The ways of the billboard have passed on, the catch of a radio soundbite more a cultural relic than culturally relevant, even the flash of tele commercial is likely to soon be 'museumized.' And, since the archaic is viewed more as asinine than apt, businesses will need to use multiple inputs to create interest in their goods and services. Sure, mobile app ads and mini-interactives will cut it for a while, but businesses, in order to stay on top of the pack, are going to need to consider sustainability on all fronts (environmental, financial and consumer attention span).

Enter, stage center, social media. Most (though not all, yet...) social media trends are pointing to the importance of social media itself, which makes social media content all the more important. Of course, a guestimated 50% of all social media content is, frankly, drivel, the fact that social media has taken such a spotlight in this culture is one of many reasons not to write it off.  businesses should assume its important, and develop more than just a social media policy. It requires, believe it or not, more than a Facebook page and an encouragment to customers to "Follow", "Find", "Like and whatever else on Facebook. It requires strategy and planning.

In a way, that's like saying that businesses will only improve as their Facebook page improves, but, to some extent, that's true. If businesses don't have a strategy for their updates - and not just on Facebook - then they may actually be turning their customers off. That is, as a business (who wants to better), you've got to give your customers something to Find, Like, or Follow on Facebook. Now that every since business in America (and more and more elsewhere) have Facebook profiles, the social media mega site is just one more place you've got to stand out and rise above the rest.  Otherwise, you really do look like just another spammer. Even though that's a social media trend of late, business who want to improve will appear legit "on paper" because they're legit in life.

Photo Credit: Socialmediaexaminer.com