Social Media Is a Strong Addiction

Just by answering these simple questions you could decide whether you are a social media addict or not. What is the first thing you do in the morning? Do you tweet quiet often? Do you find ‘logout’ button is the hardest button to click? If your answer is yes, then you could be an addict.

A new study conducted by the University of Chicago has found that social is more addictive than cigarettes and alcohols. The study also found that although the urges for sleep and sex are stronger, people are willing to sacrifice their cravings in order to check their social profiles.

‘The whole social media concept took interaction to a whole new level and it is definitely addictive. I think part of the addiction comes from the fact that social media is like a giant party ‘out there’ where something is happening all the time. So it is much easier to plug in and feel you are part of something worthwhile going on,’ says Ankush Thakur of Green Smyles, a multi-service agency. Moreover, according to some surveys, it has been revealed that the addiction to social media is so intense that even if they logout at night, some of them will find themselves logging in from inside the quilts via mobile phone.

Experts say that most individuals who are leading busy lives or are introverts by nature and don't prefer socialising in the real sense are twice as likely to be addicted to the social networking site to escape to their virtual world. Making friends, chatting and commenting then become a part of daily schedule. It was easier for such people to open up to strangers and trust them.

"If people don't log on to check their notifications every couple of hours, they feel incomplete, almost like a vital organ missing from their system. This holds true for any addiction where in the habit gets so embedded into one's schedule that it becomes difficult to kick off," explains personality development trainer Faraaz Kazi. Faraaz further adds that as human beings we love to gossip and are always interested in what is happening in others' lives, and social media gives us a perfect platform to keep a tab on other people's relationships, network and popularity.

What do you think about this 'epidemic'? Is this a major problem or eventually will become a culture in the future?

How to be a YouTube Celebrity (Ryan Higa)

Ryan Higa aka Nigahiga is one of the most popular and subscribed YouTube user of all time (Over 5 million subscribers). Most of his videos are wacky comedy skits that he makes at home out of what he calls ‘pure boredom’. Brands like Carl’s Junior are now coming to this YouTube star to seek his advice and pay him to shoot videos featuring him. I wanted to discuss few concepts from Ryan Higa that are crucial to grow viewership on YouTube and just how it can be a great way to generate profit for any online company. 


1. Get connected with viewers
Viewers feel a connection to strong personalities. They feel like YouTube stars are online friends who they can respond to and enter a conversation with. People are more likely to return to a particular user’s channel if that user is present with their videos and has strong personality. That's how Ryan Higa could get so many viewers and subscribers because he is engaging, funny and leaves you wanting more. Here is one example of his video.

                                     

2. Quality over quantity
There are some YouTube users that trying to create 20 videos in a week and hoping that it will guarantee success. That is a misconception because it is difficult to make one video that is unique, well-thought out and entertaining yet some people want to make 20. It would be better to figure out a way to make the video unique and entertaining. No one wants to waste their time for a boring and poorly edited video. 

3. Create a brand for channel link
You need to get connected with all your viewers and subscribers. If we use NigaHiga as an example, simply type NigaHiga into Google search engine and everything shown on the first page will relate to his YouTube channels, website, Facebook page and more. It is really important to create a brand name that unique than others. 

4. Be consistent!
The next important thing that needs to keep in mind is consistency in uploading the videos to keep viewers and subscribers entertained and build up the channel with great content. It is totally up to the users to decide the time gap where it could be daily, weekly, or even monthly. Make sure that viewers are fully aware of your uploading schedule so they can be updated with your latest video.

Do you guys think that these concepts are applicable to any social media marketing? Are these concepts enough to build a good social media marketing? Please comment and share what you guys think ;)

                                                           

                                                              TEEHEE

YouTube: The Story of Orabrush

According to a survey conducted by YouTube, around 4 billion videos are viewed on this site every day, which show an increase of 50% from 2010. It is also estimated that more than 60 hours of video is uploaded every minute. Due to its popularity as the largest sharing video website, 99 of 100 leading national advertisers would choose to advertise on YouTube. However, the major concern of using YouTube as the advertising media is despite of its huge viewers, it may not be the best way to promote the brand as most of the ads are quite short and viewers might just skip the ads by clicking the skip button in 5 second. Additionally, most of YouTube videos are amateur home video which is not suitable for a popular company to put ads next to those low quality videos. So, the question is how Orabrush could attract the attention of large viewers and become successful by simply posting their ads on YouTube.

Basically Orabrush began promoting its new tongue clearners with a YouTube Brand Channel in 2009. A series of cheeky Orabrush videos, with helpful tips for overcoming that nasty issue of bad bread anxiety were watched by huge amount of YouTube viewers. In my opinion, establishing brand channel was a smart move to create a platform for the seller to interact with their potential customers. Orabrush could deliver their brand clearly to customers and customers have the chance to comment or to ask any issue related to the product. Furthermore, through promoted videos, these videos were shared with millions of viewers and created a massive buzz. It was a huge success and able to attract the attention of major distributors and retailers. The founder of Orabrush, Dr. Bob Wagstaff said that “Launching our product on YouTube helped us sell over 1 million units online”. Do you guys think it is the best way to promote a brand like Orabrush did? Please comment and share your thoughts. 

  

Social Media Could Destroy Real-Social Life?

Without a doubt, social media appears as an important tool to help us to get connected with many people. It could provide an immediate access to communicate instantly with millions of people and provides the opportunity for those people to spread your message even further. In this modern era, people are not necessarily required to meet up face-to-face in order to keep in touch or build a new connection. Just with several ‘clicks’ you could become a friend with someone that you never met before. Thus, it is really important to question whether social media could negatively affect our quality of life.

According to Sam Laird from Mashable website, approximately Facebook users would to spend 10.5 billion minutes each day on the site to share their thoughts or activities which doesn’t even include mobile use. Interestingly, based on the survey conducted 24% of people admitted that they have missed precious moments in person because they were too busy trying to share their moments on social network site. In my opinion, spending too much time on social media is not a good way to build up a new connection with others. Communication skill is a basic skill that a person needs to learn in order to interact with others and it can only be obtained through life experiences. Without a proper communication skill, people would become socially awkward when they interact with others.  

Have you ever imagined what it would be like if your life on social network become real in the real world? I would like to share with you guys this funny video that I just found. Basically this video is about a man asking random people he met and perform social activity based on Facebook. If you look closely, you will notice that some of those people give awkward responses and some even walk away. 

Enjoy the video guys and feel free to comment =)