Do You Have A Social Media Addiction?

Social media has become a trend that almost everyone participates in. But how easy is it to get sucked into social media to the point where you are actually addicted? Probably easier than you would think.

For centuries, some people have been addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. But, studies show that it is actually easier to become addicted to social media than to the cigarettes and alcohol. The School of Business at the University of Chicago studied social media addiction in people between the ages of 18 and 85. They did the study in Germany and determined that people are more likely to give in to their social media craving than any other craving they might have.

The study involved polling 10,558 Blackberry users seven times per day for 14 hours every day. The poll went on for a week, and the Blackberry users were asked if they had felt any desires in the previous half an hour. They also had to state whether or not they gave into their desire and how strong the desire was on a scale of mild to irresistible. Over 7,000 desires were reported and of all the desires people had, the desire to use social media was the one that people failed to resist. The social media sites that proved the most irresistible were Google+, Groupon, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook.

The man who led the team that ran this study said that people have a harder time resisting social media because there are no consequences to using it, as opposed to the consequences of smoking and drinking. The study found that social media has a much higher addiction rate than alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, sports, spending money or even sexual activity.

This research led me to wonder whether I have a social media addiction. Oh, heck; I probably do. Maybe I should start a support group. Would you join?

How to Connect with Influential People on Twitter

If you want to be important, you have to hang out with important people. The same holds true online. If you want to have a good reputation on Twitter, you have to get “in” with the people who are most influential. Once you find yourself in their good graces, others will start listening to what you have to say.

The first thing you should do is identify the influential people in your industry. This is crucial. Just because someone has a high Klout score doesn’t mean they’re a good match for you. Someone may be highly influential about knitting, but you want to influence others about scholarships and grants. That person who is influential about knitting is about as useful to you as someone who doesn’t even use Twitter at all. Choose your connections wisely.

It is true that you reap what you sew. You can’t just start out by asking for favors or expecting influential people to interact with you. You need to prove your value to them first. Start by searching through their tweets. Reply, favorite and retweet things that you find interesting. Eventually, this interaction will pay off – trust me. Just remember that there is a fine line between engagement and stalking, so don’t be weird about it, and don’t dedicate every single one of your tweets to one person.

Now that you have spent some time engaging them, they have had the opportunity to learn more about you and recognize that you are both real and engaged. You can now create a specific tweet that is addressed directly to them. In doing so, indicate that you have read their tweets, bio and blog. Also make sure that you are posting something that will be of interest to them. If you don’t receive a reply, spend some more time engaging them before reaching out to them on Twitter once again.

Breaking in to a Social Media Career

Ever since MySpace and Facebook emerged onto the scene, it’s become very apparent that social media is a force to be reckoned with. But unlike in the early days of social media, you’ll find that more companies, from large brands to small businesses, are making their presence felt in this arena. What does that mean for you? Well, it could potentially mean a career. If you searched for the term “social media” on Monster.com five years ago, you wouldn’t have seen many jobs. Do the same thing today and you’ll see that you’ve got a lot of options. So, how do you position yourself as an expert in this field? Be prepared to show the fruits of your labor.

It’s not enough to say “I have Facebook and Twitter accounts.” Um yeah, who doesn’t? Do a Google search for your name and see what comes up. Your Facebook and Twitter (and Google + and LinkedIn and any other social networking sites you may frequent) pages should be on the first page of search results. For most people, this will happen pretty naturally. You just need to setup the accounts with your name and use them. For those with common names or celebrity names, this might be a little challenging.  For example, if your name happens to be Barack Obama, well, you might have to find another way to show results.

Make sure your social networking accounts are impressive. It’s okay if you use Facebook for personal interactions. You don’t have to include it as long as you have other social networking sites that are impressive. If you want a career in social networking, you should have a Twitter account with at least one thousand followers. More is better, but quality counts too. You should also tweet daily and interact with your followers. This will give you a Klout or Kred score to be proud of. Feel free to mention your score to potential employers, but they’ll probably check anyway. Just keep in mind that this advice works best when you’re looking for a career in social media or marketing. If you’re looking for a job as a tattoo artist, your employer will care more about your work portfolio than your Kred score.

Share your social media stats with any potential employer. There are apps that will monitor your accounts and present you with charts that detail how influential you really are online (in greater detail than Klout or Kred). Most apps track twitter, but there are some that will track your other interactions too. Such an app might tell you how likely your tweets are to be retweeted or replied to. They might also tell you how often people click on links that you’ve posted. Your potential employer will want to know that you are actually influencing others online about topics related to their company. Treat this like any other job application and show them what they want to see. The greater your online presence, the greater chance you’ll have of being hired. 

Job Hunting? Create a Twesume

Most students rely on social media for nothing more than to catch up with friends and family – and that’s fine – but they aren’t exactly using these sites to their fullest potential. You can usually get someone’s attention much easier through a social network, like Twitter, than you can through a phone call. Brands are listening to our conversations, and they’re responding at record speed. Especially if you’re applying for a job in social media, you should consider creating a twesume. What’s a twesume? Glad you asked.

What we’re talking about here is a 140 character summary of your qualifications that you can send out on Twitter (aka Twitter resume). Here’s an example:

Social media strategist with 2 years of experience interning with a Fortune 500 company. Looking for a position in the NY area. #job

Once you’ve crafted your very own twesume, you can tweet it out to all your followers (and ask for them to retweet it to their followers) or you can send a direct message to a company that you’re really interested in working for. To go the extra mile, include a link to a .pdf of your full resume.

Of course, this isn’t the best idea if you’re currently working for an employer and you plan to leave. In this case, it’s ok to send it as a direct message, but don’t tweet it out to your followers. I know, that seems like common sense, but I just had to get it out there. I don’t want people blaming me if they lose their jobs over irresponsible tweeting. If you’re sending a direct message, leave out hash tags, like #job. They only serve a purpose when you’re tweeting to the masses.

I’ve mentioned that a twesume might work well for social media jobs, but there are other jobs that you might be able to get this way. If you’re looking for employment in marketing or technology, a twesume would probably be helpful. Also, if you’d like to work in retail or for an entrepreneur, e.g., event planner, DJ, florist, a twesume might help you here too. However, if you’re looking for a job in a field that isn’t really represented well on Twitter, you may as well forgo the twesume. For example, if you’re looking for forensic psychology jobs, Twitter may not be the best place to start your job search. In this case, it wouldn’t hurt to send out a twesume, but there are probably better uses for your time.