The internet and social media provide young people with a range of benefits, and opportunities to empower themselves in a variety of ways. Young people can maintain social connections and support networks that otherwise wouldn’t be possible, and can access more information than ever before. The communities and social interactions young people form online can be invaluable for bolstering and developing young people’s self-confidence and social skills.
Developing a voice and building trust
Social networking services can be used to hone debating and discussion skills in a local, national or international context. This helps users develop public ways of presenting themselves. Personal skills are very important in this context: to make, develop and keep friendships, and to be regarded as a trusted connection within a network.
Social networking services can provide young people with opportunities to learn how to function successfully in a community, navigating a public social space and developing social norms and skills as participants in peer groups.
Explorers and learners
Social networks encourage discovery. If someone is interested in certain books, bands, recipes or ideas, it’s likely that their interest will be catered for by a social networking service or group within a service. If users are looking for something more specific or unusual then they could create their own groups or social networking sites. Social networking services can help young people develop their interests and find other people who share the same interests.
They can help introduce young people to new things and ideas, and deepen appreciation of existing interests. They can also help broaden users’ horizons by helping them discover how other people live and think in all parts of the world.
You reach large audiences
First on our list of social media benefits is that you can reach large audiences. There are millions of people using social media platforms. It’s a great opportunity for your business to reach a large pool of people that are interested in your products or services.
U.S. adults use many of these sites, which creates great opportunities for your business to reach leads. You have numerous opportunities to reach leads and can engage them on these different social networking sites.
When looking at the social media positives and negatives, the ability to reach large audiences is a huge advantage of social media. It opens the door for your business to find more leads that want your products or services.
A coffee shop in Washington, D.C., for instance, could use social media to reach locals and tourists. They could target social media users within a certain radius or location when creating social ads or boosting organic posts. Both these strategies could help bring foot traffic to the shop.
Social media makes your brand more relatable
One of social media’s greatest qualities is its ability to humanize the brands people use the most throughout their lives. Not only does it give a brand a likeliness and vibe, but it makes it more relatable too.
Our lives feel much more at ease with a highly qualified board of parents, nurses, teachers, and doctors being the brainchildren of the new backpack made to ease tension on young kids’ backs and shoulders.
Same for the engineers, scientists, and safety experts building our everyday transportation vehicles. And same for the butcher down the street who spends 12 hours a day chopping meat and helping customers. You’re going to trust (and sometimes even enjoy) getting your meat and poultry from him/her.
These are the experts of their crafts, but they’re also humans just like you and me.
