Social Media Part 5- Is it worth it?

After spending the last few weeks working through some of the complexities of social media we reach the all-important question: is it worth it?

And just as we had to break down the definition of social media, we’ll have to break down just what is worth what. Rather than providing us with a straight forward answer, this little question of worth becomes more of a ‘how long is a piece of string’ matter.

Because what social media can provide and produce can vary significantly depending upon an individual’s use and expectations.

We’ve already established that the only real cost of social media is time. That’s our input. What its output is and what we can gain from it is generally measured in the quantifiable terms of ‘likes’, ‘follows’, ‘shares’ etc. From a sales perspective, musicians look for CDs sold and/or tickets sold.

But there is also a non-quantifiable result. From a business perspective it can be about raising awareness of your brand name and identity. From a collegial perspective it can be about establishing connections with musicians you might not otherwise get to meet, and sharing ideas and experiences.

As a harpist in Australia, which has a rather small harp world, this is one thing I really appreciate about social media. I have sat at home in my jim-jams eating breakfast while watching a live stream of a concert in America and exchanging on line comments with other participants. This is amazing.

Bearing this in mind it’s generally best not to approach social media as strictly a marketing or promotion tool. Absolutely you can do that, but this is a form of communication that prides itself on connection and authenticity. So perhaps the question of worth is one which needs to be measured experientially (do I feel that I am making and benefitting from good connections?) as well as quantifiably (do I have lots of likes and is that flowing through to a tangible (financial) reward?).

And here we might take a little side step to explore the problems of ‘likes’.

Social Media Part 4- Social Media Defined (Unofficially)

In the previous post I spent some time working through an academic definition of ‘social media’ with the hope that any readers out there would still be awake at the end of it.

Having concluded with a fairly broad definition I was still left scratching my head as to why so many of my esteemed colleagues hold a more narrow view namely that SOCIAL MEDIA = FACEBOOK (+/- TWITTER)

Admittedly it’s a bit hard to get past Facebook whenever social media is mentioned. It’s not at all unusual to encounter the word ‘behemoth’ whenever reading about it. The current number of users stands at well over 1 billion, 28% of whom check in with it before even getting out of bed. And it’s a really good way of connecting with people. After some initial reluctance (I had an account for about a year before actually using it) I readily admit that it’s my favourite form of social media both personally and professionally.

Twitter isn’t far behind, though I find that I tend to get lost in the sea of hashtags, meaningless retweets and in jokes that I seem to encounter.

But what else can be ‘social media’?

Well, this thing for a start ie this blog. And Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr, YouTube and Vimeo, Foursquare, Google+, LinkedIn, forums, wikis, podcasts, vlogs, and basically any site that allows feedback and interaction between the denizens of the web.

Suffice to say the potential for finding and using social media is huge-about as endless as the web is big.

Do I use of all these forms of social media? Not by a long shot. And in the first post of this series I explained why-it's about time. Social media is free except for time, so to master and engage with all these forums is a full time job. The average freelance musician, especially if you have anything vaguely resembling a life outside music, simply can’t do it. Hence the restricted definition SOCIAL MEDIA = FACEBOOK (+/- TWITTER).

Without the means to fully exploit the potential, social media gets limited by necessity. And it’s effectiveness is then called into question.

But is it really worth it?

That, dear readers, is the million dollar question.

Social Media Part 3- Social Media Defined (Officially)

It’s a term that gets bandied about a bit, but what exactly is social media? In this post I’ll be putting together a more academically correct definition of the term, which may or may not stand true in reality. That’s what the next few posts are about!

Webtrends.about.com define social media as the ‘interaction among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks’, the key word there being ‘interaction’.

This makes more sense when you break the term down into its constituent parts ‘social’ and ‘media’. This actually reminds me of a joke by The Goodies (remember them?) where they break down, inaccurately translate, and then define eisteddfod- ‘eistedd’ meaning ‘bored’, ‘fod’ meaning  ‘stiff’.

So before we’re bored stiff with definitions let’s push on.

Now we’re all pretty familiar with what the media is- radio, television, newspapers. All of these forms of media have limited ways of interacting. It’s more about them giving information and everyone else taking it in. Think ‘consumer media’.

Add the social component and we come back to that key word of ‘interaction’. As some clever person said regular media is a one way street. Social media is two way.

Now the good folk over at whatis.techtarget.com feel that the way the web is going the distinction between what is social media and everything else is going to become so increasingly blurred as to not actually matter anymore. The assumption of interaction will be everywhere. Every website links to Facebook, every online newspaper lets you post comments on every story, every picture can be Pinned.

And if this is the case why do so many musicians I’ve spoken to assume this-

SOCIAL MEDIA = FACEBOOK (+/- TWITTER) = WASTE OF TIME

Tune in next time to see if we can edge ever closer to finding out!