Social Media... Still A Haven Of Opportunities

IT is aptly described by many as a growing phenomenon but when the social media made it debut with the pioneering work of Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of facebook on February 4, 2004, not many people took notice but six years on, it has caught the imagination of the world, almost going viral with such other platforms as twitter, twoo and badoo joining the fray. But not with its attendant positive and negative effect on the society, particularly the youths who have latched on it like a leech.
A United Nations Youth Ambassador nominee, David Ishaya Osu, commenting on the importance of the media said, “social media, particularly Facebook was simply for chat, meet new friends and old ones. And that was the initial intent attached to my joining the social media train.’’

Networking is quite useful in the growth of business. However, it is not until you have a business you wish to develop that you could be in need of networking. David a participant at the just concluded Commonwealth Youth Programme tagged ‘Discovering Young Leaders Programme 2012 explained that while his initial aim was basically to chat, a change soon came.

“The conceptual shift came, especially when I dived into serious writing just few months after my subscription to Facebook. I began to meet with fellow writers, both those ahead and those behind. And my concept of Facebook settled on ‘mentorship’ and ‘networking’; which is to fertilize my writing business and travel around the worlds I cannot go physically” He explained.

Though David termed his former understanding of these media has “initial”, some are still stuck at this juncture. Ibrahim Ayinla a student doesn’t see any other use for these media apart from chatting with his family and friends and meeting people. Five years after he discovered these media to which he mentioned about five, he inquired simply with “like what?” when he was asked if he was aware about the various opportunities they could present.

But many have taken to swindling and dispossessing others of their valuables using these media. Maximization of opportunities is the language. Addiction to the unimportant aspect is the error. Being stuck to your screen for over four hours is even in itself a gross misuse of the facility and your time. Dedicating your time to exploring opportunities, which will come from right networking should be your concern.

For adventurous people who need a way or an outlet to express themselves, blogs are quite cheap to have, however, the bone of contention and worries should be the content you are about to share with people, said Arinola Olakanmi, a manager at Campus Digest, an online magazine for Nigerian universities.

“The basic thing is to define what you want to do with it, you need to clarify what your purpose is, and ask yourself, do you just want to do it for fun? Because if you are serious with it, you need to identify your target, you need to be sure of the audience you want to capture; you need to be sure of the content you want to market, you need to define what you want to do, if you want to own a blog, it might not cost you anything,” he said.

For people who think these media should not be in existence at all due to their increasing aiding of crime rate, they have a score to settle with Olakanmi who insisted that though they have their vices, the social media is a farmland of opportunities. Aside from supplementing the traditional print media in the recently started online newspapers, employment opportunities also abound.