“It is our nature to be social”, true, and I could not help but wonder how social media has given a whole new meaning to the word “social”. It has opened doors to meet new people, make bigger communities, and most importantly provided a platform to talk your mind out. With the advent of Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and countless other social networks, least have we realized how this has metamorphosed us into digital beings.

Last week as I spoke at the NASSCOM Emerge Friday 2.0 and while sharing my experience on the Causeaneffect.org NGO initiative, it dawned onto me that social media has always been around, only its importance has accentuated in the last few years. Attending conferences all over the world and presenting the case of social media and the experiences of iridium Interactive, it was pretty apparent that social media has no barriers across countries, it is a unified digital revolution that has been transforming our lives, only under different names since more than a decade. How has it changed our lives has not been introspected yet.

Here are the some of the reasons how social media has changed our lives and why we should make the most of it.

1.       It has made us more social, we know a lot more people than we would a few years back.

2.       Larger networks- college friends, school friends, people we meet at social occasions, relatives, and friends met though friends, this used to be our typical networks, social media has exponentially increased our networks.

3.       More vocal about your thoughts- Forums, blogs, tweets, status updates are allowing us to speak our mind, wondered why? Because we know we will be heard by some or many.

4.       Enhances PR skills- you do not have to take PR lessons to talk to people on social media.

5.       Converse with like minded people on these social networks.

6.       Get in touch with thought leaders, influencers and even people who inspire you.

7.       Reconnects with old connections- People you have lost in touch with since a decade can be traced from any corner of the world (provided they are on these networks themselves) on the wide world of social media.

8.       Your virtual network is always ready to help. All it takes is to put forward a question and there you will have experts recommending the best to you.

9.       Ease of companies to get in touch with their consumers and vis a vis.

10.   Looking for a job or looking to hire someone, your professional network helps you find the best fit.

Social media brings out the extrovert you. All that matters in social media is your network, communities, connections and finally your discussions with them. Social media has reduced distances both for individuals and companies.

Have you seen a change in your social profile by social media, do post what you have gained from social media.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

Image Source-Rosaura Ochoa from Flickr

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