Social Media in the home - Responsible Parenting

Social Media are websites and applications for social networking. Business and academia have taken advantage of these applications to roll out their own programs. Social Media Marketing is the buzz word in marketing spheres. Some governments have also joined the Social Media band wagon with e-learning projects. Students can use Social Media to do group studies with the assistance of various online communities. Connectivity and mobility makes it possible for students to tackle a number of challenging aspects of their academic journey. However, smart phones, through which social media is accessed, can spell disaster if children are left to access them without any form of supervision. Children do share stories with their peers and educators will admit that story telling is a critical component in child development. But a story shared with the wrong audience can leave children vulnerable.

Social media networks can be a dangerous jungle that can inflict damage with long lasting consequences to both children and adults if not properly managed. In most if not all organisations, there are regulations on accessing social media during working hours. After hours, if one does not discipline themselves, social media can be a serious time waster. At school, children can be allowed to access academic applications which can aid their learning experience. What is accessed at school is guided and directed. Now, who is responsible for our children's activities on social media after school hours.

Responsible parenting requires that every parent be involved in their kids activities on social media. Being involved does not necessarily mean invading their privacy but giving guidance and direction. Facebook keep reminding us of content that they do not allow on their platform. But many times we see that very content appearing on our walls. I remember Twitter also ran a campaign against bullying. These are the dangers that are available to our kids as they stroll through social networks online.

Our kids will one time or the other be exposed to undesirable issues on social media such as nudity, pornography, prostitution, vulgar language, bullying and gambling  which are all addictive in nature. Our duty as parents is to let them know about these and how to avoiding them. As a parent, you are the child's first friend and they are bound to heed your advice. Whilst teachers and relatives have a role to play, the bigger part belongs to the parent. In most cases, you the parent would have facilitated access to social media for your own child, and therefore you ought to practice responsible parenting when it comes to your child's online behavior.

As a responsible parent, how have you helped your child with this critical social phenomenon? Should you need any assistance with a social media strategy for the home, school or business - do not hesitate to contact us @innovationsalef  Alef Innivations Social Media consult  

How Social Media disrupts SEO

Search Engine Optimization is cardinal for anyone who has a website. According to webopedia.com, "Search engine optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) -- including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines." Driving of traffic is literally dependent on search engines. Our involvement in the digital space is so that we can reach out to potential clients. Whilst search engines do explain how they go about ranking websites, everything happens behind the scenes and we have little influence over those processes. The least we can do is comply with their regulations and suggestions. Our sites ought to be presentable in terms of structure and ambiance, it should be easy to navigate through them.  

A lot has been said about whether being active in Social Media affects our Search Engine Optimization. It does not. However, being active in Social Media helps us take charge of driving traffic to our websites. Instead of relying on search engines to rank us, a process that takes place behind the scenes, we are able to drive traffic directly. Through Social Media we are able to transfer the popularity of our websites from being a behind-the-scenes activity to an activity right before us. All the friends and followers that we connect with, we can direct them to our website. There are several innovative ways of directing traffic to our website. A cardinal strategy will make our website the landing page for any campaign we do in our Social Media Networks. It is easy for one to just click a button that leads them straight to our website. Some of our campaigns can just be snippets in Social Media where we give a link to our website where the full campaign takes place.

Social Media can also be the best medium to campaign for clients to register for membership in our website. Various campaigns can be used to attract clients to register for membership. Members will be afforded different types of attractive benefits. As a condition to attaining membership, clients will provide us with contact details making it possible to communicate with them directly. Social proof is cardinal to our marketing strategy and we need a community of advocates, who rave about us taking a lead in advertising us through word of mouth. Through Social Media we then are able to disrupt SEO and take charge of making our website popular. However, this does not in anyway replace SEO as we will only reach out to those that we interact with through Social Media. There is still a number of potential customers out there who are not on any Social Media network and will rely on search engines to reach out to us. We still need to optimize our websites for search engines, both strategies should run concurrently and be a part of our digital marketing.  

Has Social Media helped popularize your website? Kindly share your experiences in the comments below. Should you need help with a robust Digital Marketing Strategy which incorporates Website Design, SEO and Social Media do not hesitate to contact us.