The Journey of Social Media Consumer to Creator

Hello, I’m Lindsay and I am a Facebook-aholic.

I love Facebook. I am not a phone person what-so-ever, so Facebook provides a way for me to keep in contact with my close friends and family without taking up my whole day. I have a huge family, a plethora of friends, and a bunch of acquaintances I may have met once, but enjoy keeping up with and bantering with over posts.

That is what draws us to social networking.

Some say that it takes the true personal aspect out of keeping in contact with someone, but I couldn’t disagree more. Because of the easy, fast way to connect with someone, I have kept in better contact with people I would have lost track of.

I have been a part of births, weddings, and deaths which I would not have even been privy to if not for Social Media.

Likes, my likes, what do I like?

I love seeing the “likes” and favorite things that my fellow Facebookers share.

I have discovered some of my favorite bloggers, products, stores, companies, and local events just by glancing through my news feed.

Sure, the advertisements on the side bar I try to ignore like the plague (gleaming with satisfaction that those advertisers didn’t reel me in) but even those ads often feature something I just have to check out.

Case in point: My current mission and obsession with winning a pair of boots on Country Outfitter’s weekly give-away.

I love boots. LOVE THEM. My all time favorite are cowgirl boots. I fancy myself something of a hippie cowgirl. One day, Country Outfitters featured an ad on the side bar with a picture of some Lucchese boots I had my eye on. I did something I hardly ever do…I CLICKED ON THE AD.

What I discovered was an amazing store that was running weekly giveaways of their favored boots. To enter, I just had to “like” and share the page. I only do this for products and entities I really love. I try not to inundate my friends with posts that they may not want.

What happened after that was truly amusing.

Over the next few days I noticed more and more of my friends “liking” and entering the give-a-way as well. It was fun to see my fellow Facebookers try their luck at winning those boots.

Although, if one of my friends would have won them, I probably would have hunted them down, pushed them over and stolen the boots off their feet.
It is only fair.

I didn’t win the boots that week or since then despite entering weekly and watching more and more of my friends trying as well.

In fact, I don’t know if I have ever known anyone personally that has won something like that.

So does that mean there really are boots being given away? I have no idea, but, by god, I will keep trying!

If nothing else, I have a shopping cart full and ready at Country Outfitters in case anyone wants any Christmas gift ideas for me…hint, hint.

Jumping into the frigid waters of social media…

Although, it doesn’t stop at Facebook.

Each day I find time and joy in clicking on the Yahoo! home page and clicking through their top featured stories.

I read about national news, celebrity weddings and births, and watch popular YouTube videos.

Although, what gets me every time is an article stating, “Top 10 beauty products every woman must have” or “How to get celebrity hair” or “Shedding extra weight made simple!” Every one of those articles don’t tell you HOW to get the results but WHAT you should buy to achieve your hearts desire.

Without fail I find at least 3 products I must get next time I am at the store or just click a new tab on my browser, pull up Amazon, and the product is at my door step in 2 days.

Lets not even discuss Amazon. Oy vey!

…or Pinterest. If I don’t know what to wear, I will just log on, search through women’s fashion, and get some inspiration for the day…and fill up my Amazon shopping cart or wish list just a little more :)

As far as Twitter, I never found a use for it until recently when I was exposed to the back end of creating posts and advertisements for companies.

It felt as though it was mainly a platform for celebrities, networks, and companies.

It’s beginning to be revealed to me what a great marketing and social tool it can be.

My question now is how to get the general internet users to utilize twitter.

Becoming A Well-Versed Social Media Adventurer

I have come to rely and count on these various sites to guide me to new and interesting products and wares.

Even if there is some cynicism and mistrust to advertisements and obvious suggestive posts, they are still the primary way I discover new and interesting things.

I may have a cupboard full of hardly used and less than stellar products, but more often than not, I have found some lifelong favorites.

In the case of the boots, I had a moment of realization that just one person, me, had made an impact for that company.

It is somewhat empowering that the consumer can take part in expanding sales and knowledge of a product, just because of social media.

What is truly exciting is now stepping into the role of creator of these posts and to watch what can happen when just the right words and pictures speak to the public.