I use digital media mostly on my personal time for entertainment purposes. I have an account with Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Most of the time I will use my social media accounts to ‘pass the time’. 

Sites/applications I visit most often:

1. Facebook- On this site, users have the ability to express themselves and share their thoughts or opinions, post pictures &/or videos, and even share/tag their friends in funny memes. I spend most of my down time scrolling on Facebook and seeing what my friends are posting to their newsfeed. Typically, when I am on Facebook, it is to check out one of the funny memes that my closest friends would tag me in, if the meme relates to me or my life, or theirs.
2. Instagram- While on this application, users have the ability to post pictures &/or videos to their page. Although similar to Facebook, the only difference is on Instagram, people cannot post written statuses. Preferably, I enjoy using Instagram more than Facebook, as the ‘explore page’ on Instagram is generated based on photos you like. For example, if most of the pages I follow or photos/videos I like are of airplanes, chances are my explore page will be filled with similar photos/videos based on my interests.
3. Snapchat- On this application, users can share pictures with their friends that will disappear once the picture or video is viewed by their friends. Users could also post photo and videos to be viewed on their stories by their friends, for a full twenty-four-hour period from the time the picture or video is posted. You also have the ability to keep a ‘streak’ going with friends. This means that you and your friends make it a point to send a photo or video to one another each and every day, and once you begin your streak, a number will appear next to your friend’s name to indicate how long the streak has lasted for, along with the fire/flames emoji which will accompany the number of streaks you have with your friends. I spend most of my time on this application, keeping up with my streaks with friends.

Positive Reactions from using these social media platforms:

I typically have never encountered any negative reactions from using any of the social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat. However, I have actually had some positive reactions from using these social media platforms, snapchat specifically. I admire the quick response you receive from their customer support team whenever you reach out for assistance. As mentioned above, snapchat offers you the option to have what is referred to as ‘streaks’ with your friends. Basically, keeping tab of how many days you make it a point to send a ‘snap’ to the same friends. Well, if you miss a day and forget to send a picture or video to your friends, you can risk losing your streak. This happened to my friend and I, once before, when we lost our streak after already having a streak for more than three-hundred days, after forgetting to send our snaps on just one day. After reaching out to snap chat customer support, in less than an hour, they put back our streak. Their customer service team responds quickly and always willing to help.

Facebook or Instagram?:

I find myself spending more time on Instagram than I do on Facebook. I would rather scroll through Instagram and see pictures and videos of which my friends/followers are posting opposed to being on Facebook and reading those gloomy posts from my friends whom are having a bad day. However, I do enjoy Facebook specifically for their games that users could play on, which is offered through the application.

Receiving emails for Facebook, Instagram & Snapchat:

My favorite part about all three social media platforms is that I do not get any advertisement or spam emails. The only time I receive any emails is through the security features the platforms offer. If I change my password, or log in from a device that I never previously used, I will then receive an email indicating exactly that.

Social Media & Marketing Today:

Companies today are using social media platforms as a marketing tool for advertising their brand, products and services. Businesses have the opportunity to promote their product and services through advertisements that appears on all users’ newsfeeds, which is ideal because people will then become familiar with the product and services offered by these businesses, and the chances of people then visiting these businesses direct website through an advertisement on their newsfeed will increase. Ideally businesses should social media as a way to advertise their product and services.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.