EDITORIAL: Put social media to good use

Young business owners were recently encouraged to put social media to good use, to market and promote their products and services.

This key piece of advice came recently from Dr. Ramona Archer-Bradshaw of the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College. At the time, she was delivering a presentation to Business Studies students of the Parkinson Memorial Secondary School, who were gathered at the Hilton Hotel for a Marketing Training Seminar, hosted by the school’s Business Department. Dr. Archer-Bradshaw stressed that the youth there should focus on some key marketing objectives, as they try to build their brand. And indeed, it was good advice to give in this time and age, where social media can be used for so many negative things rather than positive. Her advice to those young and youthful entrepreneurs was to learn all they could about social media, so as to use it to their advantage. In essence, to put it to good use.

The featured speaker told the attentive budding business owners, to make their brand the brand of choice for customers via the use of social media, to offer customer satisfaction by ensuring that the concerns of their customers are heard and addressed, to offer customer loyalty by going above and beyond to please customers, to reduce their marketing costs to save on capital and to also work to increase their market share, given the competitive nature of business.

“Incorporate social media into your business. Let social media work for you,” she admonished.

Now there are so many young people out there with good business ideas, but some of them lack the know-how and others the gumption to turn that idea into enterprise. But as we are seeing from the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation’s (BEF) $20 Challenge, there are youth, once given the chance, the resources and some assistance, that can use what little they have to generate revenue-making enterprises. And with social media being what it is, if used correctly, we can see more of our youth doing great things in the business world.

That said, there are other young individuals who may not be entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial minded, and they may opt to work for someone instead. These youth however should be cautious about how they use social media on the job as well. Some young persons often spend a lot of time on the Internet perusing Facebook and Instagram and sending text messages on WhatsApp and at times, what they are posting is nothing uplifting or anything to boost them in the job market. Young people therefore should refrain from posting negative things on social media sites, and instead, see how they can leverage social media to their advantage.

There must be something that you are passionate about, that you can use social media for, to advance yourself. Some young persons love dance and drama and they may post some of their performances online. Who knows? A job or opportunity may await them in the cultural industries. Others love cooking and baking. Who knows? Perhaps you may have an opportunity to display your talents for your parish or your country. Perhaps you are into sports and you do it well. A national team may pick up on your skills. The idea, whatever you do, is to use social media to leverage your talents, skills and abilities in your chosen field. Don’t just use social media to forward the negatives, but youth, please put social media to good use.

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