You do not need to watch the news anymore because it comes to you

Posted on 1st Dec 2011 by Philip Holdsworth in Blog

Social media has had a profound effect on how we live our lives. But once again, it keeps on breaking barriers. A recent revelation has made me take my hat off to social media, specifically twitter, and say thank you for making my life easier.

It all comes down to how we receive news information. It’s changed. Now you can create your own bespoke news channel; follow the right people and they bring the news right to your laptop screen, tablet or smartphone, and most of the time it reaches these mediums before you see it on television or listen to it on the radio.

On transfer deadline day (the most exciting day as a English football fan), Twitter was going wild with gossip and rumours; all us followers had prime position viewing everything right before our eyes as it happened.

It’s the same with anything on Twitter. You purely follow what you’re interested in therefore you are designing your own personal news feed. I look down mine right now and know that I am not far from the most respected voices in the design and advertising world, and at the same time I also know what’s going on in the English press and if anything dramatic has happened in the sporting world.

What I am trying to say is that social media is there to make our lives easier, why don’t we just let it. If as a business you can adopt this idea, and train your followers to believe that they need to follow you for some reason or other. Whether that’s because you offer unrivalled advice in your sector or that you just provide interesting insightful tweets. In the fickle world of social media we only follow for a reason, so the people that are following you are purely interested in what you have to say; you have to make it worthwhile. If you manage a blog; what is the point in it? Why are you spending your time writing updates, you’re doing it because you want to inform and entertain people that are visiting your site, and you know what? That’s exactly what you need to do.

In effect, every single person on twitter is their very own news station. From your laptop or your smartphone you are providing the select group of followers a little insight into your world. The same applies to business. You don’t sell in the general sense of the word on Twitter and Facebook. You engage and communicate, and you just let the social world know what is going on within your company. You create trust behind your brand; if people trust you then they are more likely to buy from you.

We’re all interested in the Uprising because it provides us with intelligent, informative content and it makes people want to come back time and time again. Plus, in the process it has become a highly regarded hub of information and I am glad to be a part of it. Information and the news is the closest its ever been to us and we may as well you it to our advantage.

If you'd like to follow my little world on Twitter you can find me at @phil_hold.