Fredi Magazine Special Digital Edition 2017 | Page 11

THIS IS
SOCIAL
In newsrooms and boardrooms, in strip malls and grocery stores, there is a whole
new set of employees with job descriptions that involve social media strategy, social
media marketing, or digital community management. It’s become so commonplace
that job boards are brimming with these roles.
On any given day, these people, myself includ-
ed, post to Facebook, Snapchat, to Twitter and
Pinterest, and countless other digital platforms
to build the online presence of the brands they
represent. It’s a relatively new phenomenon, but
it’s one that signals the solidification of social me-
dia’s place in our workplaces and public spheres.
My job didn’t exist ten years ago. There was no
language to talk about social media “strategy,” no
job description for social media “management”
or “curation.” Today, that talk is everywhere.
Let me back up and tell you about what I do:
I am the social media editor for BuzzFeed
Canada, digital news and entertainment media
company. My job entails getting into the weeds
of social media management. On any given day,
I make dozens of decisions about how you might
interact with our content. What headline are you
most likely to share? What image are you more
likely to click? Are you more likely to share this
link in the morning or the evening? Based on
experience and analytics, I make editorial choices
designed to – if I do my job right – make you
more likely to engage with our posts.
Myself, and the people who do work like mine,
carefully curate content tailored to grow social
media audience. Few businesses and organiza-
tions can get away with ignoring this – most are
rewarded for active presence. The personal and
social impacts of digital platforms have far out-
paced all expectations. So how did we get here?
Facebook has only been around for 13 years.
Twitter’s a bit younger; it recently turned 11.
Instagram is younger still – only seven years
old. Despite their young age, the influence of
these platforms and the ones that followed in
their wake has been staggering. As their reach
skyrocketed (Facebook is closing in on 2 billion
monthly users. Billion.), so has their influence.
The rise of social media platforms heralded a
new age on the internet. Before Facebook, the
search was the thing. Though many tried to
index the internet, Google won that competi-
tion handily. The thought was: as the World
Wide Web (www) grows, people will need reli-
able search engines to navigate its hundreds
of millions of pages. Don’t know what you
need? Type it in, and a search engine will give
you the relevant parts. Search was meant to
help you cut through the noise. It also made
life easy for advertisers: display your ad at the
top of a keyword search, and it’s a sure bet
you’ll get people interested in your product.
Perfect, right?
Enter social media. Suddenly, our relationships
began to catch up to search as the way we find
content online. At its simplest, the idea is this: if
someone is in your personal network, they likely
share some of your interests, so you probably
inhabit similar corners of the internet. Whether
you’re interested in continental philosophy or
high fashion, you probably have friends who
have some of the same interests as you. So as
you scroll on Facebook, content you relate to
comes to you passively, pre-selected and posted
by your friends. Along with searching for con-
tent, you now have a new medium: the power
of your organic social network.
fredi digital 2017 •
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