Revisiting Chapter 1

 Chapter one was a great introduction to the course. The key points we talked were the evolution of social media, social media as a marketing disruptor, the pros and cons of social media, metrics behind social media, social media marketing, the different types of media such as paid, earned, and owned, the skills gap with social media, and careers in social media marketing. 

Right off the bat we were informed how social media has evolved so much and so fast. The book had a great stat which explained that it took 19 days for the app Pokemon Go to reach 50 million users. It took airlines 68 years! This really explains how much social media has impacted society today. Around 60% of the entire population uses the internet with more than five billion online regularly. 

The chapter also talks about how much time people spend on social media per day, which is around seven hours. It has significantly altered the way people communicate with one another. Long gone are the days where you had to wait to talk to someone until you actually see them or come across their presence by accident while grocery shopping or something. We have complete access to get in touch with anyone we desire with just a few clicks here and a few clicks there.

I believe I wouldn't be the first to mention that social media is great and makes life much easier at times. On the contrary, it can be toxic. With the advantages come the disadvantages, especially from a business standpoint. The advantages are powerful, as social media certainly helps get your brand out there, helping with target audiences, and increasing website traffic. Some disadvantages are how hard it can be to find and hire the right people, lack of face-to-face communication, and the potential inappropriate behavior.

The last thing I will mention is paid, earned, and owned media. Paid media is an activity that a company pays for such as an advertisement on television. Earned media is one that a company earns such as press coverage or social media mentions. Someone outside of the company posting about a brand is also an example of earned media. Lastly, owned media is all of the activity a company owns. Their YouTube channel and Twitter page can be examples. 

Chapter one was very helpful and a good kickstart to this course as it provided a nice base and foundation to the material we learned in chapters two through five and also twelve.