Chapter 1

As I stated in my previous blog, for my social media class, I am not only supposed to blog once, but twice a week. My first blog will be a review of a film/television series, and the second one will be about a chapter from the Stukent textbook the class was assigned. 

The section of chapter one that stuck out the most to me was "The Social Media Skills Gap". In the book, Michelle Charello, the author, states that "the industry is in agreement that the current workforce lacks the true knowledge to help businesses tap into the potentials of social media." This is a very common line of thinking for people in high positions of a business. They feel that hiring a young person in the role of social media coordinator could increase profits and make their company better known. However, as discussed by Charello, a very important factor that many people do not think about, is just because someone knows how to use social media, it does not mean they know how the algorithms work on the company's website of choice, and it does not mean they know how to make a company popular on social media platforms.

While many young professionals may know who the popular influencers are, they may not understand why said influencer is popular. They may have reasons for liking that individual creator, but there was a lot of work behind the scenes to get that young professional to see that specific creator. There are many factors that determine a content creator's success, and many that determine a company's success on social media platforms.

Some companies may not have good enough equipment to make a competent YouTube or TikTok video. Some companies may not have funny people writing their Tweets. Some companies just may not be compatible with the social media formula, which is ok. Believe it or not, cable companies are still very popular, and commercials or ads on YouTube may end up bringing in more sales than a social media presence. There are YouTube influencers, such as MrBeast, who's videos typically garner around 50 million views each. A sponsored slot in one of those videos could do a company wonders. While it's not nearly the same viewership, MSNBC still manages to pull in a million or so distinct viewers, and Fox News somehow manages to pull in the same amount, if not more in some cases, as MSNBC. 

Social media companies should probably attempt to have some type of online presence, but doing sponsored ads on YouTube videos or even basic television commercials may end up giving the company a better outcome. Wendy's has an amazing Twitter account, but now every fast food company is trying to copy them, which has backfired immensely amongst generation z audiences. 

According to the chapter, there is a huge market for social media coordinators at the moment. I am conflicted. On one hand, it creates a bunch of cool jobs for people who are fresh out of college. On the other, a social media presence may not draw in as many viewers as a sponsored spot on a popular YouTube video or cable. 

It may not be entirely unwarranted, however, but colleges with social media programs should be teaching how the algorithm works (or, at least how the professor understands it to work). Although, the process of how to create good content should be top priority in these classes. A social media minor should not just include classes on how to write well, but they should also consist of classes of how to film a video. How to light scenes properly, how to know if your audio sounds nice, how to know if the phone being used to record does not do so in terrible quality. There should be classes on photoshop, what makes a good YouTube thumbnail that performs well, how to utilize the tags feature on YouTube, how to make sure your TikTok shows up in the for you page, etc., etc.. Most importantly, though, students should be taught that story is king. 

There should always be a reason for a particular piece of content to exist, always. If a company does not understand that, they will have zero growth on social media.