The document discusses various challenges related to social media use. It provides background on the rise of social media, from early platforms like bulletin boards to modern giants like Facebook and Twitter. Statistics on current social media user numbers are presented. The ways corporations are using social media and engagement levels are outlined. Ten opinions from the public on social media challenges are listed, such as information overload, ethical issues, difficulty measuring ROI, and maintaining engagement. The document proposes topics for debate around the need for social media training programs and platforms collaborating on curriculum.

1. DEBATE ON
SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGES
By
Hammad Siddiqui
http://hammadsiddiquiblog.com
Email: hammadlinks@gmail.com

2. WE ARE CONNECTED!
 Individuals and companies are increasingly engaged
in social media activities. Some are using it for
advocacy, some for branding, but some still think it as
a medium for youth to explore friendships, others feel
it is an excellent medium for engaging people in
debate, keep friendships and relationships alive.
 The fact of the matter is that more and more people
are now using social media for one reason or
another. Some have concerns and some are
confused. Perhaps this is the due to various age
brackets, education level and language barriers,
demography and digital connectivity.

3. EARLY DAYS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
 Bulletin Board Systems
Followed by:
 CompuServe
 America Online (AOL),
Followed by:
 Lycos
 Altavista
 Dogpile

4. FIRST REVOLUTION
Yahoo and Yahoo Groups
&
classmates.com and sixdegrees.com

5. REAL THRUST STARTED IN 2000
 Launch of Linkedin
 MySpace in 2003
 and Facebook in 2004

6. REAL REVOLUTION STARTED IN 2008
 Twitter
 Youtube
 Blogs
 Google+
 ……………….and many more

7. STATISTICS ON SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
 Facebook: 955 million active users
 Twitter: over 500 million users
 LinkedIn: 174 million members
 Google Plus: 170 million
 Tumblr: 69 million blogs
 Instagram: 80 million users
 Pinterest: over 11 million registered users

8. CORPORATE USAGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
 In 2012 the Fortune Global 100 are mentioned 10.4 million times per
month with Twitter transmitting 5.6 million of those conversations. This
represents a growth in Twitter conversations of over 700% in just 2
years.
 Corporate YouTube channels are averaging over 2 million views.
 On Twitter 79 percent of companies are engaging via retweeting and
@mentions.
 On Facebook 70 percent of brands are are responding to comments on
their walls and timelines.
 In the last twelve months Google+ and Pinterest have entered the social
networking ecosystem. Companies have quickly embraced these
channels with nearly 50 percent of the Fortune Global 100 on Google+
brand pages and 25 percent on Pinterest.

9. FOLLOWING ARE 10 PUBLIC OPINIONS ON
SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGES
 Information overload is a major issue for me. Too much is floating on
social media which ultimately confuses the decision making process.
Also I am facing a major challenge in monetizing my social media.
There are so many options; I am unable to find the one that is best
suited for me?
 I think, the biggest challenge with social media is how to be ethical.
There no control on spreading rumors, abusing and threatening.
 Biggest challenge - many companies are using it and they have no idea
why. Just because it is 'hot' or their competitors are on it. The biggest
challenge in my opinion is educating the market to treat social media as
just another marketing channel.
 I would say that the biggest challenge is the growing number of social
media platforms. Off course, Facebook is the most popular one, but
Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ and now Pinterest!

10. CHALLENGES CONT….
 Social media faces several challenges - most of them revolving around
the "So what?" question.
- We're on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn. So what?
- We have a blog. So what?
- We have 1,000 likes and 2,000 Twitter followers. So what?
- We have a social media 'strategy'. So what?
 For companies there are three major social media challenges. First is to
decide when to start their social media activities. Second is to decide on
things that they should not be doing on social media and the third one is
to decide on which social media platforms are relevant to them.
 The biggest challenge of social media is to engage my followers in
productive discussion. They all have their timeline that might not match
with the time when I update my social media!

11. CHALLENGES CONT….
 In my opinion, the biggest challenge for businesses to calculate
Return on Investment (ROI). A number of businesses are using
Facebook and Twitter for promotion, but they are unable to do the
cost benefit of using social media.
 I think social media is too time-demanding. It is almost additive
and keeps us engaged in responding to tweets that are not really
important and can easily be ignored.
 As a large company, fake followers, and fake hits are the major
cause of concern for us. We have recently started using social
media for promoting our brand. But we are still not sure if we are
getting any real benefits out of our social media activities.
Perhaps it’s a relatively long-term investment!

12. I WOULD LIKE TO DEBATE:
 Is there a need for an online forum for
conducting social media trainings?
 Will various social media companies
collaborate in developing a curriculum for
imparting social media training programs?
 Is there enough appetite for a commercial
venture for training social media on common
user and professional user level?
 What is next in Social Media?