Social media has grown immensely over the last few years. The internet has introduced several social media platforms, from doing a single text to running your business. The most famous social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The power and benefits of social media are ever-growing. Millions of people as of the year 2021 have their main source of income emerging from social media. Undoubtedly, one can gain information, resources, do online shopping, and so more, but social media has also negatively affected society. Since excess of everything is bad, the same goes for social media. Using it more than you need leads to unnecessary activities that waste time.

Everything is supposed to have a positive effect until sometimes it is used negatively. Let's discuss how you can use social media positively, hence the pros.

Pros of Social Media

Connect with People

No matter how far we go in terms of technology, connectivity will stay on top of the list. You can connect with anyone from anywhere in the world with your social media account. It's so easy now to meet new people, share your experiences and learn from others. Moreover, you can effectively advertise your business or account by interacting with your followers.

Get Quality education

link-up with your fellow students and teachers using social media. You can share online books, documents, and loads of different kinds of files. You can follow online teachers who can help you enhance your knowledge about your field.

Promoting Your Business

Whether your business is online or offline, you can reach great success by promoting it on social media with effort and consistency. Like Facebook algorithm supports you to present and organize your posts to gain effective traffic and help you do smart marketing. Moreover, promoting on social media is not expensive, unlike traditional means. Besides providing information on your business products or services, post engaging content that your audience can relate to or benefit from.

Spread Awareness

Social media is a wonderful platform to spread awareness about an issue the world is facing or inspire others to live a certain way. With a single search, you can enhance your personal and professional lives. Additionally, people can use it for a noble cause, like promoting social welfare activities and donations for needy people.

Social media platforms need to stop encouraging hostile content that promotes hate and bullying on other creators. This Nextdoor inclusive sheds some light on the topic and shows how the platform, Nextdoor, battles such issues.

Get the Latest Updates

You can get the latest updates and information when following your favorite brand account or a celebrity news account. Get updated whenever there is a holiday sale coming up, or get notified on your favorite item being restocked. There are many more updates that you can get, like the latest happenings in the world. Moreover, you can check the facts with a little more research.

How We Can Make Social Media a Safe and Inclusive Space

Reach Out to the Community

Asking folks in the community how they feel about your posts and listening to suggestions will allow you to build a trusting, safe atmosphere and make them feel involved.

It's better to do this yourself rather than ask another person to put warnings on posts or determine if certain content is inappropriate and distressing for some people.

Prioritize Positive Representation

Representation matters a lot more than you might think. From a marketing perspective, it is a pretty basic practice that marketers use influencers and celebrities to relate their audience with their own products and services.

But for you to avoid unequal representation, it's necessary to amplify diverse groups and voices on your social platforms. Representation isn't just about externally displaying good connections in content; ensuring that the voices in your organization are heard and included in the conversation is essential.

Utilize Accessibility Tools

Some social media platforms have helpful built-in features like the hashtags that allow you to search for specific content on Instagram, a similar example of content tags on Tumblr, and the ability to block posts from certain individuals that most platforms hold.

There are even official accounts managed by these platforms that are solely devoted to updating and informing its users about new or improved accessibility features. Following such accounts will let you stay informed about the options available for users to share with your community.

Promote Good Practices

Always look for methods to improve and add more to your safe, accessible social media space. A great way to do exactly that is by blocking posts to individuals that might be susceptible to its contents or find it offensive. You could also set content warnings for content that might include violence, blood, and gore subjects.

To go a step further, specify the warning in your content. For instance, although topics about childhood sexual abuse may not affect some people, other forms of sexual assault might trigger them. When you create content, be careful to follow the best practices for inclusivity.