By Dennis Toh
The social media has conquered our lives in a fast and furious way. It has infiltrated into all facets of our lives before we even know it.
Admit it, we are all Facebook addicts. We subconsciously log on to Facebook first thing in the morning and the last activity before we sleep, is to have a last look at the notification page.
Whatever it is, all of us have a stake to play in making Facebook a better social playground.
As we lead this 'Facebooking' lifestyle, let's study the various characters that exist in the Facebook world. One or two of the characters might resonate with you.
The 'Balanced user'
The balanced user access Facebook once every two to three days. He leads a hectic lifestyle and is involved in many social activities. He posts his updates once in a while, largely on his latest thoughts, updates and perhaps an event attended a couple of days ago.
He makes occasional comments on friends' status updates and disappears thereafter. He joins groups and fan page based on his interests and if he chance upon them.
The 'Silent Killer'
These are friends who don't utter a word on Facebook. If they do, then it will be something serious or thought-provoking. 'I can't stand the way Mr Lee preaches his stuff' or 'always sad to see guys standing in mrt waiting alone with flowers in hand. So embarrassing. Does it delight ladies to put them through this?'
People who are silent killers cannot have their character assessed on social media. The real identity of a silent killer is difficult to be determined due to the sporadic nature of their messages and frequency of updates.
The 'Complainant'
As the name implies, this is someone who complains, curses and swears about everything under the sun. Common sentences are 'I hate you', 'Arrrrgh, why is this happening', 'feels sooooooooo alone now' etc. These people inject a lot of negativity and pessimism into the social media environment.
The complainant uses the Facebook as a channel to vent their anger and frustrations. Get a life and turn the angst into something more positive.
The 'Business minded entrepreneur'
There are a lot of Facebook users who are using social media as a platform to promote themselves, their products and services. There are two ways of doing it - forming a group or creating a fan page. Both are equally effective as the objective here is to segment your catchment and to ensure that people who join your fan page are your possible target audience and the more fans you have, the bigger the net you will be casting for yourself.
I know of a renowned photographer who posts his photos and updates on his fan page - in a way promoting his work and reminding people about his services. A speech coach used his fan page to promote his latest book. A prominent business owner of a fashion chain has also used Facebook to communicate promotional details of her stall, her whereabouts, spiritual views and philosophies in life.
You can turn the social media into a market place filled with business transactions, networking and business ideas. It is how far you want to go.
The 'Opinion leader'
These are people who are early adopters and trendsetters in their respective fields. More often than not, the opinion leader should have more than 1,000 friends in the friend's list. And since reach is all about numbers, having more friends will translate to having more power and influence.
There are a few celebrities who are very active on Facebook with a friends list running into the thousands.
Some bloggers also have a very strong following and are powerful opinion leaders.
Opinion leaders will share views and elicit several responses, whether good or bad. Their posts engage people and will garner responses due to the relationships built over time.
Some strategies used by opinion leader include 'retweeting quotes used by prominent figures or churning personal thoughts that are controversial and though-provoking.
The strategy is to evoke responses using out of the box ideas and seeking participation from other users.
The 'Gamer'
Gamers are people who don't like to express themselves but the only activity they love is gaming. Games that are popular amongst gamers are FarmVille, Zoo world and Café world, to name a few. Gamers do comment and communicate once in a while. But with most gamers, once their gaming mode is switch on, you can hardly find them.
The 'Tweet-er'
The Tweet-ers are users who like to share friends' links, videos or updates to their own friends. Tweet-ers generally do not generate their own content - they usuallyshare 'third party' contents with others. Be sure to alert them especially if you see any scam links or viral links spreading from their profile - they've probably been the first ones to fall victim to clickjacking scams.
The 'Cam whore'
The cam whore is a person who likes to post profile pictures as status updates. He or she likes to upload nice makeover pictures and perhaps group pictures taken over a meal or outing.
This user probably has at least 50 photo albums with tons of pictures uploaded. To the cam whore, pictures paint a thousand words.
The cam whore is likely an attention seeker as well. He or she will post about everything. ' i am eating ice cream', 'Avatar is a great show', 'love my sunday', etc.
The 'Social Media butterfly'
The social media butterflies are extroverts who will initiate a conversation with you. These are people who go around adding strangers as friends, initiate chats, and make friends along the way.
In their status updates, you will often see 'so and so is now friends with xxx and 25 other people'. In social media, our natural defenses are down and we are more open to making friends with people we do not know.
When a social butterfly add you on Facebook, do review the authenticity and sincerity based on his message to you, profile pictures and whatever info you can draw from. Ignore their add if you are not comfortable.
As an extrovert or social butterfly, you do need to be careful of your image on social networks. While it is good to be friendly, some people might be put off by your actions.
The 'Campaigner'
There are people who lobby certain causes via Facebook. Some causes include 'Save animals with just a click. Muilee.com donates to SPCA Singapore'. Basically these are people who have a passion for certain causes and aspire to make a difference by rallying people to join them. Be a change agent by campaigning causes which you strongly believe in.
These social media characters are interesting psychographic attributes which you can study in the Facebook environment.
Whichever character you choose to be, remember that social media is just part of our lives and we should not take it too seriously. Use social media to strengthen relationships and keep up with friends whom you have lost contact with.
Make a clear distinction between real and virtual life and lead a healthy lifestyle by staying connected with your real life friends, family and loved ones.
A 24-year-old man from Albany, New York was sentenced Thursday to 13 years in prison for raping four of the hundreds of teenage