I work as an optometrist on a private sector, mostly in two stores where people come to buy spectacles. I perform eye exams, contact lens fittings, sell spectacles and communicate with our partners. In my previous work, I sometimes I educated our partners like health care professionals or public audience.

In my previous working environment our organization level communication to public on social media was limited to public relations team. They communicate through Facebook for example. Marketing team is responsible for advertising on media and social media. Big companies function that way and it is a part of their organization level management. As a private person I have to think what kind of image I represent in social media, for example.

In work I use Whats app for team level daily communication. Some educational meetings are held with Teams. I handle patient information every day as I am performing eye exams. I have to write patient document of every eye exam I perform and my prescriptions will be transferred to Kanta. Connection need strong identification, so I use my personal Sote card, which has a microchip and can be logged in with my personal code. Sometimes customers send me email. I may reply, but I cannot write any patient information on emails. When I am selling spectacles to customers, I use software for making orders and payments. I also communicate with partners through their applications to order for example spare parts to frames.

I found out few interesting social networking applications, which I briefly comment.

ASANA

Asana has a very colourful and interesting layout compared to Microsofts services. Asana is a commercial platform which can be used for teamwork. Private person may use Asana also, for free. Private person can use Asana for managing personal projects and data storaging, for example. Asana may help private person as a student with multiple tasks to handle things. This could be good application for me, because I work and study both. I would not storage any of my personal information on Asana, though.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn website informs that it is ”the world’s largest professional network with more than
900 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide”. LinkedIn is established officially 2003. LinkedIn is currently owned by Microsoft. LinkedIn`s vision is to ”Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce”. The mission of LinkedIn is simple: connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. According to LinkedIn`s web page they help hiring, educating and social selling. Everything begans with right connections. LinkedIn offers help to capitalise social selling.

Personally, I do not have a LinkedIn profile. I have been able to find a job myself or in two cases the right job has found me. Good in this LinkedIn is that social networks are good. These kind of applications help people to connect. If you have a profile on this service, you can easily check persons current education, working history  and interests beforehand, if you are going to meet this person. We have to remember that LinkedIn is what a person wants to present of himself to public. Profile may look fancy but real person`s acts tell something else.

PINTEREST

Pinterest is a platform where you can search new ideas and present your own ideas and thoughts with pictures. It offers a commercial companies a platform to advertise its products and analyses peoples behavior on Pinterest, of course.

BLOGGER

Blogger is a platform, where a person can publish blogs. I have sometimes read people`s blogs, if the blog has touched my heart somehow. Blogging is nice way to express oneself. I find travelling blogs interesting. If someone writes about some life event, which has touched oneself deeply, I find reading that kind of blogs very comforting if I am in a same kind of life situation. But there is the other side of the blogs. Advertising and co-operation with commercial companies and blogging-no thanks, I´ll skip the blog.

OPEN BADGES

I found this site interesting. It is a place where you can get a certified badge, a proof, of your digital skills.

WHAT APPLICATIONS WOULD I PREFER

If I were a entrepreneur and I would own a optical store, I should use social media for communicating with customers and advertising, too. My business should have Facebook and Instagram, at least. I am familiar with both and I could advertise in that platform, too. My target-audience would probably be adults. Many adults use Facebook and Instagram.  My business should have web pages of it’s own. Thorough web pages a customer would have a possibility to make appointments. Web pages would contain spesific information of my business. Daily communication with team members would happen with Whats app. If I would provide the content to social media myself, I should have good media skills like taking and editing pictures and video clips and writing. I should have an artistic eye-how to create attempting posts. Probably my posts would not be that good. Creating web pages needs also good skills, both visual and creativity skills and I do not have them. I should also need to renew and update your web pages regularly. I have to keep passwords in a safe place and create strong passwords to prevent any damages.

People are active in social media. Young people probably use different applications like Tik Tok, Jodel and Snapchat, I think. Usually people purchase new pair of spectacles every second or third year, so social media would be a place where to keep up in people’s minds. If you are active in social media can help people to remember that your store exists. With social media you can pass the information of new products and events.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Some people use social media very tendentiously. I mean that if they feel insulted, they want to get attention and some will defame the service provider on purpose. This is sad, because one`s personal matters cannot be discussed publicly. Ther is always two sides of the story. People should think who is the real victim. Small businesses usually will do everything to keep customers happy, because people share their experiences with other people.

Social media can give you the feeling that you are  connected to other people even if you would stay at home all day. People can express themselves on social media. People can join groups to get very specific information about their interests, sell and buy things, get support, follow people’s and celebrity’s lives. Social media is very addictive. Getting ”likes” is addictive too. People may improve their selfies and present their lives more interesting than their life in reality world truly is. Many surveys have proven that being active in social media may affect your self esteem, usually  negative way. Young people are in danger if they spend too much time in social media. Social media may cause depression, too. Dark side of the social media is that the sexual predators use same applications as young people do. Behind the profile may be whoever.

SELF EVALUATION

This topic made me think how much more work I should do if I would work as an entrepreneur. There is available lots of different applications to help your daily life and working life, too, if needed. Using social media and all those applications requires a plenty of time and good skills. I do not want to sit on a computer or with smartphone in my hand all day.

Last week I read about a survey, how social media use affects human brains. Watching TikTok videos cause a huge strain to human brains. People may think that watching videos may be refreshing, but the truth is that brains get tired and people feel exhausted and tired, too. Spending time outdoors, meeting friends, reading a good book or watching a good movie is better option for people’s brains.