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It’s Social Media Day! Celebrate Us and All Our Wonderful, Virtual Souls!

As someone who has been blogging for about half a second when compared to the overall Kuwaiti blogosphere in which some have been blogging for nearly a decade, let me tell you, in my expert opinion, what social media is and what part people like me play in it:

In a nutshell, social media is a virtual enterprise that takes advantage of the fact that, essentially, we all just want a space out there in the world that revolves completely around us.

Yes, this is the very fact of human nature which the gazillionaires behind Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Flickr and WordPress and every other social networking medium have found a way to tap into. In a world that is so centrally focused on celebrity and the need for attention, everyone wants to fancy themselves special enough for the spotlight. We want to feel like we can speak to the whole world and that they’re listening. To feel like we’re in touch with everything and everyone and can create a personal relationship with whomever we want at the click of a button.

This is something that I have no problem admitting about myself and, in fact, I blatantly stated it in the very first post I ever made on this blog. So, come on, don’t be shy! Embrace your inner Narcissus!

Now, here’s where the social media machine comes into play. You see, social media is in its purest form responsible for one thing: Connection.

Let’s take this humble little blog I’ve got here. I started this blog in July, took a 4 month vacation from all the non-posting I was doing, then came back in November and tried to do this thing right. I worked hard and made sure to post almost every single day for around 3 months, and yet my viewer rating was very poor. Naturally, I was a little de-motivated. All this hard work with little to no interaction made my little spot in the world-wide-web feel kind of worthless.

But then I made a Twitter page.

I thought, there’s no way I’ll ever know if my blog is worth reading if I don’t actually put it out under people’s noses. So I followed some fellow bloggers of whom I have been a long-time fan; I followed the people who’s opinions and insights actually mattered to me; and I followed businesses and companies in which I thought it would be in the blog’s interest to know about.

And then I interacted. I responded to a blogger here, an artist there, and basically anyone who I thought might actually be worth talking to in real life. Basically, I joined in the social mix.

In the matter of a few months after I’ve made a Twitter page and an Instagram account, I have seen many things turn around for this wee little blog and its ever humbled blogger. I’ve gotten to know (and even meet!) a good chunk of the Kuwaiti blogging community, I’ve found a way to stay on top of everything that ever happens anywhere, and, most importantly, I’ve found a way to share this extension of myself with so many new and fabulous readers.

Even better: I got to interact with my readers in a way that is instant, specific, and personal.

Thanks to the power of the social media machine the readership of this blog has increased by three-fold and, after speaking to and getting to know all these wonderful, virtual souls who have taken the time to read even a sentence of this tiny blog, I am honestly enjoying the ride a whole lot more. Experiencing that great exchange between so many amazing people is what has given me the confidence to make this OwlOlive.com, and its what gives me the motivation to keep on posting despite the hard work.

So, on Social Media Day I just want to say this: thank you, oh great Social Media Machismo. I grew out of you and now I am a part of you. So now I am going to celebrate you. And me. And all the other wonderful, virtual souls!

All my love! (And that up there is a video which the Kuwait Social Media Club has put together featuring the many voices of Kuwait’s social media machine, of which bloggers are definitely an important part)