Social media is a force, a huge force and the wave is only just beginning. From Facebook, to Twitter there are millions of people across the world speaking to each other in a way that couldn’t have been contemplated 10 years ago.

The world is a social place, and the world has just reduced in size due to video, internet, mobile phones, and social media.

I am an excited proponent of social media and I have only scratched the surface of what is possible at the moment.

Here are 10 ways I think social media is changing the world.

10 Ways Social Media Is Changing The World

Our Resume

Gone are the days when a boring old resume will suffice when you are looking to stand out from the crowd of thousands of other boring old resumes.  Our resume is our social media persona, our tweets, our online conversations, our forum messages, and our videos.

Social media was made for people looking to be creative about finding work.

Imagine the scenario where there are two people, Bob and Gill,  in the running for the job of Social Media Manager. Bob has all the right qualifications and all the right experience.  Gill has the right qualifications but has little work experience.  However, Gill is all over the internet talking about her passion which is social media, she is teaching other people how to use social media via videos, podcasts and tweets and her Facebook profile.  Bob doesn’t really use Twitter all that much and has a MySpace profile and not a Facebook one, he likes to keep his private life private, which is okay.  Who do you think is going to get the job?

Our social media profiles will soon be the first thing that employers look at when we are going for a job, I know I would be, despite the legal implications of this.

So when you are online creating your profile remember that whatever you say and do online there is a permanent record of it, so make what you’re saying useful.

The news

The news is no longer going to be managed by big news companies it is going to be spread by the people who are on the scene with FlipCams and who are tweeting about it as it happens.  Look at the recent Haiti disaster, as soon as the disaster struck there were thousands of messages sent via Facebook to friends and relatives all over the world.  Haitians were tweeting about it and giving regular updates about buildings, people and the full scale of what was actually happening.

The news is no longer controlled and regulated, and everyone is a potential news breaker, we  don’t have to rely on  the big news channel to haul their vans and camera crew  over to the scene when we have local people who are more than willing to report on the news as it happens.

This is real freedom of information.

Social movements

With the advent of social networks more and more people are getting involved in politics.  It’s now much easier to contact our local representatives, our MPs (UK), and people who have authority.  The people we are contacting have no real place to hide, and social media has forced the hand of politicians, big companies, media personalities, and made them aware that if they are doing anything unscrupulous there is nowhere to hide anymore.  They can’t buy off a newspaper, they can’t call in favors from friends.  There is always someone willing to tweet it, put a photo on Facebook, blog it, video it, and put it out to thousands of eyeballs within a matter of minutes.

Look at the recent spell of bloggers and tweeters who are creating movements to help the people in Haiti by setting up donation ‘stations’ whereby someone can donate money to help the people in Haiti.  This was organized within a matter of hours of the tragedy.

As Chris Guillebeau says we can plan ‘World Domination’ and it can be done through social media.

Starting a business

Never has it been so easy to start making money as it has online with a blog, a few affiliate products to promote and a whole tranch of social networking accounts.  What’s more, if we are really honest, genuine and passionate about the product we will make even more money.  We become ‘Trust Agents’ (Chris Brogan & Julian Smith), and the more trustworthy we are seen the more money we can make or the more people we can help.

Gary Vaynerchuk is one such person known as a ‘Trust Agent’, his story of taking his dad’s $4million dollar company, ‘Wine Library’ and taking it  to $10million dollars using social media and setting up ‘Wine Library TV’ is inspirational.  If you’ve ever seen Gary’s videos you’ll know him as passionate, knowledgeable,  funny and most of all honest.

We can all start our own business online and if we can earn $100 a month online we can grow it to earn $1000 and then grow it more to earn $10,000.

Customer Service

Big companies are starting to realize the importance of social media for customer service and customer perception.  Whenever you write about a company they have the potential to respond to your query, your complaints and general questions within a matter of minutes.  Companies can set up Google alerts, tweet alerts, LinkedIn alerts whenever someone mentions their company name or chief exec.

An example I had myself was when I wrote a complaint, on my blog,  about the length of time the communications giant BT were taking to fix my broadband issues.  Within a matter of hours I noticed that my site had been linked to from their Intranet (internal website) and accessed over 50 times.  I then received a phone call from someone within BT to apologies and to advise she would personally deal with all my BT problems and gave me a direct number (if you’ve ever tried calling them you’ll know how frustrating it can be).

Another great example of this is from a company called Nakedwines who received a complaint from a customer on their facebook page.  The company responded immediately by calling the customer.  The customer was still not happy and stayed online to complain further.  NakedWines rep responded online by stating they would refund all the money the customer has ever spent with them and make sure their order was received.  The disgruntled customer was finally forced to apologize once they had seen that they had done everything they could for him and close down his account.  This was great PR as it was online, honest and everyone could see what the company had done for the customer.  Had they not responded, and the conversation was one sided it could have gone horribly wrong for the company.

How we meet people

Imagine for a moment you are quite an introverted person, don’t like going out much, and have very few friends, through choice, but love being online, blogging and tweeting.  Using social media sites are a fantastic way to meet like minded people.  There’s only one drawback, a lot of your friends online stay hundreds or thousands of miles away.  With Skype, video and social media in general you can now keep in touch easily and still remain your introverted self as you have the choice to be visible or not.  Strangely enough social media will make media stars of the introverted.

Job hunting

We no longer have to go down to the job centre and look at little 5 x 4″ cards to search for the jobs we want, Twitter has it all, well not quite all yet but it’s coming.  You can search for your ideal job on Twitter using hashtags or specific @ tags.  Using the @ symbol is another way to look for jobs on twitter with accounts created specifically for this such as @microjobs @freelance_jobs @s1jobs_des_gla and there are lots more.  If you want more information about job searching on Twitter here is a link Job Searching on Twitter

Of course twitter is not the only platform.  As we grow more connected sites like LinkedIn And Plaxo are becoming the place to meet your potential new employer or employee.  It’s all about the conversation.  Imagine you are a prospective employer looking for a great freelance writer.  You friend someone you think might fit the bill, you look at the groups they have joined, you look at their conversations and you even talk to them yourself, very informal stuff.  Only you are getting to know the person before they even know you want to hire them so they will be in their natural environment and not on their best behavior as they don’t know you are looking at them as a potential employee.

The music we listen to

The music industry has already been fundamentally changed with the internet and people downloading, legally and illegally, music from the net.  However Social media be the savior for so many bands out there who were hoping for a record label contract: record labels are no longer required.  You no longer have to court the big labels to make your mark on the world, the big labels have to court you once they see how talented you are.

People like Justin Bieber are being discovered all the time through channels like Youtube and Facebook and anybody can become part of the world of  ‘America’s got talent’ or the -X-Factor’.

If you have talent, a video camera, a recording device you can make it big and you will get discovered or make it big on your own, but you still have to have the talent.

How we watch TV

The cable TV companies no longer have the control that they used to over what we watched.  More and more people are discovering TV and films online.  Most TV stations now have some form of media player showing their content online.  I am in the UK and the BBC has a fantastic one called BBC iPlayer.  Just the other night I missed a program I wanted to watch and wanted to watch it as I was twittering away, or catching up with my email.  The program, for anyone interested is called The Virtual Revolution and is a must watch for anyone interested in how the internet has changed the world, one of the guest travelers is Sir Tim Berners Lee.

We are no longer controlled, we have choices now and gone are the days when there are TV schedules, we now make our own schedules.  We can also make our own TV channels with the likes of UStream.tv anybody can have their own channel if they have the incline, the quality content, the knowledge and the guts to go live.  One such person is Chris Pirillo, right now as I type, his site has 307 viewers and all we can see are his computer screens, he has it on 24/7 and every time he sits down to work people tune in, it’s amazing he has had over 14 million views to his channel.

Advertising

Advertisers go where the eyes go and social media is changing the way big companies advertise.  No longer do you need a budget of millions to compete with the big companies who advertise on TV, you just need lots of ‘friends’ , lots of people who trust you, lots of authenticity and you can create your own product launch and make it big.

Gary Veynerchuk recently relayed a story where he advertised free shipping codes for his wine on Radio, on a billboard, and a direct mailing campaign for a cost of $7,500, here is how it went:

Billboard – 170 orders

Radio – 240 orders

Direct mail – 300+

What Gary then done is twittered his free shipping code over the space of 48 hours and received over 1,700 orders and all this was free.

Conclusion

We can’t afford to ignore social media as a force to be reckoned with, it is already here in our faces. If you want to start to take advantage of the wave don’t think it’s too late, it’s only the beginning and it’s exciting to watch.

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With another month behind us, and the first month of a new year over, how have life hack blogs faired? We’ve got an update on the top twenty-five life hack blogs we track on our Top Life Hack Blogs list.

If you are looking for the top blogs related to lifestyle optimization, then check out any of the below listed blogs, especially the top five or ten, which is where I plan to see this blog, LifeSnips in a year or so.

Some notable losses include the major drop for Wise Bread and for Business Hacks. Not sure what’s going on there, but it is interesting to see. Not on the list this week is LifeSnips which is a bit of a heart breaker for me. LifeSnips is currently ranking 27th on the list right behind Life Optimizer, which also dropped from the top 25.

What will happen in another month? Only time will tell.

Want to easily visit the top sites in this list? Head on over to the active Top Life Hack Blogs page.

Heading into a new year, we will see if bloggers have the stamina to continue trying to grow their blogs through providing great content that engages their audience. As part of that, I am going to start tracking the top twenty-five blogs in my niche and letting you all know how good or bad they are doing.

This first update uses information from sometime the last week of December compared to today, December 4th, 2010.

Want to easily visit the top sites in this list? Head on over to the active Top Life Hack Blogs page.

No matter where you live or what you do with your daily life, cleaning is that one chore that we all have to do at some point or another and it is the one area where most of us hate having to waste our time or money on. Cleaning is also the one area of our domestic lives where we are exposing ourselves, our children, our pets, and the environment to the most potential harm from harsh cleaning chemicals. Fortunately, there are some great safe and natural alternatives along with simple tips and cleaning short-cuts that can help take the “chore” out of the chores and help you to save both time and money while getting your entire home in tip top shape in a safe and more environmentally friendly way.

*photo courtesy of Pbroks13

A simple solution for this cleaning problem can be found by just using lemon slices. Take a few slices of a fresh lemon and place them in a microwave safe bowl with some water then microwave for 30 seconds to one minute. This little trick will not only freshen up your microwave and neutralize any of the food odors that have been collecting there but it will also loosen up any of the stuck on food and stains making them a snap to clean up with little effort.

2. Need to Unclog a Drain?  Drain Cleaners are one of the strongest and most dangerous chemicals that we often use in our homes. Not only can drain cleaners pose a threat to us in our homes but once they go down they drain they end up affecting water supplies and the ecosystem in a variety of ways often miles from where they were originally used. There is; however, a safer and more natural way to work on those clogged drains that will also save you a couple of bucks.

Just pour hot lemon juice along with some baking soda down the drain to help loosen those clogs, clear the drain, and kill odors.

3. Have a Stinky Garbage Disposal?  With all of the food and kitchen waste that your garbage disposal tackles you may find that the odor coming from your kitchen sink smells anything but clean. Just as the drains need a little extra attention from time to time, so to does the garbage disposal. For a quick and easy way to clean the garbage disposal, simply toss the lemon peels from your other cleaning tasks in the disposal to help keep it clean and fresh.

4. Need to Take Care of Scratches in Wood and Polish Your Furniture?  No need to waste money on furniture polish or spend the time with costly specialized scratch removers as part of your cleaning regimen. When it comes to polishing furniture and taking care of the wood around your house a simple mixture of lemon juice and olive oil will do the trick. It will give you a great shine, and that “lemony fresh” scent that brightens and freshens your entire home.

5. Get Rid of Sticky Gum, Crayons, and Scuff Marks:  Any parent has, at one time or another, experienced these special cleaning challenges with accidental gum in the carpet or your child’s creative expressions sprawled in crayon along the wall. There is a simple cleaning trick using, believe it or not, a bath oil from Avon called Skin So Soft. Just use a small bit of the oil and let is sit on the gum to clean it out of carpets, hair, etc. You can also use Skin So Soft to clean crayons off of most painted services and to get those unsightly scuff marks off of your floors.

6.Keep Ants Away:  Additionally you can also use this handy bath oil to keep away ants by dabbing it along window seals and door jams or one of many other uses for Skin So Soft that make it a great hack itself. Spraying a bit of lemon juice around problem areas is another simple and safe alternative to pesticides as well.

7. Bleach Alternatives for Removing Stains:  The next time you have a stain on your white fabrics, do not be to hasty to reach for the bleach or a costly stain remover. Instead, try applying a little lemon juice or white vinegar to the stain and let is soak for a bit before tossing it in the laundry for an inexpensive and safe alternative to bleach and stain removers.

8. Carpet Stains:  White vinegar can also be used to help remove dark stains from carpets and other surfaces such as red wine or grape juice stains. Blot up all of the excess liquid after a spill and then apply some of the white vinegar to the stained area. After allowing it to soak into the stain for a few minutes, rinse and clean the area to remove the stain and save the few bucks you would have spent on specialized carpet cleaner.

With regular use wooden cutting boards can store food odors and tiny particles of food become trapped on the cutting board. A very simple solution is to, once again, pull out the lemons. Run some lemon juice over the cutting board after a normal cleaning and allow it to soak over night, then rinse clean in the morning. The acid in the lemon juice can help get rid of some of those left over bacteria causing bits and freshens up your work space.

*Photo courtesy of Donovan Govan

9. Need to Keep Your Cutting Board Clean and Fresh?  With regular use wooden cutting boards can store food odors and tiny particles of food become trapped on the cutting board. A very simple solution is to, once again, pull out the lemons. Run some lemon juice over the cutting board after a normal cleaning and allow it to soak over night, then rinse clean in the morning. The acid in the lemon juice can help get rid of some of those left over bacteria causing bits and freshens up your work space.

10. Get Rid of Hard Water Stains:  Fighting hard water stains can be a breeze using, you guess it…fresh lemons. So there is no need to buy a bathroom cleanser for your showers and sinks, just spray some lemon juice on those trouble areas and let it do its magic then clean as normal.

11. Need an Easy Way to Get Tough Pots and Pans Clean?  Lemons can be used for just about every cleaning problem that you have, especially in the kitchen, and they make a great scrub for your dirty pots and pans. Instead of using brillo pads, put a little baking soda on a lemon after you have cut it in half and then use it as a scrub. It is a very simple way to clean and the lemon juice will help to cut grease, fight odors, and along with the baking soda will loosen stubborn food. Simply rinse clean afterwards.

12. How About a Free (Or Virtually Free) Rust Remover?  Cleaning rust can be one of those chores that seem hopeless and can be a real problem when you have rusted bolts you need to loosen or other such problems; however, you do not need to buy a rust remover because you probably already have exactly what you need sitting in your kitchen- salt and a little lime juice. Sprinkle some salt on the rusted area and then squirt a little of the lime juice over the salt, being careful not to wash the salt away. Let the mixture sit for several hours and you can then scrub away the rust easily with a brush.

13. A Simple and Safe Way to Disinfect Your Home:  Trying to keep your home germ free does not have to mean that you spend all of your time cleaning. Add a teaspoon of natural tea tree oil per gallon of water and use a spray bottle to disinfect around your home. The solution is also great for cleaning windows and floors or any area that you need to kill germs. This works great for getting rid of mildew as well.

14. Clean Your Coffee Pot:  Coffee pot looking a little worse for the wear? Just fill it up with a cup of vinegar added to the pot of hot water then run it through its normal cycle as if you were making coffee. Afterwards run a couple of cycles of plain water to have your coffee pot looking brand new.

15. The Best Cleaning Tip!  Last but not least, the best time saver (and money saver) when it comes to cleaning around your home is…..clean it right away! Ok, this might sound like a no brainer, but the truth is we tend to be a generation of procrastinators and when it comes to cleaning that can end up costing us both time and money. Most spills, stains, tears, etc. do not become a problem until they have been left to settle, dry, etc. and then it takes more time, and often more supplies, to get the job done. Alternatively, if we simply take care of a potential problem the second it happens (wipe up a mess while it is still wet, soak the blouse as soon as the stain occurs, etc.) we will end up saving ourselves a lot of time and hassle that tends to make cleaning such a chore in the first place.