IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET AMONG YOUTH

In present competitive world, without any active involvement in the social media, the companies lag behind their market reach. The social media has become a powerful medium to communicate with the target audience for any company. Usually, youth have become more engaged with social media through their continuous interactions and regular involvement. On average, an internet consumer spends two hours and twenty-two minutes on social media in a day globally. In many countries worldwide, the Global Web Index report has revealed that emerging markets are spending more time on social media in a day on an average. In comparison, people in India spend two hours and thirty-six minutes on social media. The report also shows that 3.96 billion people use social media today, accounting for roughly fifty-one per cent of the global population. At the same time, the people of Japan use social media for only 46 minutes. Before going to the impact of social media on Entrepreneurs and their mindset, we need to understand on social media. Social media are interactive technologies that allow the creation or sharing/exchange of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.

We all communicate with one another through oral, written and audio-visual depiction of our thoughts. But these interactions done on the virtual online communication tools made available due to advent of internet technologies comes under social media. As users engage with these electronic services, they create highly interactive platforms through which individuals, communities, and organizations can share, co-create, discuss, participate, and modify user-generated content or self-curated content posted online.

Additionally, social media are used to document memories; learn about and explore things; advertise oneself; and form friendships along with the growth of ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites.  

Some of the most popular social media websites, with over 100 million registered users, include Facebook , TikTok, WeChat, Instagram, QZone, Weibo, Twitter, Tumblr, Baidu Tieba, and LinkedIn.

Depending on interpretation, other popular platforms that are sometimes referred to as social media services include: 

YouTube, QQ, Quora, Telegram, WhatsApp, LINE, Snapchat, Pinterest, Viber, Reddit, Discord, VK, Microsoft Teams, and more. Wikis are examples of collaborative content creation.

Social media was initially personal but has extended to the business realm. It plays an essential role in marketing strategies by increasing traffic and serving as a part of your SEO strategy. Businesses need to work on their social skills and how they interact with their customers online for the best results.

As per David Wicks, Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are essential for maintaining a competitive edge. Companies that do not have active social media accounts risk missing out on numerous marketing opportunities. Social media eases the process of providing and receiving feedback. If your customers have concerns or problems with what your business offers, they can let you know in a timely manner. Social media gives customers a convenient and accessible way to express what they feel and gives companies a chance to respond. With such platforms, businesses are able to view complaints and assure their customers that their problems will be dealt with.

The social networking nature of platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter generate interest among followers who are more responsive to them than a blatant marketing approach. You can use social media creatively to advertise your products and services without making your customers feel like they are overwhelmed by your marketing campaigns.

Entrepreneurial Mindset

Entrepreneurial mindset: a way of thinking that enables you to overcome challenges, be decisive, and accept responsibility for your outcomes. It is a constant need to improve your skills, learn from your mistakes, and take continuous action on your ideas.  Anyone willing to do the work can develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Having an entrepreneurial mindset helps you to quickly identify problems and provide a timely solution. You’re not one to sit around and wait, you have a strong intuition and if want something you’ll go get it. Having this mindset means you know the importance of keeping moving forward even when difficult.

How to Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset

1. Set clear goals. Setting a goal—speaking it to the universe, writing it down, mentioning it to friends and family who will hold you accountable—can subtly influence aspiring entrepreneurs to work towards that goal bit by bit each day. …
2. Practice being decisive.
3. Redefine failures
4. Face your fears.
5. Remain curious.

A mindset is a cognitive belief system consisting of interrelated beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge that we use to process information, inform our decisions, and guide our behaviour. An entrepreneurial mindset is a specific set of beliefs, knowledge, and thought processes that drives entrepreneurial behaviour.

Those with an entrepreneurial mindset tend to:

• believe in their ability to succeed and influence their own outcomes, empowering them to take ownershipof their lives;
• have compelling goals that keep them future-focused and intrinsically motivated, driving them to be self-directed, action-oriented, and highly engaged;
• have an optimistic interpretation of adverse events and see problems as potential opportunities, becoming highly resilient, resourceful, and solution-orientedeven within highly uncertain, resource constrained environments;
• be lifelong knowledge seekers with a focus on micro-experiments as learning opportunities to test ideas, cultivating curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking;
• display a high-level of reliability, understanding that following throughon simple solutions can lead to unforeseen opportunity;
• have a humanistic outlook, being other-focused and understanding that one creates valueby looking to solve problems for others; and
• surround themselves with an intentional community of positive influence and critical guidance

It’s important to note that successful entrepreneurs are often touted as exceptional individuals; a rare breed who seem to have been born with unique hereditary traits. But, the entrepreneurial mindset is most often acquired implicitly without conscious effort or awareness, which may explain why it often appears to be a dispositional trait, even though it is not. An entrepreneurial mindset can be developed and enhanced through entrepreneurial experiences. And to cultivate the entrepreneurial mindset, we must create entrepreneurial learning experiences within our classrooms, organizations, and communities.

Impact of Social media on youth

Despite social media playing a positive role for most, the survey found the high use of social media and technology can have a negative impact on youth self-esteem. Two in three young people feel pressure to look good and nearly a third of youth have been bullied online. Media messages can have a negative or unhealthy influence on teenage behaviour and attitudes in certain areas, including body image, health and citizenship. Your child’s body image is influenced by social media, other media and advertising. The positive impacts of social media on the youth today include making them up date on the events happening around the globe and also enables them network and stay connected with their fellow youths and friends without physical meetings. It bridges the gap between friends since a person say in Africa can network and interact with his or her friend in the United States. This in turn helps in strengthening relationships say amongst classmates in high school or college, who after finishing school, moved to different locations around the world. Additionally, youths can create pages and groups in the social media platforms based on their professions, faith among other dimensions of their lives and this leads to more connections being built and more opportunities being opened for their respective disciplines. This can even lead to more employment opportunities being created for the unemployed youths. From the many interviews carried daily, youths say that social media platforms make their lives enjoyable, efficient and easier and has also become their lifestyle.

Conclusion

The social media has tremendous influence on the youth. Many entrepreneurs are utilising the social media like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn in a very productive way to reach out to the target audience. The youth who spend lot of time on these in India, are getting influenced by the advertisement and joining the various training programmes conducted by the entrepreneurs to enhance their skills etc. This way the youth are involved in the skill development and entrepreneurs could expand their market potential at ease through these social media platforms. The success stories of the start-ups and billionaire entrepreneurs in the social media have tremendous impact on the youth. As a human psychology, we all believe that one of our kind of personality can achieve, we can as well achieve it. This success information of different start-ups triggers the entrepreneurial ideas to develop and trying those would definitely move towards future journey in the entrepreneurship world. The stories of the entrepreneurial failures do help the youth to take the entrepreneurial journey with caution. This way, social media can guide the youth to develop the entrepreneurial mindset and usher the entrepreneurial ecosystem