Social media has been around for some time now, and it doesn’t take much effort to recall the impact it has had on society. Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized the way friends and family stay in contact over long and short distances. You Tube changed video entertainment forever. eBay made hunting for rare treasures much easier, and driving to the store pointless.

It would be easy to go on all day, listing myriad examples of social media’s influence, but we don’t want to write that article, and you probably wouldn’t want to read it. Instead, let’s take a minute to ponder our favorite aspect of social media’s effects on society: the mass-proliferation of art and creativity.

Social media provides a vehicle for artists of almost any genre or medium to show their work to a worldwide audience. There has never been a tool so accessible to the masses, and so powerful that it holds influence on a global scale, until social media came into existence. The entire process of gaining worldwide recognition has been upturned, and that is what makes social media exciting to us here in The Social Den.

Years ago, artists were subjected to the whims of fate when it came to getting their work seen by the right people. Thanks to social media, this trend has completely ceased. Now any piece of artistic expression has an equal opportunity to be seen by the global community. This massive-scale propagation of art over the internet is incredibly valuable to society, but the value of social media certainly does not end there.

Businesses large and small are catching on to the social trend, but many are just diving in head first—missing out on some key points to success. There’s a lot more to social media than just signing up for a service and making a couple quick status updates. A truly skilled user of social media understands the vast difference between experimenting with it, and fully utilizing its potential.

There is an enormous utility within social media that businesses everywhere should be taking advantage of. A business can create a community around itself and its products in no time, so long as they exude quality. The biggest social media mistake businesses are making is trying too hard to advertise to their community. A consistently growing segment of the world’s population use social media to communicate and gather information because television, newsprint, and radio are plagued by a ceaselessly growing mountain of ads. It is important for social media users and administrators to remember this. Social media could easily suffer the same pitfalls as mass media if its users don’t work to keep things interesting and creative.

Businesses using social media to advertise their products will find that simply becoming an active part of their community is significantly more effective than constantly advertising to it. That means interacting with other users within each community. Instead of repeatedly blanketing everyone with information about the latest awesome product, businesses will find that conversing with their communities, replying to their questions and providing news about new and interesting developments in their field will gain much more respect and trust from customers.

No matter how you decide to use this powerful new tool, remember: a bit of forethought never hurt anyone. Find out what your best avenues are and pursue them with a formulated plan. The same goes for anyone, artists, businesses, or individuals. Good luck out there, and remember to have fun and be creative.