Social networking
- 1. Sarah Coleman c3125339
- 2. Social Media Definition “media designed to facilitate the dissemination of content through social interaction between individuals, groups and organizations using internet and web based technologies to enable the transformation of broadcast monologues into social dialogues.” (Close 2012, pp. 84)
- 3. What is Social Networking Society thrives on being able to communicate with one another, stay in touch and always be aware what is going on with other that they know along with the rest of the world. With the growth of social networking more and more people are using the internet to communicate with others and search for products and information. Social networks create a platform for people to change their identities through the internet (Close 2012, pp. 28) and provide a growing amount of opportunities to socialize with different groups of people.
- 5. Types of Social Networking
- 7. www.facebook.com Social network on peer-to-peer relationships that gives all member the ability to create ‘profile pages’ that describe themselves giving them a chance to create a connects with other users known as ‘friends’ (Weaver 2008, pp. 99) Businesses have the ability to buy advertisement space that targets the users preferences. E.g. favourite music , likes and relationship status can affect what ads are seen.
- 8. Facebook currently has 400 million users all around the word as recorded in December 2009 with more joining on a daily basis (Curtis & Giamanco 2010, pp. 91). There are three ways of communicating with the other users: Status update: Adding comments to your own wall Wall-to-wall: Adding comments to another persons wall Private instant message: Private messages that only the two users in the conversation can see and write on. These can either be instant conversations or through a more email based conversation.
- 10. www.myspace.com Social network on peer-to-peer based media where members can create their own website that includes pictures, personal information and media (Weaver 2008, pp. 98). Myspace was originally created as a way of independent musicians and bands to keep in touch with their fans .
- 12. www.twitter.com Social networking site and micro blogging that allows its members to send and receive text based messages of up to 140 characters known as ‘tweets’ (Curtis Giamanco 2010, pp. 110) People who are not members are able to read these tweet while only members are able to send them. This is not only used by members of the public but also celebrities, politicians, businesses and corporations.
- 14. www.youtube.com An online based video sharing network where all members have the ability to upload videos to the site to share with others (Weaver 2008, pp. 100). Everybody has the ability to access the site and watch the clips but only members can upload and also are able to create playlists of their favourite lists
- 16. www.wikipedia.org Collaborative online encyclopaedia where anyone has the ability to create and edit the information displayed on the site. There are only six people on paid staff with the rest of the services on the site maintained by volunteers that include over 1156 administrators that observe all new content that is created (Broughton 2008, pp. 259)
- 18. Effects of Social Networking
- 19. Individuals and Social Networking In society today people are not only connected to one another like never before, but now are connected to one another everywhere quickly (Close 2012, pp. 3). For example, people have access to social network sites such as Facebook in different ways. Where once a person needed access to a computer to be part of it now it can be access while out through mobile phone applications. This also goes for Twitter applications and access to all other types through mobile internet connections.
- 20. Communities and Social Networking “Social ties are the basic units of social network” (Licoppea & Smoreda 2004, p. 17) This statement shows that communities thrive from connecting with each other. Social networking has changed how this can be achieved. Communities can now post information on these sites to inform all the people in their contacts without phone calls, newsletters and face-to-face contact.
- 21. Governments and Social Networking Government institutions are evolving with the times of social media and adapting by joining these social networking sites. Where once the only way to find out what is happening in parliament was waiting for a news cast has changed to following the members on Twitter. Campaigning now includes posting on the social networking sites whether about their policies or even connecting with people by writing about things people see everyday (Bertot 2012, pp. 34). A major supporter of social networking is Kevin Rudd who uses Twitter constantly to update about where he is and what is happening, even going so far as using the social networking during sessions of parliament.
- 22. “The governments of almost two-thirds of the 193 United Nations member nations have joined the Twitterverse, says a new study.” “The analysis of 264 heads of state and government and their institutions in 125 countries was carried out by PR firm Burson- Marsteller.” “The most-followed account is (at)BarackO bama, which is run by the Obama campaign and has 17.8 million followers.” “A May 9 tweet sent by the campaign team quoting Obama as saying "same-sex couples should be able to get married" is the most re-tweeted to date - more than 62,000 times.” The Australian (7 July 2012)
- 23. Businesses and Social Networking With the rise in social networking the internet is becoming an essential way of people communicating and connecting with one another. This not only goes for individuals but also businesses (Weaver 2008, pp. 97). Social networking allows a cheap way for businesses to advertise and communicate with their target audience. For example, Facebook allows anyone to advertise to their target population and only have to pay for the clicks that the advertisement gets. This ensures businesses that their message is getting across with or without being clicked on but shows if they are paying for their ad space it will collect revenue from customers (Curtis & Giamanco 2010, pp. 94).
- 24. Corporations and Social Networking Corporations are always on the search for new innovative ways to advertise and attract new people. Through the evolution of the internet and social working (Laviniu 2011, pp. 88) corporations have adapted and are now using marketing strategies to advertise to the millions of people on the different social networking sites. This is either done through direct advertisements or by these corporations making their own site and profiles that generate up to date information for all people following. This is similar to businesses on social networking sites but can be generated on a larger scale due to more access and money to use.
- 25. How is social networking is changing the way we communicate Social networking not only changes communication with individuals but also with communities, businesses, governments and corporations. Where it was once needed for people to communicate when they had spare time is now been transformed into a way where it is quick and easy to communicate making it easier to keep in touch with more people. When concerning communication on a larger level through businesses social networking, has allowed different information to be connected through all the social networking systems. For example many businesses website have a link to these social networking sites allowing people to ‘follow’ them where there was once a lot less interaction between the individuals and larger communities or corporations.
- 27. What can we expect in the future From my opinion I believe we can expect a lot of evolution in the future regarding social networking. Just imagine a time where everybody is connected solely through the internet with no mail being sent through the post as everything is available at your fingertips through email and social networking sites. This is our future and as shown we are already on our way to becoming increasingly dependent on social media as our source of communicating with others.
- 28. References Bertot, J, Jaeger, P & Hansen, D 2012, ‘The impact of policies on government social media usage: Issues, challenges and recommendations’, Government Information Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 30-40. Broughton, J 2008, Wikipedia, O’Reilly Media Inc, Sebastopol. Close, A 2012, Online Consumer Behaviour: Theory and research in social media, advertising and e- tail, Taylor & Francis, Hoboken. Curtis, J & Giamanco, B 2010, The New Handshake: Sales meets social media, ABC-CLIO, USA. Laviniu, E,2011, ‘Pros and cons of corporate social networking’, Revista de Management, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 83-40. Licoppe, C & Smoreda, Z 2004, ‘Are social networks technologically embedded? How networks are changing today with changes in communication technology’, Science Direct, pp. 1-19. Weaver, A 2008, ‘Social Networking’, Computer, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 97-100.