Final Blog Post — Report on Social Media

(Image courtesy of www.researchtoaction.org)

A definition of Social Media per the Oxford Dictionary is; “Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.”

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/social-network

Whether we like it or not Social Media is with us to stay. It has bled into all our lives, young and old and impacts our lives on a daily basis. The way we communicate with each other, the way we interact with each other, the recording of our lives in minute detail. It has impacted how we conduct commerce, conduct wars, how we see ourselves in the world. Its ongoing legacy is long and will be enduring. In a few short years its emergence has changed the world forever. No more writing letters to editors of newspapers, or letters to friends or printing photos to put in an album, or having friends over to show  photo slideshows of your latest holiday, or ringing people up on a phone, etc. etc. It connects people instantaneously through various platforms. I can speak to my Brother in Singapore, my Parents in Ireland through Skype instantly and with picture if need be which was a fantasy 20 years and only seen in the likes of Star Trek

Its impact can be seen in an earlier blog in which I pointed out its impact by a survey done by marketingfacts.com. It found that in May 2013 in the United States alone that “Nearly three-quarters (72%) of online US adults were using social networking sites as of May 2013, up from 67% in late 2012, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project." This equates to hundreds of millions of people. The demographic of this is quite interesting and is on the website. The highest group is women and aged between 18- 29, educated and earning less than $30,000 a year and living in an urban area. Please read more here:

We discussed in an earlier blog in the semester which is probably a question for the ages “Is social media “good or bad for society?” I said in my blog at the time it is hard to define. The pros and cons of SM were outlined in the blog; Extracts are as follows “Social media can be seen as good for society in the way that it brings people together, families together (the fabric of society), unites people in good causes together, provides the masses with a voice (very quickly), enables instant feedback to elected officials of what people think, helps people find a job, promotes commerce etc. I have embraced all of these things on social media sites and the convenience of it. On the other hand there are numerous reasons why SM is bad for society. Some of them include Cyber bullying online with our children and adults alike which is a continuing threat and this kind of bullying can be vicious and the fallout lasts for years. With people being able to be anonymous online these attacks can be done with no holds barred. The Houston Chronicle wrote that per a CBS report in 2010 “Cyber-bullying has spread widely among youth, with 42% reporting that they have been victims.” Please read more here.

People have embraced it wholeheartedly. This can been by what we have talked about above and also pointed out in my blog: How do Organizations Use Social Media? I looked at three companies and their social media presence. These were the band U2, British Airways and Amnesty International. These entities have their fans and by the stats shown on their social media sites and what they have to offer on the sites are embraced by them. "U2 have on Facebook 17m likes, 1,100 tweets, 244k followers. It is like any other Facebook page and has photos and comments and links to other web pages. It is kept up to date and for what I cased it keeps its fan base happy as there are a lot of comments/ feedback on postings on the page. Like its twitter page there is a lot of self-promotion going on but hey it's a rock band and its part of the business. There are exclusive video and audio clips and the comments by the band are quite funny at times. The band has a Twitter account as well which I have been following. Individual band members tweet on it along with their followers.

British Airways has all the usual social media outlets, Twitter (407K followers, 124k tweets), Facebook, YouTube etc. There are over 379,000 (which I am one of) followers and over 120,000 tweets made. Its twitter page also advertises holidays and photographs of the airline. Its twitter page allows its customers to ask questions about anything from trips to problems and get replies between 9 and 5 every day, seven days a week. It is a good marketing tool for the airline as it endears itself to its customers as it shows it cares about them. It also allows passengers to leave reviews about the airline, find out about sales, weather, flight delays and other things about the airline. Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights. Like other commercial organizations it has a social media presence. It can be followed on a Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, its own website, etc. Its twitter feed which I am a follower of has posts that are linked to its main website regarding human rights around the world. It also has tweets by individuals and responses by its followers. It seems very popular and has over 972k followers and 11.3k tweets made." Please read more here: 

Social media has had other impacts on world. It has provided platforms for some of the greatest disclosures of confidential information in our times such as Edwin Snowden and the leaking of highly secret and confidential documents on multiple media outlets. Before this electronic age this would not have happened in such an instantaneous way and across the entire world. Wikileaks springs to mind as well and with the information it has revealed and the power of social media to spread it quickly it will be very hard to keep secrets secret It is not just major events like Snowden or Wikileaks but it is used by the ordinary man in the street. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. provides the platform to tell people what bad a company has been up to. Whether this is a good or bad thing is to be seen. It is a choice available to people now and will have a big impact in the future.

Going forward social media will only get more sophisticated and intuitive. Technology doesn't stand still and with it social media sites will benefit from it. New technologies like Google glass and other wearable technology with its 24/7 personal output will add something I am sure to social media and its development. It will continue to impact or interact with world events, e.g. the kidnapping of girls in Nigeria with their plight “now a global cause celebre, driven in part by social media” per the LA Times with Michele Obama involved along with others.Please read more here:

Our lives have changed forever because of it. We have discussed all kinds of aspects of the social media phenomenon in the semester from best practices, the economy of social media sites, impacts on relationships, its effect on society etc. and in the end social media, like everything, has good and bad things about it. It is down to us to martial this phenomenon going forward and to continue to discuss and debate and hopefully shape its future for all our own good. So keep on tweeting, liking, following, posting etc. etc.

Social media best practices

Image courtesy of: (blog.taigacompany.com)

Some of the best practices for Instagram include:

-           Complete your biography

People want to know who you are!

-           Link your Instagram account to your other social media accounts

This will allow your friends to be aware that you have joined Instagram and allow you to share your pictures on other platforms. For business, by doing this your customer base can expand as you are given exposure across multiple platforms.

-          Be unique

Post photos on Instagram that cannot be found anywhere else. This makes people join the site, makes them unique and more sought after and makes people want to join Instagram.

-          Community

Engage with the Instagram community. Find people to follow and add comments to your photographs and post comments. Ask users to add hashtags to their photographs. By doing this you have a greater chance of connecting with Instagram users who share your interests.

-          Content

From a business perspective keeping your content up to date is really important as it keeps your users engaged. So it is important to keep posting photos on a regular basis. The same can be said from a personal basis to keep your followers engaged.

  

-      Express yourself  

  

Per Instagram-business.tumblr.com; “the photos you post tell a story about your brand. Users can tell when you’ve put thought into every photo you post. Being authentic about the content you share will help you build genuine connections with your followers.”

     -      Posting

Post often and as much as you like. As per maximisesocialbusiness.com; “No one likes a lazy account. Posting once a month is not a successful Instagram strategy. Depending on your business and your strategy, you may post as many as 3-5 times a day or you may only post a couple times a week. Determine a schedule works for you and your brand. And then stick to it!”

Some of the best practices for LinkedIn include:

-          Complete your profile

 As Forbes.com says; “Nothing screams “Rookie” like an unfinished profile. Take the time and get it done, both for yourself and your company. There are a few other essentials to getting started. A new book called The LinkedIn Essentials by Asia Bird is helpful, as is the eBook How to Use LinkedIn for Business by Hubspot.”

-                        -      Keeping your profile up to date:

By doing this it reflects you’re most recent job experience, your most current position, academic qualifications etc.     

       

       -      Update your statues regularly

By doing so, you share your updated content with your network. Your network will then update and remind everyone who is a member of it about you. 

-                      -      Link your status to your other social media accounts

Per ezinarticles.com this will result in “For a businessman, a top of mind awareness is very important that is why this is considered one of the LinkedIn best practices. This lets them know that you are active in promoting business and spreading some helpful news or articles. It also helps in increasing incoming leads as well as exposure for your brand or business.”

-          Join and follow groups and participate in them

As a member of LinkedIn you can join innumerate groups to what are the user’s preferences. By doing so this builds your profile and lets you share content with them. The more active you are with these groups the more you build trust with these groups.

-          Keep your network up to date

Continuous review of your network will ensure you add new and remove people and ensure you are connected as best as possible. 

     -         Applications

By using LinkedIn apps this will help enrich your profile on the site and allow to share with your network, Apps include Inmail where LinkedIn guarantees a a response through a request for introduction, or they give you a credit to use another InMail.

Instagram Best Practices

http://instagram-business.tumblr.com/post/29441248656/instagram-best-practices-to-see-more-tips-and

Instagram Best Practices

http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/instagram-best-practices-10548/

LinkedIn Best Practices

http://EzineArticles.com/6949093

27 LinkedIn Tips: LinkedIn Best Practices For Entrepreneurs

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2012/06/29/27-linkedin-tips-linkedin-best-practices-for-entrepreneurs/

How is Social Media activity measured?

(Image courtesy www.in-tuition.ie)

The question is a very good one. Obviously beyond the likes on Facebook and the follows on Twitter for example other activity is measured to determine the success of a small campaign. This activity is vital to companies for future strategy to allow them to adjust it or to scrap it and start again.

Looking at libraries for example ( but can apply across all industries) per infotoday.com "While trying to arrive at a workable means of measuring success with social media, you might benefit from applying the Trinity Approach for web analytics developed by Avinash Kaushik (www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/08/trinity-a-mindset-strategic-approach.html). It arrives at actionable insights by focusing on three components:

1. Behavioral Data: This is the “what” of user behavior that librarians are used to collecting. How many blog posts? How many readers? What did the user do?

2. Outcome: This is the “so what” that gets to the heart of why you have an online presence. Take a look at your social pages and ask “so what?” Have your users and your library benefited? Have users found your applications and services useful and valuable? Are they more satisfied?

3. Experience: This is the “why they do it” question. At its most basic level, this is about listening to the voices of our users. What are they telling us? How are they experiencing our social media content and online services? We should invite comments and respond honestly, conduct surveys and act on the results, and let users help design our websites. By finding out “why they do it,” we can design and implement social media projects that result in optimal user behaviors and in win-win situations."

Monitoring the data is vitally important. To know what is the outcome of the company’s campaign, to be able to see the raw data, take the results on board and adjust going forward or start again. There is a lot of money tied up in such social media campaigns and if they "fall flat on their face" people are to be blamed and strategies need readjusting. There are various tools out there to allow this to happen. 

Hootsuite for example allows you to have several platforms on one dashboard and allows you to track tweets and posts and provides software to record and view statistics. Another piece of software available is Ubrvu which was acquired in January 2014 by Hootsuite. Per HOotsuite"uberVU’s product is a next-generation social analytics solution that turns data from blogs, forums and social networks into actionable business insightsuberVU helps businesses better understand their social audience by identifying key influencers on relevant topics, easily detecting real-time spikes in engagement (with insights on sentiment, location, and demographics), and highlighting important mentions." Even at a basic level seeing the number of likes on your Facebook page, or customer responses or the lack of response to a post will give you feels you can analyze and use going forward.

Knowing your audience is vitally important and trying to keep track of it is also important. In the company I work for we welcome comments on our twitter page and our Facebook page and we respond to them accordingly. Even in the digital age knowing your customer has not changed. It is vital to the success of a company and without them and adjusting your company’s needs accordingly a company will not get very far. 

http://blog.ubervu.com/ubervu-joining-forces-hootsuite.html

How do social media platforms differ?

(Image courtesy of smashingbuzz.com)

http://www.smashingbuzz.com/2010/07/how-to-start-social-media-marketing-for-your-site/

I use many Social Media sites these days both for professional reasons and social reasons.  Each site provides a different user experience. Some are very user friendly and some may not be. Each site is suited to a particular requirement, social requirements, and business requirements. Depending on this the user interaction is different.

I am on LinkedIn and when I access the site through my Ipad it comes up with updates on jobs I may be interested in, the latest news on the company I work for or should follow, suggestions for people I should connect with and groups I should join based on my profile. As I am in the real estate business in finance I get a lot of such companies. Once you accessed it is right in “your face” so to speak. It is very business-like and the user interface to connect people to you is quite easy. A swipe on your Ipad and “hey presto” you have expanded your network!

You can share information on companies in LinkedIn with everyone in LinkedIn or on Twitter or with your connections or a combination of these so the redistribution of information is quite easy but limited. The top icons on the Ipad slides from right to left and allows you easy access to your profile, jobs, people you may know, groups, companies, connections etc. You click on the connections tab for example and you can see all the people you are connected. Click on a name and you have a full breakdown of their education, work experience etc. 

You can even see who they are connected and if you wish send a request to connect to an individual. It is all very fluent and easy to use and navigate.  I cannot see where you can email anyone outside LinkedIn which is a bit unfortunate as it would be a good way tell people about opportunities but you need to join the club so to speak.  You don’t have the choice to not like a company which I would like the option to do. I suppose you can ignore the like button and that will be the same thing.  

I have recently started using Instagram on my phone and it is an interesting app to use. The interface up is easy and as it had been acquired by Facebook it seems a bit similar to it. You open the app and you can instantly find people to follow through FB or your contacts on the phone. The bottom of the page has icons for various options. You can explore users and follow them on Instagram like Twitter, your friends or complete strangers. You can comment on posts, like them or tweet them if you like. As the site is about posting photos / videos this couldn't be any easier. Tap the camera icon and away you go. You can edit the photo, adjust its color, tilt and then share it with your followers or individuals. You can even put it on other SM sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr. Your profile page is easily accessible with one of the option icons and you can update your information easily and see the photos and videos you share.

There is a nice feature on the home page in that you can just send photos or videos (both with sound attached) just to your friends who are the only ones who can see them. It's called Instagram Direct.

As the two sites are as different as night and day in my opinion there are differences the way they interact with the user. Instagram requests access to your photos, contacts on your phone, private data. This I am not too keen on. LinkedIn doesn't ask for such access. You can interact with the outside world much easier I feel with Instagram than with LinkedIn. Also in my opinion it is too easy to mistakenly connect with someone on LinkedIn and I still haven't worked out how to disconnect from someone. With Instagram this an easy task under your profile

Overall Instagram has an easy user interface and as a SM site lives up to that mantra. You can share it all that is photos and videos, with the whole wide world and in a variety of ways. It is fun site to use and that is what I feel it is there for, an amusing way of communicating with the world in a particular way. LinkedIn has a more serious face to it and it is shown in its content. It is all about business. As it says on its website "Our mission is to connect the world’s professionals to enable them to be more productive and successful." This is certainly what it tries to do and is quite successful at it. 

How do Organizations Use Social Media?

(image courtesy of intersectionconsulting.com)

In response to week’s 7/8 blog I have looked at three of my favorite brands, organizations to see how they use social media. The results have been very interesting. All brands/organizations have large followings across multiple social media sites; they engage their followers in different ways, get their message out  and are interesting to interact with. 

The band U2 (U2.com) have a website that fans can either use for free with limited access or subscribe to for full access. They use to have a fan club magazine issued every quarter in paper but are now solely online. Subscription and non-subscription access are options provided. The site provides video, audio clips and full songs and albums of their entire catalog  Also has its one community that allows you to interact with other fans. It provides users with their own email address to allow for communication. And you can tweet from the site as well. 

U2 are on Facebook and has 17m likes. It is like any other Facebook page and has photos and comments and links to other web pages. It is kept up to date and for what I cased it keeps its fan base happy as there are a lot of comments/ feedback on postings on the page. Like its twitter page there is a lot of self-promotion going on but hey it's a rock band and its part of the business. There are exclusive video and audio clips and the comments by the band are quite funny at times. The band has a Twitter account as well which I have been following. Individual band members tweet on it along with their followers. Pictures are posted along with links to video and articles in other sites. Causes the band support are promoted on it as well. A lot of self-promotion by the band as well of new singles (new single "Invisible" promoted as a free download with $1 dollar per download going to the RED charity) or awards won.

SM platform allows the band to update their fans worldwide instantly with news about the band, tours and new albums and singles other information pertaining to the solo interests of the band members, and post new videos. The site allows for instant feedback from their fans regarding all things U2. There is no waiting for the next issue of the fan magazine in the past. In a way the band can hopefully take on board what its fan base is saying to it and adapt / change. The band has an official channel on YouTube as well with all their videos. These usually have advertisements before them to generate revenue and makes for a slightly irritating user experience. Like other videos comments can be left. If you subscribe to U2.com I would use this instead. When you subscribe you will get a book and cd as part of the package. Obviously the written word is not portable or instantly accessible. Also it is static and not updated like social media. The official site is well laid out, gives you everything you ever wanted or need as a U2 fan and in the main is good value for money. The basic subscription is $50 per year. 

British Airways (ba.com) is an airline I use when I travel internationally and that I like a lot. It has all the usual social media outlets, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. Its twitter page allows its customers to ask questions about anything from trips to problems and get replies between 9 and 5 every day, seven days a week. It is a good marketing tool for the airline as it endears itself to its customers as it shows it cares about them. It also allows passengers to leave reviews about the airline, find out about sales, weather, flight delays and other things about the airline. There are over 379,000 (which I am one of) followers and over 120,000 tweets made. Its twitter page also advertises holidays and photographs of the airline. The YouTube page is also quite good and provides video on all things to do with the airline from technical videos to mini guides about cities the airline fly’s to tours of airplanes and celebrity interviews. It has a self-promotion aspect to it that you would expect but it isn't overkill. Facebook for British Airways is a bit of a sobering experience. The page consists of mainly advertising for where the airline fly’s to and the classes available on board. Followers can leave comments about posts. It wasn't the most exciting thing to follow and felt very corporate. The airline use to send a magazine for its flying club member’s quarterly but with the advent of electronic forms of media this has “died a death.” It has an electronic version available which you can email, tweet from and share. Very 21st century! 

Overall SM is very positive for British Airways. It engages its customers, answers their questions, provides information, allows for a worldwide reach and promotes itself.  It has recently adopted “Know me” software. Per socialmediainbusiness.com; “The program is designed to collect as much information as possible about customers’ experiences with the airline, thus acting along the same principles of a social media platform. The system gathers all sorts of information related to the travel experiences of BA customers, from problems a customer may have had with BA in the past to whether a customer is flying with the airline for the very first time. By tailoring customer service towards each customer, the airline can hence show its customers that it is really listening to them and improving their experiences, and by doing so hopes to achieve a better performance in its overall customer service.”  Quite interesting and bodes well for the future.

http://socialmediainbusiness.com/social-media-case-study-british-airways

Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights. Like other commercial organizations it has a social media presence. It can be followed on a Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, its own website, etc.

It's twitter feed which I am a follower of has posts that are linked to its main website regarding human rights around the world. It also has tweets by individuals and responses by its followers. It seems very popular and has over 972k followers and 11.3k tweets made. It is not a commercial enterprise like the other parties I have mentioned in this blog but it knows its audience, gets exactly across what it is about, and the tweets that provide links to its website and other sites are all very interesting. SM allows it to get its message out there quickly, raise awareness of some issue start, get feedback, and start petitions. Its message is maintained all the time and unlike traditional forms of media it allows its followers to keep up to date in an easy way. Its message on all the social media sites it maintains is similar and very clear. Its YouTube channel has video on all kinds (652) of human rights issues along with feedback and it is quite powerful in what it conveys. Its own website, (it also has websites by country), provide articles on campaigns, how to get involved, stories on human right abuses, how to donate to the organization. Donating to Amnesty International is not in your face and there is separate tab for it which you can choose to ignore. It is very well organizes and like all of amnesty's social media sites it conveys a powerful message.

Overall Social Media allows companies, brands, organizations to have a continuous dialogue with its customers / followers all over the world, maintain its message with its customers / followers and hopefully improve its services,where necessary as a result. In today’s world having a social media presence is necessary and vital to a company’s success and meeting the demands of its customers. Without it I feel the customer is missing out on something, the instant feedback is not there, a lack of engagement in the company’s message. In the 21st Century this is very important.  

Is social media good or bad for society?

(Image courtesy of http://xtraordinaireblog.wordpress.com/2012/06/)

It is probably a question for the ages “Is social media “good” for society?” “Is it bad for society?” Everyone uses it, some more than others but it is out there and I cannot ever see it going away. This is now firmly entrenched in society and is part of our daily lives. Its impact in such a short amount of time has been enormous and wide ranging.

Social media can be seen as good for society in the way that it brings people together, families together (the fabric of society), unites people in good causes together, provides the masses with a voice (very quickly), enables instant feedback to elected officials of what people think, helps people find a job, promotes commerce etc. I have embraced all of these things on social media sites and the convenience of it. Everything is quicker now, certain generations want instant feedback and the days of writing a letter or even making a phone call (let’s face it our mobiles are used more for SM than actually making a call) are on the way out. The change in the last 5-10 years has been incredible from this point of view and even though it has positives like everything Social Media has its negatives.

There are numerous reasons why SM is bad for society. Some of them include Cyber bullying online with our children and adults alike which is a continuing threat and this kind of bullying can be vicious and the fallout lasts for years. With people being able to be anonymous online these attacks can be done with no holds barred. The Houston Chronicle wrote that per a CBS report in 2010 “Cyber-bullying has spread widely among youth, with 42% reporting that they have been victims.”  This has to be tackled and with serious gusto. In the United Kingdom there is legislation that covers stalking and harassment over the internet but there is more to be done in this area. 

With these sites being available 24/7 the temptation is to always be on them, not just in our private lives but at work. There is Facebook and Google Chat and twitter etc. to allow continuous distraction form our work. Productivity suffers. Per the Houston Chronicle "Nucleus Research reported that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse claimed that British companies lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon." The blocking of these websites at work may help with this. I know people have to talk to family and friends during the work day but not every single minute of it! 

We have lost some of the privacy of our life with this medium. Photos, thoughts, likes and dislikes are available. People can control who sees it but, even with friends and family, revealing everything may not be a good idea. A certain mystery is gone. The loss to society of face to face contact is another concern. Society functions or human contact and current and future generations are heading down a road to where the keyboard and screen is the nearest thing to human contact. The nuances of communication are lost through social media. People can misinterpret what is said on these sites quite easily. Are we moving into a phase now where future generations will not be able to communicate without an electronic device? 

I feel as this medium gets more sophisticated with the technology that will arrive, Google Glass anyone, and new social media sites that the reach of social media into our existence will get longer. With Google Glass there is the option to record your existence 24 hours a day and film everything you do and the people you interact directly and indirectly and put this on YouTube for example. Privacy issues will be raised as who will know if people are being filmed or not. Per Social Media Today “Google Glass could identify a person on social networks just by looking at their face.” Will there be nowhere to hide! Are we moving towards being like “RoboCop” and having the vision of a half man half machine? This is first version of this device and who knows where we will be in 5 - 10 – 20 years from now. The future is now and as George Orwell said “Big Brother is watching you.”

     http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effect-social-media-society-individuals-27617.html

     http://socialmediatoday.com/webkirstie/1731431/how-google-glass-could-evolve-social-media

Relationship Killer!!

(image courtesy of pinterest.com)

With all these social media sites available to tweet on, post on, like, dislike, get in touch with lost friends, family, have interaction with people you have never met or haven't seen in years etc. is it killing relationships or enhancing them?  This may be the question of the age. One definition of a relationship per Merriam Webster is “the way in which two or more people, groups, countries, etc., talk to, behave toward, and deal with each other.” On social media that definition may still apply. We still connect to each other, more so on a regular basis than physically, as interaction and feedback is done so quickly. This is a good thing as people stay in touch. The problem with social media is that, if we are not careful, we can lose this intimacy we have in the physical world with people and over expose ourselves online, revealing everything about ourselves, our problems, successes, highs and lows. With social media sites there is a constant review of what we do. This can be commented on, liked or not liked, re-tweeted etc. It can be easy to see if one’s life is not as exciting as all your “friends” on line and it can become very stressful very quickly. Is it worth "keeping up with the Jones" so to speak. It is a balance I suppose and if handled carefully can be good for both your private life and your work life as well.

Social media in respect of social interaction is again a balancing act. It can break down barriers one may have in the real world as people feel freer to interact and any inhibitions are gone. But this can backfire as one doesn't develop skills to get over that in the real world. Face to face with people there is nowhere to hide. You cannot turn it off or disconnect from the reality of that situation. You have to deal with it.

The whole nature of our relationships with others, I feel changes with social media. One can become very close with people on line or feel you are. In the physical world this can be very different. What you are can be put out in cyberspace forever and I feel that we tend to give too much of ourselves online. With the click of a mouse one can find a relationship with a person over or damaged where the tone of what has been said is misinterpreted. This can happen quite easily. It may be looked upon as a good thing but one can interact again with people that fell out of our social circle. Old friends are brought back into this circle but this may be not for the good. I am a believer that people loose contact for a reason and that it is a natural thing to happen. Once makes new friends through one’s life and that reconnecting can somehow skew your natural balance regarding relationships. If one is in touch with a large group of people online this may affect the people you see on a day to day or regular basis in the physical world.

Even with all these connections online, all these people we are supposed to know are they really friendships. For example if you were to look at all the people you are friends with on Facebook I would doubt if you really knew half of them. They are friends of friends, casual acquaintances, people you know vaguely at work etc. We are polite on line, like or comment positively on what people say or do but is it really a true relationship? I align it to that same person you see every day on the train going to work You know he or she to say hello but that is about that.

As a society we need to be aware of the power of social media in our lives. Younger generations’ more than older ones are totally engaged in this and everything is filtered through these sites. For future generations one cannot imagine what will be available and the power it will bring. Social media can do a lot for relationships, socially and professionally. It can help people unite in common causes, become part of groups, connect with people personally and professionally. Once something is posted, depending on the site used, it is available worldwide for good or bad. Will relationships and one of the bases of society   be maintained on line going forward? Will physical human contact fall away or be reduced to a minimum and with what will be the implications as the question say for marriage and divorce, custodial rights, friendships, employment, and any number of other social issues? I guess we will have to wait and see. I am not too hopeful though given what I have seen and written about.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/relationship

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/140244975870017072/

The Economy of Social Media

With a plethora of social media websites out there from Facebook to Google+ to “you name it, we've got it” one has to ask how they all got up and running and are still in business. I know that they say that anyone can start a website but in order to be successful you need to have some kind of business acumen, seed capital from somewhere, marketing help, and lots of other things I would guess to be successful. We have all heard the story of Facebook and its origins in a bedroom in Harvard. But in order for Facebook to grow beyond that it needed people willing to invest in it and had money injected into it from various sources such as Peter Theil of Paypal and Accel Partners (wikipedia.com, 2014). Bodies like these didn't do it out of the goodness of their hearts. They believed in the product and felt it would be successful. Facebook had to present a business model to such people to show, what was the concept it had, how it would grow, provide budgets for its business, how it would market itself. Accel Partners for example put $12 million into Facebook back in 2005 (wikipedia.com, 2014). I am sure it wouldn’t have unless it was convinced by what had been presented to it. By putting in seed capital they provided Facebook in the early days with the monies to grow and develop into the site it is now. To allow it to hire the expertise it needed across all aspects of its business, Further down the line even Microsoft injected monies into it (wikipedia.com, 2014). You don’t have to have big backers to make launching a social media site possible, and building your own community. There are sites on the web that allow people to do this. Sites like ehow.com show you how to start a social media website and guide you through all the steps necessary.   

With a site up and running and hopefully making money profit then raises its head. This can come in different forms. It can be a purely revenue based item as in advertising revenue which is the main revenue from social media sites; it can be profit from the point of view of the number of hits or subscribers using the site. The general public can profit from having such a site available. They can benefit from, for example, being able to communicate with friends on say WhatsApp to keeping in touch with friends on Facebook. People who have invested in the site from say private investors providing seed capital to the general public buying shares will see profits in the form of dividends or increase in the value of their shares. When we talk of SM sites we are not talking of industries that produce widgets. It is in an electronic format, intangible, all bits and bytes, sent across cyberspace. The way it is developing and what has been pointed out in previous blogs a huge portion of the world’s population is engaged, and is continuing to grow, with these sites and enjoying what they offer. We are all consumers of such sites from messaging with family and friends on WhatsApp to tweeting about the world around us on Twitter, the list is endless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

http://www.ehow.com/how_7893191_start-media-website.html#ixzz2uB116OCF

When I think of graphs, I think of math's problems with an x and y axis and scratching my head trying to work out how to complete the problem! In respect of Social Media it is a different animal altogether. There are various definitions in respect of it floating around the web.

From what I have read, in general, it can be looked at as a web of data or a data structure. Looking at the graph below it can be you in the middle and all the bits and pieces of data you have online in social media sites and everywhere else on the web and how that connects you to your friends, other people, companies, events, communities and vice versa. From getting tagged in a photo or liking a posting on Facebook, to liking a song on Pandora or posting on a community website, these all are part of the social graph. Per businessinsider.com the social graph "draws an edge between you and the people, places, and things you interact with online."

(Image courtesy of http://socialgraphcentral.wordpress.com/)

This data is very important to many parties outside your immediate circle of friends, communities etc., it is important in a commercial sense. Our habits on these sites, our likes, dislikes, recommendations are important to advertisers and companies targeting goods at not only us but the people we know, the communities we are part of. Those recommendations that turn up on Facebook are carefully targeted to you. It drives on-line commerce by increasing the seller's audience and the follow-on sales. It can also enrich the user. It can provide opportunities to people either through increasing their job prospects, drumming up business, selling things on-line, to putting people in touch with others who in everyday life would not meet, allowing access to communities dealing with particular problems. The list is endless.

By engaging in this whole new world the user exposes both himself and everyone he is involved with to the joys of online advertising through the personal information put up in the internet. This is where the open graph can come into play. Per mashable.com an open graph refers to the Facebook Platform that "provides a set of APIs and tools which enable third-party developers to integrate with the "open graph" — whether through applications on Facebook.com or external websites and devices." For example there are numerous sites who can sign into with your Facebook name and password. Spotify for example then uses this technology to post what you’re listening to onto your friends’ news feeds. Your friends can then comment, like, or listen to the song you have been listening to.

This can then be self-propagating. Your friends can log onto Spotify with their Facebook information and do the same thing as you, increasing interest and probably sales. Countless enterprises has access to your news feed and all that precious data about everything and anything. This makes feel a bit uneasy as these companies are getting exposure to your thoughts and opinions, things that you can choose to keep private on Facebook if you choose to or other social media sites. This new technology should come with a warning, something similar to the old phrase of "buyer beware."



 http://mashable.com/category/open-graph/

http://www.businessinsider.com/explainer-what-exactly-is-the-social-graph-2012-3#ixzz2tPDZUcu9

Social Media and its importance

(Image from statisticsbrain.com)

The whole “Social Network” phenomenon is ever changing. This not only relates to the companies that come, Facebook, and go, Myspace.com, but also the demographics of people who use it, the numbers who use it, how its usage is spread across the world, even the make-up of the audience for the different social media sites. If the numbers are to be believed there are hundreds of millions, even billions of people using sites from Facebook to Twitter to YouTube. Are we living in a global village? From a size perspective maybe.

From a survey done by marketingfacts.com it found that in May 2013 it found in the United States alone that “Nearly three-quarters (72%) of online US adults were using social networking sites as of May 2013, up from 67% in late 2012, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project." This equates to hundreds of millions of people. The demographic of this is quite interesting and is on the website. The highest group is women and aged between 18- 29, educated and earning less than $30,000 a year and living in an urban area. Please read more at http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2013/11514/who-uses-social-networks-age-race-gender-and-income-breakdown#ixzz2svFIoDVv.

When we look at world in total, the site statisticbrain.com throws up some amazing facts. It makes for very interesting reading. Please see below.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/

Per the site the top county using social networking is Israel with 11.1 hours on average per month, while the United States only comes in at 7.6 hours. The statistics are surprising in that what is classified as “engaged” countries in social networking there are very few western countries i.e. the United Kingdom, the big countries of Europe. The big users are countries such as Russia, the Philippines, Turkey, Columbia and even Chile. So size doesn’t actually equate to usage volume. One would think the USA would be on top of the chart because it is so technologically advanced and its population in general is sophisticated and plenty of disposable income to buy devices to use social media. But no, per the statisticbrain.com website Israel leads it.

When we talk about a global village, and one unified group we have to remember that social media can be different in countries. For example in China there are many different sites used by Chinese users, maybe because of censorship laws, but even saying that these sites accommodate local cultural needs. Please check out link to these sites at business insider - http://www.businessinsider.com/a-quick-guide-to-chinas-social-networks-2013-10. The US social media sites dominate the rest of the world in general, i.e. Facebook, YouTube etc. but within these countries the demographics will change from country to country. What ages dominates Facebook in Israel, maybe totally different in Russia for example. What is the salary ranges of people using Instagram in Chile as opposed to France. What are the subject’s people talk about on Facebook in Australia as opposed to Peru. All these statistics show different interests at work, different cultures in place. This information is also important from a financial standpoint as it is very important to advertisers in these countries who can make advertisements country specific and user specific within those countries. A very interesting site that gives stats per country can be found at the following link; http://www.mikekujawski.ca/2012/05/01/why-internet-users-and-social-media-users-are-now-essentially-the-same-thing/

So determining the importance of social media is hard to judge. Is it just to do with its users and the fact that we all may have a common point of interest in the way we communicate and group ourselves or is to do with the number of users and this is what the phenomenon is based on? Depending on what people are doing on social media size can be important. People can be part of large communities on Facebook for example, they can be advertising or selling things, the number of hits a video gets on YouTube is a declaration of its popularity, the size of your following on Twitter is all so important and quoted regularly in the traditional media. Size of a social media sight and its users is all so important to advertisers and a way of determining the importance of it in the world. The IPO’s of Facebook and Twitter emphasize how important size is in valuing these companies. But in saying that, the people who use social media are important as well. People are the life blood of social media, they provide the interest in it, they drive these sites forward technologically, and they spread the message about them. The people who use social media can influence popular debate, trending on Twitter, for example, is monitored and taken notice of by the relevant parties concerned. It is a fine line as to what we use to judge social media’s importance.