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.