Reni Media : Unit 35 Social Media

P1 - Learners anayse a range of existing social media products

Facebook

purpose

Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in 2004, his original idea for the site was made so all university student from Harvard can communicate online. He has said that “his stated mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected” through social media. With over a billion free accounts people have been able to get in touch and create groups with other users. Every person can connect with others through direct message, posts, pictures and sharing news. Facebook can also be used for marketing and business purposes. Businesses, organisations, and public figures can communicate with potential customers and fans. They can do this by creating pages where a large number of users can visit and attend meeting, see promotions and get informed about.

http://www.ehow.com/info_8770738_purpose-facebook.html

b) content

Facebook is mostly used for sharing content and messaging other users. Everyone can share their thoughts, pictures, plan events and groups and promote business ideas. Facebook have recently made a second app called Messenger for phones and tablets, users are able to communicate with other through message, call or video chat.

c) target user/membership

Facebook has an age restriction for 18 and over. Statistics show that 25 - 34 years old, at 29.7% is the most common age for users that have signed up. There are 77% female and 66% male users on Facebook. A research proved that there are 83 million fake accounts made. The chart below should all the statistic about every account made including information and preferences they have set.

https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/

d)source of revenue

Facebook’s main revenue source is advertisement. In 2012 Facebook made around $2.6 billion, 55% of it was from web advertisements, 30% from mobile adverts and 15% from other sources e.g. games and gift shops.

Most businesses pay Facebook to have their ads shown to the right people. They do this by gathering all the recent search history from the user's computer and posting relatable ads on their screen.

⅓ of the money comes from Facebooks App Center which is where people can play games and they are linked to their Facebook account. All the developers of the games pay a lot of money to have them published.

http://www.mymagicfundas.com/how-facebook-is-earning-money/

e)legal/ethical issue

A lot of the content posted from all the Facebook accounts can be reused by others. This is because Facebook hasn’t got a policy for people to privatise their own posts and pictures. Once something is posted online it can be viewed by anyone which means any offensive or illegal comments or posts can be reported. This could become a big issue when employers look up their employees' accounts and see inappropriate content that they have previously posted. Many people have lost their jobs due to commenting or posting statuses with inappropriate words, images or videos. Once something is posted employers can easily search their history and that would effect their overall impression.

Instagram
a) Purpose
The purpose of Instagram is so people can share photos with their followers and loads other people depending on their privacy settings. They can edit photos if they wish to, it can be done very quickly and simply. Its all about communicating through images and sharing locations with people.
b) Content
Instagram was made in 2010 and has become one of the most popular photo apps on smartphones and tablets. Instagram is mainly used for posting any photos, any account also has access to filters and loads of other picture effects e.g. brightness, contrast, highlights. Instagram has recently had an update where users can message their followers and tag people in pictures as well as adding a location to a photo.
c) Target user/ membership
In 2016 there are 65.3 million Instagram accounts 68% of them are female. The largest numbers of users are of age 16-20.

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/new-social-stratosphere-who-using-facebook-twitter-pinterest-tumblr-and-instagram-2015-and-beyond-1622

d) Source of revenue
Instagram can get revenue from purchasing special filters or extra effects. Instagram is expected to have $5.8 billion by 2020 which all comes from advertisements. 93% of Instagram's revenue comes from ads.
- http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/030915/how-instagram-makes-money.asp

e) Legal and ethical issue
One of the biggest problems Instagram has is that in their privacy settings users agree to having no control over their images once they have been taken. Inappropriate pictures can be posted which can be used against people. A lot of people cyberbully accounts through commenting horrible words on pictures and putting their accounts of privet.
-https://research20atimperial.wordpress.com/compulsory-content/legal-ethical-issues/

-http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2013/12/5-ways-instagram-can-lead-to-legal-trouble.html

Twitter
a) Purpose
Twitter has become of the most popular social networking sites for quick and sort message to be sent to followers or just for everyone to see. The limit for each tweet is 140 charaters for each tweet.
b) Content
Twitter allows users to write tweets that are 140 character notes called tweets. Followers can retweet favourite or reply to them. Users can check the feed for news from their followers or go on moments to find out any news. People can also 'direct message' other followers.

c) Target user/ membership
Twitter has only recently had more male users than female in 2014. The most popular target users are from age 18-29 years old.

d) Source of revenue
According to the eMarket Twitter were predicted to make less than 1billion in 2014. Advertisers pay Twitter to have a certain topic come up on the twitter news feed. Twitter can also get payed when twitter users engage with the promoted tweets e.g. comment, retweet, favourite
- http://www.businessinsider.com/how-twitter-makes-money-2013-9?IR=T

e) Legal and ethical
Twitter does not except any violent or harmful content to be sent online.
- https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311
- http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/09/28/challenges-of-using-twitter-as-a-data-source-resources/

P2: Learners analyse the positive and negative of social effects of social media products

Three benefits:

Snapchat - Snapchat is quick and simple to use on a daily basis. People can use it to quickly message someone to meet up, take a picture of what they are up to and see what other people are up to as well. There are settings called 'Discover Story' where people can share world wide news with every user on Snapchat. This is a positive thing because everyone is able to see it and connect internationally. Also if there are any big world events e.g. Olympics, Euro, cultural days and many more any can watch updates from people that are attending and know about the event or just snapchat if they are at the location.

Twitter - Twitter is the best for breaking news, with one tweet everyone can be informed about it. A lot of fandoms connect through Twitter internationally, they can arrange to meet at events to support their idol. A lot of people from Twitter end up becoming good friends simply through a few tweets that they have posted. users tweet their followers more than they would message or text. Twitter can be used for very powerful messages anyone wants to get across its an amazing way of getting people's voices heard.

Instagram- Instagram is the most popular smartphone/tablet app for sharing pictures with followers or anyone (depending on the privacy settings). There are a lot of filters and other editing options that can be used on photos, it's a very quick and simple way instead of using Photoshop. Instagram has recently been very popular with being used for business purposes. Companies pay celebrities/popular Insta accounts to take photos with their products. This is a very smart way of marketing products because followers trust celebrities names, therefore, they purchase the products.

Three Negatives:

Snapchat - Parents get very concerned about teenagers on Snapchat due to the 1-10second picture/video they can send. Just because the snap disappears after 1-10sec that does not mean that people can't screenshot or use a special app that saves the snapchat. A lot of teens don't realise that so they use Snapchat for "sexting" because the odds of having their pictures or messages saved are very low. That can quickly turn into for cyber-bullying and it all becomes very negative "dark" and nasty.

- http://fatherhood.about.com/od/fathers-social-media/p/Snapchat.htm

Twitter - With every social media site there is a danger of antisocial behaviour. However, with Twitter its very high due to how much fresh new content is on there and how many tweets can be sent in a second. Teens feel the need to be updated on all news especially celebrities or their friends, it turns into an addiction so majority of teens become antisocial.

- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/positive-negative-effects-social-media-society-ali-kingston

- http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2014/11/16/50-facts-about-social-media/

Instagram - Although Instagram helps new business grow it can push organic products out the market, this could potentially break companies. Studies have been done and a big number of teens have mentioned insecurities, depression or low self-esteem in the questionnaires. Posting pictures can make them feel too exposed to all their followers or the complete opposite they don't feel confident enough to post anything. This completely ruins the whole point of Instagram but teen don't get rid of their accounts but only carry on feeling down.

P3 Learners commercial uses for social media products