Dan Media Explosion: Unit 35-Social Media

Facebook

Purpose-
Facebook was founded in 2004 with a mission to give people the power to share and make the world a more open community. People use Facebook to sty in contact with their friends and family, to discover what is going on in the world and also to share and experience what matters to them.

"We are building Facebook to make the world more open and transparent which we believe will create a greater understanding connection

The purpose originally was for people to keep in touch with friends and share photos. This purpose has now developed and people are now discussing topical events that are going on in the world and people share their thought and ideas. It has also become a huge platform for video sharing. This is where users of Facebook share a video on their wall and their friends can also share this video.

Content-
The content of Facebook is very varied. Users can add friends, play games, make a comment on your wall, which your friends can also comment on and like. You can create an event which you can invite your friends to or be invited to an event yourself. You can become a member of a group, which discuss ideas about a specific subject, for example, I am a member of the Long Road amnesty group. This group discusses human rights. You can upload videos and photos. You can message friends directly which will not be seen by anyone else. In Facebook messenger you can attach files such as a word document.

Target user/membership-
The target audience can be very wide. There is an age restriction on the user. This is 13+ years of age. The number of monthly active users is currently 1.65¹billion. The most common age demographic is 25-34 years old. In Europe 307 million people use Facebook. Thats just under half the entire population of Europe. There are more Female users than Male. 76% are female and 66% are male. (i)(iii)

Sources of Revenue-
Facebook's main source of revenue is advertising. Companies pay Facebook to advertise products and services. In 2015 Facebook's annual revenue was 17.93 billion us dollars. (ii)

Legal/ethical issues-
There is a number of legal/ethical issues attached to Facebook. Users of Facebook can pirate copyrighted movies onto Facebook. Cyberstalking has become a crime on Facebook. Users can create fake profiles and pretend to be someone their not. Facebook allows users to set high security settings so their chances of being stalked is less. You can set your security settings so that only your Facebook friends can view your profile. Hacking is a big legal and ethical issue. Your profile could get hacked and the hacker can post negative comments and messages to your friends, upload offensive photos and videos. This has lead to peoples lives getting destroyed, especially those who job's involve working with children or in an education setting.

References
(i) https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/.
(ii) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
(iii) http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/

Twitter

purpose- Twitter one of the most popular social network services in the world is a microblogging platform, which allows registered users to post and send other registered users, short messages. These short message, limited to 140 characters, are called tweets. (iii)

"To give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly." (i)

Content- You can follow people and see the posts of people you have followed in your feed. You can upload photos and can comment on photos of other people that you follow. You can share links to videos. You can post gifts and share URL's of websites. You can tag someone in your tweets.

Target/membership- twitter has a 310 million active users. It has a younger target audience than Facebook. 18-29 years of age is the biggest age demographic that use twitter. (ii) (iv)

Sources of revenue-

Twitter makes most of its money from advertising and promoting tweets that will appear in people timelines. For example when a film is released, the film company will pay twitter to make that film appear on twitter users feeds. in 2015 twitter made an annual revenue of $710 million dollars. (ii)

Legal/ethical issues- Any tweet that is posted on twitter with copyrighted content which is not theirs becomes a legal issue. An ethical issue of twitter is tweets that are of a racist/offensive nature. Singingly out groups, such as religious groups could become an ethical issue.

References
(i) https://about.twitter.com/company
(ii) https://www.brandwatch.com/2016/05/44-twitter-stats-2016/
(iii) http://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/
(iv) http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/

Instagram

Purpose- Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos and share them on a variety of social networking platforms, such as Facebook, twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. (i)

"to capture and share the worlds moments" (i)(ii)

content
The basis of the content for Instagram is pictures and you can comment or write about whats in the picture. Whatever you post it has to contain a photo or video. You can favourite a post.

Target/membership- Users of Instagram use it in different ways. Some use it to take selfies and other use it show off their photography and art. There are 500 million monthly active users. This makes it more popular than Twitter but less popular than Facebook. 51% of Instagram users are male. The largest age demographic is 18-29. (iii) (iv)

Sources of revenue- Instagram makes most of its money from advertisements. Companies will pay Instagram to put up photos or videos of their product or service. Users of Instagram can then follow that company and see there other products. Instagram is projected to make $3.2 Billion in 2016. (v)

Legal and ethical issues- Anyone on Instagram can follow you. There is the ability to make your security settings high. An ethical issue of allowing anyone to follow you is that bots can follow. Bots are not real people and wont like your post, you can get a notification from a bot with a link that could contain a virus or explicit content on which is unsuitable for users of a younger age.

References
(i) http://tiffanyjmarketing.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/instagram-history-and-mission-statement.html
(ii) https://help.instagram.com/155465357989685
(iii) https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-demographics/
(iv) http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/mobile-messaging-and-social-media-2015/2015-08-19_social-media-update_09/
(v) http://www.digitaltrends.com/business/instagram-huge-profit-projection-2016/

P2

positive effects of social media.

1. Information is shared with people so everyone can know. For example, important news articles are shared quickly through social media, letting everyone know what is happening in the world. this mostly happens through Facebook, with people sharing news articles that make people discuss the article with others.

2. People get to interact with friends and family who live a long distance away or who they don't have enough time to see very often. This is, according to the Pew Research Center, the primary use of Facebook by adults on social media. This mostly happens through Facebook because you can easily see what's going on in the lives of your friends and family, private message or video chat with them. (i)

3. People have a platform from which they can share their own thoughts, emotions and personality with other people. for example, people can share funny comments or pictures with others. This occurs on all social media platforms, the site used depending on the type of media the person posts normally.

negative effects of social media.

1. Cyberbullying, getting harassed online. According to bullyingstatistics.org, more than 1 in 3 young people have experienced cyberthreats online, while nobullying.com states that over half (55 percent) of all teens who use social media have witnessed outright bullying via that medium. This can happen on all social media platforms because people can comment on anything you put up there, which can sometimes lead to negative comments. (ii)

2. Cyberstalking. Because your profile is online, anyone can potentially access it, leaving you open for someone to stalk you online.Cyberstalking is now more common than physical harassment, according an article from the Guardian. It is very easy to cyberstalk people on Twitter because your profile is open for anyone to see: people can see all your posts and work out where you've been based on your posts. (iii)

3. Inappropriate content, for example when people swear in the posts even though they have friends on social media who are quite young. According to an article in the Guardian, a lot of children end up seeing inappropriate content because social media sites too lax on self-declaration. This can happen on a lot of social media platforms with the possible exception of Facebook as people are friends with family members on Facebook and probably don't want to be caught swearing or showing inappropriate things by family members. (iv)

sources:

(i) Family and friends:
http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/

(ii) Cyberbullying statistics:
https://nobullying.com/cyber-bullying-statistics-2014/
http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html

(iii) Cyberstalking:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/apr/08/cyberstalking-study-victims-men

(iv) Inappropriate content:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jul/26/children-lie-age-facebook-asa

P3

Facebook

Advertising

Businesses create advertisements to be displayed on Facebook and pays Facebook for their service. Facebook accesses users information and search data to taylor the adverts to users requirements. In this way users are are likely to see ads for the things they are interested in and the approximately 3 million advertisers are targeting an audience who is more likely to buy their product. Facebook experienced a 50% growth in it's number of advertisers from 2015 to 2016.
https://www.facebook.com/about/ads
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/facebook-advertising-statistics/

Viral marketing

Facebook is a hotbed for viral marketing. Lots of videos or memes are posted with the aim of them being passed and shared. They are often quite subtle or controversial and don't always mention the company outright. An example of this is the ice bucket challenge. It started as a single post but encouraged others to participate in the challenged. Millions of people worldwide participated. The charity ALS benefitted from this viral activity generating millions in donations. It was originally picked by celebrities and then the general public participated in large numbers.

Product/service reviews

Companies and individuals are able to create a Facebook page. On these pages, consumers often leave comments detailing both good and bad experiences. As such it provides the consumer with a good overview of what a product or service is like.

instagram

Advertising
Instagram offers 3 types of advertisements for businesses to purchase. These are:Photo Ads, video ads and carousel ads. Photos allow the business to tell their story with a pictures, video ads with a video of up to 60 seconds and carousel ads allow several images to be displayed with perhaps a weblink attached. For users to see the adverts they need to be following the business already. For this reason it is better suited to larger brands.
https://business.instagram.com/advertising

Viral marketing

Samsung initiated a campaign in conjunction with the Princes Trust. It involved celebrity participants posting selfies and photos on instagram with the hashtag StandTall.
It generated 681,217 impressions increasing recognition of their brand.
http://keyhole.co/blog/top-10-instagram-marketing-campaigns-in-2015/

Product/service reviews

Product reviews are posted by established bloggers. Some bloggers have specialised subject blogs for example Zella is a well known beauty blogger. Companies then approach the bloggers to help promote their products. They provide the products for free for the bloggers to review.

Twitter

Advertising
Like other social media platforms Twitters enables you to target you advertising to your audience by using search algorithms. You can promote yourself on other peoples twitter accounts in order to attract new followers. Obviously the more followers you attract the wider your advertising reach.
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-ways-to-advertise-on-twitter/

Viral marketing

In 2010 Airline KLM used Twitter to connect with it's passengers. By researching their social profiles they were able to get them a personalised gift, which they then delivered to them at the airport. They filmed these interactions producing a promotional film. This gained them over 1 million impressions on twitter alone. Only 40 KLM customers were given gifts but news of these gifts spread like wildfire across social media platforms promoting the airline.
http://www.digett.com/2011/01/11/klm-surprise-how-little-research-earned-1000000-impressions-twitter
http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-media-examples/15-viral-marketing-examples-campaigns-past-5-years/

Product/service reviews
Companies encourage their followers to post reviews using Hashtag productreviews. Customers can then search and find these reviews. Reviews tend to be positive as they are posted by customers who follow that company already.

New Social Media Website Ideas

1. Scribbler re-share Website: the idea is people add to and edit existing media and pass it on. This could be comments on book pages. Adding to pictures and videos.

Purpose: To re-share uploaded content such as pictures and videos and be able to edit them to your liking. For example if there was a photo of the cast of 'friends' you could edit this photo and put the names of your friends above the characters in the photo.
Format and style: The format is you will have a feed of your own content as well as your friends shared content in the middle of your screen. The layout will be similar to the layout of Facebook. The style will simple, clean and modern.
Target audience: My main target audience will be aged 16-24.It will be popular among both sexes but it will be up to the user as what shows up on their feed.

2. Food related: connect with others who like similar food, post photos from restaurants, reviews. Recipes for your own food. Users can search for ingredients to find recipes, places to find restaurants, companies to find allergy lists. Sharing food concerns , promoting healthy eating. Can post photos, videos, recipes or reviews. Advertisers can target audience by location, food preferences, allergies etc.

Purpose: This social media is for people who love food or want to learn how to cook or to get ideas. The concept is so that people can connect with each other and share their ideas around the subject of food. The purpose is to create a community that can get people into the love of food and those who have the knowledge can help others with recipes and recommendations of their favorite restaurants.
Format and style: The format is there will be two separate sections of the site. one will be the restaurant side of the site which will include restaurant reviews and will allow users to search for any restaurant in any town. The other side of the site will be for recipes and will also include other section such a help section which will provide advice and ideas to help you cook. users of the site can post question which other users can answer. The main page will be simple and will include photographs of different dishes and will only feature two tabs on the main page which will take users to the two different sections. Once taken to these sections there will be a whole load of sub sections which users can use. The style will be simple and elegant.
Target audience: My target audience is professional chefs and members of the public who have an interest in cooking. This site will not cater to one specific gender. The whole idea of the site is to attract a wide range of people who come together for their love of food and cooking. I want to attract the professional cooking community as they will have great knowledge which will help others that use the site.
Mock up

3. VR connect, connect with others to share with VR activities. Promote your VR activity, attract VR playmates. You could connect virtually online or meet at a specific location and time for an event. Companies could promote themselves via pop up games. You can review games and events and invite others.
d

Purpose: To connect with other people through virtual reality and shared experiences. It's a social platform for gaming in which you are able to meet with others in a virtual environment. It will give a sense of togetherness when that is not actually possible for example meeting virtually with people living in other countries.
Format and Style: You will start in your own virtual hub which is a home like environment. Here you can interact with your surroundings and invite friends to join you there. You can also invite friends to join you in activities outside your hub. These might be additional games or apps within the app. For example you could stage a virtual date at Niagra falls, you could be a gun slinging robot in space, infact anything a developer might program. the possibilities are endless. You would possess an avatar but this can be interchangable and you would beable to select how you look to others.

Target Audience: My target audience could be anyone but it would mainly appeal to people with an interest in gaming and technology. The demographic is probably mainly young adults. The concept would also appeal to people with friends and family overseas as it would create a new way to connect with them.
Mock up

4. Post and compare fitness data via fitbit, iwatch or other fitness devices. Share healthy living ideas. Promote healthy living events. Establish goals and post successes and failures. Can connect to people in your area with similar goals and fitness preferences. Establish activity groups in your locality. Find fitness trainers, physios and other health related buisinesses. Post advice, gain followers.

Purpose: To help people live healthy lifestyles by helping them to connect to others with similar goals as well as health professional. the site aims to encourage healthy living and personnal well being. It also gives a way to meet people in the local area to exercise with and motivate each other. Personnal trainers and other professionals can review their clients progress via the site and tailor their programs as necessary.

Format and Style: The website will be laid out in a simple and easy to use way. There will be sections for personal progress, friends progress, friend zone, professionals zone, events. and advice. These sections would all be easily accessible from the home screen. The style would be simple and elegant in a two tone colour scheme possibly white and black.