Facebook
has changed vastly over the years and is completely different in many ways to
its original release back in 2004. Facebook states that their mission is: “to
give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected”. The
networks original statement was similar to this but was only available to
colleges then high schools also but now it has exploded in popularity and due
to this their mission broadened and began to appeal to more and more people. It
is now effectively for communicating worldwide rather than just on your college
campus
Facebook wants users to effectively
communicate and post about all aspects of their lives with their friends which
is shown through the many different ways of communicating with other users such
as statuses, private chats and sharing other posts.
Source:https://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/mission-statements/facebook-mission-statement.html
Twitter
Twitter is a unique social media in the way people
interact with each other as it is more used for communicating with everybody
rather than specifically as it has followers instead of friends which means
anybody can begin to follow a page which means viewing posts on their timeline.
Twitters mission is to: “Give everyone the power to create and share ideas and
information instantly, without barriers.”
The
purpose of Twitter is to communicate in summary as the word limit for posts is
140 characters meaning posts are smaller in size and is a quick way of passing
information or opinion without needing to write 1000 words.
SOURCE: https://about.twitter.com/company
Instagram:
Instagram
may be owned by its parent company Facebook but that does not mean it is not as
good of a social media website/app. Its purpose is to really appeal to the
modernising technology and the tech savvy young people in the world. It is
mainly used on smartphones and has many features which are completely different
to Facebook in the way it is used. Their mission is: “We're building Instagram to allow you to experience
moments in your friends' lives through pictures as they happen.”
Twitter
is known for its 140 characters Facebook is known for its statuses and
messaging and Instagram is known for the many photos which are posted each day.
It is a new way of communicating via photos and allows a more visual connection
rather than just explain text on a screen as it documents and expresses
people’s lives, opinions interests in photographs rather than them having to
explain everything in words.
Source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Instagrams-mission-and-vision-statement
P1 - B
Facebook
Facebook is all about connecting
with friends all around the world. Therefore, all of its content revolves
around the basis of their mission of making the world more connected. They do
this in many ways such as a “friends list” this feature allows users to view
who their added friends are on Facebook and be able to easily interact with
them via messages or look at their friend’s profile. Another feature is being
able to easily message people all around the world with Facebooks built in messenger
which does not cost money unlike traditional methods of communication like
phone calls and texts to different countries. Users are able to share and
comment on other peoples posts whether it be a status a picture or a video
allowing their friends to then see the content. The most popular form of this
is people sharing funny videos for their friends to watch without sending it
individually.
Facebooks connectivity is not just
between friends now it is also for businesses and companies. Not all Facebook
accounts are people; some are brands or businesses advertising their products.
To follow the news and updates of these accounts you do not friend them you
instead “Like” their page which keeps you updated on all their posts by their
feed posting onto your home page for you to see personally. Browsing habits
will also place advertisements on user’s timelines which is their private page
with many posts of their friends or liked pages on.
Finally, one of Facebooks most
popular features is the built in games to the website/app created by third
party companies. There are thousands of games to choose form all with different
genres appealing to many different people. Some examples are: Farmville, Candy
Crush, Crime City etc. Facebooks content is made to appeal to the most not the
few which is why there are many features involved.
Twitter
Twitter on the other hand does
connect people but is more about connecting with pages and celebrities more
than friends when compared to Facebook. Peoples posts can be about their daily
lives or opinions but all have to be within the space of 140 characters which
effectively is microblogging. Users have followers and can follow people
instead of having friends which allows people to connect with celebrities
easier as the celebrity or business do not have to follow their follower back
on the app. People also can connect personally to these famous people and
businesses as they will post updates about their lives or post news about
products all for their followers to see; these posts are known as “Tweets”.
Users can also share videos with
their followers and use a feature called “retweet” which effectively reposts
the video with that user’s followers. There is a similar feature called “liked”
formerly known as “favourites” and is a way of showing someone you enjoy their
post without having to share it on your timeline.
Twitter is
a quick simple way for users expressing their thoughts for people to see if
they want them to. They can use the hash key (#) before a word which allows other
people to search that word and then see that individuals posts. The hash
effectively allows people to search a certain word in a criteria and if a
certain post has used that hash key it will appear in that persons feed. It is
known as the “Hash Tag” and is more or less known as that in modern day society
now rather than the Hash Key.
Instagram
Instagram also has many available
features for their users to use on their posts also. Every post somebody makes
has to use an image of some sort but does not require a caption. It is not like
Facebook or twitter which does not require photos to be posted to create a
post. Instagram’s content includes filters, likes, comments etc. To like a
photo on Instagram you have to double tap the picture with your fingers and
then a white heart will flash to show you have liked it. To confirm the like
below the picture there will be a little red heart to show you. It also shows
all the other likers of the same photo if you want to view them.
Instagram
is especially unique as it makes everybody’s photographs forced into a square.
This allows everybody’s feed to be all in proportional and all look square like
for a sleek interface. However in recent updates users can make more of a
portrait photograph now however on users profiles it will scale it back down to
a square unless the photo is enlarged to view. P1 - C - Audience
Source: http://www.rosemcgrory.co.uk/2016/01/04/social-media-statistics-2016/
Facebook
Facebooks
audience has completely changed since it was first created. It was originally
for campus students then high school students also but when put out to the
world it was for designed for everybody ranging from ages 13 and over. By 2010
it was the dominating network and was used by all ages and genders but now
however the audience has shifted quite dramatically. Since the popularity of
the smartphone many younger Facebook users drifted away to more quick and
updated applications such as Instagram and snapchat. Now the remainder left is
adults such as parents and now even elderly people who have begun using it. It
is now dubbed the old peoples social network as the younger generation mainly
use it for viewing videos now rather than posting statuses and communicating on
the website. Facebook has the
largest user base with 1.5 billion which makes it the most popular social media
to date and no other social medias user numbers come close.
Twitter
After the
so called downfall of Facebook with the younger generations twitter became the
more popular site for younger people as it was much simpler in the way it was
designed. The websites simplicity allows anybody to use it and due to the more
updated type features it has flocked many celebrities to use it over Facebook.
Businesses, celebrities and ordinary people make up the bulk of twitter and
there is no majority audience as it has been created for everybody. Twitter
could be viewed as more appealing to people on the go as they can read short
sentences etc. rather than essay type statuses on Facebook. The last number given for UK users was in 2013 which was
15 million which makes it the second most popular social network in the UK
after Facebook
Instagram
Since many people warded away from Facebook the
developers needed to reel back in this young audience again. They did this by
creating Instagram which was designed for smart phones and especially appealing
to younger people as well as many others. Since the popularity boost of
Instagram it seems many celebrities have now transferred their accounts over to
this app instead of twitter now as they can show personal videos and photos as
well as livestreaming on their page. It has proved successful due to 39% of its UK users being aged 16-24. There are many fan pages and
interest pages on Instagram which will post videos and photos all about certain
topics and there are also many personal accounts which do not reveal as much
information as a Facebook account would. It also revolves around photographs
which is very popular amongst people now as all phones feature cameras now.
P1 - D - Sources of revenue
Facebook
Facebook
generates its income in many different ways. Firstly, there are advertisements
placed within people’s timelines and to the right hand side of the page. These
advertisers pay Facebook to feature their products or ads on the main page which
generates income for Facebook. Due to the vast amount of games on Facebooks
websites some are created by Facebook themselves and some by third part
organisations. In game items can be bought using Facebooks own currency called
Facebook credits. They can be bought online or as a redeemable code in a shop.
There are millions of players playing these games and thousands buying these
credits which allow them to make a vast amount of money from people buying in
game items. In the screenshot is shows you can buy these credits via Facebook or
any shops which sell the cards which provide a code to be assigned to the
buyers Facebook account.
Twitter
Twitter did
originally not make any revenue until 2013 as it did not have any ads to
generate income. But now Twitter makes its money just like Facebook by having
paid advertisements plastered over the app. It may come in the form of a tweet
or certain companies will pay twitter to have a promoted Hashtag which is
usually only promoted due to the high usage of it by users. Accounts can also
be promoted via other accounts or even a tweet can come up on somebody’s
timeline.
Instagram
Most social networking sites including Instagram use advertisements to generate their income. However, Instagram do not have them in random places around the app like Twitter and Facebook they instead implement them onto the user’s timeline so it looks identical to a normal users post. Which they will see by scrolling or on the users discover page which will feature people who have paid for promotion.
P1 - E - Legal and Ethical Issues
Ofcom created a document which
listed the drawbacks of social networking sites for people. Same are legal
issues and others are ethical. I will talk about some of the ones listed by
OFCOM but then discuss about other legal and ethical issues I have researched
myself.
Firstly, a legal issue highlighted
by OFCOM is that criminal damage can be the result of social media. It says how
some people organise parties inviting all of their “friends” which include
people they don’t even know. It can result in criminal damage to the hosts
property and if police are involved they themselves can be attacked by
attendees of the party. This can only be tackled if the host leaves it as private
and is the only member of the party group who can invite people.
Secondly an ethical issue listed by
OFCOM is bullying. It is known now as cyberbullying as it is bullying through
the use of the internet not physical. It can become a legal issue if somebody
is drove to hurt themselves or the social networking cyberbullying leads to
physical contact in real life and somebody presses charges. This is an issue
which will never be solved as it happens on many different websites by many
different people each day and is an ongoing issue. Another Ethical issue is the
fact some social networking sites give people the option to type in all their
personal information. It may be part of the sites features but when is used inappropriately
or hacked it allows people to find out their hometown and where their location
is and could result in many serious crimes like identity theft or kidnapping.
Another legal issues is invasion of
privacy. Some people will go out of their way to create fake accounts or even
use methods of hacking to reveal people’s private data such as their address or
then blackmail them into giving out details. This breaks the law as it is
breaking one of the Data Protection Acts terms. This can be tackled by users
accepting people who they know personally and blocking any unknown users who
try to contact them.
An ethical issue which is a common
problem today is impersonating others. Mainly this is known as Catfishing.
People can pretend to be somebody they are not to manipulate somebody into
thinking they’re talking to a genuine person when they are not. It can lead to
a legal issue if somebody meets up with one of these catfishes and ends up
being hurt in some way such as being assaulted or kidnapped. It can also relate
to stalking which is both a legal and ethical issue as people can create these
fake accounts to find out where people are going in real life and follow them
or simply just follow them around online harassing them. Catfishing is an
ongoing issue which will never be solved as so many are tempted by the people
in the profiles. It has got that bad there is even a TV show which highlights
catfishing cases.
Libel is a legal issue which can
come about from somebody personally attacking another individual online slandering
them for something which either did or didn’t happen. Depending on what is said
and how excessive it is or how many people join in will determine whether
somebody is using their freedom of speech or committing libel which is a crime.
There have been many libel cases but the most notable are ones which have
celebrities involves suing the perpetrator for libel and defamation.
The tabloid The Sun newspaper said that Cameron Diaz had an affair
with her friend Shane Nickerson. When the article was published, she and
Nickerson were in relationships and it destroyed both relationships so both
sued for libel and were awarded an undisclosed sum of money. This article would
be also published on the Suns twitter and Facebook to attract users to buy it.
It is a constant issue which newspapers, hackers and other celebrities are
always filed for due to the nature of what they publish at times.
A legal and ethical issue is
misrepresentation. It is somebody pretending to be somebody else but instead it
is for their own personal gain which is mainly financial. can lead to money
being sent from unsuspecting peoples accounts into these fake peoples banks.
Many pretend to be attractive or somebody who is struggling and they prey on
people who will be more willing to give out money. Cases of misrepresentation can
be taken to court.
Copyright is a big problem on
social media and has recently been cracked down on by websites. Facebook now
will not allow users to upload any videos with copyrighted songs which they
have not paid to use and will mute the audio track. Ultimately if somebody is
using somebody else’s content or stealing it and saying it is their own they
can be in a potential law suit. These networks have put in place rules
regarding copyright which have to be followed by their users.
There was a
100+ page document about social media written by OFCOM highlighting features,
types, benefits and drawbacks.
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