Introduction to social media
What is social media?
Social networking on social media websites involves the use of the internet to connect users with
their friends, family and acquaintances. Social media websites are not necessarily about meeting
new people online, although this does happen. Instead, they are primarily about connecting with
friends, family and acquaintances you already have. The most well-known social media
platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. These websites allow you to share
photos, videos and information, organise events, chat, and play online games.
Often, each of your “friends” (Facebook) or “followers” (Twitter) will be connected to each
other. Just like in real life, the connections between people are not just one-on-one, but a
network of connections. This online social network is useful for spreading information,
pictures and videos and generally staying in touch with people you would not normally get to
interact with all the time. For example, you can easily set up a Facebook page with details and
pictures of an event you might be planning, such as a school fete. The page allows you to
easily send out invitations to other users of the social media platform.
Just like other technology, for example smartphones, social media is a very effective tool for
connecting with people. However, there are a few privacy and security issues worth keeping
in mind.
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of
information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual
communities and networks.[1][2] While challenges to the definition of social
[3][4]
media arise due to the variety of stand-alone and built-in social media services currently
available, there are some common features:[2]
1. Social media are interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications.[2][5]
2. User-generated content—such as text posts or comments, digital
photos or videos, and data generated through all online interactions—is the
lifeblood of social media.[2][5]
3. Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are designed
and maintained by the social media organization.[2][6]
4. Social media helps the development of online social networks by connecting
a user's profile with those of other individuals or groups.[2][6]
The term social in regard to media suggests that platforms are user-centric and enable
communal activity. As such, social media can be viewed as online facilitators or enhancers of
human networks—webs of individuals who enhance social connectivity.[7]
Users usually access social media services through web-based
apps on desktops or download services that offer social media functionality to their mobile
devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets). As users engage with these electronic services, they
create highly interactive platforms in which individuals, communities, and organizations can
share, co-create, discuss, participate, and modify user-generated or self-curated content posted
online.[8][6][1] Additionally, social media are used to document memories, learn about and
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explore things, advertise oneself, and form friendships along with the growth of ideas from
the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites.[9] This changing relationship
between humans and technology is the focus of the emerging field of technological self-
studies.[10] Some of the most popular social media websites, with more than 100 million
registered users, include Twitter, Facebook (and its
associated Messenger), WeChat, ShareChat, Instagram, QZone, Weibo, VK, Tumblr, Baidu
Tieba, and LinkedIn. Depending on interpretation, other popular platforms that are sometimes
referred to as social media services
include YouTube, QQ, Quora, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, LINE, Snapchat, Pinterest, Vibe
r, Reddit, Discord, TikTok, Microsoft Teams, and more. Wikis are examples of collaborative
content creation.
Social media outlets differ from traditional media (e.g. print magazines and newspapers, TV,
and radio broadcasting) in many ways, including quality,[11] reach, frequency, usability,
relevancy, and permanence.[12] Additionally, social media outlets operate in
a dialogic transmission system (i.e., many sources to many receivers) while traditional media
outlets operate under a monologic transmission model (i.e., one source to many receivers).
For instance, a newspaper is delivered to many subscribers, and a radio station broadcasts the
same programs to an entire city.[13]
Since the dramatic expansion of the Internet, digital media or digital rhetoric can be used to
represent or identify a culture. Studying the rhetoric that exists in the digital environment has
become a crucial new process for many scholars.
Observers have noted a wide range of positive and negative impacts when it comes to the use
of social media. Social media can help to improve an individual's sense of connectedness with
real or online communities and can be an effective communication (or marketing) tool for
corporations, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, political parties, and
governments. Observers have also seen that there has been a rise in social movements using
social media as a tool for communicating and organizing in times of political unrest.
Social media can also be used to read or share news, whether it is true or false.
Social Networking
Introduction
Social Networking refers to grouping of individuals and organizations together via some
medium, in order to share thoughts, interests, and activities.
There are several web based social network services are available such as facebook, twitter,
linkedin, Google+ etc. which offer easy to use and interactive interface to connect with
people with in the country an overseas as well. There are also several mobile based social
networking services in for of apps such as Whatsapp, hike, Line etc.
Available Social networking Services
The following table describes some of the famous social networking services provided over
web and mobile:
S.N. Service Description
1. Facebook
Allows to share text, photos, video etc. It also offers interesting online games.
2. Google+
It is pronounced as Google Plus. It is owned and operated by Google.
3. Twitter
Twitter allows the user to send and reply messages in form of tweets. These tweets are the small
messages, generally include 140+ characters.
4. Faceparty
Faceparty is a UK based social networking site. It allows the users to create profiles and interact with
each other using forums messages.
5. Linkedin
Linkedin is a business and professional networking site.
6. Flickr
Flickr offers image hosting and video hosting.
7. Ibibo
Ibibo is a talent based social networking site. It allows the users to promote one’s self and also
discover new talent.
8. Whatsapp
It is a mobile based messaging app. It allows to send text, video, and audio messages
9. Line
It is same as whatsapp. Allows to make free calls and messages.
10. Hike
It is also mobile based messager allows to send messages and exciting emoticons.
Where Social Networking Helps
Following are the areas where social networking has become most popular:
Online Marketing
Website like facebook allows us to create a page for specific product, community or firm and
promiting over the web.
Online Jobs
Website like linkedin allows us to create connection with professionals and helps to find the
suitable job based on one’s specific skills set.
Online News
On social networking sites, people also post daily news which helps us to keep us updated.
Chatting
Social networking allows us to keep in contact with friends and family. We can communicate
with them via messages.
Share Picture, Audio and video
One can share picture, audio and video using social networking sites.
Social Media: New Technologies of Collaboration
Twitter Content Categorisation: A Public Library Perspective
This study has sampled, content analysed and categorised a select number of tweets created
by a public library system in order to identify and document the ways in which Twitter can be
used for various information services and knowledge management practices in public
libraries.Expand
Email conversation network analysis: Work groups and teams in organizations
An analytical tool was created to analyze the deeper relationships in the email data, which
include relationships based on an interaction of multiple users in a team, as well as methods
for finding communities associated with the specified context.Expand
Book Review: Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL - Insights from a Connected
World
TLDR
“Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World”
explains how to practice social network analysis by using NodeXL software.Expand
Important tweets matter: Predicting retweets in the #BlackLivesMatter talk on twitter
A Comparative Examination of Social Perception, Network Structure, Important Nodes, and
Discourses Regarding ASD Awareness over Online Networks: A Social Network and Content
Analysis
The purpose of this research is to examine activities carried out on Twitter, which is a social
media platform, on April 2 Autism Awareness Day; network structure in Turkey and in a
global context,… Expand
Information Policy and Social Media: Framing Government—Citizen Web 2.0 Interactions
This chapter explores the intersections of information policy and government use of social
media to interact with members of the public, using the policies and initiatives of the United
States… Expand
Classification of Message Spreading in a Heterogeneous Social Network
The goal of the paper is to classify the social message based on its spreading in the network
and the theory of belief functions, and the proposed classifier interprets the spread of
messages on the network, crossed paths and types of links.Expand
Mobile social media for a private higher education institution in South Africa
The use of social media is growing exponentially. All kinds of businesses, seeking
competitive advantage, are looking at what social media can offer them. The most obvious
benefits seem to concern… Expand
Revisiting Corporate Social Media: Challenges and Implications from a Long-Term Study
The discussion of challenges and implications for enhancing collaboration and supporting
adoption processes of social media in workplaces and qualitative data gathered along with the
survey is analyzed.Expand
Social network analysis: Characteristics of online social networks after a disaster
Social network analysis: Measuring, mapping, and
modeling collections of connections
Though, visualizing the data is informative, the crux of social network analysis lies in the
calculation of descriptive measures that reveal important characteristics about 1) position of
network actors, 2) properties of network subgroups, and 3) characteristics of complete
networks.
Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use
of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of nodes
(individual actors, people, or things within the network) and the ties, edges, or links
(relationships or interactions) that connect them.
Social Network Mapping is a method used to determine and understand the nature of social
interactions between individuals as well as groups. This method helps in figuring out which
individuals hold what level of influence over another individual or group.
