11 Social Media Platforms and Tools

Shalini Narayan

epgp books

 

 

 

1. Introduction

 

The age of the internet brought about a drastic change in the way we interact. The dotcom boom of the 1990s was followed by another set of websites that enabled social networking in the early part of this millennium which are now collectively termed social media. This module starts with the history and basics of how we define social media and goes on to give a description of how to use social media platforms popular in India and then discusses the impact of using them.

 

1.1.History

 

It all began with the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991. Using e-mails or weblogs etc, individuals could connect to others but the service itself would not automatically connect you to others. Shortly after the turn of the millennium, online services shifted from offering channels for networked communication to becoming interactive, two-way vehicles for networked sociality. Once the infrastructure of Web 2.0 was in place, it became easy to connect networks. In the words of Dijck, the interconnectedness of social media platforms led to the rise of an ecosystem of connective media with a few large and many small players in the short span of a decade leading to a transformation from networked communication to “platformed” sociality.

 

In 1997, one of the first social networking sites, SNSs, SixDegrees was started which claimed to have one million users at the height of its popularity. Blogger was launched in 1999 to enable users to write weblogs (shortened to blogs) on the internet. Friendster came into being in March 2002 which remained popular till about 2008. LinkedIn, which enabled corporate bonding came into existence in 2003. In the same year, MySpace was introduced followed by Facebook in February 2004. A micro-blogging website called Twitter was launched where members could ‘tweet’ or write a short blog limited to 140 characters to give updates. In 2011, Google came forward with its own take on a SNS, with Google Plus giving Facebook a run for its money. In between, SNSs such as Orkut came and went.

 

According to We Are Social website, in January 2015, 2.08 billion people were on social media platforms, which was around 29 percent of the global population. Facebook was the leading platform, followed by QQ, Qzone and WhatsApp. In South Asia, 157 million people had active social media accounts. In India, only 9 percent of the population is on social media, much below the world average, but time spent per day on social media is 2.5 hours, a little above the average time spent globally on social media. QQ is an instant messaging service which was originally started in Mandarin in China. It has one of the highest numbers of users and can be accessed on Windows, Android as well as IoS operating systems and also has chatrooms, gaming, dating services etc. Qzone is a blog service in China that allows users to keep diaries, share photos, videos and listen to music. The sheer number of users of these services in China keep them at the top of the table in social media platforms across the globe. It must be kept in mind that the Chinese government has a closed door policy for social media platforms that have servers outside of China. Hence, Facebook, Twitter etc cannot be accessed in that country. Instead, services similar to them have been indigenously developed and have gained immense popularity. However, they have very little presence outside of China.

 

1.2.Social media definition

 

The term ‘social media’ is often used interchangeably with other terms such as new or digital media or Information Communication Technology, ICT. Robert Logan defines new media, in general, as those digital media that are interactive, incorporate two-way communication, and involve some form of computing as opposed to “old media” such as the telephone, radio, and TV. Here new media and digital media have been used to denote the same. P. David Marshall gives the distinctive features of new media in having different forms of production and reception as compared to older media as also using the active audience approach. The other defining characteristic of new media is interactivity, says Marshall. According to the World Bank, ICT is defined as consisting of hardware, software, networks and media for collection, storage, processing, transmission and presentation of information as in voice, data, text and images. In another definition of ICT, G. M. Marcelle includes a wider perspective, saying they comprise a complex and heterogeneous set of goods, applications and services used to produce, distribute, process and transform information.

 

The most widely accepted definition of social media is that it is a group of internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation of exchange of user-generated content given by Kaplan and Haenlein in 2010. By Web 2.0 is meant the second stage of development of the internet characterised especially by the change from static webpages to dynamic or user-generated content and the growth of social media, as per the Oxford Dictionary. Another definition by Bruns and Bahnisch is that social media means networked information services, designed to support in-depth social interaction, community formation, collaborative opportunities and collaborative work.

 

Scholars like Jeanne M Persuit have defined social media as having the following characteristics:

  • being user-driven,
  • inviting group coordination,
  • connecting individuals and organisations,
  • allowing non-professionals to engage in content creation and permitting comments on public content.

Among characteristics included by other scholars are:

  • accessibility, or the ease of access
  • permanence, or the in-destructive nature of data created onlin
  • reach, or the ability to address a sizeable audience
  • recency, or the ability to be kept updated
  • usability or directly benefiting the users

    2.   Social media platforms

 

By social media platforms is meant those social networking websites that allow internet users to connect by sharing communicative content, build professional careers and enjoy online social lives. These include:

 

All of these websites are classified as social media and enable those with access to internet to share updates about themselves, add to knowledge in the public domain through collaboration, share skill-based multimedia productions among peers or entertain oneself.

 

Among the social networks, Facebook leads the tally with 8 percent of social media users preferring it, followed by Google Plus at 7 percent, Twitter at 6 percent, LinkedIn and Pinterest at 5 and 4 percent respectively.

 

These social media platforms are characterised by connectivity and sharing of user-created content, ease of interaction through instantaneous feedback, community formation and give voice to whoever has access to the internet. We take a closer look at some of the platforms:

 

2.1. Facebook.

 

Started by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 to help friends to connect in Harvard University, Facebook, FB crossed the 100 million user mark in India in 2014 and is second only to the US in numbers. A report by Medianama in March 2013 says, daily active users of Facebook in India are 55 million, nearly ninety percent of whom access the social networking website through their mobile phones. Out of a global population of about 7 billion people, a fifth access FB at least monthly. The number of active daily users is about 890 million worldwide of which 745 million access through the mobile phone. India accounts for 8.4 percent of FB’s global monthly active users of which nearly half are daily active users.

 

How it works: Users need to register themselves at www.facebook.com by filling out a form, the pre-requisite for which is to have an email identity. The website enables the user to put up a photograph of themselves and other information which they may like to share with social contacts. Children younger than 13 cannot be registered. Once a member of the SNS, the website pulls up contacts from the user’s email to suggest who they can be friends with. One can add people who are already members as ‘friends’ to one’s profile or invite others to join as members. The site enables you to place your social updates such as information about yourself, photos, videos about you or those that you like which are instantly available to your friends or groups of friends as per your choice. The user has control over the content s/he shares and with whom.

 

For instance, if the user has been travelling and would like to share the photos of the places visited, these have to be uploaded onto their Facebook account where it can be shared with ‘public’, ‘friends’, ‘friends of friends’, ‘family’ or other social groups created by the user. Each user gets the status update of those they have classified as friends on their timeline, which is a record of all updates shared by friends with the user. So, if someone in the family has got a new job or has just come back from Hawai, the information will be there on your timeline, if the family member is friends with you on Facebook. Posts and shares on Facebook could also be content that you found interesting or thought-provoking or funny. Friends will have the option to ‘like’ or ‘comment’ on that, triggering a lively debate sometimes. Content outside of Facebook can also be shared likewise. Most news stories now carry icons to share that particular content through Facebook, Twitter, Email or Print.

 

2.2. Twitter

 

The social media platform afforded by Twitter has also been quite popular in India with celebrities taking to it in a big way. Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Noah Glass and Jack Dorsey launched Twitter in 2006 as a way to share short messages or tweets that could be instantly accessed by a number of people and can be shared through ‘retweeting’. The length of the update is limited to 140 characters but can include a tiny url that could lead you to more information, in case you desire so. The Twitter success story is a testament to the short attention span of the netaratti who like to consume content in short bursts. In the recent past, Twitter has added the feature of posting photos or videos too. Twitter allows even unregistered users to see your tweets but they cannot post any. The social networking site also has a feature for using hashtags or phrases prefixed by the sign # that can help categorise or group messages on the same subject. This not only allows the message to be more searchable but also enables ‘trends’ to be spotted. For example, when actor Salman Khan was given bail in the hit and run case in Mumbai, the hashtag #Salmangetsbail was spotted as a trend.

 

In India, among the prominent users on Twitter are Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood thespian with 15.7 million followers, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi with 13.6 million followers; cricketer Sachin Tendulkar with over 7 million followers and Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament with 3.16 million followers.

 

Trendsmap (http://trendsmap.com/) is a tool that maps real-time local twitter trends. It also helps in visualising topics trending globally, nationally and locally.

 

 

Figure 1 Trendsmap

 

2.3. WhatsApp

 

A cross-platform social messaging application that enjoys tremendous popularity, having over 300 million users worldwide. It allows users connected digitally to exchange short messages for free and is available on android, windows, ios and other platforms. WhatsApp also gives users the option to share content such as photographs, videos, along with text, instantaneously. It allows about 100 users to connect via their phone numbers and thus, forms more intimate groups than say, Facebook where the average number of friends on your profile would be double of this number at least.

 

After Facebook acquired WhatsApp messaging in a $19 billion payout in 2014, the clout of the social media platform has increased dramatically as WhatsApp figures at number one in social media messenger/ chat app platforms in India in March 2015. 11 percent of those using social media messaging services in India are on WhatsApp, followed by Facebook messenger at 9 percent, with Skype, WeChat and Viber following at 8, 5 and 4 percent respectively.

 

3.  Social media Tools

 

For monitoring and evaluation of an organisation/person’s social media presence, there are a number of tools that can be employed. Marketers find these a handy tool to judge how their brands are being perceived in the social media space. Some of the popular tools include free ones such as Facebook Insights, Google Alerts, Pinterest Web Analytics, Klout and Social Mention. Others such as Hootsuite, Brandwatch, Social Response are paid for services.

 

Facebook Insights: Gives data on responses to your Facebook page, showing metrics around your content. User engagement and demographics are included in the analytics. For example, If there has been a spike in the ‘likes’ on your page, FB Insights will give you a comparative chart of how likes have grown over the last week, month.

 

Google Alerts: Allows you to be notified for content you are interested in from various sources. E.g. If you need to know when an academic paper on a particular subject has become available, you can put an alert for the topic under Google Scholar.

 

Pinterest Web Analytics: It gives an insight to website owners of the content from their site being shared on Pinterest

 

Klout: Points out the influential users on your social media sites so that you can empower them to become your brand ambassadors.

 

Hootsuite: A social media management tool that gives you a wide range of inputs on audience engagement, scheduling engagements and measuring ROI (Return on Investment).

 

Brandwatch: Helps track brands in social media-level of engagement, mentions, sentiments, tracking etc

 

Social Response: Allows users to build dynamic Facebook fan pages, one-on-one interaction with audiences and real time responses.

 

4. Impact of use of social media

 

A number of studies have been done worldwide to evaluate the impact of social media on users. Generally speaking, a positive correlation is found between economic activities and use of social media. Social media applications are in every field, from healthcare to business; entrepreneurship to governance and commerce to education. Changes in governance in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia in 2010-11 dubbed the ‘Arab Spring’ were attributed in a large part to protests triggered by social media, scholars going as far as to call them the ‘Facebook Revolution’. Scholars such as Jeffrey have attributed to the humble mobile phone, and by implication social media, the power to connect and organise, vital tools in social movements.

 

Read a story: Facebook Twitter help Arab Spring Blossom

Facebook, Twitter Help the Arab Spring Blossom

 

The profile of social media users in India set to change from urban, young, English-knowing male users to more rural, older, vernacular, female users in the next three years, the numbers of social media users is projected to reach 500 million in India, according to a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, IAMAI. Given the kind of reach expected, the Government of India has been proactive in increasing its presence on social media, with even the President and Prime Minister having profiles on the major social media platforms.

 

On an individual level, while using social media online, the same kind of care and caution needs to be exercised as in the case of offline relationships. Proceed with caution in befriending unknown people and beware of scamsters. The added drawback of social media is that data once placed online continues to live in some form or the other for eternity. Pictures posted in the flush of youth as bravado or dare, continue to haunt the user in late adulthood too, surfacing somewhere or the other. Data placed online can be deleted from the users’ device but will not be erased from the recipient’s or from servers or digital clouds where it has been stored.

 

Identity theft is a hazard too. Scamsters use personal information from Facebook to create a fake identity and use it to commit fraud. The only way to do that is to be vigilant, never give out financial information to unknown people or apps. Also, social networking sites allow you to be accessed by strangers, especially in chatrooms.

 

As with every other media, overuse of social media has also been derided by scholars as causing a disconnect with the offline world.

 

5.   Summary

 

In sum, social media are a product of the last decade of the last millennium and were enabled once Web 2.0 came into being. Different from the traditional media such as newspapers, television and radio, social media are characterised by interactivity and user-generated content. To define, social media are is a group of internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation of exchange of user-generated content. Some examples are Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn etc. By social media platforms is meant those social networking websites that allow internet users to connect by sharing communicative content, build professional careers and enjoy online social lives. For monitoring and evaluation of an organisation/person’s social media presence, there are a number of social media tools that can be employed such as Facebook Insights, Google Plus Analytics, Hootsuite etc. The impact of social media on economic activities has generally been that of a positive correlation. Social media has had major impacts on governments such as Egypt, Tunisia, Iran etc triggering the Arab Spring. Given the kind of numbers who are likely to have access to social media in India in the next three years, the Indian government has given a push to its presence on various platforms, connecting with stakeholders and providing services through social media. On an individual level, users need to understand issues of privacy, safety and identity theft and exercise caution in sharing of information.

you can view video on Social Media Platforms and Tools

References

 

  • Bruns, A., & Bahnisch, M. (2009). Social media: tools for user-generated content: social drivers behind growing consumer participation in user-led content generation [Volume 1: state of the art].
  • Dijck, J van. (2013). The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Logan, R. (2010) Understanding New Media: Extending Marshall Mc Luhan. New York: Peter Lang
  • Marcelle, G. M. (2000). Transforming Information and Communications Technologies for gender equality. UNDP.
  • Marshall, P. (2004) New Media Cultures. London: Oxford University Press.
  • Medianama. (2015). Facebook India users base grows to 112 m monthly users over 89. Retrieved from http://www.medianama.com/2015/03/223-facebook-indias-user-base-grows-to-112m-monthly-users-over-89-through-mobile/.
  • White B., King, I., Tsang P. (eds.) (2011). Social Media Tools and Platforms in Learning Environments by Editors: Springer.
  • Persuit, J.M. (2013). Social Media and Integrated Marketing Communication: A theoretical Approach. User-driven, Lexington Books.
  • Shah, Alpesh; Jain, Nimisha & Bajpai, Shweta. (2014). India@Digital.Bharat: Creating a $200 Billion Internet Economy. The Boston Consulting Group & Internet And Mobile Association of India. Retrieved from http://www.bcgindia.com/documents/file180687.pdf.
  • Tufecki, Z. & Wilson, C. (2012) ‘Social Media and the decision to participate in Political Protest: Observations from Tahrir Square.’ Journal of Communication, V. 62, pp. 363-379.