Social Media

Section-A

Definitions:
 Social media is a computer-based technology that facilitates the sharing of
ideas, thoughts, and information through the building of virtual networks
and communities. By design, social media is Internet-based and gives users
quick electronic communication of content. Content includes personal
information, documents, videos, and photos. Users engage with social media
via a computer, tablet, or smartphone via web-based software or applications.
 Social media is a computer-based technology that facilitates the sharing of
ideas, thoughts, and information through the building of virtual networks
and communities.
 It is a form of electronic communication (such as websites for social
networking and microblogging) through which users create online
communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other
content (such as videos)

 Online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights,
experiences, and perspectives with each other.
 Social Media is the collection of tools and online spaces available to help
individuals and businesses to accelerate their information and communication
needs.
 Software tools that allow groups to generate content and engage in peer-to-
peer conversations and exchange of content (examples are YouTube, Flickr,
Facebook, MySpace etc).
 A category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated
content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, or My
Space, social bookmarking sites and other sites that are centred on user
interaction.
 Social media are interactive technologies that allow
the creation or sharing/exchange of information, ideas, interests, and other
forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.
 The idea that social media are defined simply by their ability to bring people
together has been seen as too broad, as this would suggest that fundamentally
different technologies like the telegraph and telephone are also social media.

Social Media for developing nations like India:

As of 2019, 56.1 percent of the global population, or about 2.3 billion people, has
access to the social media. In recent years the fastest growing market segment has
been developing countries, and with the expansion of its popularity,
overwhelmingly positive changes have occurred. There are many benefits of social
media that contribute in the development of a nation.

1. Brings people together- With implementing social media in our nation,

citizens were able to reach out to each other through social media platforms
such as Facebook and Twitter and create, organize and initiate street protests
and campaigns. Furthermore, having access to social media in developing
countries, people are able to connect to those that they usually wouldn’t have
the chance to talk to.
2. Provides educational opportunities- In many countries like India, the
division between local and national languages as well as issues of literacy can
make communication difficult. With the use of social media, a bridge can be
built between these two gaps.
3. Watchdog for the public interest- social media is the watchdog for public
interest in many ways just like traditional media is. One of the main ways is
to create public awareness of what is going on with businesses and
government officials. The social media plays an important role in giving
people the opportunity to act against injustice, oppression and misdeeds that
they otherwise wouldn’t know about.
4. An Equalizer- Social media helps bring access to information to anyone who
can see it. In developing countries, this means that people in rural areas, or
with little access to services can now obtain educational, mobile health and
financial services in ways that were impossible before mobile technology and
the spread of social media.  As one World Health Organization article recently
stated, “one fact sheet or an emergency message about an outbreak can be
spread through Twitter faster than any influenza virus.”
5. Saves Lives- Social media provides real-time insight into the lives of people
around the world.  As a result, when major illnesses occur social media is
often the first to know.  Clever monitoring of social media can predict disease
outbreaks and enable intervention to begin often weeks before the traditional
methods would pick up similar results.
6. For Economic Empowerment- Be it providing micro-lending or crop prices,
social media is helping to empower those at the bottom of the economic
ladder. Farmers in developing countries often do not know what the going
price is for the crops they are growing. The World Bank’s International
Finance Corporation (IFC) details a project they have funded to help rural
farmers via SMS messages, “by providing farmers current market
information, even rural farmers can make educated, cost-effective decisions
when buying and selling their crops. As a result, they are more likely to see
greater returns.”
7. To Mobilize Public Opinion- Many of the examples cited here include using
social media to mobilize public opinion – whether it be to protest, to learn, or
 to strive for fairness.  Other examples include more targeted campaigns such
as the video and campaign such as political protests. Of-course social media
can be used to mobilize public opinion toward evil as well, as we have seen
with ISIS’ recruitment efforts.
8. Social Media for Organizing Protests- Social media is well known for the
ability to coordinate protests.  The best and current example of this is
Farmer’s Protest of our country.  Twitter, especially, played a critical role in
enabling protesters to organize, meet and resist government security.
9. YouTube to Share Atrocities & Rights Violations- Prior to smart phones, it
took special gear to capture everyday life on video.  Before YouTube it was
difficult to share your video – even if you had important, unique
footage. Now many people have a video camera in their pocket or handbag at
all times and can share the footage with the world in an instant.  This has had
a dramatic effect in many realms – not least of which is the ability for those in
developing countries to share atrocities in nearly real-time.
10. For Fair and Just Elections- Social media can help document and disseminate
vote rigging and voting rights violations. The platform informs users of their
voting rights and obligations and will let them monitor the fairness of the
election.
11. To Monitor and Report on Corruption- Social media is being used to expose
corruption and help root it out. Social media has an important role in the fight
against corruption as it can demand accountability and transparency from the
public and private sectors. It is because of social media that news about Vijay
Mallya was spread when he was founded accused of fraud and money
laundering in the country who owes 17 Indian banks estimated Rs 9,000 crore.

Scope of Social Media:

Social media is constantly evolving and what it will look like in just a few years time.
This means that the world of Social Media Monitoring has to keep up with the
demands of social media users as brands continue to modify their strategies once
new trends emerge.

1. More privacy and security:

In the current climate of social media, it’s more important than ever for brands to
find and implement methods of building consumer trust. This begins with how they
connect with audiences. Privacy concerns are on the rise as social media users are
becoming much more aware of how their data is being used. Because of this, the
future of social media will see an increase in users opting for what’s known as “Dark
Social”. This involves any online social interaction that happens privately, for
example, messaging apps, email, and other outlets for private sharing. In fact, 84% of
consumers’ outbound sharing from websites now occurs via private, Dark Social
channels such as these, and we will expect to see this increase in the next few years.
2. More video:
It’s no secret that video consumption via social media is on the rise. It’s estimated
that people look at videos 5 times longer than static content, such as text and images,
on both Facebook and Instagram. Because of this, it’s almost guaranteed that we will
see even more videos all over social media in the future, including live videos,
which have gained a great deal of popularity in recent years.
3. Premium services and fewer ads:
Ads have been the plague of social media for a long time now and social media users
are starting to get fed up. However, many people have been willing to sacrifice
adless experiences for free, ad-saturated ones. Premium services could be on the rise
as social media users tend to prefer high-quality images, videos, and audio as that is
what they have become accustomed to in recent years. But only time will tell if they
are willing to spend money on it.
4. Mobile-focused experiences:
The future of social media is mobile. An estimated 3 billion people have access to
mobile phones by 2020. Additionally, more and more people are using
their smartphones as their main source for accessing social platforms. That’s why
future platforms will be designed with smartphones in mind from the start.
6. Less typing:
According to the Chief Scientist at Baidu, at least 50% of online searches will be
carried out through image and voice by 2020. With the ever-increasing popularity of
voice and image search as well as audio snippet messages, social media could see the
act of typing become obsolete in the future.
7. More visuals:
With the popularity of social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, we
are already starting to see a massive increase in visual-based content. Because
camera access is so much easier now than it was a few years ago, as virtually every
phone has a built-in camera, photos and videos will continue to saturate social
media.

8. Geo-Social Services:
Companies have already noted such tools as Next-door and actively use them to
promote products. Moreover, these tools are used not just by small businesses, but
also by banks, telecommunications companies, and representatives of the IT-
industry.
How are brands adapting to the social media?
1. Knowing their audience:
Rather than bombarding them with ads, which continues to frustrate many social
media users, brands must connect with their audiences on a more meaningful level
by treating them like individuals rather than a mass source of revenue. Consumers
are consequently more likely to trust that brand once that method of communication
is established. And the more brands know about their audience, the easier it is for
them to target their messaging to each segment.
2. Making shareable content:
Since social media users are starting to shy away from sharing personal updates
publicly online and opting to share content they find online with their friends
instead, brands need to provide that content for them. Whether that’s a heart-
warming story or a funny video, brands need to move their audience in some way so
that they engage with their brand as well as encourage them to share that content
with their friends.

3. Embracing visual and technology:

It’s clear that the future of social media will predominantly be made up of images
and videos, so brands really need to hop on that bandwagon if they are going to
keep up. A.R. and V.R. are fast becoming a vital part of many marketing campaigns,
so brands also need to look at ways to incorporate these technologies into their
marketing campaigns.

Types of Social Media:

There are many types of social media which have blossomed as Internet usage has
increased over time. Users have varying reasons to visit these social media outlets;
promoting a business or keeping up with friends are just two. One might have only
heard of a couple types of social media, but continue reading to find out about a few
that one may not know about.

Facebook :

This social media giant requires no introduction. With 2.7+ billion monthly active
users, Facebook lets you connect with people and brands, create or join groups,
share photos, videos, links, go live and find events nearby. It also has a marketplace
that lets you buy and sell locally as well. Since Facebook was primarily created to
connect people, brands have a tough time with visibility. But that can be
compensated for if you have a good marketing budget as Facebook gives you the
opportunity to create great ad campaigns. 
For instance, in September 2020, GoPro launched the #GoProMillionDollarChallenge
that asked its 10.9 million users to “capture meaningful moments” from their GoPro
HERO9 Black and share it using the hashtag. The result was around 29,000
submissions from over 125 countries out of which, 56 of those submissions
composed 2 minutes of a highlight clip with 668k views and still counting. The
creators were awarded $17,857 each.

While you might not have that kind of marketing budget, the key takeaway here is
that GoPro is still heavy on using user-generated content that fuels their page,
appeals to their target audience and keeps them engaged. 

Twitter:

Twitter is a type of social media that lets you share text-based content, videos and
images. Over the years, it has become a source to get the latest updates on any
current topic including news, entertainment, sports and even politics. The real
advantage of Twitter is that it lets you share content in real time. One drawback is
the 280 characters limit unlike most other sites that do not have this limit but it lets
you keep your message short and crisp. 

Twitter has currently become the go-to for customer service as you find people
directly messaging brands for quick online resolutions. It’s a great way to build your
brand image and show your consumers that you care. The international sports brand
Nike created an account @NikeService that responds to customer queries in English,
Spanish and French, even providing real time updates.

LinkedIn:

It is not all about searching for a job or uploading your resume for prospective job
hunters. This professional social media site lets you share content in the form of text,
links, photos or videos, network by connecting with users and businesses, build
your brand and position yourself as a thought leader and authority in your industry.

For instance, when you head over to HP’s page, you know exactly who they are and
what they do. They’ve kept things fresh with their visual content, even while sharing
a job posting. 

Instagram:

What started out as just a picture sharing site has now culminated into a media
sharing giant. Through Instagram, you can share photos, videos, and stories with a
myriad of different filters which you can save as Highlights under your bio. You can
also publish 30 second vertical videos called Reels, post on IGTV for long format
video content and even go live! 

It also lets you connect your account to Facebook, Twitter and other social media
apps and cross share your content directly. You can even connect privately with
other users through direct messaging.

As a brand, you can create an Instagram Business Profile and get analytics for your
posts to improve your marketing strategy. What’s more? You can even advertise and
promote your posts via Facebook Business Manager or boost posts directly through
the app. 

FitBit’s posts currently excel at delivering a mix of great, clean visuals, information
and adding value to their community of followers in the form of health tips, fitness
hacks and self-care. 

Snapchat:

Snapchat was responsible for popularizing the stories format when it launched. It

lets you share pics and short videos known as ‘snaps’, with the peers you’ve added,
using multiple filters. A snap you share to your stories is viewable for 24 hours.
Within private messages, your snaps disappear after the person you’ve sent it to has
viewed them. 

Snapchat has an interesting feature called Discover where you can view your
friends’ stories, Our Stories - which is a collection of Snapchats submitted by
different users, Publisher stories by Snapchat’s media partners and Shows which are
stories by TV Network partners. VICE was one of the first users to partner with
Snapchat and be featured on their Discover page. Currently with 8.2m subscribers,
they share news, documentaries and utilize the quiz feature within Snapchat too. 

Snapchat also offers you powerful advertising tools which can help you drive sales,
get leads or reach a wider audience. All you need is a Snapchat Ad Account.

YouTube:  

While not officially a search engine, after Google, the second most number of
searches happen on YouTube. Their statistics speak for themself. YouTube hosts a
variety of video content ranging from how tos, to TV shows, to commercials - if its in
a video format, you will find it on YouTube. Creating and sharing your video
content is easy and you have the option of going live too. As a business, YouTube
offers you excellent SEO and provides all the analytics you need - all for free. More
so, you can even advertise on YouTube to increase your reach. 

The key to winning on YouTube is either providing value to your subscribers or

entertaining them. For instance, LEGO’s video content caters to both children and
adults alike. From educational videos (using LEGO) to animated series, LEGO has
mastered the art of keeping its audience engaged.

Similarly, depending on what your business does, you can create tutorials, how-tos,
plan a product launch and publish the video as a premier while uploading videos,
plan live sessions or create interesting videos around your product. The creative
possibilities of using YouTube to leverage your business are endless.