SOCIAL MEDIA

 

Social media facilitates the sharing of ideas and information through virtual networks. From Facebook and Instagram to Twitter and YouTube, social media covers a broad universe of apps and platforms that allow users to share content, interact online, and build communities. More than 4.7 billion people use social media, equal to roughly 60% of the world’s population.

Today, social media messaging apps and platforms are the most commonly used sites worldwide. In early 2023, 94.8% of users accessed chat and messaging apps and websites, followed closely by social platforms, at 94.6% of users. Search engine sites were next, with 81.8% of users accessing them.

Social media originated as a way to interact with friends and family but soon expanded to serve many purposes. In 2004, MySpace was the first network to reach one million monthly active users. Social media participation exploded in the years that followed with the entry of Facebook and Twitter. Businesses gravitated toward these platforms in order to reach an audience instantly on a global scale.

On average, global users spent 2.24 hours each day on social networks in 2020, the highest across almost any media type.

According to Global Web Index, 46% of internet users worldwide get their news through social media platforms. That compares to 40% of users who view news on websites.

Social media is an ever-changing field. New apps such as TikTok, Signal, and Clubhouse have joined the ranks of established social networks like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram

 

There are some common features of social media:

1. Social media are interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications.
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.
3. Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are designed and maintained by the social media organization.
4.  Social media helps the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals or groups

Social Media Landscape

The social media landscape refers to the platforms, tools, and methods used by businesses, organizations, and individuals to market their products and services on social media. It includes the various tools and platforms that are used to create, monitor, and manage social media accounts, as well as the strategies and tactics used to maximize the reach and engagement of users.

The social media landscape can be broken down into several different components, such as content creation, management, monitoring, analytics, and targeting. Content creation involves creating content that is interesting and engaging to the target audience, and management involves managing the content and the accounts associated with it. Monitoring involves tracking the performance of content and accounts, and analytics are used to measure the success of campaigns and strategies. Finally, targeting involves using demographic data and other information to target specific audiences with content

 

The benefits of social media-

Social media provides several benefits, including the following:

User visibility- Social platforms let people easily communicate and exchange ideas or content.

Business and product marketing- These platforms enable businesses to quickly publicize their products and services to a broad audience. Businesses can also use social media to maintain a following and test new markets. In some cases, the content created on social media is the product.

Audience building- Social media helps entrepreneurs and artists build an audience for their work. In some cases, social media has eliminated the need for a distributor, because anyone can upload their content and transact business online. For example, an amateur musician can post a song on Facebook, get instant visibility among their network of friends, who in turn share it on their networks

 

The challenges of social media-

Social media can also pose challenges to individual users, in the following ways:

Mental health issues- Overuse of social apps can result in burnout, social media addiction and other issues.

Polarization- Individuals can end up in filter bubbles. They create the illusion of open discourse when the user is actually sequestered in an algorithmically generated online community.

Disinformation- Polarized environments foster the spread of disinformation where the perpetrator's intent is to deceive others with false information

 

The different types of social media-

The four main categories of social platforms are these:

Social networks- People use these networks to connect with one another and share information, thoughts and ideas. The focus of these networks is usually on the user. User profiles help participants identify other users with common interests or concerns. Facebook and LinkedIn are good examples.

Media-sharing networks- These networks focus is on content. For example, on YouTube, interaction is around videos that users create. Other media-sharing networks are TikTok and Instagram. Streaming platforms like Twitch are considered a subset of this category.

Community-based networks- The focus of this type of social network is in-depth discussion, much like a blog forum. Users leave prompts for discussion that spiral into detailed comment threads. Communities often form around select topics. Reddit is an example of a community-based network.

Review board networks. With these networks, the focus is on a review, usually of a product or service. For example, on Yelp, users can write reviews on restaurants and endorse each other's reviews to boost visibility.

Some examples of popular web-based social media platforms:

• Facebook is a free social networking website where registered users create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues.
• LinkedIn is a social networking site designed for the business community. Registered members can create networks of people they know and trust professionally.
• Pinterest is a social curation website for sharing and categorizing images found online. The main focus of Pinterest is visual, though it does call for brief descriptions of images. Clicking on an image will take a user to the original source. For example, clicking on a picture of a pair of shoes might redirect a user to a purchasing site; an image of blueberry pancakes might redirect to the recipe.
• Reddit is a social news website and forum where site members curate and promote stories. The site is composed of hundreds of sub-communities called subreddits. Each subreddit has a specific topic, such as technology, politics or music. Reddit site members, also known as "redditors," submit content that members vote on. The goal is to elevate well-regarded stories to the top of the site's main thread page.
• Twitter is a free microblogging service for registered members to broadcast short posts called tweets. Twitter members can broadcast tweets and follow other active users' tweets using several platforms and devices.

 

Social Media Analytics-

 

Social media analytics is the ability to gather and find meaning in data gathered from social channels to support business decisions and measure the performance of actions based on those decisions through social media.

Social media analytics is broader than metrics such as likes, follows, retweets, previews, clicks, and impressions gathered from individual channels. It also differs from reporting offered by services that support marketing campaigns such as LinkedIn or Google Analytics.

Social media analytics uses specifically designed software platforms that work similarly to web search tools. Data about keywords or topics is retrieved through search queries or web ‘crawlers’ that span channels. Fragments of text are returned, loaded into a database, categorized and analyzed to derive meaningful insights.

Social media analytics includes the concept of social listening. Listening is monitoring social channels for problems and opportunities. Social media analytics tools typically incorporate listening into more comprehensive reporting that involves listening and performance analysis.

 

Social Media Analytics (SMA) in organization-

            Social media analytics helps organization address these experiences and use them to:

• Spot trends related to offerings and brands
• Understand conversations — what is being said and how it is being received
• Derive customer sentiment towards products and services
• Gauge response to social media and other communications
• Identify high-value features for a product or service
• Uncover what competitors are saying and its effectiveness
• Map how third-party partners and channels may affect performance

These strategies affect a range of business activity:

• Product development - Analyzing an aggregate of Facebook posts, tweets and Amazon product reviews can deliver a clearer picture of customer pain points, shifting needs and desired features. Trends can be identified and tracked to shape the management of existing product lines as well as guide new product development.
• Customer experience - An IBM study discovered “organizations are evolving from product-led to experience-led businesses.” Behavioral analysis can be applied across social channels to capitalize on micro-moments to delight customers and increase loyalty and lifetime value.
  Branding - Social media may be the world’s largest focus group. Natural language processing and sentiment analysis can continually monitor positive or negative expectations to maintain brand health, refine positioning and develop new brand attributes.
• Competitive Analysis - Understanding what competitors are doing and how customers are responding is always critical. For example, a competitor may indicate that they are foregoing a niche market, creating an opportunity. Or a spike in positive mentions for a new product can alert organizations to market disruptors.
• Operational efficiency – Deep analysis of social media can help organizations improve how they gauge demand. Retailers and others can use that information to manage inventory and suppliers, reduce costs and optimize resources.