The Emergence of Social Media and Social Networking

MEAN 3: The emergence of facebook, Wikipedia, flickr, myspace, youtube and others creates a completely new “social networking” phase of the internet.  Develop a perspective on two of them that attempts to reflect on the value-systems* expressed by the new media?  How will they change the world of business? The life of the average consumer?  Are they over rated? Under-rated? Do they introduce ethical

considerations? How will they evolve in the next five years?

I chose to interact with two of my most favorite social media enterprise – Facebook and YouTube. When Facebook was first introduced I was not aware of it nor did I care. I had a MySpace and didn’t use it very much but I, at the time, thought it was the greatest thing in the world. I could see what people were up to and people could see what I was up to. We could talk over the internet and then talk when we were together a few hours later. It was basically the coolest thing since AOL Instant Messenger.

It was not until I was graduated from high school and in my second year of college that my friend suggested I get one. I had already deleted my MySpace and wasn’t sure if I wanted one since MySpace I felt was toxic. Well, I took my friends advice and she helped me create one (I wish I would have known I was going to become addicted and then I might have thought twice about creating one). After creating my Facebook I was introduced to an entirely new world. Adult family members who I hadn’t talk to in years had a Facebook, friends from kindergarten who I hadn’t seen had a Facebook and people who I met while studying in Europe whom I hadn’t talk to since I left there had a Facebook. I realized when I created my Facebook that this was going to be an entirely new culture of internet communication.

It was not long after the world of Facebook was introduced to me that You Tube became a new part of my life. I was able to go to this website and find any video, good or bad, funny or dull, and watch it. I was able to find clips of my favorite shows, watch full episodes, watch music videos or see people making fools of themselves. Through You Tube I realized I could upload my family’s water sports wipeouts and let the rest of my family see them. One thing that I found was so great – I could upload my YouTube videos to my Facebook page! It was then I was awakened to the world of social media.

Like any social media the positives come with the negatives. Comparing the value-systems PowerPoint with the characteristics of Facebook and YouTube there are some obvious downfalls that come with these social media gold-mines. The reason Facebook has succeeded is that their users control is limited. There is a standard template that the user must follow and they are not allowed to (unlike MySpace) fill their page with jargon or useless media. Even though Facebook limits its user’s access it is still an internet company that makes its money from the advertisement and users that are able to obtain information through it. The information from users of Facebook was (possibly still is) able to be accessed through the transparency category on the value systems and companies are able to “gain competitive advantage” over its competitors. Companies who obtain their information through the Facebook users’ profiles are able to then use that information to gain knowledge on what ads, offers and spam to send to these users. Like any internet company information is going to be leaked and porosity is going to happen for the simple reason that your information is public once it is put online. It is much like YouTube where any information submitted is public and no matter the outcome people are going to access it.

These two world-wide known names have already changed business for the better. Millions of companies throughout the world have created a Facebook page and have started conducting business through it. By companies creating these pages they make their consumers feel as if they were a part of their business rather than a consumer outside of it. By these businesses making their consumers feel as if they are on a peer-to-peer level it allows the consumer to feel at ease when making purchases or conducting business with these companies. This says the same for businesses that run their advertisement or product placements on YouTube. These products, companies, commercials, music videos, television clips and virtually almost everything is accessible on YouTube at any time. A great example of creating a new world of business is music video product placement. In Gaga’s music video for her hit “Telephone” she had product placement for Virgin Mobile as well as Diet Coke. Companies are paying celebrities to endorse these products; the celebrities are placing these items in their television shows and/or music videos and are subliminally selling them. Business percentages are increasing and the celebrity is making money as well. This would be impossible without the explosion of social media and social networking databases.

These two things have already changed the life of the consumer. Consumers are now able to keep in touch with businesses latest coupons, deals, promotions, hours, contact info and hot topics through Facebook alone. The local churches have Facebook pages because they know it is the easiest, and fastest, form of advertisement. If you are looking for information on a company you can usually go to the search bar, type in the name and within a matter of minutes have more information then you were looking for. Consumers, while now feeling a part of business and a sense of importance, have just subconsciously increased their desire to support these businesses.

By allowing access through Facebook and YouTube you have just now created a world full of social media and networking that would in other cases not be possible. People in America are able to talk to their family in Germany on a regular basis without the long distance charges. Businesses in Germany are able to advertise to people here in America. I know for me the fact that I can stay in contact with my family who reside in Montana on a regular basis makes me cherish Facebook. Without Facebook staying in contact with them would be virtually impossible with all of our busy schedules. I find Facebook as well as YouTube the farthest thing from being overrated and the simple fact that Facebook is the #1 rated social networking sites with 1,191,373,339 monthly visits (www.complete.com) speaks for itself. Twitter follows a close #3.

With any social media and social networking site comes the question of ethical considerations. Yes, ethical considerations are going to be broken but you have to remember that with internet comes the basis of broken ethical considerations. Anytime you place your information online or take a risk and let the world see what you are doing you are allowing yourself to be subjected to ethical considerations. It is going to happen and the best way to be prepared is to understand that it may happen. The only way to protect yourself from these ethical considerations is to limit the information that is placed online via your Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube video, MySpace page, etc.

Thinking into the future and how social media and social networking sites are going to shape the world – I become speechless. I don’t believe Facebook has even hit its peak in success yet and YouTube is just getting its start. These two companies, along with Twitter, Flickr, Blogger and other social networking sites are going to hit a complete upward spiral in the next five years. Facebook is going to be used for anything and everything and I predict the emergence of new social media sites as well. We must face the fact that social media and communicating over the internet has left paper virtually dead. Internet communication is going to be our new way of life and, if I do say so myself, makes it much more convenient for Americans. After all convenience is what we love.

Happy Facebooking!

Tiffany