Social media is a big boom when it comes to business, entertainment, and media. It has crossed over from something the youth use to something everyone uses. Many people do not understand how much of an impact social media has on people from their employability to how the public views them. This example essay will show social media’s influence and how it has come to be what it is today.

Titles

Social Media: Then and Now Social Media and it’s Impact on Business Social Media as a Social Movement Social Media and it’s influence on our Lives Social Media: Changing the Way People Communicate

Topics

Social Media Platforms The Impact of Twitter and Facebook on Business The Rise of YouTube Difference Between Social Media Platforms How Social Media is used to Communicate Social Media Effects on Society

Outline

I.  Introduction

a.  Social media has transformed the ways people communicate and do business.

b.  However, social media has also become a useful tool for sociologists, politicians, and law enforcement.

c.  Different social media platforms have different strengths and weaknesses, based on their security or privacy settings, their algorithms, and their user interfaces.
II.  Various Social Media Platforms?

a. Facebook

1. The most popular. As of June 2017, Facebook has 2 billion monthly users (https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/27/facebook-2-billion-users/)

2. Facebook is a global social media platform.

b.  Instagram

1. Image-driven, with 800 million active users each month (https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/)

2. Interfaces well with other social media like Twitter

c.  LinkedIn

1. Designed specifically for career development, human resources.

2. Different from the other social media. Active monthly users is 500 million (http://fortune.com/2017/04/24/linkedin-users/)

d.  Twitter

1. 328 Million active monthly users (https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/27/facebook-2-billion-users/)

2. Less personal than Facebook, better for media and marketing

e.  Snapchat

1. 255 million monthly users (https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/27/facebook-2-billion-users/)

2. Opportunities for branding (http://www.newsweek.com/5-reasons-use-snapchat-besides-reason-337485)
III. Differences Between Social Media Platforms

a.  As Marketing Tools

1. No one social media is “better” than the others; they are different, and users interact differently.

2. Therefore, companies and government agencies need to diversify their social media platform and communication strategy to use different media.

b.  As influencing the ways people communicate or socialize

1. Some social media is for interpersonal relations, and others are for information sharing, yet others for professional networking.

2. Facebook is still used for friendship development more than other platforms like Twitter, but all social media offers opportunities for businesses and media organizations.

c.  Uses for law enforcement

d.  Privacy and security
IV.  Conclusion

a.  Different social media platforms need to be used differently and strategically by organizations.

b.  Ideally, organizations use multiple social media platforms in a comprehensive marketing strategy.

c.  While social media presents some threats to privacy and security, users still appreciate these tools and will continue to use them.

Thesis Statement

Part of what makes social media addicting is that people can communicate to the world in an easy and convenient way; this therefore produces a relationship of the user to the social media platform that can be used by companies for advertising, and even serve as a networking tool that can allow businesses or even law enforcement to gain critical information about specific people, making social media a hugely successful aspect to online culture.

Essay Hook

There are so many facets to social media, that most people can see why it has become the entertainment outlet, the main way for some to communicate, thus leading businesses to try to cash in on the craze.

Introduction

Social media has transformed the ways people communicate and do business. People from across the world use social media to network and talk to family and friends. There are networking sites like LinkedIn, where users can post their resumes and contact employers. Employers can do the same and incorporate in their recruitment strategies, use of LinkedIn to find worthwhile, high-quality recruits. Aside from networking, Facebook offers global access to users for advertising and promotion of products and services. Businesses can even use Facebook tools to generate an ad in one language that can then be translated...
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However, social media has also become a useful tool for sociologists, politicians, and law enforcement. They can use social media to track constituent behavior and trends that may direct one to understand what is popular and relevant in society. Police and FBI can track potential threats on social media as well and gain access to where they live due to identifiable information on their social media profiles. Sociologists can gain the knowledge of how people work and act in the current age by examining posts and images popular in these social media sites/apps. Different social media platforms have different strengths and weaknesses, based on their security or privacy settings, their algorithms, and their user interfaces. For example, YouTube gets new algorithms all the time that make certain videos popular and others fade away into obscurity. Instagram has a new algorithm that favors engagement, therefore promoting users with the highest engagement. These things are what separate social media platforms and make them useful for different occasions. This is why it is important to understand what these various social media platforms are and what can be done on them as a business and understand what is being done with them concerning law enforcement.

Various Social Media Platforms

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social media platform as of June 2017, with an estimated 2 billion monthly users (Constine, 2017). What it is, is a place to set up a profile, upload pictures and videos, and connect with the world. Users can create fan pages, business pages, and personal pages where people can come and see what users have to offer. Some celebrities for example, have Facebook fan pages with hundreds of thousands of likes. Facebook is a site where people establish community and communicate with each other through liking each other’s posts, replying to comments, making posts, and instant messaging. Facebook is also a place where people can connect with people they already know. Many users often connect with old school friends, teachers, and distant relatives. It has an easy to use interface with advertising displayed for businesses to promote their products and services. Being the most popular social media platform, it has generated ways to keep reinventing itself. For example, now Facebook has enabled monetized views similar to YouTube (Griffith, 2015).

Facebook is a global social media platform.

Facebook exists as an international powerhouse when it comes to its reach. That is why businesses have grown to use Facebook as one of their main ways to promote and advertise. With new tools for such use, Facebook has continued its innovative path towards ongoing success. “Through a new feature called dynamic language optimization, brands can configure single campaign that features text in multiple languages, and Facebook will automatically show the version that corresponds to each audience member’s preferred language as set in their Facebook profile” (Peterson, 2017). This success comes from the ability for people to communicate and connect from all over the world and for businesses to come and introduce new customers to their products and services.

Instagram

Image-driven, with 800 million active users each month (Statista, 2017), Instagram provides users with one minute or less videos, images, and chances to comment, reply, and direct message so users can interact with the world. Some celebrities have stated they can earn upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars per Instagram post. “The Keeping Up with the Kardashians stars’ names are so valuable that brand executives shell out six figures for a social media endorsement, Michael Heller, CEO of digital marketing firm Talent Resources” (Ergas, 2017). That kind of money is what makes businesses and organizations reach out to the most popular social media influencers on Instagram. The Kardashians and Jenners are the most notable Instagram users with Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian being some of the most popular users amassing millions of like within hours of posting a new picture.

Interfaces well with other social media like Twitter

Because Instagram is mainly for images and videos, Twitter is a perfect match for Instagram as Twitter is mainly known for its 140-character (now 280-character) word limit posts known as ‘tweets’. Like Instagram, a tweet can be a way social media influencer can make money as companies may pay an influencer to promote a product. Businesses also place ads on Twitter along with Instagram and can create accounts to promote brand awareness for their business. People often follow Twitter users for what they say and if they post interesting images or videos, it could make its way to Instagram as a screenshot or repost.

LinkedIn

Designed specifically for career development, and human resources, LinkedIn is the ‘Facebook’ for professionals. For people looking for a job or looking to hire someone, LinkedIn provides access to resumes, experience anecdotes, and a personal means of communication with prospective employees or employers. Many people often site LinkedIn as a good networking tool that…