White Paper on Social Media : Unraveling the Social Media conundrum

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    WHITE PAPERon Social Media

    Unraveling the Social Media Conundrum

    For South Asia Summit on Social Media for Digital Empowerment,

    New Delhi

    September 2013

    By

    Nabeel K . Ad en i

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    I - Personal Information

    Name: Nabeel Kamran Adeni

    Email Address: [email protected]

    Contact (Mobile number): +91 9949 999 515

    Occupation: Consultant

    Designation: Social Media Evangelist

    Organization: Deep Red Ink

    II - White PaperTitle of the paper: Unraveling the Social Media Conundrum

    Aim of submitting the White Paper:

    To help individuals and organizations understand the real purpose of Social

    Media, its scope, potential applications and responsibilities, and enable

    them to use it in truly beneficial ways for all.

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    Kindly find below my descriptive views on the following:

    1.1. What according to you is social media

    1.2. How it has impacted your life or your organization?

    2. What kind of social media platforms do you use?

    3. Do you think, social media is able to bridge communication

    boundaries among countries? Please elaborate!

    4. List down 5 major positive and negative impact that you have noticed

    because of the social media.

    5. Define various define social media platforms, their usage, advantages,

    and their shortcomings.

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    1.1 What is Social Media?

    Social Media is all about sharing- sharing of ideas, information, interests, thoughts and

    feelings.

    Social Media is fueled by conversations, that people have based on their common

    interests.Social Media is facilitates connections, that get developed through these conversationsSocial Media is made up ofcommunities, that get built as a result of these connections

    and so on...But, the fundamental core of the social media concept remains sharing orsimply put,

    interaction.Before taking the online avatar of Social Media, sharingexisted in many forms such as inCoffeehouses, which led the way as centers for social interaction right from the early

    16th century.It is based on this sharingconcept that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut et

    al were created. There are different functions for each of these Social Media websites.

    Here is a list of some of these websites, based on their functions: Networking (Examples: Facebook, LinkedIn)

    Content- sharing (Examples: YouTube, Flickr)

    Communication (Examples: Skype, Yahoo Messenger)

    Bookmarking (Examples: StumbleUpon, Digg)

    Collaboration (Examples: Google Drive, Asana)

    Discussion (Example: Google Groups, BeatTheGMAT)

    Knowledge-sharing (Examples: Quora, Wikipedia)

    Location-sharing (Examples: FourSquare, Mojostreet)

    Mobile (Examples: WhatsApp, BBM)

    Publishing (Examples: Blogger, Twitter)

    Entertainment and other activities:

    o Music (Example: Soundcloud)

    o Gaming (Example: Zynga);

    o Events (Example: Meetup) and many more.

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    1.2 Impact of Social Media on my life

    Social Media has impacted me at various levels of my personal, professional and social

    life, time and again.

    I started my career with a Social Media startup in 2010. I helped businesses,

    organizations and individuals harness the power of social media.

    It has changed the way I consumed news. Social Media became the go-to-source

    for all the latest happenings - locally and globally. Since Social Media became the

    de facto platform for public opinion. It helps me follow elections, sports, events,

    protests, etc and get candid perspectives from the Aam Aadmi.

    Its ability to compress the timescale has helped me promote various causes,

    ideas and stories.

    It has given me the power to amplify my voice, by giving me the ability to broadcast

    my message to wider audiences.

    Personal branding, which is one of my fields of interest is now largely dependent

    on Social Media. It has helped me create my personal brand through websites like

    LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Pinterest. Think, before you speak tweet,

    share, pin, post. is the new mantra!

    It has changed the way I learned. It has helped me follow my favourite thought-

    leaders and given me the opportunity to interact with them 1-on-1.

    Social Media has facilitated my reconnection with former networks, helped me stay

    in touch with my current network of friends, family and peers and it has also

    provided me numerous opportunities to establish connection with people I intend to

    work with, know about and learn from.

    I had organized the Hyderabad leg of Twestival- aSingle day, Global movementwhich uses the power of Social media to organize offline events that mobilizecommunities in support of a local cause. I helped raise `2.9 lakhs to support the

    education of underprivileged children for one year.

    The Groups/Communities/Forums feature on most social media platforms has

    helped bring together people with common interests under one roof. I personally

    built communities on Orkut and Google+, groups on Facebook and LinkedIn and

    pages on Facebook around common interests like cricket, causes, cuisine, etc and

    facilitated empowering conversations.

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    3. Social Media bridging borders

    Borders exist only in the real world! There are no borders in the virtual world. By

    definition, social media is meant to make the world a more open and connected place;defying borders, regions, castes, religions, races and ethnicities.

    On my list of friends/connections/followers, I have a whole diaspora of people from all

    over the world. It is always interesting to get know about the latest happenings in other

    countries.

    This helps one develop a global perspective, which is so critical in contemporary times.

    This exposure also expedites the solution process by making it easy to share best

    practices and tried-and-tested techniques to solve problems and address challenges.

    Facebook, in partnership with Stanford University started Peace of Facebook

    (www.facebook.com/peace). The mission of this initiative is promote peace by building

    technology that helps people better understand each other, by enabling people from

    diverse backgrounds to easily connect and share their ideas to decrease world conflict in

    the short and long term and contributing to world peace.

    Also, in this regard Im partnering with a local non-profit to create a platform to facilitate

    conversations between South Asian countries, using Social Media. Well be using

    Google+ Hangouts to facilitate these conversations across borders.

    http://www.facebook.com/peacehttp://www.facebook.com/peace
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    4.1 Positive Impacts of Social Media

    Conversations, Connections & Communities: Social Media allows individuals to

    connect with like-minded people, have productive conversations and build

    communities around common interests by reducing communication barriers.

    Power, Reach & Swiftness: Social Media platforms, with their state-of-the-art

    technical architecture allow a message/cause/idea to spread across geographic

    regions in exceptionally short time periods.

    Catalyst for Change: Numerous causes, campaigns and protests have been fueled

    by the power of social media to spread awareness and have led the way towards

    change in peoples lives.

    Vehicle for Business: Businesses, small and big have exercised Social Medias

    ability to facilitate communication with their consumers to build their brand, solve

    customer issues, promote new products, showcase stories of success and more.

    Personal, Emotional, Informational, Supportive & Participative: Social Media

    helps individuals and organizations build their personal brands, boost confidence and

    unleash potential. It allows people to know new stuff, latest happenings and share it

    with their peers. It encourages community participation and helps garner support.

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    4.2 Negative Impacts of Social Media

    Addiction: Many studies have shown that the extensive use of social media can

    actually cause addiction to the users. Throughout their day, they feel to post

    something on their pages or check others posts as it has become an important part

    of our life.

    Loss of Privacy & Isolation: Extreme usage of social media has reduced the level

    of human interaction. Because of social networks the interaction with other people

    has become effortless and people have isolated their lives behind their online

    identities.

    Distraction: Social Media usage affects productivity. With so many businesses

    using it to communicate with customers/clients, it leads to time wastage and helps

    lose focus on the job.

    Slacktivism: Malcolm Gladwell had once quoted that the role of social media in

    protests and revolutions is grossly overstated. Social media makes it easier for

    activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact.

    Since, social networks are effective at increasing participation -- by lessening the

    level of motivation that participation requires.

    Bad Grammar & Misinformation: Restricted character limits on Social Media

    platforms encouraging poor grammar, usage, and spelling. They also spread of

    misinformation that may be perceived as fact even in light of evidence to the contrary

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    5. Social Media Platform Overview

    Each social media platform is different from the other in terms of its functionality. Almost

    every social media platform caters to a different function. Heres an overview on some ofthe most used platforms today:

    Facebook: Worlds most LikedSocial Network

    The worlds largest social network has more than 1.11 billion

    users. The power and reach of the Facebook platform offers an

    unmatched opportunity for people to promote and inspire environmental awareness,

    education and action. Its mission is to make the world a more open and connected place.

    Noted features include status updates, likes, pages, groups, Connect, Home, comments,shares, pokes, timeline, advertisingand much more. Users create a personal profile, add

    other users as friends, and exchange messages, including status updates. Businesses

    and Non-profits can create pages and Facebook users can like brands pages to get

    latest updates.

    Power and reach allows individuals and organizations to connect easily. Its innovative

    approach has led to path-breaking revolutions and solutions, globally. Privacy and

    common tech glitches remain a huge concern for users.

    Twitter: The SMS of the Internet

    This social networking/micro-blogging platform allows groups and individuals

    to stay connected through the exchange of short status messages (140

    character limit).

    Registered users can read and post tweets but unregistered users can only read them.

    Users access Twitter through the website interface, SMS, or mobile device app. Noted

    features include Retweets (RT), Hashtags (#), Lists, verified accounts and more.

    The 200 million userbase often experiences outages (#failwhale). Privacy and security

    are major concerns. Not everyone is able to use Twitter due to its supposed complexity!

    LinkedIn: The de facto Professional Social Network.

    The most popular professional social network has more than 225million users across 200 countries. The site is available in 20languages and

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    One purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details ofpeople with whom they have some level of relationship, called Connections. Users caninvite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.

    LinkedIn provides Talent solutions, Marketing solutions and Premium subscriptions to itsusers. It has helped people get jobs, recruiters hire talent, showcase CVs/resumes, buildpersonal brands and have conversations through its Groups, Answers, Polls, InMails andmore.

    Google+: The also-ran

    A social networking and identity service owned and operated byGoogle Inc. It is the second-largest social networking site in the world, having surpassedTwitter in January 2013. It has approximately 359 million active users. As of May 2013, it

    had a total of 500 million registered users, of whom 235 million are active in a givenmonth. Google has described Google+ as a "social layer" that enhances many of itsonline properties, unlike conventional social networks generally accessed through asingle website.

    Noted features include +1. Hangouts, Circles, integration with other Google products likePicasa, YouTube, Blogger, etc.

    It has got great User experience capabilities but falls short when it comes to percentageof Active users. Despite the fact that it has 500 million registered users, only 235 millionare active in a given month

    YouTube: TV of the Internet

    It is a video-sharing website owned by Google since late 2006, onwhich users can upload, view and share videos. It uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movieclips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging,short original videos, and educational videos.

    Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media

    corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, Hulu, and other organizations.

    Unregistered users can watch videos, while registered users can upload an unlimitednumber of videos. Videos considered to contain potentially offensive content areavailable only to registered users at least 18 years old.

    Some of its shortcomings are copyright infringements, comments containing hate/abuseand controversial content.

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    Sources

    Peace on Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/peace/

    Digital Media in India-

    https://wiki.smu.edu.sg/digitalmediaasia/Digital_Media_in_India

    Social Media Wikipedia-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

    State of Social Media- 2012 (Nielsen)-

    http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/2012/

    Malcolm Gladwell on Social Medias Impact-

    http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell

    Social Media story in India-http://www.echovme.in/pdf_pr.pdf Social Media as a Catalyst for Social Changehttp://j.mp/18wQ8Vs

    Social Media for Nonprofitshttp://j.mp/15TWtXf

    Social Media India Resources

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    Social Media- Good or Bad-http://socialmediatoday.com/syed-noman-

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    Google+ on Wikipedia-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B

    YouTube on Wikipedia-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

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    figures-2013

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