WHITE PAPER on Social Media
„Unraveling the Social Media Conundrum‟
For South Asia Summit on Social Media for Digital Empowerment,
New Delhi
September 2013
By
Nabeel K. Adeni
@nabeeladeni [email protected] 1
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 Paper
Title 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.
@nabeeladeni [email protected] 2
Kindly find below my descriptive views on the following: 1. What according to you is social media
2. How it has impacted your life or your organization?
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.
@nabeeladeni [email protected] 3
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 facilitates connections, that get developed through these conversations
Social Media is made up of communities, that get built as a result of these connections
and so on...
But, the fundamental core of the social media concept remains „sharing‟ or simply put,
„interaction‟.
Before taking the online avatar of Social Media, sharing existed in many forms such as in
Coffeehouses, which led the way as centers for social interaction right from the early
16th century.
It is based on this sharing concept 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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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- a Single day, Global movement which uses the power of Social media to organize offline events that mobilize communities 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 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 I‟m partnering with a local non-profit to create a platform to facilitate
conversations between South Asian countries, using Social Media. We‟ll be using
Google+ Hangouts to facilitate these conversations across borders.
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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 people‟s lives.
Vehicle for Business: Businesses, small and big have exercised Social Media‟s
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.
@nabeeladeni [email protected] 7
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. Here‟s an overview on some of
the most used platforms today:
Facebook: World’s most Liked Social Network
The world‟s 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, advertising and 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 225 million users across 200 countries. The site is available in 20 languages and
@nabeeladeni [email protected] 9
One purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people with whom they have some level of relationship, called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.
LinkedIn provides Talent solutions, Marketing solutions and Premium subscriptions to its users. It has helped people get jobs, recruiters hire talent, showcase CVs/resumes, build personal brands and have conversations through its Groups, Answers, Polls, InMails and more. Google+: The also-ran
A social networking and identity service owned and operated by Google Inc. It is the second-largest social networking site in the world, having surpassed Twitter 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 given month. Google has described Google+ as a "social layer" that enhances many of its online properties, unlike conventional social networks generally accessed through a single website.
Noted features include +1. Hangouts, Circles, integration with other Google products like Picasa, YouTube, Blogger, etc.
It has got great User experience capabilities but falls short when it comes to percentage of Active users. Despite the fact that it has 500 million registered users, only 235 million are active in a given month YouTube: TV of the Internet It is a video-sharing website owned by Google since late 2006, on which users can upload, view and share videos. It uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5 technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, 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 unlimited number of videos. Videos considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users at least 18 years old. Some of its shortcomings are copyright infringements, comments containing hate/abuse and 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 Media‟s 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 Change http://j.mp/18wQ8Vs
Social Media for Nonprofits http://j.mp/15TWtXf
Social Media India Resources
http://socialmedia-strategy.wikispaces.com/Social+Media+India+Resources
Social Media- Good or Bad- http://socialmediatoday.com/syed-noman-
ali/608781/social-media-good-thing-or-bad-thing
Google+ on Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B
YouTube on Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube
Social Media Facts- http://www.soravjain.com/67-fascinating-social-media-facts-
figures-2013
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