Legal, Policies, and Ethics

“By clicking Accept, you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.” Does anyone actually read all of the regulations and policies before accepting? Not really. The Guardian actually did a study to find out just how many people in all of Great Britain actually read the fine print; the survey revealed that ONLY 7% of Britons read online terms and conditions when signing up for products and services! That is a pretty small amount of people, especially considering how popular social media is. So, why don’t we read the fine print to make sure we’re not accepting something we don’t agree with? Well…we’re lazy. The Terms and Conditions takes FOREVER to read through and uses words that we don’t really understand. Although, it is super annoying to have to read all of the policies presented by a company, it’s actually really important to at least familiarize yourself with what exactly you are agreeing to.

Snapchat is an extremely popular social networking app, especially among the younger demographic. The reason that the younger generation loves it so much is because of the feature that allows users to take photos that disappear after the receiver has viewed it. This has probably made parents a little more uneasy than other social networking platforms considering they can’t look through their child’s phone to make sure that they aren’t sending anything inappropriate.  

So, why is everyone freaking out about Snapchat lately? Well, Marketwatch explains that Snapchat’s updated privacy policy has claimed the rights to reproduce, modify, and republish photos and save them to Snapchat’s servers, specifically in relation to the ‘Live Story’ feature.  So yeah, all of the people who have sent pictures that definitely don’t want any chance to be resurfaced are freaking out about Snapchat’s violation of their privacy. But hey, Snapchat didn’t technically do anything wrong; all of its users agreed to it.

So, next time one of your apps, products, or services tells you “By clicking Accept, you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy,” you might want to read into what you are agreeing to.  

Sources: 

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/may/11/terms-conditions-small-print-big-problems

https://www.snapchat.com/terms  

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/snapchats-new-scary-privacy-policy-has-left-users-outraged-2015-10-29

Collaborative and Distance Communication Platforms

Today, I’m going to talk about the social media platform that is very near and dear to my heart: Skype. Just for a small explanation, Small Business Chron describes Skype as a “hybrid instant messaging and voice chat application that allows users to connect with one another from any global location with internet access. With over 663 million users, Skype is one of the most popular communication systems in the world.”

Skype is actually extremely helpful for businesses. On the Skype blog, five benefits are listed for companies: (1) Cut the cost of your business calls, (2) Keep track of your expenditures, (3) Reduce your business travel costs, (4) Stay in touch with colleagues, (5) Stay in touch with customers. One of the best benefits that were listed is for businesses to cut the cost of business calls; I’m talking about international businesses. International calls are EXTREMELY expensive; Skype is free and it also gives the opportunity to be face to face instead of just voices on a phone call which increases customer service.   

So why does Skype mean so much to me? Well, it has helped me maintain relationships more than any social media platform ever has. Growing up in the LDS religion, I have had many close people go on missions. A few years ago, missionaries started being able to use Skype. At the time, my closest brother Caden was on a mission in Puebla, Mexico. He was able to Skype me and my family twice a year on Christmas and Mother’s Day. I remember looking forward to being able to finally physically see him, almost like he was in the room with us. Right after he came home, my boyfriend, Austin, left on a mission to Santiago, Chile. Both of us were extremely worried about what the two years of being apart would do to our relationship. But, about every six months we were able to see each other because of Skype. I know that it doesn’t seem like a lot to only see someone you love twice a year, but it is what helped us to maintain our close relationship. Now, Austin is home, and we are planning on getting married this summer.

Sources: 

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-skype-63207.html

http://blogs.skype.com/2012/05/24/5-real-benefits-of-using-skype/

Location Based Platforms

Why use a location based social media platform? Sounds kinda creepy that other people can see where you are, right? Well when used properly, they can be pretty awesome. My favorite location based platform is FourSquare. Now, I have been dating someone for almost a year now and living in Logan doesn’t give us the most options for our date nights. For the first part of our relationship, we pretty much went to every restaurant in town and wasted a bunch of money on going to the movie theater at least once a week. After a while, we ran out of ideas. One day, I was on Facebook and saw one of my friends had mentioned the FourSquare app. Ever since then, the app has helped us to come up with fun, creative stuff to do wherever we are.

So, just to explain, FourSquare is a social media site that provides a way for you to know of things that you might be interested in around your area. Wikipedia explains it as an app that “takes into account the places a user goes, the things they have told the app that they like, and the other users whose advice they trust, FourSquare provides recommendations of the places to go around a user’s current location.” For an example, when I first got the app, I put that I’m interested in sushi, movies, and fun date nights. The app then gave me a list of places to go, including customer reviews for each place. Pretty cool right? So next time you’re having issues finding something to do with your friends or on a date, try out the FourSquare app and see if you like it!

Location based platforms are not only beneficial for its users, but for businesses. On the GOBABL blog, they claim that there are five benefits that location based platforms give to businesses: (1) It helps to find new customers and expand your audience, (2) Increases brand awareness with less budget, (3) Learn about your audience easily, (4) Get instant customer feedback, and (5) It helps target audiences more effectively. These benefits can significantly help small, less known businesses become visible on the map of their consumers. 

Sources:

https://foursquare.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foursquare

http://gobabl.com/blog/5-benefits-of-location-based-social-media-monitoring-for-businesses/

Most Used Platform

Facebook is now worth more than Walmart. No this is not a joke; yes I used a reliable source. On June 23, 2015, CNN reported that Facebook’s market value is nearly $245 billion, while Walmart is worth about $235 billion. Now obviously Walmart and Facebook don’t compete with each other, but it’s a pretty remarkable feat for a social media site that has only been around since 2004 to be worth more than the world’s largest store when it comes to sales. 

Facebook has been a powerhouse in social media innovation for a long time now. With so many social media platforms that have been invented, how has Facebook able to become and maintain the number one most popular platform slot? According to FBZA, “versatile features that cater for a variety of needs for the different categories of users continue to drive traffic to the platform.” So, the answer is plain and simple: Facebook is just different than any other social media. And what does different mean? It means more successful. Companies that are able to differentiate themselves from their competitors always come out on top. When I think of Facebook, I think of multiple social media platforms combined. The main purpose of Instagram is sharing photos; Facebook can do that. The main purpose of Twitter is to update your status, share articles and opinions, and follow news updates; Facebook can do that. Facebook continues to improve and evolve through the years, a strategy that MySpace didn’t realize to do and look where it’s gotten them. FBZA also came to a conclusion that there is a list of factors that social media sites must combine and implement in order to become the world’s biggest: (1) Vision, (2) Financial Investment, (3) Inclusive approach to membership availability, (4) A versatile array of application features, (5) Continuous improvement to guarantee relevance, (6) Media. From the beginning, Facebook has capitalized and evolved itself into applying all of these factors. Although there are rumors and articles saying that Facebook is going to start going downhill here soon, I really don’t see that ever happening. 

Sources:

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/23/investing/facebook-walmart-market-value/

http://www.fbza.net/2014/10/how-facebook-became-worlds-biggest.html