Societal Issues Raised by Social Media

The Societal Issues being raised, 

by Social Media


Online Harassment

This is one of the most common issues in regards to Social Media, ranging from harassment to stalking. Although it's so common, not everyone decides to combat this issue, however a simple step which can be used to prevent it, is to change the account privacy settings, only allowing people whom you choose to view your profile.
Account Theft

Unconsciously, you can provide personal details you would not share otherwise on your social media accounts. Information such as your full name, date of birth, hometown, pet names, interests and hobbies, nature of work, and home or office address are just some of the personal details you post on your profile. Criminals can easily manipulate these details to commit fraud. 



Impersonation

Impersonation for fraudulent intentions, for example, to obtain money, goods or services from someone or something, will amount to criminal activity. Which the impersonator could face prosecution for the offence of fraud or a similar type of offence.

Legal & Ethical Factors of Social Media in Business.

Social Media & Businesses

As more and more people are connected via Social media, businesses are finding more and more use for joining themselves. These businesses use social media for the likes of, advertising, keeping employees connected, e-mail. and multiple more uses.

However, there are many legal issues and ethical factors upon using social media in business.





The following are some of the legal issues that a company may face as it integrates social media into its business practices:

- Disclosure of Confidential Information

- Unauthorized Use of Trademarks

- Unauthorized Use of Copyright-Protected Works

- Human Resources Issues 

- Securities

- Privacy/Publicity

- Defamation

Rights & Responsibilities when using Social Media

Your Rights, Responsibilities & The Law When Using Social Media

Social media is regarded as being very similar to most other methods of communication, including telephone or text message and regulated by the same laws as E-Mail. However it is much harder to protect yourself in comparison to other methods. With so many social media sites around, each has different methods of protecting the users.

Protecting yourself on Social Media

The most common way to protect yourself is by altering your privacy settings, only to allow people you approve, or people you are friends with, the ability to see what you post and view your profile. Furthermore, the ability to block people prevents whatever they post being shown on your social media feed or timeline.

What to Avoid:

Many users believe that anything they post on social media can simply be deleted, but it isn’t that simple. The majority of social networks store messages, images and videos after they have been deleted.

To avoid offending or causing harm to people, users should consider censoring status updates, tweets, videos and images which are posted.

It is not just original content that users publish. Images and Videos are reposted by thousands, if not millions of people. However, copyright laws apply to the content being reposted, in order to comply with these laws, the content is required to fall under the category of “Fair Use”.

Top 10 Social Media Sites and Why.

Top 10 Social Media Sites

Facebook –  it is user friendly, Better interface, Regular updates and sharing options are just some of the things that make Facebook number 1 social media. With more than 39 million unique visitors, September 2008 was the highest traffic month yet for Facebook With more than 39 million unique visitors, September 2008 was the highest traffic month yet for Facebook (according to the latest stats from Nielsen Online).

Twitter - easy to use, you can follow who you want (e.g. famous people) and you can be followed, always connected and updated with news. (as of March 2008) Total Users: 1+ million, Total Active Users: 200,000 per week, Total Twitter Messages: 3 million/day

YouTube- ability to watch and listen to almost anything of your choice, like and comment on things you like or dislike. Also able to create and post you own music and videos. ranked number one on the U.S. property with more than 5 million views.

Tumblr- is easy to use, you can put wat you want on it, can find people with similar interests.

Instagram- free, easy to use, it is instant updates and it creative for anyone to use

Vine- short form video sharing, for funny, you can share vid through Facebook and twitter.

LinkedIn- Built a professional identity online and allows you to stay in touch with college and work

Pinterest- allows user to visually share and discover new interests by posting images or videos on their own or other boards.

Google Plus+ - You can add circles for your particular interests, you can use it for your own personal interests and likes.

Flickr – Photo sharing and hosting service with advanced and powerful features, allows you to share and explore other peoples pictures

Security Online (Risks of Social Media)

Risks of Social Media

Social networking sites are seen as being very ‘cool’ by children and they may be pressured by their friends into joining them. The sites don’t actually present any threats that don’t already exist elsewhere online. The danger is that the threats exist in a new online environment you or your child may not be familiar with.

The risks you need to be aware of are:

• cyber bullying (bullying using digital technology)
• Invasion of privacy.
• Identity theft.
• Your child seeing offensive images and messages.
• The presence of strangers who may be there to 'groom' other members.

Safety tools

Learn about and make sure your child knows about the safety tools available to them on the service they're using. This might include a block function to stop unwanted contact or the option of pre-approving comments posted onto their profile before they are made public.Parental controls allows the user to set specific searches to not be allowed such as pornography, gambling, and violence. This can help parents stop their children going on certain websites.

To help guarantee that your child will be safe online make sure they never post personal information, be careful what images and videos they post, keep a recording of abusive or hateful messages they receive, inform them about online scams, if you suspect that your child is being groomed online get in contact with the police or child exploitation and online protection service (CEOP).

Contemporary developments of social media

Contemporary Developments in Social Media

5 benefits a company could get from social media
1. Increase brand awareness
One of the main benefits of social media marketing is the easiest to recognize: Social media is an excellent way to introduce people to a brand. Despite the Field of Dreams notion some business owners have that "if you build it, they will come," if people are unaware of a business or a website's existence, they can't shop there (Kevin Costner was dealing with ghosts, who have a lot of free time to meander around cornfields). Because social networks are used by more than two-thirds of the country, and given the way content spreads vitally to others, social media is the perfect channel to promote a brand to potential customers. Relevance reported that 78 percent of small businesses attract new customers through social media.

2. Legitimize a brand 
Another way social media marketing helps with customer acquisition is by establishing a brand as legitimate. When Internet consumers discover a business or retailer they want to use but know little about, they often check their social media page to learn more about it. Many small businesses have static websites that change little, if at all, after being initially set up by the designer. Social media pages, on the other hand, should be constantly updated with new posts, comments, etc. A website establishes that a brand exists, but a social media page establishes that the brand is active. Similarly, the number of fans shows how popular a brand is and Facebook reviews can reassure buyers by showing them that other consumers like a business. Research from Ballihoo found that 63 percent of consumers who search for local businesses online are more likely to use businesses with information on social media sites.

3. Increase sales
In the end, social media marketing needs to help increase sales and revenue. That's why it's called social media marketing and not simply social media public relations. To be fair, improving brand awareness and legitimizing a brand should, by themselves, help increase sales. But there are ways to use social media to directly steer consumers toward the sales funnel. For fans of the business, business owners can write posts that link to products, sales, etc. Marketers can also use promoted content and advertisements to sell products to target audiences who haven't become fans of a brand yet. The ability to target particular audiences is one of the greatest benefits of social media marketing. Social networks know a lot about consumer interests and demographics, so even though there are hundreds of millions of fans, marketers can accurately target the right people with the right message.

4. Improve customer service
Another benefit of social media that's easy to overlook is customer service. Even if a business has a dedicated customer service department, telephone number, or email, it's important to handle issues via the method of communication the consumer prefers. The fact that people use social media to ask customer service questions is reason enough for businesses to ensure their ability to help customers through social media. This also goes back to establishing a brand. One of the key concerns of consumers when they shop online is the responsiveness of customer service. People want to be assured that if they have a problem, they can easily find help. By being receptive to customer needs, business owners can increase customer loyalty to a brand.

5. Distribute content
Social media should be a part of any content marketing distribution system. Social media accounts for a huge portion of referral traffic on the web. People are looking for content that interests them and they want to share it online. A joint study by AOL and Nielsen found that people spend more than 50 percent of their time online with content and an additional 30 percent of their time on social channels where content can be shared. Business owners who want to gain customers through content marketing need to use social media and promoted content to make that happen.


5 benefits individuals could get from social media

1. Build relationships.

2. Share your expertise

3. Increase your visibility.

4. Educate yourself.

5. Connect anytime

Pros of using social media in the classroom

1. SOCIAL MEDIA SITES CAN INCREASE STUDENT COLLABORATION

Social media sites provide an avenue for students to easily contact one another regarding school projects, group assignments or for help on homework assignments.

2. USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM CAN ENCOURAGE MORE PARTICIPATION

Students who do not participate regularly in class may feel they can express their thoughts through social media.   Although this should not completely replace in class participation it can help build the students’ confidence and encourage them to find their voice and be able to participate in class.

3. SOCIAL MEDIA SITES CAN BE USEFUL FOR HOMEWORK HELP

When students have questions about a class assignment they can easily post a message asking if anyone can help.  They can also write a specific question to the teacher on a wall that other students can see.  This allows the whole class to have access to the feedback from the teacher.

4. SHARE RESOURCES QUICKLY WHEN USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM

If the teacher needs to direct students to a particular online resource they can easily share the site through social media sites like twitter.  If the teacher wants the class to visit a particular site all they have to do is tweet the website and the entire class can view it with one click.

5. SOCIAL MEDIA HELPS KEEP PARENTS, TEACHERS AND STUDENTS ALL ON THE SAME PAGE

It is very useful for teachers to be able to post on social media sites about class activities, homework assignments and even school events.  This helps the teachers, parents and students all stay on the same page about what is going on at school.  Sites like facebook also allow teachers to easily communicate through private messages to parents and students without having to leave phone messages and wait for a call back.

Unique Characteristics of Social Media

Unique Characteristics of Social Media

Internet has changed people’s lifestyle as well as habits. Every human has a need and wish to communicate with others and exchange information, ideas, news etc. Internet has enabled people across the world to interact with one another. Truly the internet has erased the barriers between nations. Social media is growing everyday there is hardly anybody that isn’t participating in one or other type of social media be it exchanging emails, using chat or posting photographs and exchanging music.

Participation social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience.

Openness Most social media services are open to feedback and participation. Comments and sharing information. They are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content (password protected content is frowned upon)

Conversation whereas traditional media is about “broadcast” (content transmitted or distributed to an audience) social media is seen as a two way conversation.

Community social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography and cars, a political issue or favorite TV show.

Connectedness most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness making use of links to different sites, and resources. Such as Blogs Wikipedia’s and forums.

Disadvantages of the Internet Messages can be caught up in commercial noise. Harder to gauge participation and commitment. Not as effective as a face to face conversation. User drop-out. Hits do not necessarily indicate attitude change.

What is a blog

What is a blog?

Blog is another word for weblog. A weblog is a website that is like a diary or journal. Most people can create a blog and then write on that blog. Bloggers (a word for people who write on blogs) often write about their opinions and thoughts. A blog containing video material is called a video blog or video log, usually shortened to Vlog.

When a person writes on a blog, what they write is in the form of a post, which is a single piece of writing on the blog. Posts often include links to other websites.

Blogs can have one or more writers. If they have more than one writer, they are often called community blogs, team blogs, or group blogs.

Many blogs focus on a particular topic, such as web design, home staging, sports, or mobile technology. Some are more eclectic, presenting links to all types of other sites. And others are more like personal journals, presenting the author's daily life and thoughts.