How to Compare Social Networking Sites Effectively

MAIN BODY

Positive Aspect Of Social Media On the Internet

Social media is a digital platform which is designed in such a way that allows people to interact, communicate, and share ideas and opinions with others quickly and efficiently. According to Jafarkarimi and et. al (2016), using social media websites which are a portal for entertainment and communication has been growing at a faster pace and this is all because of the positive aspects it has. Some positive aspects of social media on the internet are mentioned below:

Help develop awareness: Social media is not only used for interacting but is also useful in getting information around the globe. It has helped the public in getting information very quickly instead of waiting for papers and magazines the next day. This can be easily shared with anyone. Alalwan and et.al (2017), earlier with the use of the internet, it was not possible to get information across the world so quickly and also it was difficult to share information and opinion on the same. So, social media is a source of efficient and effective usage of the internet.

Greater reach: According to Silva, Delerue Matos and Martinez-Pecino (2018), millions of people are using social media, which is a great opportunity for users to expand their market reach and make the content public by sharing it. It helps in expanding the communication network by sitting in one place. It has also enhanced the user experience in terms of communication and interaction. This has happened because of the increased usage of the internet.

Help develop social skills: Social media helps in grooming the social skills of an individual. It also allows them to expand their social circle and develop new contacts and relationships. It helps in gaining confidence, getting support for social causes and in expressing one's views. The evolution of the internet has paved the way for the success and recognition of social media.

Opportunity for all segments of society: Social networks have become an important part of many, which is only because of the opportunities it has brought to society. It has reduced the communication barrier and helped in finding and bringing close ones nearer. It has helped in putting one's views and thoughts forward and starting a conversation. Opportunities are all because of the internet. The usefulness of the internet is the reason behind the creation of social media sites and their success.

We Promise Exceptional Assignment Writing & No AI Shortcuts !

View Samples Order Now Assignment help

Negative Aspect Of Social Media On the Internet

Everything has its pros and cons and the same happens with social media. Some negative impacts of social media on the internet are discussed below.

False information: Misuse of the internet has increased due to social media as it is easy to access, share and create content. These contents can be false and one cannot be relied upon. It includes fake profiles, wrong details, manipulative information etc. So, with such wrong and irrelevant information, it has become difficult to put trust in the internet and its authentication.

Lead to addiction: As per Cheung, Lee and Chan (2015), the use of social media has become an addiction for many people and is worse than alcohol and cigarettes. Some addictive social media apps are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. The availability of fast and reliable internet connection has led to the increasing use of the apps which has made everyone addicted to it. So, social media negatively impacts the lives of many.

Cyberbullying: Social media has helped in making friends easier but, has also opened the doors for predators to find victims. As per Zhukova Anya (2018), the anonymous or fake profile is used to gain trust and then terrorize them. These attacks may mentally affect the victim which may drive them to commit suicide. Victims can be anyone from a kid to an adult. Social media is responsible for such acts which have threatened everyone.

Reduced human interaction: Social media usage has resulted in reduced human interaction as people have isolated their lives behind online identities as a result face to face communication has been reduced. This has happened because of internet usage which has resulted in the bringing up of social media platforms.

Depression and anxiety: As per the view of Sedgwick, Epstein, Dutta and Ougrin (2019),  social media has become a part of life for everyone and people are spending long hours on social networking sites which has affected the mood and behaviour of people. This has resulted in poor mental health, anxiety and depression. In future, the impact of technology will be even worse which will consequently worsen the situation. Internet and social media sites have negatively affected the lives of everyone as everything has happened because of the internet.

Fear of missing out: It is an anxiety where the user is scared of missing out. In this, the user has the feeling of missing some most positive and emotional experiences of life which someone else is getting and enjoying. This anxiety increases with more social media engagement as the user sees someone is having more fun which increases this fear. Again, the internet has disrupted the lives of many.

Social media and the internet both have their pros and cons. Both are incomplete without each other. The Internet was earlier only used for getting information but now with social media, information has taken a new form. Now, information is received on a real-time basis but the disadvantage is that the reliability of the information has been lost as people can easily manipulate the information. Internet and social media both have created value for people and have helped in enhancing their digital skills.

Challenges And Measures Of Security

Social networking has changed the way of communication and interaction. It plays an important role in everyone's life but, it also has a high risk of security threats. Some major challenges that are faced by the user and ways to mitigate or overcome those issues are stated below:

Identity is stolen: According to Author Guest (2013), even if social media accounts have the highest security settings, then it is possible that thieves can collect information. Most of the accounts provided basic details like the date of the email address which is enough for the thief to hack the account. The most common technique for getting information is by clicking forgot password and trying to get the details through an email address. Once the thief gets access then they have access to all social networking sites. Measures that can be taken to avoid such situations are, having a strong password other than birth date or name and using special characters and symbols when creating passwords. For example, wishing any of your family members a birthday and tagging them, which is sometimes the answer to the security question.

Getting the social profile hacked: The hackers usually use short URLs to trick users into visiting harmful sites which are suspicious of viruses. After visiting such sites, viruses are injected into the computer and relevant information such as bank account details is stolen from it. It can also get access to videos and images of the user. Measures that should be taken are — before clicking any link, hover the cursor over the link which shows the complete URL and if the URL is familiar go ahead and click, otherwise return to safety. Also, if a link is suspicious, try to use a link scanner to be sure.

Inadvertently letting stalkers find you: Once the information is online, it is no longer private and poses to threat. More posting leads to more vulnerable situations as it helps that person who wants to harm. Even high-security settings can leak the information. For instance, while surfing on the website, downloading games and apps, all require personal information which is marked invisible to the users in the system known as cookies which track the activity of the user.

Making the current location public: Posting and telling the world about the user's location like checked-in, going to, etc. is a big security threat. This makes thieves aware of the user's current location which may lead to theft in the house. Measures that can be taken to control such situations are- never posting about when, where and how long they travel, posting pictures after coming back home, being selective in terms of who can see the pictures etc.

Fake offers and schemes: According to Rathore and et.al (2017), the emergence of e-commerce websites has increased the shopping tendency of people. Users often see advertisements for their latest searches on social networking sites that tempt them to click on such links and check out the latest offers. Hackers are taking advantage of this thing and trying to enter the system of the users. Hackers are creating fake offers such as making expensive products selling at 50% lower than their price which attracts users to click those links. To overcome such a situation, it is advisable to think twice before clicking any links, try to identify fake apps before installing, avoid participating in surveys or questionnaires etc.

Challenges And Measures Of Privacy

Social media has become a powerful resource for people to connect, adding friends and connections as fast as possible. With that, it raises concerns for the privacy of data. Some major privacy issues that are faced by the users and measures to be taken are stated below.

Browsing user activities: Posting personal information is vulnerable to privacy threats as it can be downloaded by anyone or by third parties such as search engines. The risk increases as the thief keeps on tracking the user's activities like visited profiles, and network settings such as IP address. To reduce such risk, the personal information of the user should not be disclosed to any party and should be disclosed only if the user permits. Also, users should not save any of the relevant passwords and bank account details on its system.

Disclosing a user's identity: According to Banerjee Souvik (2019), social networking sites encourage users to share their pictures. As a result, it increases the threat of fake identity. With the latest technology and software such as Content-Based Image Retrieval which inspects the image and reveals the details about the image like the place where the picture was taken and the device used. Users are not aware of such technologies or what can happen with the images. To mitigate this, users can apply image privacy settings as provided on Facebook where no one can copy the image as well as the attributes of the profile.

Capturing transmitted data: As per Kayes and Iamnitchi (2017), millions of users are connecting to social networking sites through mobile phones and most public places are now equipped with wireless internet connections which is vulnerable to these open public networks poses a threat to connections the data that is being transmitted which can be of any form like text message, videos or images or voice messages. The only measure that can be taken is to maintain the confidentiality of information by making all interactions confidential between sendtotonmaintainvthe er. Also, users should avoid using public net interactions to access their social networking sites.

Comparative Analysis Of Twitter And Facebook

FEATURES

Facebook: According to Mazza and Palermo (2018), Facebook has several features which can be beneficial for the business. First is hosting a watch party, earlier it was only for groups now, it is open to everyone. A business can host an existing event happening live and if the chosen topic is right then it will help in attracting the target audience to its place. This will increase the opportunity for boosting customer engagement on the business's Facebook page. Second is Facebook stories, it is very easy to create and can help businesses take advantage of targeting capabilities. To create instant reactions, businesses need to create relevant and interesting Facebook stories. Stories can be of any type such as educational tips, product or service promotion, business promotion, workplace stories etc. anything that can be related to the business. Third is the creator studio, which collects all the content needs from Facebook under one roof or folder which is eCreator Studio It has several creative tools like creative sound effects. This is the best way to make the most out of the business videos from adding background sound to uploading the video and then monitoring and checking its performance. This is the one place to manage the overall productive work environment using Facebook's marketing options.

Twitter: According to Lozano Dhariana (2016), as compared to Facebook, Twitter also has useful features that businesses can use. The first is a tweetstorm, because of 280 character limits, it creates a problem if the user wants to talk about a topic in length. This has been made easier by adding the option of the 'add another tweet' icon which means the user can tweet multiple 280-character tweets. This feature can be very useful for businesses to spread their information in one go, tag more people, add more images, provide further links and context etc. Second is moments, it is one of the features that no other competitors have. Twitter moments allow users to collect tweets from across the social networks, reorder and compile them through the gallery. Twitter regularly creates moments from the tweets that are trending on top and the reason for the same. For businesses, this feature will be of great use as businesses can create moments based on their products and services, product features offered to the customers, compiling all the tweets from a particular event and showcasing it will create and promote a brand.

APPLICATION

Facebook: As per Dricer Saige (2019), Facebook's application for business is based upon sharing business information which includes the business name, its products and services, its practices and business insights. Businesses can benefit from Facebook in terms of sharing information, pictures, videos or imagesBusnessesBusinessess a benefit to attract customers. It is useful in conducting various events and showcasing them to the potential and target to grab their attention. It also provides customer assistance. Facebook can also help in bringing traffic to the company's website by providing business details on the Facebook page from where users can easily visit the company's website. Most importantly, businesses are using Facebook for conducting contests which encourages users to engage more with the businesses and increase their brand awareness.

Twitter: According to Bovée, Thill and Raina (2016), social media is having an immense impact on the business and ignoring it means risking the business. Effective applications of Twitter will help in growing business. Implementing business cards is an effective way to make the tweet stand out and when people share the post, the image shows up which attracts users to read it. Increasing Twitter followers can benefit the business. The tool named Social Quant can be used to increase Twitter, it uses data and analytics to find suitable and relevant users. A higher number of followers will lead to more customer engagement. Businesses can share their business insights, thoughts and opinions on any issue and get into conversation with the influencers which can help in gaining more followers. Businesses can use the Twitter list option in which they can organize all their contacts and keep track of those tweets. Using the right number of hashtags will result in more user engagement than before. Using Hashtags helps in increasing visibility and getting more tweets from people. Also, businesses can research the competitor's audience using Twitonomy in which the user has to enter the Twitter username and a detailed analysis report of that username will be generated. It includes information about several followers, users most retweeted, users most replied to, users most mentioned, hashtags most used etc.

SUITABILITY

Facebook: As per Wang, Pauleen and Zhang (2016), it is useful for all types of businesses and it is most suitable for promoting business. Facebook is a great platform for promoting businesses. It requires businesses to create their Facebook page with relevant information and post about the businesses, its products and services, product benefits and connecting their products to the relevant target group. This is a useful tool in promoting a business. Businesses can build a community on their Facebook page in several ways, such as by posting relevant and interesting links, organizing content and promotions, a providing options for comments and feedback. So, in terms of suitability, Facebook is for everyone who wants to grow its business.

Twitter: As per Ward Susan (2019), this platform is suitable for all businesses irrespective of size. Earlier, it was used by medium or large enterprises but now small businesses have realized its power. Twitter is much bigger than Facebook in terms of users and brand engagement. It is a great platform to interact with the fans and customers effectively. Twitter is an excellent medium for promoting business, products and services. It helps in building a corporate image among other top brands.

Social media has become an effective communication system and an effective way to get connected with stakeholders. However, the only challenge is coordinating the messages sent and received and proper follow-up with the feedback. In the case of LinkedIn, organizations provide complete details about the company, its products and its services. It is also a great medium for providing jobs to potential employees insisting on the requirement. The user only needs to have a LinkedIn profile and follow the company. Users can also get in conversation with other professionals based on a post or private message. Similarly, by using Facebook, and Twitter, companies can get connected with their stakeholders and customers and can provide proper feedback.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that social media networking has expanded its presence all over the world from individuals to big businesses and companies. It has changed the way user interacts and communicates with one another. Social media networking has also affected the lives of many in both positive and negative ways. Also, the increasing use of social networking platforms and making everything public has led to the emergence of various problems and challenges, in terms of privacy and security. So, to overcome and reduce such challenges different measures are required to be taken to mitigate or avoid such a situation, if timely actions are not taken it may result in making the situation even worse. At last, the comparison between Twitter and Facebook has cleared the thoughts about the emergence and purpose of social networking sites based on their features, applications and suitability.

UPTO55%

Avail The Benefit Today!

To View this & another 50000+ free

Enter Email

Submit