His questions
1.) From Friendster to Facebook, how have social networking sites changed? What are some of the common trends in terms of the features offered by current popular social networking website What, in your opinion, are the reasons for these trends?
2.) What do you think makes a social networking site a hit with local teens? Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr...what do they have in common that the teens appreciate?
3.) Since the advent of Web 2.0, what are some of the social networking websites that have tried to make it big but failed locally? What do you think are the reasons for their failure?
My Replies
1) The social networking sites have evolve in terms of features and user's involvement over the years. In terms of features, Facebook, as compared to friendster has got a lot more functions and apps. The nature of facebook allows people to share info and thoughts about themselves. And the brilliant part about Facebook is the possibility for users to share many facets of their lives, in different formats - one-to many, one to one & one to a selected few, at any pt of time. Sharing of photos, thoughts, events, even selling of products, become now a social media lifestyle that we are heavily entrenched into. We are so used to checking status updates of friends, photos, events, just to get a sense of 'connectedness' with our community.
The user friendliness of facebook allows users to take on and experience the features without any hassle and problems. When users find that updating facebook and twitter is smooth sailing, it enhance the experience of many and will motivate them to take on this lifestyle for fun or even to destress.
Other features like facebook groups, fanpage and marketplace are apps and areas that attract the business/cause minded people. The dimension to which how these appls can be used is enormous and unlimited. the outcome of the experience is also determined by the creativity of the user itself. The platform is there. But it is up to that individual to know how to use it.
As society evolves and people becoming more materialistic and self centred, we increasingly find ourselves losing friends and perhaps yearn to fill certain level of our own loneliness. Having a facebook account and the act of logging in and staying 'online' is a sub-conscious way of killing boredom, loneliness and emptiness in our souls. As we get bogged down with our daily stresses in school, work and social life- the social media realm, in this case facebook, becomes an avenue for us to vent our frustrations, thoughts, not commonly & easily expressed in other channels.
There's always two side to a coin. While social networking sites have helped us connect to our friends and having some kind of bondness amongst people, the bad side includes issues of losing privacy, cyber bullying and breeding anti-social behaviors, to name a few.
The time spent on social networking websites have increased exponentially. based on a recent report, the average time spent for sinagporeans on social networking sites are closed to 4hrs per day.
The improvement in ICT has also allowed fast development in the telco industry, in particular smart phones and touchscreens making social networking access easier and faster. Alot of people are assessing facebook or twitter via smart phones. This has also increased the rate of access and usage of s networking sites.
In essence, our real life can be sum up using our facebook account as a basis. the facebook account becomes a virtual extension of ourselves and its akin to managing our other life on the online realm. For some, it is like having a personality that is out of this world, perhaps only relevant in the social media world.
2) Essentially, why certain sites are more successful than others is due to 'good word of mouth' and a 'strong brand name'. When youth become exposed to a new social website, they will be hesitant to join unless there are strong peer reviews. The peer pressure within youth is rather strong and should the opinion leaders (amongst them) join the social networking sites, chances are that the late majority will follow suit.
There are three components of a good social networking site. The site should essentially provide aspects of communitainment;
1) Community
2) Communication
3) Entertainment
Good sites provide a community for people to fall into. It allows people to communicate through various senses and lastly, there is an entertainment value.
3) GOOGLE BUZZ
- nobody is using it.
- Google came late to the party.
- no unique niche about this app.
No comments:
Post a Comment