Social Net'g

Both corporate and non corporate sources can use social media and networking to their advantage. We see this being done all the time. The majority of companies these days have Facebook pages, Instagram and Twitter handles. We have also seen numerous non corporate people and groups doing this. For corporate companies, social media can be a good platform for them to connect with their customers and society in general. For example, companies can tweet business or product news to inform their followers. They can also take stances on  controversial social issues. Many companies have been gaining both new customers and customer loyalty by commenting on controversial topics. For example, Starbucks has taken a stance on gay rights issues. By making their stances public through social media and news statements, they have gained a progressive reputation. This is beneficial for them and their company business strategy. Social networking can also directly effect business strategy by now offering monetizing plans. Facebook now offers advertising. Companies can reach even more people now by using this feature. According to Reuters and the Chicago Tribune article, "Facebook search: Facebook adding search feature", Facebook has over one billion users. This makes their social network platform an extremely ripe place for companies and other sources to advertise themselves and reach tons of potential customers. "The initial focus is on getting users more engaged, so this is making Facebook more useful and sticky".

Non corporate sources can also benefit from social networking. Social media accounts don't always have to be used to reach a crowd of customers or post new products. Besides for personal use, people and groups have used social media for many other purposes. For example, in 2010 traffic police in New Delhi, India, found a way to fight street and traffic crime with the use of Facebook. "The traffic police started a Facebook page two months ago, and almost immediately became digital informants, posting photos of their fellow drivers violating traffic laws. " By using these pictures, the police were able to issue tickets and fight the extremely high traffic accident rate in New Delhi. My most immediate thought is that this is a great use of Facebook. The police in New Delhi are able to lower traffic accident rates while issuing more tickets to violators. But, after some further thought, I realized that this could also be an intrusion of privacy and community. If people are exposing their fellow community drivers, more and more people may start to feel uncomfortable and under constant pressure. It can also raise some issues of whether or not non-police citizens should be able to judge whether something is a criminal act when police aren't around.

So, as mentioned, both corporate and non corporate sources can benefit from social networking, but as also mentioned, there are some dark sides. With social media being present online, posts by all users are permanent. They can always be "deleted" but they are always accessible- they leave an "imprint". This can be positive or detrimental. If a company or person posts something that they later no longer believe or feel is appropriate, the damage is already done. Their followers, along with non-followers (for public profiles) have already seen the post and already formed their opinions. We see this happening all the time. For example, singer Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa had a Twitter "brawl" in which Kanye eventually deleted a majority of his tweets. But, with millions of followers, his tweets were bound to be archived and uploaded as breaking news articles and posts on sites such as EliteDaily and Buzzfeed.