Social Networking Sites: Basic Concepts
Social networks have become an integral part of the life of most of the world’s population. To effectively introduce your business into the online space, social networking site promotion is vital. Millions of people are registered users. And you can consider all of them as potential buyers.
That is why we start a series of articles to help you understand how to use social networks to make your business more successful and profitable.
This article will unveil the basic concept of social network websites and define their main types.
Image Source: Synergy Way
You can also shop and play games on many networks. Through such platforms, producers of goods or services can resolve conflict situations with the consumer and even shape public opinion.
How did it all start?
The first social media site Classmates.com appeared in 1995, designed to make it possible for people to find their classmates, fellow students, or colleagues on the web. The growth of popularity began in 2003-2004 when Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace were created.
At the moment, there are already different types of social networks.
Blogs and microblogs
Specialized blogging sites like Facebook or LiveJournal provide opportunities for extensive and creative self-expression using multimedia illustrative tools.
Users that don’t find the potential or desire for such large-scale disclosure, preferably use microblogs like Twitter. Such substantive communication makes microblogging a very convenient resource for collecting opinions from the target audience of a company, product, or service.
Thematic networks
We can subdivide the thematic networks into:
- professional and academic sites;
- niche sites – in a subject of mutual interest, for example, music or photography;
- dating networks for personal communication;
- systems of civil and geopolitical communication, including that with government bodies and infrastructure links;
- corporate social networks;
- geosocial networks, which come in handy when the user wishes to keep abreast of the events taking place in the selected radius;
- social (open to other users) bookmarks, catalogs, and libraries, media repositories.
Today, Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp are the most popular social networks.
But why are some social networks doing better and others worse?
We tried to figure this out using the present social media networking leader’s example – It’s Majesty Facebook.
The Keys To Facebook’s Success
- Facebook is a pioneer. The “Like” button, friends’ news feed as the start page, walls, and communities appeared here.
- This is the most international network. If you have friends living abroad, you will typically go on Facebook to find them there.
- All kinds of security measures against hacking and spam make Facebook more secure than other networks.
Think about it: how often have you encountered spam while using the site? Have you paid attention to how difficult it is to access it from a computer with a different IP?
- Such vast functionality provides users with the most opportunities.
- The number of applications is incredible, literally for any purpose. Almost all applications are duplicated in Google Play and AppStore and are synchronized with the web versions, saving the players’ results.
- Facebook gives traffic to third-party sites. Nothing prevents transitions to other sites; they are even encouraged.
- You can log in even with low-quality Internet because you can use the light version.
- The availability of the mobile version simplifies the use, too. By the way, statistics show that Facebook users prefer to use mobile versions of the site.
- Facebook audience includes business people, top managers, and employees of the IT industry.
- Such a service as Canvas provides creative advertisement options and allows dividing the target audience into even narrower segments.
What Are the Disadvantages of Facebook?
Despite numerous scandals related to the leakage of personal data on Facebook and government agencies having access to it, the growth of those registered on the site does not stop. However, this factor should not be underestimated if you are planning to build your network. Who knows, maybe the future belongs to platforms that guarantee absolute privacy?
Another disadvantage of the network is its inability to sieve out all the fake content and questionable ads. When developing new structures, it is reasonable to build on the shortcomings of existing ones. Nevertheless, the Facebook company is so active and flexible in its response to criticism that the whole series of measures regarding this criticism provides it with a stable leading position so far.
The Final Word
We have uncovered the basic concept and types of social networks as well as looked through the success factors of the most popular network at the moment. Our next article will uncover a sensitive matter on how to monetize your social network website. Stay tuned!
