Social Web and Communication
Abstract
Social web is a popular web tool that allows users to interact in real-time with other users in the web community to share common interests. The principles of sharing and connecting with virtually unlimited number of individuals in a given network define the fundamental role of social web in communication. This paper will discuss the areas of importance that social web is playing in communication including a brief history of its evolution. Based on prior research about social web, it was able to establish its undeniable importance as a viable communicating tool for almost all aspect of social living. Students, research professionals and businesses sees the potential of social media in ensuring that the information has been delivered to across the virtual community in real-time. Statistical data obtained from reliable source substantiates this claim and stipulates similar arguments pertaining to the impact of social web to the society.
The Role of Social Web in Communication
Introduction
The digital age have come to change the way people communicate in every way. The emergence of technology and its ability to bring people together in one virtual place made it possible for people to engage in non-physical interaction. Several popular websites were designed to cater to social networking in a form of chat, e-mail, and web-based platforms, which establishes its vital role as a popular communication channel. The history and development of various communication tools paved the way for web innovations that are both creative and engaging. Furthermore, Social web development transitioned connectivity to the point that even the conventional communicating platforms existed years before social web were dwarfed by the massive interconnectivity functions perceived in today’s web communication. As a result, the social web became a vital component of day-to-day communication, which highlights its important role in social communication.
Back in the Days
Ryan and Jones (2009) mentioned in their book entitled “The Victorian Internet” that the development of and growth of electronic network can be dated back from the 18th century when 200 monks of the Carthusians, Paris gathered in a convent where an iron wire was held in their hands forming a long line connecting one another (p. 6). The line created an electric shock travelling to and from the end of the line. Through this example, messages could be transmitted from any point within the line of monks to both directions in the network. At the dawn of the 19th century, Telegraph became a major innovation in electronic communication as wires and needles pointed to a specific letter creates a current and that current passes through electric wires and received from another end of the galvanoscopes (Wani and Raghavan, 2012). At the advent of the 20th century, Internet became a monumental breakthrough in wired communication as it gave birth to millions of communication possibilities through the World Wide Web. However, innovation didn’t stopped paving its way to further progress. Web 1.0 has morph into Web 2.0 in which the concept was based on practices and principles of putting together an entire system of web functions demonstrating various objectivities and distances from the primary core of Web principles.
What is Social Web?
In today’s generation of Internet usage age is no longer a barrier Internet is familiar place across all ages, gender and culture. Young adults and teens in particular spend more time in front of the computer and in social websites, which makes them the social sector with the highest usage rate. A survey conducted by Browser Media and MacWorld in 2012 revealed that 56% of the world population uses any social network on a daily basis, in which 56% frequents Facebook and followed by LinkedIn (Statisticbrain.com, 2012). Despite the great amount of people in the world that are very much engaged in social networking, there is still a significant remaining portion of the world population that are still not acquainted with the virtual society.
The term social web is coined from the term social networking, when people hear about the term, the first thing that comes up to their mind is are the popular Facebook and Twitter. However, the two websites are just the tip of the iceberg. By definition, social network is a community of people that shares common interest, which manifests in several activities and interactive tools that available in the website. This means that websites that features interactive support tools like wikis, photo, blogs and podcasts is identified as a social web. Internet users flock to such website because of the interest and attention that they are getting from the rest of the users. Much of these attention came from the product of their interaction and use of the tools available in the social website. For example, a video sharing website such as Youtube allow users to upload both professionally and amateur made videos. Other users on the other hand may come to the website to view the videos, make comments and or respond by uploading their own version of the video. This kind of interaction brings creativity to the table and enables people to express such creativity in more ways than one. On the other hand, viewers can watch, critique or commend the creative manifestation according to their liking.
Examples of social web vary from video, photo, blog and opinion sharing between groups and individuals. Facebook for instance was made to connect with various people built with functionalities that allow users to express themselves freely through text and graphics. Youtube on the other hand enable users to share professional and amateur videos, mainly to catch interest among the viewers of the said website. Twitter is also a social web example that connects and allows discussion among users in real-time. MySpace is synonymous to Facebook, although the popularity of the latter and size of network is by far larger than MySpace.
Principles Behind Social Web
Studies were conducted to measure the behavior of electronic markets, reputation systems and control mechanisms that helps determine the interactions and provide explicit feedback about the users and other’s opinions (Ganley and Lampe, 2009). Social networking is associated to network theory and social capital describing social networks as a structure of indirect and direct interaction between people that shares socioeconomic resources. Social network participants are referred to as social capital because of each individual’s characteristics such as charisma, size of their Rolodex that enables the to gain market returns, and Skills (Ganley and Lampe, 2009, p. 267). Through these behaviors, social capital becomes a metric of status ranking and reputation. These are paramount in social networking as each user establishes itself in the social network community to gain privileges and assumptions of veracity and authority. The described principles are intertwined with the concept of communication; the only difference with social web communication with the conventional communication approach is that the mediation process is computer-based. This relationship creates a rationale to the apparent role of social web to effective social communication.
Role and Importance of Social Web to Communication
Given the sociological and theoretical perspectives involved in social networking, it generally establishes its relevant link to communication as an alternative platform for several functions. For instance, education is now depending on Internet and other technologies to get the message of learning across at a faster and most convenient way. The emergence of interactive web interface brought by Web 2.0 allowed instructors to hold lessons online giving birth to e Learning. Since social media was built on the principles of knowing how people should interact with each other, it provides the power to share and be connected to anyone and any point of the globe. This underlying principle sparked the probability of utilizing the potential of social networking for a more efficient learning. Online communities were built to help students to make contacts with their instructors, access materials, interact with other students through discussion boards and even make purchases of their course materials (Yousef Zaidieh, 2012; Roodt, Villiers and Joubert, 2012).
The academic sector also sees social web as an essential tool in sharing information and relevant academic contents. Researchers and other professionals from various fields of disciplines are able to share their work with peers and in return evaluate them before publishing. The need to share information, studies and findings in a familiar social community on the web is paramount in furthering the possibilities for future research of a particular subject. Through social networking, researchers and their peers makes it possible for new knowledge to be published quickly and intellectual discussions can take place within the virtual community, which will improve the results of a research (Duke & Jordan Ltd., 2011). Social media, made it possible for the scholarly society to share and discuss their opinions regarding the new findings, which creates a beneficial and intellectual exchange of ideal innovation.
Innovations on the other hand seem to allow Information Technology to move forward at an upward trend because of the apparent changes in communication capabilities that social web hosts for its users. It captures the intimate aspect of communication through voice communication, location information and self-expression. It only takes a few clicks in the keyboard to make the social websites to publish one’s own life and for the users to do the same in a never-ending cycle of broadcast and response. Keeping in touch is possibly the most basic yet fundamental reason that fuels social web to further enhance its capabilities for access and social connectivity. Research findings even suggests that social web is being used for nontrivial communication or publishing unimportant messages in order to maintain an indirect social relationship. Furthermore, social web also helps individuals to expand his non-central form of socializing activities when time and distance is a significant barrier for them in doing so.
This role of social media in communication is also being imparted largely on the business sector where creativity defines a productive characteristic that the business community generally accounts for growth. At the present world where globalization is imminent, socializing through the web constitutes the same importance to the business as it is to the individual users. From a business perspective, knowledge and imagination makes up the effective recipe for experimentation and innovation. Therefore, business organizations are also harnessing the potential of social web to communicate their business endeavors and objectives to their target consumers. In addition, social media also made it possible for business owners to market their products and services more cost-effectively than the conventional marketing approach. Considering the number of individuals and the frequency of each person in using the social web is a feasible effort for business to find potential customers and hope for expansion better visibility. In addition, the cost of initiating the effort is far more cost-effective (Hossain, 2013).
Social web and all its media platforms have indeed revolutionized business in this digital age. Well-crafted campaigns and, press releases and product promotions rely on social web for mass communicating their initiatives to the consumers. The most important characteristic of social web from the conventional business-to-consumer approach is transparency. Consumers today are more conscious of their linkage with the companies they are associated with. For example, a Facebook user may hit the “Like” button of a particular brand or product page, but may not do the same with the brand’s competitor. This demonstrates the consumer’s active participation in brand recognition and establishment of consumer behavior and preferences. The reason for this behavior is that one brand is possibly upholds a particular set of standards in terms of quality. Therefore, if a social media user and consumer at the same wants his network of friends to identify him as someone sophisticated, he would associate himself to products and brands that constitutes the same.
For businesses, selling is the thing of the past; there is larger possibility for them to gain patronage if they would rely on making connections rather than selling their products or services directly to the target consumers. Socially communicating with people in the social web is a lot easier and less of a hassle to fish for potential customers rather than sending flyers or brochures to customers by mail. In addition, the creative nature of the business can be expressed clearly through flashy videos and stunning graphic product images as compared to making costly commercials. This approach also works perfectly for small-scale businesses particularly those engaged in online merchandising. For example, Facebook allow user to play games while on the website, as a result, businesses develop their own interactive games and publish them in the website to invite users to participate in exchange for a hefty reward. The approach enables the businesses to convey their characteristics to the website user and gain confidence of the user.
The rationale behind companies joining the bandwagon of social media users is to leave the conventional technique to communicate their business. The core objective of this is to bring the business closer to as many people as possible. At the advent of social media, content sharing websites such as Youtube have concentrated on video sharing until businesses saw the potential of the website as an alternative advertisement platform given the number of views that popular videos on the website is getting from its users. Because of that, high ranking videos in the website are now accompanied with advertising clips and banners. The effectiveness of such approach in communicating the business with the people in the virtual community is no longer measured by the volume of visits that the website is getting, but with how deep the network of people the business has in the social web. Furthermore, the number of businesses relying on paper to communicate with employees is also in steady decrease. According to the study conducted by the Watson Wyatt Worldwide in 2010, 80% of the top companies in the world are already using social web to replace the traditional memos printed in paper (Perry, 2009).
The apparent increase in the use of social web as a primary tool in business communication creates an assumption that in the new future, Twitter like functions will also replace the traditional e-mail messaging in offices. It can be recalled that when e-mail was introduced in the business world, companies with technological resources have invested in integrating such capability into their business operation, which in return changed the way people do business. The same result can also be perceived in the continuous increase in the use of social web in the business world because the pattern of technological innovation and its business application is the same in the past years. Based on the given information about the role of social web to business communication. It can be assumed that social web is fast evolving into a fundamental tool for businesses to communicate with their consumers.
Conclusion
The development in technology is fast changing and social web is one of the products of such changes. Through the years of development and continuous innovation, social web is beginning to establish its importance in communication as a tool for interactive dialogue where education, academic and business sectors are leveraging on in order to expand its access to information through social exchange of experience, expertise and creativity. As a result the role of social web in communication had expanded and was greatly emphasized due to its potential of linking with various individuals or groups in the social web communities.
References
Damian , R., & Calvin, J. (2010). Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. London and Philadelphia, Kogan Page. Schwartz Merdith( 2010, July). Social Media 101. Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 111(6), 30-34.
Duke & Jordan Ltd (2011). Social Networking Sites and their role in Scholarly Communications. A Study for the Centre for Research Communications, University of Nottingham.
Ganley, D., & Lampe, C. (2009). The ties that bind: Social network principles in online communities. Decision Support Systems, 47, 266–274. doi:10.1016/j.dss.2009.02.013
Hossain, S. (2013). Creativity, social networking and changing business communication. International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, 2(4), 665-670.
Perry, L. (2009, December 9). Effectively Using Social Media in the Workplace. Retrieved May 6, 2013, from www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=51674&catid=548
Roodt, S., Villiers, C. D., & Joubert, P. (2012). Collaborative Learning for the Net Generation: Using Social Networks in an Undergraduate Course. International journal of innovation in the digital economy, 3(3), 1-15. Retrieved from DOI: 10.4018/jide.2012070102
Statisticbrain.com (n.d.). Social Networking Statistics | Statistic Brain. Retrieved May 5, 2013, from http://www.statisticbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/
Wani, M., & Raghavan, V. (2012). Social media as a communicating platform: Devising innovative strategies to utilize social media for brand promotions and competitive differentiation. bmaindia.com. Retrieved from http://bmaindia.com/pdfs/research/Social%20Media%20as%20a%20communication%20platform.pdf
Yousef Zaidieh, A. (2012). The Use of Social Networking in Education: Challenges and Opportunities. World of Computer Science and Information Technology Journal, 2(1), 18-21.
