Social Networking

Social networking may be used in a variety of ways. In the workplace, social networking may be used as a way to engage consumers. Social networking can become a creative channel through which firms market to their customers and increase brand loyalty. For example, companies such as clothing brand Free People use Twitter and Pinterest to announce promotional discounts and add to their brand image. They may either interact with customers or post images and short snippets of text for their followers to read. Shake Shack is another company that uses Twitter and Instagram to generate interest by re-posting consumer submitted photos, share new locations and keep customers informed of new initiatives.

Consumers use social networking in their personal lives as well. A primary way social networking is used is to develop relationships both with people they know previously in "real life" and meet new people online. Social networks allow people to interact with others directly through personal messages, or mass-communicate new events in their lives through status updates. In the New York Times article "Being There," author Virginia Heffernan points out that status updates are similar to a "constantly updating Christmas card," that is, an outlet for others to follow people as they live their lives. This is different from real life, in which globalized cities often are not close-knit enough for news of weddings, new births and college graduations to disseminate quickly.

There are many benefits to social networking. In the article, "Is Myspace Good for Society? A Freakpnomics Quorom," Stephen J. Dubner talks about the social benefits. His team of researchers found that participation on Facebook was a precursor for a much higher amount of "social capital" compared to non-Facebook users in college. Social capital is the benefit people receive from being in relationship with each other. However, social networking is not all beneficial. Many people can be hurt from social networking, such as from cyber-bullying, divulging too much information, or replace real-life interaction with online channels, which is much less rich in interaction. These technologies may evolve to capitalize on the ad space, allowing companies to tailor advertising even more so to consumers than already. Social networking may be used in the classroom in the future to collaborate on projects, share study materials or other projects, similar to Blackboard with more collaboration.

Citations:
Heffernan, Virginia. "Being There." The New York Times. 10 February 2009. Web. Accessed 10 March 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15wwln-medium-t.html
Duber, Stephen J. "Is Myspace Good for Society? A Freakpnomics Quorom." Freakonomics. 15 February 2008. Web. Accessed 10 March 2015. http://freakonomics.com/2008/02/15/is-myspace-good-for-society-a-freakonomics-quorum/