Comparing Social Media Sites & What's Skype and IM?

Comparing Social Media Sites

	Facebook	Twitter	YouTube
Size	Largest: over 1 billion active accounts	680 million/305 million active accounts	6 billion hours watched per month
Purpose	Communication, sharing, real-time interaction	Read the latest, communicate, and share in 140 characters	Video portal
Basic Features	Connecting to friends and family on Facebook; Easy to upload photos and comment and reactions with emojis/GIFs	Chronological posting; topic sharing with hashtags; users directly addressed using @	Watch and comment on videos on almost any topic; become part of a community who follows particular youtubers
Commercial	93% of all marketing specialists use FB; largest reach of all social media	Most retail companies use Twitter; instant feedback by customers/users	Social influencers use YouTube; marketing uses this avenue and is increasingly posting stand-along videos
Sharing	Yes – share icon	Yes – retweet icon	Yes
Post Photos	Yes -- Easy	Yes	As a cover page to the video
Post Videos	Limits w/in regular page; Separate video area allowing real-time comments and reactions	Yes	Yes
Personalization	Cover Photo and Profile Photo; create and/or join groups; create personal profile; “friend”	Profile photo; short profile; follow; create a survey	Subscribe to channels; thumbs up or thumbs down
Shopping	Has own marketplace; actively suggests new pages/products/brands based on likes and activity on homepage	Ads and suggests new accounts to follow based on prior activity	Ads and suggested vendors
Gaming	Yes	No	No, but YouTube videos on gaming are immensely popular as are live gaming videos
Ease of Use	Very high	Easy to get familiar without an account; easy set-up of account	Very easy to search, watch, save and comment on videos
Utilize Contacts	Often suggests you recommend to your contacts; feature that searches for people you might know	Twitter suggests trends based on general popularity and those who you’ve followed.	YouTube suggests videos based on your likes and viewing history
Negatives	Ads can be overwhelming; suggesting activities for your contacts can become invasive; the app’s algorithms leave out posts	Instant feedback and character limit and topic grouping via # can snowballing controversy. General public can knowingly or unknowingly take over a media campaign	Strong competition within any type of video posting guarantees swift and intense criticism
Security	Users often unaware of public vs. private and the ability to share selectively to protect privacy. Could do more to emphasize security elements.	Little security with all posts public; use of bot accounts creates false impressions of followers and retweets	Ads can be inappropriate as can be suggested videos.
Instant Messaging	Offers IM through Messenger	Direct messaging	No
Reviewer’s Comments:	I highly recommend Facebook for anyone interested in creating and maintaining long-distance relationships as well as local groups of friends. It’s an easy way to reconnect and to stay up-to-date with local events, promotions, your groups’ activities. It’s a way to get daily motivation or encouragement. Features like Jobs and Townhall give a feeling of your favorite newspaper. Although privacy issues plague Facebook, it still offers the most for your effort.	I recommend Twitter for the politically engaged and those interested in the very latest pop culture. Twitter trends influence news and culture. I recommend users be aware of new followers; I have blocked accounts that are obviously bots (canned phrases and little twitter history). Always be aware that all posts are public!	YouTube videos are great for following the arts or to learn how to do something. It can even be your job! It is working to improve protection of children. YouTube is facilitating the creation of videos. It can also become an obsession. It is most like watching TV and allows access to episodes and videos.

Reference

Digital Guide, (May 8, 2019). The most important social media platforms at a glance, IONOS. Retrieved from https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/online-marketing/social-media/the-most-important-social-media-platforms/

Skype

Skype is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. Voice data is sent in packets using the internet allowing calls and video calls without phone service. There is peer-to-peer encryption. It is low cost, pay as you go with Skype to Skype and instant messaging being free.

Skype is more than just the video phone or meeting service I thought it was. It encourages the creation of groups and chats to be a combination of instant messaging and video site. It was easy to download and has a search function. Disadvantages are that there are no emergency service calls and the call quality can be affected by bandwidth. Although no longer the most popular VoIP provider, it is the service that made the world aware of and using VoIP.

I have used VoIP for business meetings and I thought it was amazing. So much easier to use than video teleconferencing in the old days! I haven't thought to use VoIP instead of phone service. I think eventually we will all use it more as the phone providers keep raising prices! Although, when there have been power outages, cell phone service was restored first.

Reference

Unuth, Nadeem, (August 21, 2019). What Is Skype and What Is It For? Lifewire. Retrieved from https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-skype-3426903

Instant Messaging (IM)

There are many ways to message someone instantly using the internet. There are services dedicated to IM such as Viber, ICQ, and Pidgin. Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and other social media sites have their own messenger or direct messaging services. Many email services also have IM capabilities such as AOL, Yahoo, and Google. In addition to reaching online friends or business associates immediately, chat groups can be created. The user can talk, stream, play sounds and videos as well as share files and links.

IM will facilitate more work from home and better worldwide business collaboration. As IM services also incorporate VoIP, communications are likely to change dramatically. The workplace will be less and less one, brick and mortar location. Worker happiness may improve as schedules get more flexible. One concern is that IM can interfere with downtime. Like work texts, there may be no escaping the job. Supervisors might exploit instant availability to workers. 

I have to admit, I rarely use IM. Most of the time, I don't want to be reached instantly. I find the group chats to be the most useful when planning or sharing. When I use IM, it's through Facebook Messenger.

Reference

Cooper, Alison and Tyson, Jeff, (March 28, 2001). How Instant Messaging Works, HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from https://computer.howstuffworks.com/e-mail-messaging/instant-messaging.htm