Social Media

Social media (including social media ) denote digital media and technologies (see social software ) that allow users to interact with each other and individually -media content, or to create a community.

Social interactions and cooperation (sometimes based on the English term and ' collaboration ') in social media are becoming increasingly important and convert media monologues ( one to many ) into social media dialogues (many to many).

In addition, they should support the democratization of knowledge and information and develop the user by a consumer to a producer. Accordingly, there is less or no gradient between the sender and recipient (transmitter -receiver model ). This text, image, audio or video are used as a means of communication. The joint creation, editing and distributing content, supported by interactive applications, emphasizes the term Web 2.0.

The burgeoning interest in social media has been observed since the mid-1990s. Many companies have begun to further exploit the economic potential of this form of media. Currently established with the Socio computer science and a scientific discipline that deals with particular issues relating to social media.

• 5.1 External use 5.1.1 Marketing
• 5.1.2 monitoring
• 5.1.3 Customer Service
• 5.1.4 distribution
• 5.1.5 Human Resources

Definition

As social media all media ( platforms ) are meant to support users via digital channels in the mutual communication and interactive exchange of information.

Social media can be divided into two categories:

• In Social Media with the predominant purpose of the communication
• In social media, which are indeed used for communication, but their focus is on the content, which users generate, edit and share with each other. ( See also User-Generated Content )

Andreas M. Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as " a group of Internet applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and enable the production and exchange of user-generated content ".

Kietzmann 's social media Honeycomb describes how these Internet applications differ in the extent to which it relates to some of the seven social media building blocks ( identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups) focus.

Social Media vs. classic mass media

Social media are distinct from traditional mass media, such as newspapers, radio, television and film.

Social Media rely exclusively on digital -based communication channels and applications. In addition, they have relatively low barriers to entry, such as low cost, simple production processes and easy access to the tools for the publication and distribution of content of any kind which are used both for businesses and for individuals. In contrast, require extensive classical mass media resources and production processes in order to realize Publications.

While mass media such as television are increasingly relying on the linear communication of a broadcast, subject to the communication of social media in addition to a high real-time factor also the principle of the Long Tail to generate attention and coverage. Some properties that help in the differentiation, for example, are:

• Range: both social media and mass media, enabling each to be a global presence.
• Multimediality: social media allows any combination of text, sound and moving images.
• Accessibility: the production of mass media undertakes usually private or government-owned companies. Social media tools are inexpensive accessible to everyone.
• Ease of use (English usability ): the production of mass media requires specialized knowledge and extensive training. This version of the knowledge in the context of social media significantly lower.
• Period up to the publication: between an event and the publication of mass media, particularly of periodic, there is a certain period of time ( days, weeks, months). Social media allow to publish immediately and without delay.
• Actuality: a contribution in a mass medium (eg newspaper article ) can not be changed after creation and publication. Social Media allows you to apply changes to publications with almost no delay.

Technologies

There are a variety of social media technologies in the areas of communication, collaboration, knowledge management, multimedia, entertainment.

In addition, the following forms to social media technologies can include:

• Media Sharing: Media Sharing on sites users can publish multimedia content such as videos, photos, podcasts or other media forms.
• Social Bookmarks: in the foreground here is the collection and categorization of Internet references. Found and interesting links can be managed and shared.
• Social News: News on Social Sites users can recommend interesting web content. This web content can for example be individual articles, videos or images.

Social Media and Civil Society

Social Media have an affinity to basic principles of civil society such as self- organization and self-responsibility, participation and free association. In the resources of social media is therefore innovation and synergy potential for civic engagement, commitment and funding the development of an open civil society participation.

The communications via social media open for the individual commitment of new ways of self-organization, the activation of resources in networks (knowledge, skills, financial resources ), citizen participation and influence. The exposure is so self-responsible and self-determined.

Users of social media are interconnected by the possibility of interaction. Individual can network in the context of a common theme together and active. With the help of social media applications for the public to own themes built specifically informed, networked and enabled for your goals - for online activities and for commitment and protest forms in the "real " world.

Committed to making the social web advantage to itself organizes its own commitment projects with the help of social media and to implement with limited financial resources. Social media they use it as an infrastructure to mobilize supporters to gather knowledge, to launch campaigns or to collect donations. Here they expand and strengthen their network by communication via social media and exploit the potential of online volunteers. You are constantly in dialogue with its stakeholders and reflect their opinion in their decisions with a. You can make low-threshold investment products, but also allow commitment in the form of autonomous cooperation that goes beyond a helping role, via social media.

Agenda-setting with the help of social media

In order to generate attention in the mass media, a lot of energy, " know-how " and financial resources are usually required. On the Web, however, not the strength of a transmitted pulse is decisive, but the resonance ability of a topic, the gain of a topic by " word-of -mouth ", which not only attention but also activity is generated. According to social media are an effective tool for mobilizing citizens / inside. The phenomenon of mobilization of a mass of people with the help of social media is referred to as " Aufschaukelung of networks". The consequence may be a shift of power: the " provider" - politics and economics, but also civil society organizations - to " demand " that use the dedicated citizens / internally using social media to put issues on the socio-political agenda and thus actively intervene in ongoing processes. Two examples of initiatives that use social media to mobilize Committed and to influence the political agenda, are Avaaz and Campact.

Self-help via social media

Social Media for civil society organizations

Such forms of communication are also relevant for the internal processes of organizations. Internet-based applications can offer employees opportunities of a less hierarchical and therefore themed exchange and enable more effective knowledge management. The potential of social media can therefore use in communication and negotiation processes, both between employees and the members of an organization and between an organization and its stakeholders.

Challenges for civil society organizations

The open, participatory character that characterizes the communication on the social web, faced civic organizations with demands for transparency, responsiveness and participation openness. To face these challenges, it means primarily the fear of losing control of communicative store to sign up for the online dialogue and participatory - to open processes - instead of as yet largely hierarchically structured. Consequently, not only media literacy, the operation of software and format appropriate preparation of content are crucial for harnessing the potential of social media, but also and especially the organizational culture and self-image of an organization as part of civil society. It follows that the use of social media is not just an extension of public relations, but also an expansion of consciousness requires: Decision-makers in clubs, associations and other organizations need for civil society to understand the potential of social media and pave ways to participation ways via Social Media integration into work processes. To use the new communication tools means for civil society organizations thus not only to expand their technical media skills, but also to adapt the internal structures and processes to the new possibilities.

Socio-political challenges

Exclusion of social groups

The structural changes of communication associated with Internet and social media, also attract new social negotiation processes by itself. To ensure that all members of society have access to the communication space and have the appropriate media and communication skills The more public opinion is influenced by communication via the social web, the more important. The trend towards marginalization of social groups that do not have the appropriate training and media literacy in order to participate in socio-political debates in the social web, must therefore be problematic in the long run. While social media can open up new dimensions of civic engagement, but they can also produce new exclusion ratios and cement already existing. Through the Internet, while " non-hierarchical " information retrieval has become possible, but form in the communication space, the problems of the "analog" world from: With the open access to information, the problem of their verification and connected to the the unequal educational requirements by no means solved. Those who wish to participate in processes in the social web, also must not only be able to social media applications to use and to find the appropriate places on the web, but also their own opinion in a discussion to incorporate as a comprehensible manner Comment can. Therefore, the teaching of media and investment expertise in educational initiatives for people is very important in all stages of life. For people with physical or mental disabilities or learning and reading difficulties Offers must be created to cater for their expressive possibilities and needs. On the one hand, this is a technical challenge, on the other hand, this relates to the alternative preparation of content, such as in easy to understand text, graphics, video and audio formats.

According to results of ARD / ZDF Online Study 2010 consider 9% of men but only 5% of women " the opportunity to actively post and post them on the Internet," as "very interesting". Although more women are active in the private network platforms; However, with public contributions rather they are holding back.

Corporate application fields

In the business use of social media, one must distinguish between the external and the internal use of social media. Under external use all cases in which the company fall on already existing, by the company to access independent social platforms. For internal use, the use is one of its own, built- in social media company with the aim to support proprietary communication structures.

External use

The external business use of social media, the company is represented on a stand-alone company profile as well as by its employees in Web 2.0. What is communicated, also falls back on the company. Therefore, companies give up social media guidelines, is where regulated, as the employee may act, may, or even should, if it is recognized as an employee in its activities on the social web. These guidelines apply to everyone in the company, regardless of whether it is their job to communicate to the company or not, and must be made ​​according to known. However, social media guidelines can serve its purpose only if the employees understand the relationships in the Web 2.0. On innocence and lack of media literacy it is due, when the Internet emerge trade secrets or an employee blasphemes openly about his company.

In the field of media monitoring for marketing and PR, the social media monitoring is also developing as an additional business for the company. It should be examined whether a more Wehrt is given to the customer ( price advantages, product evaluation ). The benefits of social media for the company may be to fire to strengthen awareness and customer loyalty and take advantage of the recommendations or other forms of support from satisfied customers.

Is measured in the simplest case, the range based on the number of followers of a corporate profile. The numbers are different, depending on whether a company operates more in the consumer sector, or in the B2B sector. Thus, the adidas comes in to Facebook to over 14 million followers (as of June 2013).

Marketing

Social Media Marketing ( SMM) is a form of online marketing that aims to achieve branding and marketing communication goals through the participation in various social media offerings. It is also a component of the integrated marketing communications of a company. Integrated marketing communications is a principle after a company comes into contact within its target market with the target group. It coordinates the elements of the promotional mix - advertising, direct sales, direct marketing, public relations and sales promotion - customer oriented with the objective to communicate.

In the traditional marketing communications content, frequency, timing, and medium of communication in coordination with external agents, such as agencies, market research organizations and / or public relations firms, fixed. The growth of social media has a great influence on the communication, the companies and their (potential) customers. Since the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet offers a variety of tools to build and expand social and economic contacts. It also offers numerous opportunities to share information and work together collaboratively.

The focus of social media marketing efforts are usually three

• Generate attention for the brand or the product
• Generation of online conversations about enterprise content
• Animation of users to share enterprise content with their network

The public relations using social media is called social media relations and is to be distinguished from promotional activities. An instrument, for example, social media releases. These measures are often bundled in a Social Media Newsroom. Social media can be counted on the marketing mix, as it is used in the production process ( crowdsourcing ), acts as a market research tool ( social media monitoring ), is in sales presence ( social commerce ) and is also one of the brand communication ( network marketing ).

Monitoring

Social Media Monitoring is the systematic observation and analysis of social media posts and dialogues in discussion forums, blogs, micro - blogging and social communities, such as Facebook or MySpace. It is used to gain a quick overview of and insight into topics and opinions from the social web. In contrast to the one-off or carried out at regular intervals social media analysis Social media monitoring is carried out continuously. In order to recognize moods in groups, a sentiment analysis ( sentiment analysis ) carried out rated the individual opinions of a defined group. This form of analysis is mostly performed manually because automatic sentiment analysis are still imprecise. In order to recognize a crisis or problem situations in time, alerts are used. In defined situations ( sentiment negative or positive) inform them of the creator.

Social Media Monitoring is primarily used by businesses, but also of associations and political parties in order to obtain immediate opinions, criticisms and suggestions about products or services. In order to operate social media monitoring, are both free tools as well as professional and thus paid services available on the internet. Companies that provide this service are available often offer additional marketing measures, which are derived from the observations and to create that positive image within the Web 2.0 world.

Customer Service

Some companies offer customer service via social media, such as over on Facebook or Twitter. In contrast to traditional aid in product and service problems, no external communication medium ( hotline, e-mail, letter) is necessary for the customer at customer service via social media. The customer can turn from his usual social media environment with an easy labeling of the company to the support.

Is the problem a client's complex, but is generally the case forwarded to the standard customer service and following communication takes place via email, phone or mail.

Distribution

In sales, social media can be used to establish contacts with business partners and the media to sell products directly to the customer. Sellers can search directly through the networks to identify potential customers and contact in order to start sales conversations this then.

Human Resources

In a study published in 2009 reported 45 % of surveyed employers to use social networks to reach potential candidates for open positions. This is an increase of 22 % compared to the previous year. Within the human resource management social media offer great potential in terms of recruitment of staff. Since social network members private information with other parts ( such as acquired degrees ), provides for the employer the opportunity to go before an interview to further information on the candidates and to assess whether they meet the requirements. Furthermore, keep in contact employers on social networks with former employees.

The use of social media is limited in human resources management not only to the recruitment. There are a variety of possible applications, for example in staff development or personnel evaluation.

In human development, see, for example, Virtual Game Worlds (eg World of Warcraft ) or Virtual Social Worlds (eg Second Life ) application. The Virtual Game Worlds employees extend through online games their social skills by interaction of avatars with characters that do not exist in their own lives. In comparison, the employees perform a similar with your own life Life in Virtual Worlds Social and are not tied to specific environments. The results of the game and the behavior of the employees in the virtual worlds can be evaluated by the staff and management are used in the context of personnel evaluation in feedback sessions.

Internal use

The priorities for internal use are in the range of communication and knowledge management. Especially large companies with globally distributed staff and project teams can benefit from the social media technologies.

According to a study carried out among employees of a company that uses social media, 62.5 % of respondents felt social media as useful for their work. More than half of the respondents stated that social media would help them to do their jobs faster and to enhance their individual productivity. One of the main advantages of the integration of social media in the corporate structure is the improved potential of communication, collaboration and knowledge management within the organization. This additional potential is growing with the company's size and spread over geographically distributed sites of multinational companies.

For example, IBM employees are, thanks to the IBM Network Services "Blue Pages", a kind of social network, save about 72 minutes per month per employee, compared to traditional " phone book solutions ".

Problems in business use

One of the problems with the business use of social media is the motivation of the employees. A study has shown that the acceptance of social media with the age rating negatively correlated. Thus, users are under the age of 35 significantly increased acceptance of social media in the workplace than their older colleagues. For this purpose, several motivation theories to explain available, eg the

Valence Instrumentalitäts Expectation Theory

According to the valence - Instrumentalitäts Expectation Theory The motivation of a person to perform an action based on three components:

• Instrumentality ( instrumentality ): Relationship between the action result and the resulting action sequences. For example: "Will the social media actually help me to maintain contact with my employees? "
• Valence ( valence ): how desirable is an advantage, I draw from the social media for me? ( Very important vs. Less important)
• Expectancy ( expectancy ): how likely it is that social media means that I can make better contacts?