Social Networking & Online Platforms

Introduction:
Social networking is the use of internet-based social media sites to stay connected
with friends, family, colleagues, customers, or clients. Social networking can have a social
purpose, a business purpose, or both, through sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
and Instagram, among others. Social networking has become a significant base for
marketers seeking to engage customers.

A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on

facilitating the building of social networks or social relations among people who, for
example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. A social
network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social
links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web-based
and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e- mail and instant
messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network
service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-
centered service whereas online community services are group- centered. Social
networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their
individual networks.

Social networking sites are not only for you to communicate or interact with other people
globally but, this is also one effective way for business promotion. A lot of business
minded people these days are now doing business online and use these social
networking sites to respond to customer queries. It isn't just a social media site used to
socialize with your friends but also, represents a huge pool of information from day to day
living.

Brief History of Social Networking:

 Although social networking has its roots in sites like Friends Reunited, officially
launched in July 2000, and services like MSN Messenger, the medium is still really
only just a decade old.
  Early runners in the market, My Space and Bebo, launched in 2003 and 2005
respectively. By August 2006, My Space had 100 million users whilst in 2008 AOL
purchased Bebo for $850 million. Two years on, and AOL has just announced it
plans to sell or shutdown Bebo.
 In October 2003, founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, then a university
undergraduate at Harvard, was blogging about a girl who had dumped him on a
campus site called Facemash. Zuckerberg is now reputed to be the youngest ever
self-made billionaire.
 Twitter, founded in 2006, already has some 50 million monthly visitors. In the first
three months of 2010, over four billion ‘tweets’ were posted worldwide. To date,
the firm is already said to have attracted over $57 million from various investors.
 Linkedin, launched in May 2003, has over 60 million registered users worldwide
(11 million of these are based in Europe) and, following an acquisition of a five per
cent shareholding by various investors in June 2008, it has an estimated market
Value Of $1 Billion.

Technologies Used For Social-Networking Site:

Programming Interface- JAVA

Java is a small, simple, safe, object oriented, interpreted or dynamically optimized,

byte coded, architectural, garbage collected, multithreaded programming language with
a strongly typed exception-handling for writing distributed and dynamically extensible
programs. Java is an object oriented programming language. Java is a high-level, third
generation language like C, FORTRAN, Small talk, Pearl and many others. You can use
java to write computer applications that crunch numbers, process words, play games,
store data or do any of the thousands of other things computer software can do.

Special programs called applets that can be downloaded from the internet and played
safely within a web browser. Java a supports this application and the follow features make
it one of the best programming languages.

 It is simple and object oriented.

  It helps to create user friendly interfaces.
 It is very dynamic.

How Do Social Networking Sites Make Money?

i. Venture Capital:
First things first, most (if not all) social networks start with funding from venture
capitalists. Investors are willing to take a risk on a company if they think it can be profitable
in the future, so they invest early and hope for a huge payoff down the road.

ii. Advertising & E-Commerce:

Advertising is what most people would consider the number one way that social
networks make money. After all, they have millions of users. That’s millions of eyeballs
wandering around their website. Why wouldn’t advertisers want to get in on those views?

iii. Offering Premium Options:

While some social networks are completely free, others might offer a premium
option to its users in an attempt to earn some money. LinkedIn, for example, has a
premium package for job seekers. All of your networking options are free with LinkedIn,
but if you want special privileges you have to sign up for one of their premium options.

iv. Creative Products & Promotions:

Because of the difficulty of monetizing a social network, websites are forced to

come up with creative ways to earn revenue. The best example of this is Facebook Gifts.
Facebook Gifts allows users to send virtual (as in not real) gifts to their friends that appear
on the recipient’s profile. The cost of a gift is $1.00 and you can add a personalized
message to it. Genius

v. Games/Apps:

Remember Candy Crush Saga, Criminal Case, Fruit Break and all those games
where you get hundreds of notifications? People complained but still it never worked out.
Because Facebook is renting their space. No, these games aren’t originally from
Facebook. They just took a host there and paying a lot. They happily pay because, hey,
everyone uses Facebook.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking:

Advantages: -
1) INFORMATION & UPDATES
 The advantage of the social media is that you update yourself from the
latest happens around in the world.
 Most of the time, T.V. and print media these days are biased and does not
show the true messages.
2) CONNECTIVITY
 Connectivity is also the main advantage of social media. User from
anywhere can connect with anyone & anytime.
 Regard-less of the location. The reason of social media is that you can
connect with anyone and learn, share your thoughts.
3) EDUCATION
 Social media also benefit for the student and teacher. It is very easy to
educate from other who are experts and professional through the social
media.
 You can follow anyone to learn from him/her and update your know-ledge
about anything.
4) AWARENESS
 Social media also create aware-ness and innovate the way user live. It is
the social media which has help people discover new and innovative ways
that can update user lives.
 It is beneficial from farmers to teachers, student's to lawyer's every user of
the society can benefits from the social media and its aware-ness factor's.
5) PROMOTION
 This makes the business profitable and give less expense, be-cause most
of the expense made over a business are for advertising and promotion.
  This can be decrease by constantly and regularly involving on the social
media to connect with the right user or target.

Disadvantages: -

1) HACKING
 User data and privacy can easily be hacked and shared on the Internet.
Which can make financial loss and loss to user life.
 Similarly, user theft is another issue that can give financial loss to any-one
by hacking their personal account. Several user twitter and Facebook
account have been hack in the past and the hacker had posted material that
have affect the individual’s or user lives.
2) HEALTH ISSUES
 The excess usage of social media can also have a negative impact on the
health. Since exercise is the key to lose weight.
 Most of the people get lazy because of the excessive use of social
networking sites which in result bring dis-order in the user routine life.
3) REPUTATION
 Social media can easily ruin someone’s reputation just by creating a fake
story and spread-in ac-ross the social media.
 Similar businesses can also suffer loss due to bad reputation being convey
over the social media.
4) ADDICTION
 The addictive part of the social media is very bad and can disturb user live
as well. The teen-agers are the most affect by the addiction of the social
media.
 They get involved very extensive and are eventual cut-off from the societies.
5) CYBERBULLYING & CRIME
 Use of social network may expose user to other form of harassment or even
in-appropriate contact. This can be especial true for teen and younger
children.
Short List of World-Wide Social Networking Site:
 General Purpose Social Networks

1) Facebook continues to be the number one social network in the world. It

reportedly has more than 2 billion active monthly users as of June 2017.
2) WhatsApp is an instant-messaging social network that works primarily on
smartphones. It is now part of Facebook and has over 1 billion users as of
2016.
3) Messenger (New) is also an instant-messaging social network that is part of
Facebook. It has roughly 1.2 billion users as of April 2017.
4) LinkedIn is a social network used by professionals and is now owned by
Microsoft. The network has more than 500 million users as of April 2017.
5) Google+ is Google’s social network that is reported to have more than 100
million active users. This social network is tightly integrated with all the other
Google services, such as email and calendar.
6) Twitter has approximately 320 million users, who can post tweets that are
limited to 140 characters.
7) Instagram is a photo and video sharing social network that is part of
Facebook. It has roughly 375 million active users.
8) Snapchat is a multimedia messaging network with over 150 million daily
users that has gained widespread popularity because of its innovative image
filters.

 Photo Sharing Networks

1) Snapfish is a photo sharing social network where the members can benefit
from unlimited storage space for their photos. The site has tens of millions
of members.
2) Flickr is a photo and video sharing social network that supports tens of
millions of members and over 10 billion photos.
3) Shutterfly (New) is a photo sharing site that allows its 2 million members to
use the photos to create personalized gifts, such as mugs and t-shirts.

 Lifestyle Networks

1) Last.fm is a music discovery and recommendation network that also shares

what friends on the network are listening to. The site has tens of millions of
users and over 12 million music tracks.
 2) VampireFreaks is a community for gothic-industrial subcultures that has
millions of members. The site is also used for dating.
3) CafeMom is a site for mothers and mothers-to-be. It has over 8 million
monthly unique visits.
4) Ravelry is a social network for knitting, crocheting, spinning, and weaving.
The site has over 7 million registered users..

 Travel Networks

1) Wayn is a travel network that connects like-minded people and also helps
them discover where to go. The site has over 20 million users.
2) CouchSurfing provides a platform for members to stay as a guest at
someone’s home, host travelers, meet other members, or join an event. The
site has roughly 15 million members.
3) TravBuddy specializes in finding a travel companion. The site has about
half a million members.

 Gaming Networks

1) Cellufun is a gaming community with over 2 million members that can be

accessed using any mobile device.
2) MocoSpace is social gaming site with over 2 million users and over 1 billion
monthly page views.
3) Zynga (New) offers multiple games that are played by millions of daily
users. Popular titles are Farmville, Draw Something, and Zynga Poker.

 Video Networks

1) YouTube is the world’s leading video sharing network that enables its users
to upload, view, and share videos. It serves billions of videos daily.
2) FunnyOrDie is a comedy video network that allows users to upload, share,
and rate videos. The videos often feature celebrities. The network has
hundreds of millions of viewers.
3) Tout is a video network that helps businesses grow online video revenue
and drive deeper engagement with viewers. It has 85 million unique monthly
viewers.

 Reunion Networks
1) Classmates connects people with their high school friends in the U.S. and
also allows for the uploading of high school yearbooks. Members can also
plan their high school reunions.
 2) MyHeritage is an online genealogy network that enables users to create
family trees, upload and browse photos, and search billions of global
historical records. The site has 80 million users worldwide.

 Business Networks

1) Viadeo is a social network for business owners, entrepreneurs, and

managers — mostly in Europe. It has about 50 million members.
2) Ryze links business professionals, mainly new entrepreneurs. The site has
about 1 million members.
3) Xing is a career-oriented social network that is used by consumers and
businesses. Xing supports closed groups to enable a private and secure
network within an enterprise.

 Blogging Related

1) Xanga hosts weblogs, photoblogs, and social networking profiles.

2) Plurk is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows
users to send updates through short messages or links, which can be up to
360 text characters.
3) LiveJournal allows its users to maintain a blog, journal, or diary. It has over
10 million unique visitors monthly in the US.
 INTRODUCTION
The main goal of the service is to make your social life and that of your friends, more
active and stimulating. Social network can help you both maintain existing relationships
and establish new one’s by reaching out of people you have never met before. Before
getting to know a forever member, you can even see how they are connecting you through
the friend’s network.

This software is provided as an online only resource so that it may be continually

extended and updated.

In the early days of the web, in 1994 and 1995, several people were working on
enabling email to be accessed on a web browser. In Europe, Soren Vejrum and Luca
Manunza released their "WWW Mail" and "WebMail" applications, whereas in the United
States, Matt Mankins wrote "Webex".

The term Webmail (or Web-based e-mail) is used to describe two things.

1. To describe a Webmail client: an email client implemented as a web application

accessed via a web browser.
2. To describe a email service offered through a web site (a webmail provider) such
as Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, and AOL Mail;. Practically every webmail provider
offers email access using a webmail client, and many of them also offer email
access by a desktop email client using standard email protocols, while many
internet service providers provide a webmail client as part of the email service
included in their internet service package.

How Do Social Networking Sites Make Money?

i. Offering Premium Options:
While some social networks are completely free, others might offer a premium
option to its users in an attempt to earn some money. LinkedIn, for example, has a
premium package for job seekers. All of your networking options are free with LinkedIn,
but if you want special privileges you have to sign up for one of their premium options.
 ii. Creative Products & Promotions:
Because of the difficulty of monetizing a social network, websites are forced to
come up with creative ways to earn revenue. The best example of this is Facebook Gifts.
Facebook Gifts allows users to send virtual (as in not real) gifts to their friends that appear
on the recipient’s profile. The cost of a gift is $1.00 and you can add a personalized
message to it. Genius

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking:

Advantages: -

1) INFORMATION & UPDATES

Most of the time, T.V. and print media these days are biased and does not show the
true messages.
With the help of social media, you can get the facts and true info by doing some
research.
2) CONNECTIVITY.
Regard-less of the location. The reason of social media is that you can connect with
anyone and learn, share your thoughts.
3) EDUCATION
You can follow anyone to learn from him/her and update your know-ledge about
anything.
It does not thing of your location and education background you can educate user,
without paying penny for it.
4) AWARENESS
Social media also create aware-ness and innovate the way user live. It is the social
media which has help people discover new and innovative ways that can update user lives.
It is beneficial from farmers to teachers, student's to lawyer's every user of the society
can benefits from the social media and its aware-ness factor's.

Disadvantages: -

1) HACKING
Similarly, user theft is another issue that can give financial loss to any-one by hacking
their personal account. Several user twitter and Facebook account have been hack in the
past and the hacker had posted material that have affect the individual’s or user lives.

This is one of the dangerous dis-advantage of the social media and every user is
advice to keep their personal or user data and account safe to avoid such accident.
2) HEALTH ISSUES
The excess usage of social media can also have a negative impact on the health. Since
exercise is the key to lose weight.
Most of the people get lazy because of the excessive use of social networking sites
which in result bring dis-order in the user routine life.
3) REPUTATION
Social media can easily ruin someone’s reputation just by creating a fake story and
spread-in ac-ross the social media.
Similar businesses can also suffer loss due to bad reputation being convey over the
social media.
4) ADDICTION
They get involved very extensive and are eventual cut-off from the societies.
It can also waste user time that could have been utilize by productive task and activity.
5) CYBERBULLYING & CRIME
Use of social network may expose user to other form of harassment or even in-
appropriate contact. This can be especial true for teen and younger children.
So parent should filter the Web content their family view, children should not be
exposed to inappropriate content

List of World-Wide Social Networking Site:

General Purpose Social Networks
1) Facebook continues to be the number one social network in the world. It reportedly has
more than 2 billion active monthly users as of June 2017.
2) WhatsApp is an instant-messaging social network that works primarily on smartphones.
It is now part of Facebook and has over 1 billion users as of 2016.
3) Messenger (New) is also an instant-messaging social network that is part of Facebook. It
has roughly 1.2 billion users as of April 2017.
4) LinkedIn is a social network used by professionals and is now owned by Microsoft. The
network has more than 500 million users as of April 2017.
Travel Networks
2) CouchSurfing provides a platform for members to stay as a guest at someone’s home,
host travelers, meet other members, or join an event. The site has roughly 15 million
members.
3) TravBuddy specializes in finding a travel companion. The site has about half a million
members.
Gaming Networks
2) MocoSpace is social gaming site with over 2 million users and over 1 billion monthly
page views.
3) Zynga (New) offers multiple games that are played by millions of daily users. Popular
titles are Farmville, Draw Something, and Zynga Poker.
Lifestyle Networks
1) Last.fm is a music discovery and recommendation network that also shares what friends
on the network are listening to. The site has tens of millions of users and over 12 million
music tracks.
2) VampireFreaks is a community for gothic-industrial subcultures that has millions of
members. The site is also used for dating.
Video Networks
1) YouTube is the world’s leading video sharing network that enables its users to upload,
view, and share videos. It serves billions of videos daily.
2) FunnyOrDie is a comedy video network that allows users to upload, share, and rate
videos. The videos often feature celebrities. The network has hundreds of millions of
viewers.
Reunion Networks
1) Classmates connects people with their high school friends in the U.S. and also allows for
the uploading of high school yearbooks. Members can also plan their high school reunions.
2) MyHeritage is an online genealogy network that enables users to create family trees,
upload and browse photos, and search billions of global historical records. The site has 80
million users worldwide.
Business Networks
1) Viadeo is a social network for business owners, entrepreneurs, and managers — mostly
in Europe. It has about 50 million members.
2) Ryze links business professionals, mainly new entrepreneurs. The site has about 1
million members.