Introduction
According to Aggarwal (2011), a social network refers to a set of internet-centered applications to create and interchange user-generated materials. Currently, everybody is likely to accept that social network has become authentic in the recent past. Even though, sites like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube were not available prior to 2004, it is currently incredible to remove them from the social media landscape.
Facebook alone has well over five hundred million users, which is equivalent to population of the whole of the European Union. Twitter creates approximately sixty-five million tweets daily.
Considering the total number of searches that have been conducted across various websites, YouTube becomes the second leading search engines after the Google, which is the giant in the industry. At the moment, social networking, done in the social media networks, is much more than just connecting with friends.
There are several collaborative projects that come along with the developments in social media. Collaborative projects enable various users to work cooperatively to generate online contents. In this paper, various key collaborative projects that are present due to social media are discussed.
Some of the largest collaborative projects that exist because of social media
There are various collaborative projects that have proved very significant in the area of undergraduate research. These include Wikis and social bookmarking. Wikipedia is one of the biggest joint projects that exist because of social media. It is the leading user-created available encyclopedia that has over seventeen million articles online. Wikipedia has definitely redefined the actual implication of the real information. Whatever is published on Wikipedia is given weight and promptly becomes mutual knowledge.
Every time individual types an expression into Google, there is a high probability of the top outcome leading to Wikipedia. Learners, researchers and professors use Wikipedia for their assignments and coursework respectively. This implies several users this research site work in partnership to achieve their common goal and information accessed becomes authentic at that moment.
Numerous research studies have indicated that Wikipedia is an appropriate source of correct information just like other chief encyclopedias like Britannica (Shah, 2009). Concurrently, due to increasing competition in the global market, numerous organizations have resolved to advertise their products and services through the social networking media.
Facebook is one of the major social networking sites used by most managers who endeavor to improve the sales of their products. Besides, it is one of the social websites with the highest number of subscribers (Shah, 2009). Consequently, companies advertising their products on Facebook have enhanced their market reach and profitability.
The major reason why most of the marketing managers have decided to advertise their products through social media is the cost effectiveness attained. For instance, they are able to reach many consumers simultaneously while spending less on the online advertisements. This is a vital provision in the context of marketing.
On Wikipedia, an individual can be able to adjust the contents of the objects through addition, removal, or even alteration of texts, pictures, as well as links. Wikipedia serve as a collaborative project because it lets researchers share information files, correct papers and deliberate over contents.
The accessible collaborative space works as a focal point for obtaining research documents, so users do not have to congest their email inboxes with big information files or bother if the file they are using is the most current version. Since Wikipedia is an online space, it acts as a very useful collaborative tool for most investigators, who are operating distantly. Different scholars work co-operatively to build and share groups of internet links, references and documents (Harwood, 2011).
Social bookmarking is another collaborative project that happens due to social network. It enables different users to gather, consolidate, share, and discern online resources. Various users make profiles on social bookmarking spots then save and label network pages. Other operators can make a visit to that specific social bookmarking site and look for the unrestricted bookmark based on reputation, keyword, or the profile of the operator.
Professors and lecturers can portion their bookmarks with their students. Equally, students can create a set of bookmarks for a particular research project. However, individuals who would need to use the social bookmarking do not have to create a profile to explore an online resource. In most cases, various websites are marked by several main words, which enable users to discern networks amongst topics that could not be apparent.
Through checking out on links by operators, people with same exploration interests can link online. Users are able to contribute to each other and remain updated on fresh online materials. Some of the commonly used social bookmarking sites include delicious, Diigo, xmarks, Brainify and Scribe. Delicious is a firm and extensively used social bookmarking site.
Other useful collaborative projects include blogs, which are social networking sites almost equivalent to individual webpages. They are very useful for social media marketing (Messaris, 2006).
Concurrently, the use of social media is increasing rapidly in the marketing arenas. This indicates another collaborative project that happens due to social network. Social network websites have revolutionized the marketing sector in regard to “consumer behaviors”. It is vital to understand how social media advertising techniques influence the behaviors of consumers when making decisions on what to purchase.
This might in turn influence their choices as consumers in the realms of decision making and product preferences. Contextually, the marketing managers use various mechanisms to advertise their products through social media. Firstly, they need to have a general experience regarding the internet use and the risks involved. This helps in determining the number of potential customers to be captured through the social media.
Concurrently, there is a need to use more advanced methods of advertisement for a better competition. Marketing experts use various mechanisms to advertise their products through social media.
In other contexts, the Federal Reserve Banks have been used by the American government to effectively control consumer transactions via social media. They majorly control some of the monetary and transaction services done through the social media.
Both the company and the social media provider are able to benefit from the online advertisements. The network provider is able to obtain some percentage of the transactions while the organization using their social site is able to capture additional customers. Consequently, the company is able to realize more sales and profit. Precisely, the relationships that exist amidst the social media provider (facebook) and other businesses are diverse.
The use of social networking sites (including Facebook) is growing rapidly in the marketing, consumer, and social sectors. The website has revolutionized the marketing sector tremendously with extra emphasis on the “consumer behavior”. This provision intends to unveil how social media advertising techniques influence the behaviors of consumers (both young and old) when making decisions on what to purchase.
This indicates the relationship that exists between the social media provider and other businesses that utilize the site for advertising. It is vital to understand that a social network site regards the virtual groups/provisions on the internet that enables various users to network and exchange different interests and events.
Members of these sites communicate through email as well as prompt messaging provisions among others. This exhibits how other collaborative projects occur due to the emergence of social networks. For instance, facebook, Tweeter, MySpace and Bebo are the most popular social networking sites. Fundamentally, facebook is a social network site offering various utilities to its operators while facilitating social communication between them.
This also indicates the relationship that exists between the social media provider and other businesses that utilize the site for advertising. The mentioned provisions indicate other collaborative project that happens due to social network in the marketing arenas.
In other contexts, there has been a shift from the conventional means of communication in many organizations as a result of the migration of advertising budgets to online channels. Global recession from 2008 has also contributed to the growing focus on online advertising as a result of diminished share of advertising budget for print and broadcast media in many organizations.
According to Jennings (2007), 52% of Europeans are regularly using social networks at home while 36% and 28% of Europeans internet users watch less TV and read newspapers and magazines respectively. In more specific terms, Constantinides and Fountain (2008) identified five categories of social media namely: Blogs, social networks, content communities, forums and bulletin boards, and content aggregators.
Social network is also critical during campaigns and elections due to its societal influences in the voting trends among the electorates. This indicates another collaborative project that happens due to social network. Precisely, this concerns the incorporation of psychological frameworks and influences on the voters (Duflo, 2008).
Media influences the emotions of the public with a consequent influence on the voting provisions in the political contexts. Psychology assumes a critical role in comprehending the impact of integrating media technologies amidst the wide-ranging society. The situation embodies a wide array of human experience of the media.
Moreover, media significantly affects the application of campaign events, activities, theoretical models as well as practices. Media embraces meditated communication. This incorporates pictures, audio, and other provisions. This might in turn influence the voting preferences among the electorates.
Conclusion
In conclusion, collaborative projects allow the communal and instantaneous conception of subjects by several users. Therefore, it proves to be one of the most democratic expressions of user-generated content. With regard to collaborative projects that exist because of social media, there are wikis and social bookmarking sites.
Wiki is very useful for integrating, taking away, and altering script-based contents while social bookmark sites are beneficial for boosting group-based assortment, and ranking of web links or media content. The main concept behind collaborative projects is that there is a communal effort of several users in creating a better result than conceivable individually.
It is vital to agree that various collaborative projects have proved very significant in the areas of research. This has provided a considerable opportunity to investigate further on the matter and its significance in the current world.
References
Aggarwal, C. (2011). Social network data analytics. New York: SPRINGER.
Constantinides, E. & Fountain, S.J. (2008), “Web 2.0: conceptual foundations and marketing issues”, Journal of Direct, Data, and Digital Marketing Practice, 9(3), 231-44.
Duflo, E. (2008). Does the mass-media have political influence?. https://voxeu.org/article/does-mass-media-influence-voters-evidence-us
Harwood, M. (2011). Security strategies in Web applications and social networking. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Jennings, R. (2007). European Online Marketing Tops e16 Billion in 2012, Forrester Research. Cambridge, MA: Wiley.
Messaris, P. (2006). Digital media: Transformations in human communication. New York, NY: Lang PRESS.
Shah, R. (2009). Managing online communities. Indianapolis, IN: FT Press.