With its growing popularity, Social Media has found its importance in many academic sections. Hence in the “Essay on Social Media,” we will majorly look at what is it, the importance of Social Media in different aspects of society, its advantages and disadvantages.

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Introduction:

This Social media essay describing social media platforms can be considered as one of the main aspects of communication in today’s world.  It has grown immensely over the last few years ever since the popularity of Facebook and Twitter and thus captures the attention of millions over the world.

The intensively fast development of technology has made people interested in fast and effective communication where they can connect to people on the other side of the world within a matter of seconds. With the high rate of the increase in technology, it is evident that people would go ahead and grasp the benefits that come with it. From progressive to under-developed nations, every country is utilizing the power of social media for the betterment.

However, the gift of social media towards humankind brought many advantages, along with that, many disadvantages as well. Just like anything that can be used in both good and bad ways, depending on the person. It is all about the way it is used which rests on the hands of the user to use to its full advantage. However, this social media essay also admit the positive and negative impact of social media, whether it is willingly or unwillingly (Warren, Sulaiman, and Jaafar 2014)

What is Social Media?

Social Media can be understood as the collective platform with the sole purpose of making communication and connecting people to create and exchange information over the virtual network. 

Social Media platforms can be considered as one of the main aspects of communication in today’s world.  It has grown immensely over the last few years ever since the popularity of Facebook and Twitter grabbed the attention of millions over the world. 

Due to fast-forward busy life and the emergence of newer technologies, people want everything in a matter of seconds and made them interested in fast and effective communication where they can connect to people on the other side of the world within a matter of seconds. 

With the high rate of the increase in technology, it is evident that people would go ahead and grasp the benefits that come with it. From progressive to under-developed nations, every country is utilizing the power of social media for the betterment. As every coin has two-phase; the gift of social media to humankind brought many advantages, along with its disadvantages. It is all about the way it is used and how people use it. Hence in this social media essay, we are going to discuss all the above things in detail.

Discussion on social media essay

The term “new media” means the new age technology, which is used by the youth to connect to various food companies over the world. It is because of mobile devices or computers with the added feature of internet connection and social media. The "essay on social media" talks about, these new-age technologies are based on connectivity and innovation.

Food companies over the world use a high level of marketing strategy to attach people to lucrative offers. These companies use the means of social media first to connect to their customer base and create a connection between them (Kumar et al. 2016). The young generations nowadays are very much inclined toward.

What you will learn in this essay on social media

In this social media essay, we will be describing, commercial food products, which do not mean that it is fast food. By understanding what they want, these companies strategize their marketing accordingly (Vinerean et al. 2013). Large multinational companies like KFC social media marketing or Coca-Cola social media strategy use the means of social media to their advantage. For example, they provide special offers like if a customer uploads a picture of themselves with their product on social media and use a ‘hashtag’ with a catchphrase stated by the company, they might get featured on the company’s official website.

The advancement of the internet from static platform to social has provided opportunities for both the companies and the customers (Whiting and Deshpande, 2014)

Facts about Social Media

• As of now, there are a total of 4.55 billion active social media users in the world accounting for 57.6 % of the population.
• Facebook is a widely used platform with over 2.41 billion monthly active users. On average people spent 34 minutes on this platform.
• 84 % of the users come between the age of 18 – 29.
• On average, people spent 2.5 hours per day on social media.
• The past 12 months have seen the strongest growth in social media users with 409 million new users joining in the year October 2021.

Reasons for using Social Media

There can be any reason behind joining social media. Major and common ones are listed below:

• To be connected with family and friends.
• For spending spare time.
• Reading news and stories
• For entertainment and funny content.
• To know about the latest trend
• For finding products to purchase
• Making new connection
• Watching live streams
• Grow networking and conduct research
• For finding like-minded people and communities 
• For the following sport

Let's learn about business growth in this social media essay

When it comes to business growth, social media has changed the interface of the world.

All types of businesses no matter it is large or small is depended on social media for their growth and promotion (Jin, Liu, and Austin 2014). By the means of online platform business, it is easier to access and gain affordability. It is because of social media, small businesses or shops are getting the proper attention they deserve. By the strategic means of low-cost marketing, businesses can focus more on the production cost and still gain many customers (Ashley and Tuten 2015).

Social media’s reach has no limit, a business that is located in one part of the world can inform about its products and services to a customer who is located in another part of the world. This, therefore, increases the sales rate at an increasing rate and still the promotional costs is minimum. If a well-recognized company or a brand promotes their business by the means of social media, it is normal that they would gain more customers than regular businesses. Therefore it has turned into competition amongst the brand to gain more customers.

Major Social Media Platforms

There was a time when social media was mostly used for entertainment purposes but this is not the case anymore. It takes an overview of all the social media platforms they serve at least one or more purposes from the following:

• Connect you with people
• Help in discovering trends, news and ideas
• Grab audience attention towards 
• Keeps you up-to-date.

There are a lot and lot of social media platforms and the major ones are discussed below:

Facebook

Facebook is known to have the largest network in the world with more than two billion users. It is a free social networking site where users may establish profiles, upload photos and videos, send messages, and communicate with friends, family, and coworkers. 

LinkedIn

A Social networking platform with more than 500 million members is used as a career management tool. With the help of Linkedln, you can connect with industry professionals, expand your network and knowledge about your niche company. It has now become a job-hunting place people search for job openings, about the companies and various other details. Optimizing your LinkedIn profile can surely get a job.

Twitter

If you are someone who likes to share views, thoughts and opinions about a particular topic then Twitter is a place for you. Currently, Twitter has 328 million users. It provides a platform for making announcements, connecting with people, increasing brand awareness.

YouTube

YouTube is a free video-hosting service with more than 2 billion active users that allows users to upload, store, and share videos.
Apart from these, there are other social media platforms too like WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, Tinder, Bumble, Pinterest, WeChat, TikTok, Telegram, Reddit, Quora and many many more with their purpose.

Importance of social media

In this social media essay, you will learn how social media is playing an important role in daily life. you can learn all this information in the below section.

Social media is a necessity nowadays for all kinds of businesses. It is a heavily debated topic regarding it is a benefit or rather a cause for issues towards the company. Social Media Marketing represents the business on how well its image as perceived by the customer.

For Business

Social media is a necessity nowadays for all kinds of businesses.
Large multinational companies like KFC social media marketing or Coca-Cola social media strategy use the means of social media to their advantage. For example, they provide special offers like if a customer uploads a picture of themselves with their product on social media and use a ‘hashtag’ with a catchphrase stated by the company, and with the incentive that they might get featured on the company’s official website. The advancement of the internet from static platforms to social has provided an opportunity for both the companies and the customers. 

By the means of innovative thoughts and new strategies, companies try to win the hearts of the consumer and at the same time rivals with their competitors to win the competitive edge. Sometimes companies think of campaigns or strategies, which has not been done before to get the attention of many people at the same time. 

Brands like Lay’s Potato Chips made a very ambitious move when they used the means of social media to get options of people to choose a new flavour for them. Lays played their marketing strategies so well they received more than 12 million responses for suggestions of various new flavours. This made the customer aware that Lays as a company values feedback. Other brands like Coca-Cola, Starbucks and even the all popular Google values feedback and utilize them for the satisfaction of the people they serve and increase their brand awareness.

All types of businesses no matter large or small depend on social media for their growth and promotion. By the means of online platforms businesses now can easily access and gain affordability. It is because of social media, small businesses and shops are getting the proper attention they deserve. By the strategic means of low-cost marketing, businesses can focus more on the production cost and still gain many customers.

Social media’s has widespread reach, a business located in one part of the world can inform about its products and services to a customer located in another part of the world. This, therefore, increases the sales rate at an increasing rate and still, the promotional costs are less. 

The main goal of social media is connectivity, as people can communicate from any part of the world regardless the location or religion. Even so, it has many benefits for students and teachers because it is very easy to teach online. People can even learn e-courses regardless of what background they have (Antheunis, Tates and Nieboer 2013). Despite the fact, social media can be used for the benefit of many people however some misuse its power. According to (Perloff 2014) many children over the world have been victims of cyberbullying.

A platform like Twitter and Facebook allows anyone to create free accounts, many use this to their advantage to create fake accounts and perform deeds that cannot be traced back. Therefore, it is very easy for someone to get cyberbullied on the Internet. By sending anonymous threats, intimidations and even rumours create problems within society. Even hacking allows people to get hold of personal data, which would lead to the financial loss of a person. In the past, many cases of hacking have occurred and people got hold of bank account details. Social media is a benefit to society. A person can share his or her issues with the community to get suggestions and help. It does not matter whether it is in terms of finance or even legal advice. It is considered to be the largest medium of spreading awareness and innovating the way people live.

A person can get himself updated with the latest news around the world within a matter of minutes. It has the advantage of helping the government and security agencies to catch criminals as news travel fast and people like to write what they know or see on social media (Valkenburg and Peter 2013). As there are different religions and beliefs all over the world, social media helps in creating the community of a new religion and talking about it.
People of different communities can talk and interact with each other and share related information. In the same contrast, social media can easily ruin the reputation of someone or a large organization, even if it is a rumour. False stories spread like wildfire and easily ruin the reputation of that individual.  The excessive use of social media is also harmful and causes negative effects on health (Alharbie, 2015). As exercise is a key method of losing weight, people get lazy because of the high use of social media sites and resulting in the order in real routine life (Laroche, Habibi and Richard 2013). There are other factors like crazy stunts that are shared on the internet, and when people get inspired and try them for themselves, it can result in self-harm or even death. Despite all its good and bad viewpoints, it is actually on the people who use the means of social media to promote themselves and the views they support.

Advantages of Social Media

Now one of the important points that come when writing an essay on social media is to discuss its advantages.

• The main goal of social media is to connect people, through it one connect with anyone regardless of the geographical boundaries. It helps you grow your network, exchange knowledge and share your though. People of different communities can talk and interact with each other and share related information.
• Social Media keeps you updated with the latest news and about the things going around the world. You can get any information from anywhere at the tip of the finger.
• Furthermore, it can help in bringing awareness about the issues concerned with climate, nations, security and social issues that need utmost attention.
• News can be spread in a matter of seconds on social media. It is also a great platform to make an announcement and build a business network
   

The disadvantage of Social Media

• As said there are two sides to everything and hence being greatly influential and popular, social media has many disadvantages too.
• Various Social platforms like Twitter and Facebook allows anyone to create free accounts, many use this to their advantage to create fake accounts and perform deeds that cannot be traced back. 
• Cyber Bullying is the major issue faced on social media. By sending anonymous threats, intimidations and even rumours create problems within the society and can impact a person significantly. 
• Hacking is yet another issue that allows people to get hold of personal data and invade a person’s privacy. Social media is also has become a place for fraud and online scams.
• In the same contrast, social media can easily ruin the reputation of someone or a large organization, even if it is a rumour. False stories spread like wildfire and easily ruin the reputation.  
• The excessive use of social media is also harmful and causes negative effects on health. As exercise is a key method of losing weight, people get lazy because of the high use of social media sites and resulting in unorganized routine life. 
• Social Media sort of creates addiction towards it in which in return can affect the real-life and mental health of the person. In general, youth gets trapped in this cycle more often and hence proper monitoring of child life is very important.
• There are other factors like crazy stunts that are shared on the internet, and when people get inspired and try them for themselves, it can result in self-harm or even death. Despite all its good and bad viewpoints, it is actually on the people who use the means of social media to promote themselves and the views they support.

CONCLUSION

Therefore from the above essay on social media, it can be concluded that social media is an integral part of the modern world where not only the people but the systems that run the society are dependent on them. On the off chance if it is used incorrectly, In this social media essay we are describing, that social media could cause national and global issues. Social media stunts relational development and expands narcissism in numerous web clients. Regardless of whether the clients are not mentally influenced by online networking, they are still in threat. No one is insusceptible to the hurtful reactions of web-based social networking sites including fraud, stalkers, or programmers. Person to person communication permits fabrications and false data to cause the board disorder. If there are no directions or impediments via web-based networking media, the repercussions will aggregate. Individuals need to change the damaging examples of web-based social networking use before it crushes society. The quick, simple access to data that should be advantageous to society is unfavourable to society.

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