Social media primer

There are various types of online social media - from social networks of friends and professionals, to microblogging services, to video sharing sites. Here’s a helpful list.

ONLINE FRIENDS NETWORKS

Orkut
India’s most popular social network, this Google-owned service was set up by former Google engineer Orkut Büyükkökten in his spare time. Once a hit with users, it is far behind in the global popularity stakes. Orkut has faced some issues because of its previously open nature, which included accusations of fostering “hate” and underage sex. After legal problems in 2007, Orkut substantially cleaned up the network, but by then, the damage was done - “high-end” users had begun switching over to Facebook.

• New, clean layout with enhanced user privacy.
• But its past reputation will haunt it.

Facebook
It’s difficult to imagine that there is someone out there who hasn’t heard of Facebook. The world’s largest social network, with over 200 million users, began when a small group of Harvard students, led by Mark Zuckerberg, decided to keep in touch with each other. It soon opened out to other US campuses and eventually in 2006, to everyone. According to Internet metrics service ComScore, Facebook is the second-most visited social networking site in India as of December 2008, after Orkut.

• Users can enable high privacy levels to keep themselves secure.
• Recently, users have faced phishing attacks and identity theft.

MySpace
Most popular with musicians and actors, who use the site to host music and movie clips, this site was picked up by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp. a few years ago and its immense popularity made Google give it a lucrative advertising deal. However, the site has failed to keep up with Facebook’s popularity globally and recently laid off 30 per cent of its workforce.

• Several bands have been discovered on the network.
• Its India-specific service has yet to catch on.

VIDEO SHARING

YouTube
YouTube has started a video revolution—it’s as simple as that. The service—which allows anyone to upload video clips on to the net—from your baby’s first steps to a music video that you recently shot—commands a big chunk of Internet traffic today. According to estimates, every minute of the day, over 10 minutes of content is being uploaded on to the service. All smartphones and some flat-panel television manufacturers are bundling YouTube applications into their devices. However, Google executives acknowledge that they are far from monetising the service.

• Copyright owners like music companies are also posting their own content.
• Still far too much illegally posted copyrighted content abounds.

Other Video Sharing Services: Hulu is a video service promoted by US TV network NBC and has high-quality online broadcasts of their shows. However, users from India cannot access Hulu. Other sites include Vimeoand DailyMotion. Several Indian video sharing services failed because of the massive bandwidth costs involved.

ONLINE PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS

LinkedIn
This site is possibly unique among social networks in the sense that it claims to be profitable through advertising and “premium” membership. According to statistics, there are 41 million users on LinkedIn, of which two million are from India (the second-largest user base after the US). Virtually every large company and executive featured in this story has a LinkedIn account and there are examples galore of how India Inc. is using LinkedIn to find talent and do more.

• Extremely popular among India Inc. and growing by the day.
• Layout is slightly clunky compared to other services.

Blogging

Most blogging sites are also “social media” by definition—they allow anyone and everyone to create a blog. Also, if the blogger allows it, anyone with net access can post a comment on the blog, which can be moderated. Blogging is the oldest form of “read-write” online social media, but has now reached a stable phase. The most popular free blogging services online where anyone can set up a blog are:

• Blogger/Blogspot
• WordPress
• LiveJournal

MICROBLOGGING

Twitter
This is a blazingly fast-growing service: Nielsen Online estimated Twitter’s growth at a staggering 1,382 per cent a month with an estimated 100 million users. Caveat: A Harvard study estimated that 10 per cent of these users, by and large, created 90 per cent of the content. Twitter essentially allows users to send out their thoughts in 140 characters or less. Only a third of Twitter users are active, though, and India has an active “Twitterati” of an estimated 10,000 people. Several Indian companies are now embracing the service.

• Immensely popular and highly useful during breaking news events such as 26/11.
• A lot of “tweets” are pointless fluff and marketing on Twitter is a double-edged sword.

OTHER TYPES OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

Social Bookmarking
This is a way for Internet users to share with each other sites that they visit—making their bookmarks visible to the whole world. Popular services include Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us.

Photo Sharing
Sites like Flickr (owned by Yahoo!), Picasa (owned by Google) and Snapfish (owned by HP) are popular sites that host pictures, which can be commented on and viewed by almost anyone. It can form networks with other people who share similar photography-related interests.

Music Sharing
The most popular service here is last.fm where people can listen to music of their choice as well as join groups of people with the same musical taste.

INDIAN SOCIAL MEDIA SITES

Big Adda
Promoted by Anil Ambani, it had a high-pitched launch. The site has several “star” members, including Amitabh Bachchan and Ram Gopal Varma.

Yaari
This site also made a lot of noise at the time of its launch in 2007, but seems to have lost out to international competition.