The Social Network; Online Platforms and their Influence on Storage.

Social networking has become a part of daily life for many individuals across the world. Individuals and businesses alike are using it to promote their own agenda.  Storage companies are no stranger to this, and also tend to have pages on social networking sites to promote their services. It is a way for users to store friends and interact with them based on shared interests through groups and agendas. Social networking has developed as an industry at an astonishing rate; a film has even been released to document the creation and growth of “Facebook”. The film “The Social Network” has received glowing reviews from critics. Many of the leading review sites have given the film nearly full marks, and it is dubbed by many as Oscar-worthy.



Social Networking Sites

A social networking service is an online platform that focuses on interconnected users and their communications. The user is normally represented by an individual profile which they can personalise to reflect their interests, personality and additional details they wish to share with other users. On these sites, users can normally “add” each other to a “friends” or “connections” list. This acts as a data protection-type service, allowing users to choose who they wish to share information with. Some of these personal profiles are entirely public, whilst others are reserved for users individuals have accepted to view their information. Most social networking sites provide services such as email, instant messaging and a public “wall” to allow users to communicate with each other.



Facebook appears to be the most famous worldwide, closely followed by twitter, MySpace, Bebo and LinkedIn. Other similar platforms include social bookmarking sites, in which users submit links of interest to them; Stumble, Digg and Delicious fit this description, for example. Overseas social networking sites include Nexopia in Canada, Skyrock around Europe, and Tuenti which is mainly in Spain. Twitter has an edge as it is readily used by celebrities to communicate with their fans, but photo storage is limited and “posts” or entries are limited to a few sentences.

Although the idea behind social networking is to create a directory of friends and their interests, many networks allow users to add others with common interests. Inclusive of music, not-for-profit organisations, religion and motherhood, this allows users to find a community and support network based on their current circumstances, irrespective of geographical location.

 “The Social Network”

“The Social Network” is a film released in October 2010 about the founding of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, is played by Jesse Einsberg in the movie. The film shares the story of how Facebook game into existence. Whilst not 100% accurate, the film loosely follows goings on in Mark Zuckerber’s life from his initial idea of an online platform, to where it is today; literally, dominating the world.



The plot reveals Mark Zuckerberg’s first venture into viral marketing; after splitting up with his girlfriend, he proceeds to create FaceSmash – a site that allows students at Harvard to vote on the more attractive of two girls. The pictures are taken from online directories at the University, and the idea immediately becomes a hit – even crashing the Harvard network. This catches the attention of the Winklevoss twins, who have wanted to create an online platform for some time, and decide to invite Zuckerberg to be their programmer. Zuckerberg literally takes this idea, and runs with it as his own.

The film picks up pace at this point, and jumps between the past and present with scenes of the early creation of “The Facebook” by Zuckerberg placed alongside scenes of him being sued at a later date. The turning point in the film is when Zuckerberg meets Sean Parker, played by Justin Timberlake, who is the creator of music phenomenon “Napster”. Sean ultimately brings the downfall, yet success of Zuckerberg. His advice includes “drop the ‘The’” on “The Facebook”, and also to drop his partner, leading to a $65 million settlement later in the film. Zuckerberg is allegedly unhappy about the portrayal of his character. However, the majority of reviews recognise that it is overtly dramatized for the big screen.

An Advertising Platform

One of the key themes within the film was the question of making a profit from such a site. Hosting costs and online data storage alone require the service to provide some profit, to meet costs. This was discussed in depth throughout the film, and advertising in particular was something Zuckerberg was reluctant to pursue. In reality though, he did, and Facebook now sports a line of adverts on the right hand side. Companies have taken advantage of this, and large restaurants, chain coffee shops and cinemas all link their advertising to these sites, often offering special discounts and deals to users.

Social networking has not only changed the structure of social interaction within society, but has changed the structure of business advertising and marketing. To keep up-to-date with competition in the market, companies develop their advertising campaigns based on where they are most accessible by potential customers; today, that means social networking platforms.

Sources

The Guardian Newspaper
Social Networking News
Independent Newspaper