2012: Reflecting on the year of social media

How time flies when you’re having fun! I’m currently at the business end of my final University semester and amongst crazily submitting assignments and preparing for exams, I thought I would use this post as an opportunity to reflect back. 

Over the past twelve weeks I have blogged about all things related to social media such as hot topics, new trends and examples. At first, I was very daunted by the prospect of blogging but I learnt very quickly that it’s not so bad after all and I think I have actually quite enjoyed this experience.

I find it amusing that although I used to spend a large quantity of my day wasting endless hours on social media websites passively taking in lots of information (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and my personal favourite, Pinterest), I’ve only recently begun using these platforms to actually engage with others. I’ve also created a Facebook page for my workplace which has been another learning curve! 

So I’m not sure if it’s just me, because I have been studying social media and using it more than what I normally would, but I think that 2012 has been the year of social media. 

From the London 2012 Olympic Games to breaking news to trolls to Felix Baumgartner to the US Presidential Election to new online stores to memes, there’s always a topic worthy of conversation. As more people join social media websites and engage in conversation so too does the way in which marketers and businesses communicate with their consumers. 

I think this digital era is very exciting for users of social media, especially for marketers. What I find interesting is that although there is a lot of academic research that should be conducted on social media, the rate of this technology is growing so fast that research cannot keep up. 

I’ve definitely learnt a lot this semester, in particular about social media and look back with fond memories. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Wags (Social Media Lecturer) and those who I’ve had the pleasure of studying with at Monash University. Goodbye friends, all the best in the future!

Social media jumps to a whole new level

This week we’ve seen another example of how news can create ample amounts of engagement on social media. In the last 24 hours, Felix Baumgartner became the first man to break the sound barrier by jumping out of a capsule approximately 128,000 feet above the earth. This created much hype as videos and images of the event were shared on multiple social media websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. 

From the moment Felix went up into the air, millions of social media users logged onto YouTube to watch the live jump. This event became the first video to receive 8 million live viewers on YouTube. At the same time, social media users began to share this YouTube link on their Twitter and Facebook pages. After the event, Red Bull posted a picture of Baumgartner on their Facebook page which has since generated 517,711 likes, 15,128 comments and 68,993 shares. 

Yesterday, multiple news sites compared this event to when Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. It was discussed on many traditional forms of media that the moon landing stopped a generation as it was broadcast on television and that perhaps social media doesn’t quite create the same enormity of events. I tend to disagree with this argument as social media users are able to simultaneously watch, comment and share videos / pictures of live events and then talk about them in face to face conversations. Let me know what you think!

Social media laws are not so social

In the Philippines, a new internet law has come into effect which could potentially lead to imprisonment for sharing Facebook and Twitter posts.

The Cybercrime Prevention Act has been introduced as a measure against computer related crimes such as child pornography, identity theft, hacking and spamming. However, there are concerns over an element of the Act related libel, which is a criminal offence that can result in imprisonment for up to six years. This part of the Act gives government agencies the right to search for and destroy computer data which is deemed libellous. 

According to Harry Roque, a law professor at the University of the Philippines, the law “exposes internet users to prosecution,'' he said. ''You can be sued. You can be forced to post a bond. You will need to get a lawyer. You can imagine the mayhem this can cause.''

Meanwhile, in Australia, politicians are in the process of creating a national social media policy. This is in response to fears that comments made on social media websites in regards to the Jill Meagher case could potentially jeopardise the trial. Initially Facebook refused to take down hate pages which were created against the man accused of Jill’s murder, but then later in the week Facebook removed the pages.

It’s about time that Australia’s laws kept up with the rise of social media. However, we can see from the new law in Philippines and from Australian Police asking Facebook to remove hate pages that freedom of speech is being largely supressed in social media. I accept that in the Jill Meagher case, social media comments could jeopardise the case, however, it must be realised that what people are saying on social media, is a reflection of what is being said in real life conversations anyway.

Like most things, social media will need some boundaries to keep members of the community staying within the law. Therefore laws which prevent online child pornography, identity theft, hacking, spamming and bullying should be blueprinted without hesitation. However, such laws should not supress freedom of speech.

What do you think of the new Philippines law and upcoming Australian national social media policy?

CSI: Social Media

As many of you may already know, the case of missing woman Jill Meagher was solved overnight following an arrest and the discovery of her body.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about news breaking on social media (view here). I specifically stated, “The way news is broken in society has dramatically changed. Anyone can be a journalist these days”. And again, in the case of Jill Meagher, this statement is reiterated.  

Earlier this week, well before it had been announced on traditional media that an investigation was underway into Jill’s disappearance, a social media campaign had been launched. Tweets with variations of Jill’s name had appeared in 33 million Twitter news feeds and a Facebook page named “Help Us Find Jill Meagher” had been created by her friends and family, reaching almost 114,000 likes. As the developments of this story unfolded during the week, Victorian Police released CCTV footage of Jill’s last moments, which has been shared 7432 times on Facebook.

The Herald Sun reported that many Victorians jumped on social media the moment news broke that a man had been arrested over Jill Meagher’s disappearance. Her name had almost 12 million Twitter newsfeeds trending across Melbourne and Australia.

Last night while watching the news, my mum recounted a similar story of a girl named Sarah McDermod, who went missing in the early 1990’s. In the moments it took Sarah to walk from the train platform to her car, she had vanished. Police were never able to find her body and to this day, her disappearance remains a mystery. Of course there are probably hundreds of similar stories such as this which have occurred over the years years.

But what a difference twenty years makes. As technology has progressed, the introduction of CCTV footage and the power of social media are just beginning to aid society. Victoria Police media unit supervisor Natalie Webster said “social media campaigns could assist with highlighting an incident or investigation and take information to an audience that was not engaged in traditional media”. The use of social media to expand reach and share information such as CCTV footage inevitably aided Victorian Police solve Jill’s case in six days. There’s no doubt that this kind of technology could have also been handy in Sarah’s disappearance but obviously, was not available.

The power of social networking has developed immensely over the years and its potential to solve cases such as Jill’s is only just starting to be realized and harnessed.