Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
media (Shankar and Balasubramanian
2009
). People with smart phones and mobile
tablets can connect to social media easily to participate in online conversations
without time and location constraints.
Formally, social media are
media
for
social interaction
that use highly accessible
and scalable communication techniques. Social media use web-based and mobile
technologies to turn communication into interactive dialog (Wikipedia
2011
). Social
media comprise different types of websites that perform different functions such as
blogging (e.g., Blogger, WorldPress, and LiveJournal), microblogging (e.g., Twitter,
Google Buzz, Qaiku), social networking (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, Sermo), profes-
sional networking (e.g., LinkedIn, Plaxo), creativity work sharing: video sharing
(e.g., YouTube), audio sharing (e.g., Podcast), photo sharing (Flickr), music sharing
(Jamendo), content sharing with assistance (Piczo), social bookmarking (e.g., Digg,
Delicious), collaborative content creating (e.g., Wikipedia), virtual world sites
(e.g., Secondlife), and commerce communities (e.g., eBay, Amazon, Craig's list).
A social network refers to a community of people connected by a common theme
or focus through social media vehicles. For example, the group of doctors on the
social networking site Sermo, constitutes a social network as they are connected by
the common theme of being certified physicians practicing in the healthcare indus-
try. The members of Sermo are similar in their profession, so they are interested in
common issues and benefit from connecting with their fellow members.
Social media are growing rapidly. Consider the following statistics that attest to
the growing importance of social media.
• By 2010, 96 % of Generation Y
1
were on a social network.
• There are over 200 million blogs.
• 54 % of bloggers post connect/tweet daily.
• 34 % post opinions about products and brands.
• 25 % of search results for Word Top 20 brands are links to user-generated
content.
• 90 % of people trust peer recommendations, while only 14 % trust advertisements.
• The online market, now at $1.2 billion is expected to reach $2.2 billion by 2011.
• To reach 50 million users, radio, TV, Internet, and iPod took 38, 13, 4, and 3
years, respectively. But Facebook has added 100 million users in less than 9
months (Socialnomics
2009
). Facebook is likely to touch a user base of one
billion by August 2012. If Facebook were a country, it would be the world's third
largest after China and India.
When virtually everyone is online, belongs to a social network, consumes and
contributes to the digital world, and influences each other by word of mouth through
1
Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation (or Millennials), Generation Next, Net
Generation, Echo Boomers, describes the demographic
cohort
following
Generation X
. As there
are no precise dates for when the Millennial generation starts and ends, commentators have used
birth dates ranging somewhere from the mid-1970s to the early
2000s
(
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