Social Media Options

Social media now dominates the internet, allowing people to access images and topics through the internet almost instantly, as well as sharing work and advertising. The popularity and range of social media has exploded within the 21st century. There are now many forms of 'social media' such as online forums, blogs, social networks, video sites etc. Many social media sources in particularly networks, allow posts and images to be simply shared by a 'click' of a mouse, enabling a piece of work to go viral within hours. This was true of a member of my courses alumni last year, when her prosthetic work was shared by a professional company, which then received over 30,000 views within a matter of days. The prosperity of social networks is something that myself as an artist cannot afford to miss, and below is an analysis of some of the most popular networks;

1. Facebook
Facebook is a site with many features including the capability for users to see and share images, videos, and create and 'like' fan pages, which could be based on a TV show or simply advertise a business. When your friends on the network 'like' something this then is transferred onto your own 'newsfeed' which is displays any 'liked' pages or for instance a friends 'status' expressing what they are doing or how they are feeling at a particular time. Facebook is the most popular social networking site and is one that should be considered when advertising my work. Currently the amount of monthly visitors across the Facebook network is 900,000,000.

2. Twitter

Twitter is an online social network service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets". Users can read and post tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. You can also 'retweet' or 'share' a 'tweet' or image with a newsfeed in a similar fashion to Facebook  however there are not as many pages, chats and other facilities as Facebook. Users access Twitter through the website interface, or mobile device apps. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity after being launched in 2006, with more than 100 million users who in 2012 posted 340 million tweets per day. In 2013 Twitter was one of the ten most visited websites in the world along with Facebook, but has been described as "the SMS of the Internet." As of December 2014, Twitter has more than 500 million users, out of which more than 284 million active users. The monthly amount of visitors is estimated at 255,000,000

3. Instagram

Instagram is an online mobile photo and video sharing application, that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. A distinctive feature is that it confines photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 4:3 aspect ratio typically used by mobile device cameras. Users can also apply filters to their images and videos - The maximum time limit for an Instagram videos is 15 seconds. Instagram is a relatively new social site launched in October 2010. The service became very popular very quickly, with over 100 million active users as of April 2012 and over 300 million as of December 2014. Instagram is downloadable and also able to be viewed online the same as Twitter and Facebook. Interestingly in 2012 Facebook purchased Instagram and by 2013, Instagram grew by 23%, while Facebook, as the parent company, only grew by 3%, which exhibits the popularity of the new format of image sharing. The gross monthly users on Instagram currently stands at 100,000,000 compared to Facebook's 900,000,000 you can really see the change audience figures here.

4. Tumblr

Tumblr (stylized in its logo as tumblr.) is a 'microblogging' platform and social networking website owned by Yahoo! Inc. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog, hence the word 'micro-blog'. Users can follow other users' blogs, as well as make their blogs private. Much of the website's features are accessed from the "dashboard" interface, where the option to post content and posts of followed blogs appear, similar again to the other networks 'news feeds' or 'stories' format. The site can be used primarily to display pictures but often is made up of words, users often posting what they have done on a daily basis, or perhaps using privately for an education blog such as this very blog. Blogs are very useful for storing data and information for free, however privacy is something that needs to be thoroughly considered along with sensitivity of information. The gross users of Tumblr in a month stands at 110,000,000.

5. Pinterest

Pinterest again is another visual blog, similar to Instagram, which allows users to post images, along with captions and also allows users to create a 'Pinboard'. Within the pinboard you are able to 'pin' other peoples images - essentially making up boards perhaps that inspire the decor of a users bathroom, or images that inspire a users wedding, or in my own personal case I often use Pinterest images as an inspirational starting point to many of my projects. Although the site was launched in 2010, it currently boasts a monthly user rate of 250,000,000 which makes the use of image sharing sites a very appropriate form of networking for my own creative arts.