UNIT 35 - LO1

OCR –
Level 3 Cambridge Introductory Diploma in
Media
Unit 35: LO1
Social Media Products
Candidate Name: Thomas Hibbert
Candidate Number: 2063
Centre Number: 64135

Contents
Purpose of Skype – Slide 6
Purpose of Skype (Slogan) – Slide 7
Content of Skype – Slide 8 – Slide 10
Membership – Slide 11
Target Audience – Slide 12
Sources of Revenue – Slide 13 – Slide 14
Sponsored Advertising – Slide 15
Laws and Regulations – Slide 16
Copyright – Slide 17
Legal and Ethical – Slide 18
Negative Publicity Example 1 – Slide 19
Negative Publicity Example 2 – Slide 20
Skype breaking the law – Slide 21
Purpose of Twitter – Slide 23
Purpose of Twitter (Slogan) – Slide 24
Purpose of Twitter in other outlets – Slide 25
Content of Twitter – Slide 26 – Slide 27
Positive Features of Skype – Slide 50
Convergence of Skype – Slide 51 – Slide 53
Negatives of Skype – Slide 54
Positive Features of Twitter – Slide 55
Convergence of Twitter – Slide 56
Negatives of Twitter – Slide 57
Positive Features of WhatsApp – Slide 58
Convergence of WhatsApp – Slide 59
Negative features of WhatsApp – Slide 60
Moral Panic – Slide 61 – Slide 62
Primary research – Slide 63 – Slide 70
Secondary Research – Slide 71 – Slide 73
Advertising – Slide 74 – Slide 75
Pay Per Click Advertising – Slide 76
Sponsored Advertising – Slide 77
Peer to Peer Advertising – Slide 78
WhatsApp Advert – Slide 79
Skype Advert – Slide 80
Twitter Advert – Slide 81
Viral Marketing – Slide 82
TheLADBible – Slide 83
Hashtag – Slide 84
7 Second Videos – Slide 85
Products advertised in WhatsApp – Slide 86
Products advertised in Twitter – Slide 87
Products advertised in Skype – Slide 88
Purpose of WhatsApp (Slogan) – Slide 38
Purpose according to other media outlets – Slide 39
Content of WhatsApp – Slide 40
Sign Up Page Features – Slide 42
Sources of Revenue – Slide 30
Revenue Potential – Slide 31
Legal/Ethical – Slide 32
Case Study – Slide 33
The Data Protection Act – Slide 34
Negative Publicity – Slide 35
Purpose of WhatsApp – Slide 37
Sources of Revenue – Slide 44
Products advertised within WhatsApp – Slide 45
Legal/Ethical – Slide 46
Data Protection Act – Slide 47
Distribution by users with WhatsApp –
Slide 89
Distribution by users with Twitter – Slide
90
User generated reviews for Skype – Slide
91
User generated reviews for Twitter –
Slide 92
User generated reviews for WhatsApp –
Slide 93
Synergy – Slide 94
Conclusion – Slide 95

Purpose of Skype
What is Skype
Skype is a social media product that allows you to call and video
chat one to one and even in groups using Wi-Fi or a cellular
connection. Skype is free to customers and in exchange offers free
connection between its users either in the same country or
internationally. On Skype you can upload statuses and use an
instant messaging service within the program, this meets with
other applications similar to Skype.
You can use Skype on a mobile, tablet or on a computer with or
without a webcam. Skype for iPhone offers free calls whilst on the
move, this is beneficial to the user because it means they save
money on calls through their carrier. However this means that they
will be using internet data instead and applications such as Skype
can drain this quite quickly.
The origins of Skype
Skype was initially released in August 2003 by software developer
Priit Kasesalu and programmer Jaan Tallinn.
Sources Used
1. http://www.thisismo
ney.co.uk/money/bill
s/article-
1722670/How-does-
Skype-work-and-is-
it-free.html

Purpose of Skype - Slogan
Skype’s slogan is “Take a deep breath”. The slogan does not relate in anyway to the
services Skype offers or anything to do with social media sites. This is not necessarily a
bad aspect of Skype.
The slogan connotes that the user should relax using Skype. People “take a deep
breath” to feel calm and relaxed if they are stressed or frustrated, Skype is telling its
users that whatever they are feeling whether it is stress from work or life outside of
this social media product, to “take a deep breath” and relax when they are using
Skype.
http://havemed
iawilltravel.com
/take-a-deep-
breath/

Content
Colour Scheme
Skype’s colour scheme is white and blue. These
colours make the application look pure and
clean, this draws in new users because it looks
innocent and appears to be an application that
cannot cause harm or be dangerous such as
other social media products have been labeled.
Interface of Skype
Skype’s interface is simple and easy to use. The
interface on computer simply consists of a
navigation bar at the top of the page and a side
menu bar for contacts and recent messages
and calls. On tablet or mobile it is fairly similar
but it has a side scrolling navigation bar with
less tabs. This is to speed up the interaction
time on a mobile device or tablet as it will be
quicker than using a PC.

Content – Accounts Page
Colour Scheme
The account page for the user on
Skype is very basic and well
labeled. The accounts page
follows the colour scheme of
white and blue, this connotes
brand identity across the whole
social media product to remind
the user that they are using
Skype.
Account Details
On the user’s account page they can edit their account with the following
settings: Profile, Account Settings, Billing and Payments, Manage Features, View
Usage History, Skype Manager and Skype Manager Admin. Having this many
features means that users can personalise and use Skype the way they want to
which encourages people to join Skype so they can use the wide range of
features and make it their own when using it.

Content – News Feed
Skype has a news feed similar to
Facebook’s.
Features
One of the features on the news feed
is to be able to see your Facebook
news feed in the Skype feed. You need
to be signed into your Facebook and
your Skype account for this feature.
This is a useful feature to the user
because they can use two social media
products with one product.
Colour Scheme
The colour scheme of Skype’s news
feed is still the same white and blue
style. This maintains a brand identity
across the whole product.

Membership
How to sign up
1. Log onto Skype.com and choose the sign in option
and select create account
2. When creating an account you can use your
Facebook or Microsoft account or use your email
address
3. Once you have filled in the form you will be
prompted to download Skype if you are doing this
on a PC, if it is on a mobile device or tablet you will
then need to download the app instead of program
onto the device you are using
4. Once Skype is downloaded you will be prompted to
sign in or create an account, you will now choose
sign in and enter your details
Signing up for Skype is free of cost but there is an
upgrade available called Skype premium which offers
more than the regular Skype.
Statistics
As of 9/21/15 Skype have 300 million users.
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/skype/2.2
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/skype-statistics/

Target audience
Katz
According to the uses and gratifications theory the target
audience for Skype are those trying to use the media to fulfil
their personal relationships with friends and becoming part
of a social group (Personal Relationships).
Maslow
In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the audience for
Skype will have Love/belonging needs because they will
communicate with friends and loved ones using Skype.
Psychographics
The audience for Skype are the reformer because they can
be independent on Skype when talking to their friends and
cannot not be told what to do.
Hartley
Using Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities I think that the target
audience for Skype is interested in maintaining friendship
groups, male, 16 – 30 , social class, white British and without
a family. This is because stereotypically someone with a
family and over 30 do not have a lot of time to spare
because they are busy with work and family life so would not
have time to go on Skype and socialise.
Socio-Economic needs
The socio-economic needs for
someone using Skype would be E
or C1. This is because it is mainly
used by young audiences such as
students but can also be used by
office workers for business.

Sources of revenue
How does Skype generate income?
Skype offers an upgrade called Skype Premium
which means that you can call mobile numbers an
un-limited amount of times, including
internationally.
With Skype premium you can also conduct group
video chats, this is good for business calls that
companies might conduct internationally.
Skype premium costs $8.99 monthly for the whole
package but for a day pass to access these features
it is $4.99.
Skype makes most of
its money from Skype
credits and
subscriptions.

Sources of Revenue – Pay per Click
Advertising
Pay per Click advertising is an advertising technique
used to direct people to websites.
Skype however use Pay Per Call advertising. This
turns phone numbers into ads for the millions of
users for Skype. Skype have also offered the ability
to call landlines and mobiles through Skype for a
long time and charge for this service which
generates high revenue for the company.
http://adage.com/article/digital/skype-dials-
dollars-pay-call-advertising/145000/

Sponsored Advertising
On Skype there are multiple banners and advertisements
across the pages. When you search for something on
Google there are ads on the search page, these are
sponsored advertisements.
Sponsored Advertising is also known as Pay Per Click.
They appear above or below the results after searching
for something, the web developer can also specify where
the ad will display.
News Feed
On Skype there are sponsored advertisements that also
pop up on your own news feed, for example a cinema
ticket promotion has appeared on the news feed to the
right. This is sponsored advertising and a use of cookies,
because of the Skype cookies the product advert on the
news feed is something related to the what the user has
recently browsed or shown an interest online for.

Laws and Regulations
Data Protection Act
Computers are used to store
information on customers and
clients, some information stored
might be basic data for example
their names and addresses, but
there is personal and private data
such as convictions or credit history.
The Data Protection Act is a law that
protects this personal data from
being passed around from company
to company so that it remains
personal and not an open logged
database on that person.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sch
ools/gcsebitesize/ict/legal
/0dataprotectionactrev1.s
html
Copyright in
computer programs
There is copyright in
computer programs
because this way the
owners of the
programs have
protection against
what they have
created.

Copyright
One of the main things a media product has to
concern themselves with is copyright, copyright is
the process of using someone else's work or
information and publishing it without authority or
permission provided by the original author/source.
If Skype does carry out copyright then they can be
sued for it. If media product wishes to protect any of
its written work then journalists make their artists
intellectual property. This can protect it from being
used elsewhere without permission.
https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-an-overview

Legal/Ethical
Pros and Cons
A pro of Skype is the communication it
creates with people and how it allows
people to stay in touch. For example if
a father moved abroad on business
then his family back home could still
stay in contact with him for free. This
means that Skype can provide free
calls and messaging between anyone
with an internet connection and an
account with Skype.
A con however of Skype is that you do
need an internet connection for it to
work. For example if a stable internet
connection is not available or even an
internet connection then Skype is
useless to that person and cannot be
used.
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-pros-
and-cons-of-Skype
Issues/Concerns surrounding Skype
In 2014 it came out that Skype had
been using Luxembourgish and
Irish subsidiaries to not pay
corporation tax for five years.
Skype Technologies owns all of
Skype Limited and asks the
Luxembourg tax collectors to
charge them as if they had paid
license costs and then they
collected that money back as a
dividend from Skype Limited. This
cut Skype Technologies a 95% tax
cut on its license income from
Skype Communications.
https://gigaom.com/2014/12/10/skype-
dragged-into-luxleaks-tax-scandal/

Case Study – Negative Publicity
Negative Publicity
Skype received a large amount of negative
publicity in 2013 when news broke out that a
teenager had killed themselves after being
blackmailed over Skype with a recording that
took place on Skype.
This article makes Skype look un safe as the
title reads “Family of Skype suicide teen calls on
David Cameron to tackle cyber bullying”. This is
negative publicity for Skype because it
associates Skype with cyber bullying which
means more people will avoid it in fear for their
safety.

Case Study – Negative Publicity
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/unfriende
d/39256/unfriended-cyberbully-and-fear-in-
the-social-media-age
A film was released in 2014 called “Unfriended”. The film was about a group of friends who
were being tormented and killed off by the ghost of a girl they had all bullied and been unkind
to before her suicide. The film shows the danger of social media on an extreme level to try
and get peoples’ attention on the dangers of online.
This film brought bad publicity to Skype because the film takes place all on Skype, the film in
its entirety takes place on a group Skype call which the attacker can not be removed from.
This film shows exactly what people fear about Skype and that is bullying and their safety.
Unfriended shows each of the friends being killed all in front of the webcam for their friends
to see which furthers the idea that anyone can see you when you are video chatting on Skype.

Case Study - Skype breaking the law
People who use Skype on iPhone have
apparently been breaking the law as they are
using Skype to make free calls and the free
calling software is banned on apple devices
from telecoms regulators.
TRA have stated that just because “a third
party application, such as Skype, is available
for download from iTunes” it doesn't’t mean
that this is legal to use.
Skype responded to this by updating the app
so that you could make these calls via Skype
over a 3G mobile network so that this service
was not free of charge.

Purpose of Twitter
What is Twitter
Twitter is a social media product that allows users to
post ‘tweets’ for those following them to view.
Tweets are almost like blog posts but are labeled
tweets because of the connotations with the product
name and logo.
Twitter is available in website form on PC but is also
available in app form for Android and Apple devices.
People use twitter to follow celebrities and to follow
friends, this keeps them up to date with what they
are doing and allows them to be involved in the
celebrities’ lives.
The origins of Twitter
Twitter started up on July 15th 2006. It was founded
by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan
Williams.

Purpose of Twitter - Slogan
Twitter’s slogan is “Yours to discover”.
This slogan connotes that Twitter is a wide and broad
social media product as there are things to “discover”.
With the slogan stating that they are “Yours to
discover” it makes the user feel like Twitter is more
personalised for what they want as the things on
Twitter are theirs to discover and no one else's.

Purpose of Twitter in other outlets
A website online called ‘Tech in our
everyday life’ has described twitter’s
purpose as “a powerful social
networking tool for both business and
personal use”. This is shown in their
slogan “Yours to discover” because this
could mean that it is up to the user to
discover what they can use it for
because Twitter can be used for
personal and business use.
The purpose of Twitter across different
media outlets is that users can share
their lives online, this is a
generalisation of what users can do on
Twitter.
http://techin.oureverydaylife.com/purpose-twitter-12292.html

Content
Colour Scheme
The colour scheme for Twitter is blue and
white. Blue conforms trust and loyalty
which establishes a bond between the
social media product and its users to
convince them that they are safe and can
trust their information with Twitter.
0which furthers the trust theme towards
the users.
Interface of Twitter
Twitter has a simple navigation system
which consists of (like Skype) a small
amount of buttons on the navigation bar.
The buttons are Home, Connect, Discover,
Profile and a button that allows you to
tweet.

Content – Sign up page
The sign up page for Twitter is very simple and small. The sign
up page has a welcome message that reads “Welcome to
Twitter, Find out what’s happening, right now, with the
people and organisations you care about”. This welcome
message makes the user feel welcome and persuades them to
sign up for Twitter so they can use all these benefits.
There is now a new sign up page display.
The new sign up page has more brand
identity with the blue twitter colour
scheme which may appeal more to the
users who are draw to bright colours.
To start the sign up process all you
have to do is enter your name, a
password and your email or phone
number.
This easy and simple way of signing up
furthers Twitter’s theme of casualness.

Membership
How to sign up
1. Log onto Twitter.com
2. Enter your details into the “new to twitter”
titled box under the log in box
3. You will then be redirected to a page where
you will be asked to provide a telephone
number, you can choose to skip this if you
wish to do so
4. Once you have/have not entered your phone
number you will be prompted to choose a
username, similar to the phone number you
can choose to skip this step
5. Next click the “lets go” button
6. You will be asked survey similar questions
about your interests and who you would like
to follow, choose your preference and then
continue
7. You are now on Twitter and all that is left to
do is to confirm your email but this can be
done at a later date and is not necessary
Statistics
As of 8/3/15, the
number of registered
users hit 1.3 billion.
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/mar
ch-2013-by-the-numbers-a-few-amazing-
twitter-stats/

Target Audience
Katz
Using the Uses and Gratifications theory I think that the
target audience for Twitter are people trying to educate.
This means that they are trying to find out and acquire
information, this can be done as celebrities are on
Twitter.
Maslow
The needs that the target audience possess are
protection. They possess protection because they seek
security in Twitter, the security is conveyed through
Twitter’s colour scheme of blue and white as well as
their policy.
Psychographics
The target audience for Twitter are reformers as they
seek social awareness and become socially aware by
‘tweeting’ for others to see.
Hartley
Using Hartley’s theory the target audience will be 16-40,
male, social class, not any specific ethnicity or nation and
with or without a family. Twitter appeals to a wide range
of people.
Socio-economic needs
The socio-economic
needs for the target
audience of Twitter are E,
this is because Twitter is
mainly used by students
and casual workers
because it is a free
service and available
most of the time.

Sources of revenue
How does Twitter generate income?
Twitter makes a large amount of it’s
revenue from advertising on their
website. The advertising on Twitter is
frequent and you can even sign up for
advertising your business on Twitter.
Twitter also makes its revenue from
data licensing. Twitter sells public data
that roughly totals to 500 million
tweets each day, companies that buy
this data can then use it to determine
consumer trends and then sell that
information onto other businesses.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-
24397472

Revenue Potential
Twitter’s annual revenue in 2015 has
been totaled at over 2.22 billion
dollars ($). This has increased from
the 1.4 billion they had built up the
year before in 2014.
According to the BBC news, Twitter
makes its money through
advertisements and these averts are
not “interruptive”. Twitter generates
“around half a billion dollars a year”
says Peter Escho from Invast Financial
Services.
Twitter has large potential to make
money from stock and in 2013 when
the discussion took place twitter was
predicted to list on the NASDAQ as
this would optimise revenue for
Twitter and has previously sent tech
companies onto the market to later
make a lot of money for the company.
http://www.statista.com/sta
tistics/204211/worldwide-
twitter-revenue/

Legal/Ethical
Pros and Cons
A pro of Twitter is that it allows fans
to keep up to date and be a part of
the celebrity experience. For example
a celebrity may tweet saying about
their new album. Those who are
following this celebrity will therefore
see the tweet and then know about
the album, this is great ,marketing for
the celebrity.
On the other hand, a con of Twitter is
that the advertising is limited and not
everyone can advertise. To use
Twitter’s promotion the user must be
approved by Twitter to use its
promotion features.
http://elearningindustry.com/using-twitter-fo
elearning-8-pros-and-6-cons-to-consider
Issues/Concerns surrounding Twitter
Trolling on Twitter is an annoying and frequent
issue. A controversial issue surfaced when the
trailer for the new star wars film was released,
a new hash tag was created by trollers called
#BoycottStarWarsVII. This promoted the
‘boycotting’ of star wars because it contained a
leading character who was black. This created
issues within users of Twitter who were using
this racist and bias hash tag, some people even
tweeted back using the hash tag to explain
what was wrong with the hash tag itself.

Case Study
Two music artists ‘Kanye west’
and ‘Deadmau5’ started a back
and firth argument on Twitter
and the argument was covered
on the Daily Mail online.
The two musicians started to
argue when Deadmau5
accused West of pirating
illegally after he had posted a
picture on Twitter un aware
that it had shown him
browsing an illegal download
site.

The Data Protection Act
Twitter needs to abide by the data protection act
because if they break this law then they could be
sued and possibly shut down.
Twitter needs to abide by The Data Protection Act
because if they share or sell a user’s data then they
have breached the act and lost the trust or the user,
the user could also sue Twitter which could have
legal repercussions on the whole company and
affect their reputation for current and future
audiences.

Negative Publicity
A widow of the victim in an ISIS attack has
retaliated by filing a lawsuit against Twitter for
“Explosive Growth of ISIS”. ISIS have used
Twitter to recruit and to disperse propaganda on
the social media product . The widow Tamara
Fields believes that “without Twitter, the
explosive growth of ISIS over the last few years
into the most-feared terrorist group in the world
would not have been possible”.
This is the first case in which a social media
company has been accused of violating the
federal Anti-Terrorism Act.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3055508/fast-feed/twitter-sued-for-enabling-explosive-growth-
of-isis
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-isis-lawsuit-idUSKCN0US1TA20160114

Purpose of Whatsapp
What is Whatsapp
Whatsapp is a social media product that
allows you to upload statuses and instant
messaging services to the users.
Whatsapp is available on Apple, Android,
Windows, Nokia, Firefox, Symbian and Tizen
operating systems. This is nearly all mobile
devices, Whatsapp is limited to mobile
devices such as these because it is for
messaging mostly which people use whilst
they are out.
The origins of Whatsapp
The founders of Whatsapp are Jan Koum and
Brian Acton, Jan Koum is also the CEO.
Whatsapp was initially released in 2010.

Purpose of WhatsApp - Slogan
Whatsapp’s slogan is “Simple. Personal. Real Time Messaging.”
The slogan denotes how easy it is to stay in touch and message people with Whatsapp.
Using the verbal code “Personal” in the slogan makes the user feel that Whatsapp is
unique with each person and is for them.
By stating that the app is real time messaging the audience straight away know that
Whatsapp is quick and simple with no delay or hesitation when you are trying to use it
to message people.

Purpose according to other media
outlets
Other Media Outlets
According to HubPages, the purpose
of Whatsapp is built on the idea of
being able to message your friends
and family for free without spending
money on text messaging which is
becoming increasingly expensive.
There is a large amount of
technological convergence with
Whatsapp and it can send a
numerous amount of media types
such as text messages, videos and
pictures.

Content
Colour Scheme
The colour scheme for Whatsapp is white
and green. The connotations of these
colours are purity and good. This
persuades users to use this social media
product because of its connotations and
features that will ‘benefit’ its users.
Interface of Whatsapp
The interface of Whatsapp follows the
colour scheme and is very simple to use.
There are three main sections, there is the
menu where you choose what the status
of your profile is, this indicates to other
users whether or not you are available to
talk or not. There is another menu where
your chats are stored and your profile
page.

Membership
How to sign up for Whatsapp
1. First you must agree to the
terms and conditions of the
application
2. Whatsapp uses your phone
number for your account so
next you must verify your
phone number
3. Once you have confirmed and
verified your phone number
4. Once this is done you have the
option to choose your profile
picture and you must enter
your name which people will
see when they contact you,
after this you are online with
Whatsapp
Statistics
As of 4/12/16, 1 billion people use
Whatsapp, 70% of which are daily
users.
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/wh
atsapp-statistics/

Sign Up Page Features
The sign up page has a consistent
colour scheme across the whole
app. This connotes organisation
and order within the company
which makes the users feel more
confident when signing up for
Whatsapp.
The sign up page is very easy to
navigate through. To become a user
of Whatsapp there are three main
steps to do this and it makes the
audience sign up because it does
not require a lot of time or effort
and they can use Whatsapp
because of this.
The logo is present on all pages of the sign up page. This shows brand identity and
reminds the user that it is whatsapp they are signing up for and that they should also be
associated with ease, quick and organisation as the sign up page is.

Target Audience
Katz
The audience of Whatsapp in terms of Katz’ theory would be
those trying to fulfill social interaction. This is because Whatsapp
is mostly providing means of communication to others and those
trying to fulfill social interaction are trying to produce a topic of
conversation between other people, this can be easily done on
Whatsapp.
Maslow
In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the audience for
Whatsapp have the needs for Social. This means that they value
loved ones, sexual intimacy and friendship, Whatsapp is perfect
for maintaining relationships like these because of the
communication features and possibilities.
Psychographics
The audience for Whatsapp are ‘Aspirers’ because they seek
status and are orientated to image and appearance, they can do
this on Whatsapp by making statuses and changing their profile
picture and asserting their status.
Hartley
Using Hartley’s seven subjectivities, the target audience for
Whatsapp is male or female, 16-25, social class, no specific
ethnicity, middle self image, any nationality as whatsapp works in
all countries and a family orientated person.
Socio economics
In terms of socio economic needs the target audience for
Whatsapp is category E because the app is modern and aimed
more at younger members of the audience and students.

Sources of revenue
How Whatsapp makes money
In some countries Whatsapp costs $1
to purchase and download. In other
places Whatsapp is free for the first
year but the following years cost $1.
With as many active users as they do,
this adds up to roughly $700 million a
year.
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/
personal-finance/040915/how-
whatsapp-makes-money.asp

Products advertised within Whatsapp
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/1379672/whatsapp-will-open-brands-year-rules-third-
party-ads#
WhatsApp removed their
subscription fee which brought a
lot of questions such as how will
WhatsApp be funded. There are
no products advertised in the
app itself or any form of third
party advertisements.
WhatsApp have however added
brands to the app. This means
that businesses can be contacted
through whatsapp if a customer
requires their services for
example Dominoes, Uber etc.

Legal/Ethical
Pros and Cons
An advantage of Whatsapp is that it is free messaging
service in which you can talk to anyone in any part of
the world. This is an advantage because it saves
money off your phone bill by using your internet
instead of texts and minutes.
However a disadvantage is that you have to have an
internet connection to receive and send these
messages. This means that if you do not have very
good internet (Wi-Fi) then you will have to use your
phone data which if you use Whatsapp a lot could
total up to be more expensive than texts and calls.
http://www.drawbacksof.com/disadvantages-
whatsapp/

Data Protection Act
WhatsApp need to follow and not
break the rules of the Data Protection
Act because people value their privacy
and personal information, if WhatsApp
sell or use personal data or information
of its users then they will not only be
breaking the act, but the trust of their
users and will lose its user’s trust and
confidence in the product itself.

Negative Publicity
WhatsApp has people currently scamming
other users with the hoax that Google is
giving people 18GB of free 4G internet from
their mobile providers. The rumour/hoax is
being spread on Whatsapp group chats with
a message directly from ‘Google’ which is
false.
This is bringing negative publicity to
WhatsApp because people scamming these
users are WhatsApp users. This creates an
unsafe image for those using WhatsApp and
may even scare some users away from the
app until the scam is over.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/mobiles-and-tabs/040616/whatsapp-scam-
google-free-internet-for-everyone-is-a-scam.html

Negative Publicity
Another piece of negative publicity
WhatsApp have received would be
yet again another scam targeting
WhatsApp users. The scam is a
message sent by the scammers
persuading users to join a premium
version of WhatsApp, this ‘premium
version’ contains software that
tracks users and steals their files and
data.
This is a privacy invasion and is bad
publicity for WhatsApp because this
is worrying for users and an invasion
of their privacy.
http://money.aol.co.uk/2016/06/04/scamwatc
h-warning-to-whatsapp-users/

Positive features of Skype
Status update
On Skype you can update your
status to say whether you are
offline, away, do not disturb,
offline or invisible.
You can also post a personal
message to coincide with your
status as shown in the example
to the right.
Profile Picture
Skype lets you
choose your profile
picture. This means
that users can
customise their
appearance on Skype
and choose what
people will see when
they are looking for
them as they would
with Facebook.
Skype Credit
Skype credit lets you ‘top
up’ your account so that
you can use real life
currency to call telephone
numbers from your Skype
account. This is helpful
with people abroad who
wish to call and speak on
the phone to people they
know overseas.

Convergence of Skype
Skype is mainly a communications app but
offers its users “the kinds of entertainment
experiences they want” – Jenkins 2006
Photos
On Skype you can send photos to one
another. This feature conforms the
convergence because it means that people
can not only experience the entertainment
that they want but it means that they can
share it with others using this feature.
Videos
You can send videos to people on Skype as
well as pictures. This helps further
convergence with users because they want to
be able to share multimedia with each other
that they enjoy or maybe find funny.

GIFS
On the Skype keyboard there
are now GIFS that can be sent
between users to each other.
The GIFS serve as advertising
not just entertainment.
When sending a movie GIF
there is a link next to the GIF
which will bring the user to the
page where they can buy the
film or stream it on the
prompted sites e.g. Netflix, Sky,
Amazon

Memes
A meme is a funny picture that
is spread by people on the
internet which represents
opinions or makes fun of
something.
There are various memes about
Skype and Skype allows
pictures to be sent between
users so memes are available
and compatible to send over
Skype just as you would send a
normal video or image.

Negatives of Skype
A large negative of Skype is
that there are interactive
features that the user must
pay for, if they wish to use
them. This is called Skype
premium, if a user is not at a
financial advantage then this
cost may not be a realistic
commitment for them, this
means they will not be able
to maximise their Skype
experience with all of the
features available.
http://science.opposingviews.com/disadvanta
ges-using-skype-1231.html

Positive features of Twitter
Tweeting
On twitter you can post statuses which are called
tweets. You can use these to convey your feelings
on a particular story, to try and get in touch with
someone or to let everyone know how you are and
what's going on with you.
Following
On Twitter you can follow people which means
anything they tweet will appear on your home
page, you can choose who you follow by clicking
the ‘follow’ button.
Retweet
If you agree with something someone has tweeted
or you agree and want to spread that story or
opinion then you can tap the ‘retweet’ button
which will then post the tweet under your name
and say that you have ‘retweeted’ it from someone
else.

Convergence of Twitter
Videos
On Twitter you can tweet videos. This means
that the ‘kinds of entertainment experiences’
people want are being offered by Twitter
with the ability to watch videos. By being
able to watch videos on Twitter you are able
to watch movie trailers, videos your friends
post and advertisements which hall keep you
up to date with what is happening lately
which is the purpose of Twitter.
Photos
On Twitter you can tweet photos and share
them with your followers and even tag
someone you are following in it if you want
them to see it in particular. This conforms
convergence because it means that people
can see the entertainment they want through
these posts.

Negatives of Twitter
Twitter can be very time
consuming. This means
that people who are
‘tweeting’ are being
distracted from the work
they are doing, or not
doing in this case.
With Twitter being time
consuming it means that
the users of it could be
neglecting work and other
duties which can cause
problems.
http://bus237twitter.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-
twitter.html

Positive features of WhatsApp
Status updates
You can update your status on
WhatsApp, the statuses however
are not as colloquial as Facebook or
Twitter statuses but more
informative in telling people if they
are available to talk with preset
statuses. However you can write
your own.

Convergence of WhatsApp
Videos and Photos
WhatsApp is a messaging service so this means that
you can send photos and videos to other users. This
allows people to share experiences with their friends
and family as well as message them.
Broadcast
You can broadcast a message to more than one person
but only the people who have your number can receive
the broadcast you have made. This is convergence
because you can have these entertainment
experiences with more than one person and the way
you want them.

Negative aspects of Whatsapp
A negative aspect of
Whatsapp is that anybody
with your phone number
can see your profile picture
when they go onto your
profile.
The pictures on Whatsapp
are automatically saved so if
someone looks at their
profile picture then it will be
saved to their phone.

Moral Panic
There is a social media product
called Yik Yak that allows users to
interact with each other
anonymously.
The anonymousness of this product
may be ‘eroding normal social
behaviour’ (Noam Chomsky) and
causing users to behave and act
towards others in a different way to
how they would face to face or
outside of the media product.
Users are anonymous on Yik Yak
which could means that these users
are not acting normal because they
think that because no one knows
who is posting comments on the site
they are immune and can post and
do what they like.

Moral Panic
Yik Yak conveys a “Shamelessness”
(Andrew Keen – 2011) within users
because there is no way of
knowing who is posting what the
user therefore has no shame in
what they say or do on Yik Yak
because no one will know it was
them that said it.
This is not a good message and
lesson to be teaching the users
because they will feel that
consequences for actions do not
exist and this site could be
encouraging shameless behaviour
which hurts others.

Primary Research
The results above show that out of the people who answered my
survey, they used WhatsApp the most out of the apps to choose
from. This could tell me that the sample group I used prefer
WhatsApp to the other apps.

Primary Research
These results show that those who answered my survey
spend most of their time on social networking sites
when they are on them. This could mean that the sites
are fulfilling their social needs online.

Primary Research
The result shows that the people who answered the survey use Skype. From this and
the first survey question, we know that the people who answered my survey use
communicating social network sites such as Skype and WhatApp.

Primary Research
From this we know that not everyone uses Skype video calls. This may
be because they are worried about privacy issues and hackers. Skype
has had bad publicity in the past with webcam intrusions which shows
that this bad publicity may still be hanging over Skype and affecting its
consumerism.

Primary Research
This result shows that half of the people I asked answered yes to using
Twitter.

Primary Research
This result shows that
all of the sample group
that filled my survey in,
felt “somewhat safe”
whilst using social
media. This is an
important response for
my research because it
not only shows that
users do not feel
completely safe whilst
using social media but
it shows that the
people who use Skype
and WhatsApp feel not
completely safe on
social media.

Primary Research
This survey result shows that
what makes people feel
unsafe about social media is
in fact a ‘lack of privacy’.
This means that if social
media want to continue
making revenue and fulfilling
their consumerism’s needs,
then they they need to
address the privacy issues at
hand and restore their users
faith in them.

This survey result demonstrates the purpose of social media, and the aims they set out
to achieve. The people who answered my survey question had one answer in common
for this result, they both said that communicating with friends was a positive of social
media.
However one of my respondents said that a positive was also using social media as a
source of entertainment.

Secondary Research - WhatsApp
News Article
There is a news article on
the BBC about Brazil
blocking Facebook because
of WhatsApp.
Facebook who now own
WhatsApp refused to share
the messages sent by
suspected drug smugglers.
The articles states that
WhatsApp is very popular in
Brazil and has 93 million
users.

Secondary Research – Skype Review
My secondary research for
Skype is a website that reviews
the social media product as a
whole. The review outlines that
the biggest pro of all is that
Skype is one of the cheapest
VoIP services.
The site continues to elaborate
on Skype’s usefulness and
purpose up to the summary the
site conlcudes on saying that if
“your VoIP needs are minimal”.
http://voip-service-
review.toptenreviews.com/skype-review.html

Secondary Research - Twitter
There is an animated video on YouTube
that talks about Twitter’s purpose and
what the pros and cons are of Twitter.
The research tells me that the pros are
positives that affect the user of Twitter
positively for example easy accessibility,
easy use and easy to share. These
features all aid and help the user directly.
The YouTube video also tells me that the
cons of Twitter are also affecting the user
themselves. The cons from the research
are trash talk, less privacy and everyone is
watching. Privacy issues are a big con to
the whole social media world which is a
recurring theme across my social media
products and their competitors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihJlrTtferI

Advertising
How much it costs to advertise
CPM means the cost per thousand impressions. In the table below there are the
psecifications and prices that apply to each ad type. For example if I wanted a
leaderboard display 728 x 90, then that would cost me $55 per thousand impressions.
http://www.promisemedia.com/online-
advertising/online-rate-card-tips-and-
guidelines

Advertising
Facebook released a TV advert that promotes the social media site and shows the friendship
capabilities of Facebook. The advert opens showing different groups of friends which vary in
size, personality and abilities.
There is a narrative that describes what
friends are and what friends are like. The
narrative explains how we cannot lose touch
with these people because they are our
friends and they support us.
This promotes Facebook’s friend abilities and
how it lets you keep in touch with these great
people in our lives and how Facebook keeps
these people together.
http://www.tvadmusic.co.uk/2015/10/fac
ebook-adventurous-friends/
The advert is encouraging people to maintain these great relationships online with Facebook.
Facebook is explaining that we can have all these great friendships, experiences and moments
with our friends on Facebook as well as outside of the internet.

Pay per click advertising
Pay per click advertising is where
the advertisers pay a charge each
time one of their adverts is clicked.
This serves as almost buying visits
for the advertisers site.
An example of pay per click
advertising is the adverts on the
side of the search results after
searching on google. If I was to click
on one of these adverts and go to
the page then the advertiser would
have to pay a fee because they ‘pay
per click’.

Sponsored Advertising
Sponsored Advertising is when the
advert appears below or near to
search results or where the
website developer chooses.
An example of sponsored
advertising is on Instagram. There
are sponsored adverts that are
posted like an ordinary Instagram
post, this can be done by
companies to gain more customers
as Instagram has a large following.

Peer to Peer Advertising
Peer to peer advertising is where one customer
promotes the product they have purchased to
one of their peers, this method is similar to
word of mouth promotion.
An example of this would be if I go to the apple
store and buy a new computer and then tell my
friend that I have bought one, and that they
should. This will promote the apple product and
advertise the product I bought without costing
apple any money on advertising this way.
Another example is when a website offers a
discount to users when they recruit a friend.
This is effective peer to peer advertising
because it is more likely to entice users to
recruit a friend to the site with a financial
incentive.
http://www.pmlive.com/intelligence/healthcare_glossary_211509/Terms/p/peer_to_peer_p2
p_marketing

WhatsApp Advert
The advert to the right is a WhatsApp promotional
video on YouTube. The video opens with the
WhatsApp logo and then expands to show
friend icons around the logo which has now
turned into a globe. These visuals codes
connote the worldwide user base and the
connectivity between so many people that use
Whatsapp.
The advert then goes onto show the types of media
that can be exchanged between users and
then shows that you can use Wi-Fi with the
app. This is good to have in the advert because
it outlines concisely what the user can and
cant do immediately making this clear to the
user before they use the app.
The verbal code “WhatsApp is a simple way to
connect with friends and family anywhere in
the world” connotes the simplicity of
WhatsApp and the word “simple” conveys to
users and viewers how easy WhatsApp is to
use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhnFh1
MGx4w

Skype Advert
The video being analysed is a Skype advert on YouTube
for the windows phone app.
The advert shows the windows phone being used in
the first person, this connotes a first hand experience
of what the user will do when they get the app. This is
showing the user what to expect if they were to get
the new app for Skype.
The advert is very simple and just shows the user how
to navigate through the app briefly. The simplicity of
the advert connotes how easy the app is to use which
helps promote Skype to the viewers and possible
future users.
The verbal code “instant” connotes how fast and easy
Skype is to use. This will persuade users to use the app
because it does not take a lot of time or effort.

Twitter Advert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qqDy5B
mYKE
The Twitter advert shown on the right in
screenshots is an advert for Twitter released
back in 2011.
The advert opens with someone going to their
computer to use assumingly use Twitter. You
cannot see the person’s face which connotes
the idea that anyone can use Twitter. This
persuades people to use Twitter because it lets
the viewer see themselves using Twitter.
The advert pans and zooms in on the homepage
of Twitter eventually to show a tweet being
written with a hash tag. This is introducing
Twitter’s most famous feature to those who are
new to Twitter when watching this video. The
hash tag is a form of viral marketing and this is
showing new users the feature already to
encourage viral marketing.

Viral Marketing
Viral Marketing is a marketing technique which induces websites and their users to
spread a company's marketing message to their peers and other users. This can grow
the business’ popularity and reputation.
For example Hotmail promote their services in every user’s email notes.
http://searchsalesforce.techtarget.com/definiti
on/viral-marketing

Facebook - TheLADBible
TheLADBible is a Facebook page that posts humorous
and relatable photos, videos and articles aimed at
young male adults, teenagers and stereotypically
masculine men labeled ‘Lads’. TheLADBible has a
large following on Facebook and they even have their
own website now.
TheLADBible has13,755,366 people that have liked
the page. A reason why this page is so popular may be
because of how relatable the posts are to its users
and target audience. For example, a post from the
page was about falling asleep with your phone on
your chest whilst sun bathing which is a problem that
a lot of people have had, users can even comment like
the image to the right shows.
This is a form of viral marketing because on Facebook
other users can share posts, including posts from
TheLADBible which is spreading the business and
increasing its popularity and reputation

Twitter - Hashtag
Twitter are the primary owners of the
‘hashtag’. The hashtag on Twitter is a form
of viral marketing. The hashtag is a form of
viral marketing because when someone
uses a hashtag it is a hyperlink which a user
can click on and it will show every post that
uses that hash tag. This allows the user to
see other people talking about products and
topics. If somebody wants to find posts
surrounding a particular product or subject
then they can search using the hash tag
which will find them posts related and using
the hashtag.
For example, Wimbledon tweeted using the
hash tag ‘Wimbledon’. This means anyone
who clicks on this hash tag will see posts
using the hash tag ‘Wimbledon’ which is
going to make the event bigger in publicity.

7 Second Videos
7 Second Videos are a Facebook page that post funny
videos. They serve the same purpose as TheLADBible
page, in the sense that they are purely an online page
with the purpose of entertaining other Facebook users
with viral content.
As it is a Facebook page the content shared can be liked,
commented on and even shared, this is viral marketing
because users are spreading word of the page with their
friends on Facebook which is growing the site in
popularity.

Products advertised in WhatsApp
WhatsApp doesn’t advertise
products within the app.
(They explain why on their
blog) This is because
WhatsApp feel that in app
adverts disrupt the aesthetics
of the product. WhatsApp go
on to say that there is 0
demand for adverts to
interupt someone from using
the app, for example if a user
is in the middle of an
important conversation and
then an advert appears
across their screen, this is
going to break up the user’s
experience which I feel that
WhatsApp does not want to
do.

Products advertised within Twitter
Twitter themselves
does not advertise on
the site but other
companies can post
adverts for their
products. For
example, as the
screenshot shows,
you will know it is an
advert because it will
have a marker under
it saying that it is
promoted.

Products advertised within Skype
Skype advertises products
during the user’s Skype
experience. For example,
during an audio or video call
with someone there will be
an advert next to the person’s
picture that they are talking
to. This is distracting for the
users on the call as they are
trying to focus on the person
they are talking to instead of
the advert they have on their
screen.

Distribution by users - WhatsApp
Distribution by users is a type of viral marketing in the sense
that users are distributing and promoting the advertisements
themselves.
On WhatsApp companies can advertise their products by
messaging other users adverts. These advertising users will
send messages to others promoting products and have offers or
discounts to entise the users.

Distribution by Users - Twitter
On Twitter there is a feature similar to sharing
things on Facebook. This is called retweeting.
Retweeting is when other users share a tweet
from someone else.
For example somebody tweeted alan sugar
asking for him to retweet the tweet because it
was his dads birthday. Alan Sugar retweeted it
with his own comment above the post.
This is distribution by users because tweets
and posts can be retweeted and poste dby
other users which is distributing the content to
other users.

User generated reviews - Skype
User generated reviews are reviews
made by users about a product.
There is a website called
‘CONSUMERAFFAIRS’ which is a site
where users can post reviews about
products. For example there is a
page dedicated to Skype which has
an overall satisfaction rating of 1
and half stars out of 5 based on 48
ratings out of 233 reviews. This site
has a lot of customer review activity
which helps other users read
whether they should use the
product and if it is beneficial for
their ‘social needs’.

User generated reviews - Twitter
A website called ‘Glass door’ is a user based
reviews site where users can post their own
reviews, salary information about companies
and information on the kind of employee
benefits received from the company.
There are various pages and there is a page
dedicated to Twitter. The reviews for Twitter
are employee based and aimed more at what
it is like to work there. For example, one user
wrote a positive comment about how the
“people are lovely” but for a con they wrote
“poor leadership”. This clashes with the
connotations of the Twitter colour scheme and
homepage which is leadership and
organisation.

User generated reviews - WhatsApp
There is a review website called
‘pcmag’. The reviewer explains that
WhatsApp does not require an
account to use the app which
benefits the user because it means
that they can use the app almost
instantly.
The user makes a very valid point
which I feel addresses social media
as a whole. “The argument has
long been that you need to give up
simplicity and convenience for
security.” This means that there are
security risks but in exchange the
app is easier to use.
Another point the user brings up is
that in response to the security
issues, WhatsApp have released
end to end encryption with
messages sent between users.
http://uk.pcmag.com/whatsapp-messenger-
for-iphone/3994/review/whatsapp-
messenger-for-iphone
Pros Cons
Large global
user base
Tied to one
device and
phone
number
Eliminates
needs for
texting plan
No video chat
Easy device
migration
No desktop
application

Synergy
Facebook has synergy with YouTube because you
can post YouTube videos to Facebook. On Facebook
there is convergence with different forms of media
such as photos and videos. When posting a video
you can manually upload a photo or you can post
the YouTube link. This is synergy because you are
able to post this link/video and then when you click
on the link that the user posted you will be
redirected to the YouTube page where you will
watch the video.
A thumbnail of the youtube video will be shown
once the link is posted on Facebook, this way the
user knows what the video will be.
Twitter also has synergy as you can sign in to Twitter
with your Facebook account. This is a good use of
synergy because Facebook and Twitter are
competitors and being able to sign into Twitter with
Facebook means that they will have more users
because Facebook users can now use Twitter aswell
with no extra effort which may be the reason why
they did not sign up for Twitter aswell to start with.

Conclusion
Across LO1 the pros and cons of social media were debated
and my various pieces of research seemed to point towards
time consumption and safety. Safety on the internet in the
modern age is a rare thing, the more we post and put
ourselves out there on the internet we are letting strangers
and other users learn more and more about us.
The research I conducted in this LO will help me create my
own social media product for the rest of the unit because I
have learned that my product will have to contain
convergence with modern technology (Apps) and it will have
to address the concerning and on going privacy issues for
social media in the modern age.

UNIT 35 - LO1

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (20)

Ähnlich wie UNIT 35 - LO1

Ähnlich wie UNIT 35 - LO1 (20)

Mehr von Tom Hibbert

Mehr von Tom Hibbert (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

UNIT 35 - LO1