Social Media, and how dose it effect the community Research Paper

Social Media, and how dose it effect the community - Research Paper Example Social media have made significant and changes in communication or interactions in the community, among the individuals and organizations. This study examines ways in which social media has influenced the community both negatively and positively. Social media differ from traditional media in the terms of usage, quality, accessibility, permanency, etc. (Piskorski 42). In the modern world people from all diversity spend more time on social media sited such as twitter, Google plus, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. Studies have established an increased usage of social media in terms of time spent on the social media sites as well as increasing number of users (Dijck 57). The increasing use of portable internet enabled devices such as smartphones are the main contributing factors to increasing use of social media. For example, in 2011 the total time spent on social media by US residents amounted to 66 billion minutes depicting a 99% increase in social media usage to 121 billion minutes in 2012 (Jones 1). Therefore, social media have resulted to the establishment virtual community in which people exchange information more often and are to control content of information that they share. Social media have increased business development and expansion (Piskorski 24). Most companies have set their presence in the social media to enable the clients to comment about the products. Sometimes companies reward customers by awarding points to customers for commenting on their products or referring new customers (Dijck 83). An example of a company that has used social media to reward customers is McDonalds, which issued $5 and $10 gift cards randomly to 100 clients who checked-in one of their restaurants (Dijck 84). The offer increased check-ins from 2,146 to 2,865. The company received several new blog posts, articles and comments from new clients. The Social media have become one of the most effective means on obtaining customer feedback that has helped