Social Media in the Developing World

Jenai Booker, Rachel Crown, Nichole Hoeflich, Thomas Romanoff

Agenda

1. Definitions and goals for the presentation 2. Technology Behind Social Media3. Uses of Social Media4. Examples of Social Media use throughout the

world

Social Media- refers to interaction among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.

Today we are going to talk about the application of social media in the developing world. We will focus on issues of transparency in the government. Our presentation discusses the technology behind social media. We will discuss several case studies on the arab spring revolution. Throughout our presentation we encourage you to ask questions and discuss some of these concepts.

Questions!Where do you get your news?

What is the first website you visit in the morning?

How would you classify the news you receive through Facebook?

• A group of internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content

• Relies on interactive platforms for enhanced communication

The Technology Behind Social Media

Benefits of Social Media

• Quality

• Reach

• Immediacy

• Permanence

A Brief History of Social Media

1989 - Tim Berners-Lee began work at CERN on what would become the World Wide Web

1993 - CERN donated the WWW technology to the world

1994 - GeoCities was created, allowing users to create their own websites modeled after types of urban areas

A Brief History of Social Media1997 - The web had 1 million sites; Blogging

begins; AOL instant messenger allows users to chat; Blackboard founded as online course management system

1998 - Google (enough said.)

2001 - Wikipedia

2003 - MySpace; LinkedIn

A Brief History of Social Media

2013 -

•YouTube topped 1 billion monthly users with 4 billion views per day•1.11 billion Facebook users•500 million Twitter users•170 million Tumblr users•156 million blogs online

How Companies Use Social Media Technology

• Tracking of user behavior• Data analysis• Becoming more customer-centrico Social listeningo Social conversationo Social marketingo Social analyticso Social influencing

• http://www.nytlabs.com/projects/cascade.htmlo Video from New York Times Research & Developmento Illustrates the use of social media for companies

Questions!• What social media do you use on a daily

basis, and how does it impact your life?

• What companies do you know that use social media to track useful information for them?

Different Uses of Social Media

•Networking•Advertisement•Current Event Updates•Information Sharing•Dating •Entertainment

Great Tools for….

•International Collaboration•Information Dissemination•Global Classroom Creation•International Advertising•International University Recruitment•Global Career Recruitment •Global Social Activism

Social Media and Cultural Differences•Sun and Puterbaugh (2013)•Diminished cultural differences during international

collaboration

Social Media and International Advertisement

•Okazaki and Taylor (2013)•Efficient and effective form of advertisement because of…•Weak relationship ties•eWOM (electronic Word

of Mouth)•Regular interaction with

customers

Can anyone name all of these social media icons?

Examples of Social Media in Development

Kenya• 2008 Post-election crisis• Social media for peace or violence?• Creation of Ushahidi Website

Arab Spring• Dictators/corrupt governments in region• One protester’s story on social media → large

protests calling for change• Training others to use Social Media• Spreads throughout the region: Tunisia→

Egypt→ Libya • In total, spread across 17 countries in the

region

Questions!• Where would you expect the next Arab spring occur?

Why?

• How can social media improve the lives of people in the developing world?

• How have you seen social media used for development?

• What could prevent social media from being a tool for development or change?

Sources• http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X10000201• ttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X10000201• http://www.nytlabs.com/projects/cascade.html• http://www.businessinsider.com/a-guide-to-social-crm-2013-8• http://

ecir.mit.edu/index.php/publications/publications-index/251-cyber-politics-understanding-the-use-of-social-media-for-dissident-movements-in-an-integrated-state-stability-framework

• http://cima.ned.org/publications/social-media-arab-world-leading-uprisings-2011-0• http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5632037&tag=1• http://hij.sagepub.com/content/13/3/328.abstract• http://socialmediatoday.com/rtmixmktg/1824456/5-ways-your-company-can-use-soci

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