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Social Media in China

We have reached to an age when we cannot think of a single day without digital media. We wake up checking our Facebook notifications, we keep reading tweets while sitting in the car, we do our lunch while reacting Instagram photos. But the life in China is quite different than the rest of the world when it comes to using social media. They are not free to use just any social media! China makes a unique case of social media usage where its government plays the significant role. But that does not mean the Chinese people do not use social media at all; they have their own local social media apps that are very similar to worldwide popular ones. This article explores the scenario of how common people in China are using social media in the current digital age. 

Why are popular social media apps banned in China? 

The digital censorship in China is referred as "The Great Firewall of China” that is based on the concept of a country’s internet sovereignty. China takes the solidarity of its inhabitants extremely serious and Western influence is considered as a danger to its cohesion. The president of China's intention to retain his sort of value system is tied to it. An alternative to democracy and the freedom than western countries is run in China, and it is feared that having access to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites will make people aware of life on the other side, leading to a revolt. Another reason of banning western social media is to protect the trade industry and businessmen of China. Users of social media can learn about and purchase a variety of things from the other parts of the world which can create a loss in the local business and production. China also bans these social media to safeguard its data to prevent it from being accessed and utilized by foreign entities as the tech companies are able to mine data for any purpose in spite of GDPR and other policies (Social News Daily, 2019). 

China’s own social media market 

To keep pace with the situation, Chinese tech companies have developed their own social media sites which have very similar features as Facebook, Twitter, What’s App and alike. These social media sites even allow businesses for paid advertising (DeGennaro, T., 2020). Some of the most popular social media sites used by Chinese people are: 

Renren (alternative of Facebook) Weibo (alt. to Twitter) WeChat & QQ (alt. to WhatsApp) YouKu (alt. to YouTube) Douban (Lifestyle discussion platform) Zhihu (alt. to Quora)  Meituan (alt. to Yelp) DouYin (alt. to Tiktok)  Momo (alt. to Tinder) 

The list surprises us how China has created a whole market full of own developed social media sites and apps with an alternative to every single social media used worldwide.

The public consumption of news in China is shifting as a result of young people's increased use of social media platforms. China has become the biggest social media market of the world even after restricting a huge fragment of social media channels. These sites are not only a source of news for many people; they may also be used to organize protests and publish their own accounts of events. Thus China makes it to a unique and interesting case of social media platform creation and usage. 

References

Anon, 2019. Why social media is banned in China. Social News Daily. Available at: https://www.socialnewsdaily.com/87079/why-social-media-is-banned-in-china/ [Accessed May 31, 2021].

DeGennaro, T., 2020. The 10 Most Popular Social Media Sites in China (2020). Dragon Social. Available at: https://www.dragonsocial.net/blog/social-media-in-china/ [Accessed May 31, 2021].

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Social Gaming

What is Social Gaming? 

Social gaming has become an increasingly popular pastime activity because it provides relaxation and distraction for a short time. Based on simple and repetitive tasks, social games also provide social interaction as they are played among multiple players. Social games are mainly played on mobile diveces. In recent years, social gaming has become one of the most popular mobile gaming downloads. It is worth noting that the rise in social gaming on desktop platforms was less than1%, whereas the rise on mobile platforms was about 16 percent. The advantages of mobile social gaming are self-evident. We can play it whenever we want, wherever we are, whether at home in a hot tub or on a long drive.

Some popular social games

According to Cnet, Jackbox Games,  Among Us, Backyard, The Escape Game have been most popular in 2020-21 that gave players options such as hosting online party, videos chat experience all-in-one in gaming platforms. 

Social gaming social networking sites 

Social gaming and social media were two separate entities. There was less overlap between the two due to their different audiences. But today online social games in today's social media sites have become an essential element in social networking sites as well. The environment for social networking sites has created a platform to develop and expand online games in the virtual media. Users now have the opportunity to play games online, compare scores and challenge each other. Youngsters are well-versed in video games and like sharing their experiences on social media. In fact, practically every gamer is almost certainly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, or Snapchat. It all started with Facebook-based browser games like Poker, Mafia Wars, FarmVille. Today gaming companies realize that social platforms are very useful to share new deals, prizes, launching and fascinating information, not only keeping their supporters up-to-date, but also helping to attract new players. Furthermore, platforms such as Twitch and Steam have allowed gamers to develop their own kind of social networking. Gamers can use live game streaming technologies to capture exciting gaming moments in high-quality videos and then share them with a big audience via streaming platforms. 

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Fandom and Social Media

Fandom & Its History

Fandom was not a very popular concept even at the beginning of this decade. It was only known to persons who regarded themselves to be in fandom— a small group of people who self-identified as members of a fan community. That began to change with the release of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the end of the 1980s, which accelerated the mainstreaming of geek culture. As a result of such mainstreaming, fandom has altered and evolved dramatically and reached to its current hype. 

Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans could only do participatory fandoms every once in a while; for specific events such as Comic-Con and the latest sci-fi or fantasy movies, performative geek cultures were reserved. But due to Marvel's consistent release of pictures during the decade, fans was suddenly and inexorably expected to be involved in the Marvel machine (Romano, A., 2019). Geek culture evolved into a new and intense kind of consumerism, and superheroes, rather than being a nerdy niche interest, grew as a standard paradigm through which a wide range of followers could relate to pop culture.

Examples of Fandom 

Fans became more vocal about their fandom identities in tandem with the Marvel machine, thanks in part to the emergence of lively, visible fandom communities on social media platforms such as Tumblr and Twitter. Massive fandoms for bands like One Direction and BTS helped shift the conventional idea of the strident teenage fangirl to a more positive picture of fans as passionate, engaged participants in the stories they consume (Romano, A., 2019). 

How People Are Using Social Media for Fandom 

Fandom has also increased keeping pace with the rise of social media usage. Because of Facebook Pages and Groups, it is super easy to create a fandom community. Other than simply creating a fanpage, people also use Facebook Group to create a fandom community with people who share same interest in similar subjects ore people. For example, more than  hundreds fandom group can be found on Ghibli Studio created by Japanese anime lovers who specially love movies produced by this film company. 

Tiktok has become a hot platform for people to show their fandom in a few years. Fans can mimic and recreate video from a movie scene or song of their favourite actors or singers in costumes and the number of Tiktok active users has crossed 689 million worldwide according to a statistics of 2021 (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2021). 

Bad Effects of Fandom On Social Media

As it has become very easy to show fandom because of social media, the bad effects have also risen. Social media has created a bigger scope for paparaji or yellow journalism more than ever. Sometimes fans post fake news or share unauthentic information about the celebrities which can harm their reputation or popularity. There is also other side of the coin. Sometimes fandom goes crazy and people take movies or series so seriously that they start to protest or heavy mocking online media using hastags. For example, Tumblr tag #chair filled exclusively with gifs for Gossip Girl Season Three back in 2010 has become almost a memorable event in the history of social media fandom ( Leasca, S., 2020). 

References 

Anon, 2021. TikTok Statistics - Revenue, Users & Engagement Stats (2021). Influencer Marketing Hub. Available at: https://influencermarketinghub.com/tiktok-stats [Accessed May 9, 2021].

Leasca, S., 2020. TikTok Just Exposed the Funniest Fashion Moment on 'Gossip Girl'. Glamour. Available at: https://www.glamour.com/story/a-gossip-girl-fan-exposed-funniest-fashion-moment-tiktok [Accessed May 9, 2021].

Romano, A., 2019. Fandom went mainstream in the 2010s - for better and worse. Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.com/2019/12/30/21004981/fandom-history-changes-corporate-marvel-veronica-mars-k-pop [Accessed May 9, 2021].

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Social Media for Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a way of raising capital by means of friends, family, customers and individual investors collectively. Crowdfunding is fundamentally the contrary of a corporate finance mainstream approach. There are mainly three varieties of crowdfunding types: donation-based, rewards-based and equity-based crowdfunding (Fundable, 2021). 

Benefits of Using Social Media for Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding

Crowdsourcing helps the relationship between the consumers and the brands evolve as they come closer together through content sharing. No tools can me more ideal than social media to boost this communication as one of the major purposes of these media is generation and delivery of contents. Brands can easily communicate to their customers for a crowdsource campaign through Facebook or Twitter in a short time. Thus, interactions and relations between brands and their consumers will become complimentary over time if social media and crowdsourcing are utilized together.

Here are some reasons that show why social media is becoming extremely important for crowdsourcing and crowdfunding (Zote, J., 2020). 

1. To reach more audience.

2. To allow much easier ways to respond better to the campaigns.

3. It is easy to find potential investors through networks.

4. It becomes easier to regularly update about the campaigns.

5. To promote ads to only targeted audiences.

6. It needs less cost to run the campaigns compared to traditional ways.

7. Visual contents attract more people, as a result, the rate of participation increases. 

How to Use Social Media for Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding 

Influencers can gain audience participation in behalf of brands for a crowdsourcing or crowdfunding though Instagram or Facebook. It's not unusual to ask customers to engage in a brand's latest marketing campaign by providing contents. It could be design, new product ideas, acting as a spokesperson and so on. Brands can also ask opinions or votes from customers for a new product or service decision, for example, through the Poll option on Facebook Pages. Another way is to “Ask a question” or get a vote through Instagram story.

Crowdfunding has also become easier because of social media specially through Facebook. For example, people can create funding events just by one click and the donation process is also very easy. It is even becoming a new trend to raise funds on Facebook on own birthday occasions.

Thus, a range of various “call for action” tools can boost a crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. Overall, it is very easy to create an event or link for campaign, design it and create visual contents (photos, videos, lives) and other promotional activities (paid ads) and measure the result i.e., getting expected ideas or amount of money for a successful crowdfunding and crowdsourcing campaign. More to that, people can easily share such campaigns through social media to raise more awareness about them.

Social media are powerful tool for crowdsourcing by driving the rate of participation and engaging with contents to strengthen the connection between brands and its audiences. But sometimes it can be overwhelming to manage the crowdsourcing and crowdfunding campaigns in the ocean of ideas. So, a goal must be defined at the beginning of the campaign, and a set of strategies for the social media channels have to be identified. Also, a measurement is needed to follow up if the campaign is meeting the expectations or not and how the tactics can be improved to get more engagement.

A Few Examples 

Shower Strike, a clean water crowdfunding initiative, used the hashtag #showerstrike in its social media posts which made it simpler to find the organization on social media and increasing brand exposure.

( Wu, R., 2015). 

References 

Anon, What is Crowdfunding? Clear, Simple Answer Here. Fundable. Available at: https://www.fundable.com/learn/resources/guides/crowdfunding/what-is-crowdfunding [Accessed May 2, 2021].

Wu, R., 2015. How to Use Social Media for Crowdfunding Campaigns : Social Media Examiner. Social Media Examiner | Social Media Marketing. Available at: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-for-crowdfunding/ [Accessed May 2, 2021].

Zote, J., 2020. How to use social media crowdsourcing effectively. Sprout Social. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-crowdsourcing/ [Accessed May 2, 2021].

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Public Health and Social Media

Social media can be used to increase health awareness. Today people spend less amount of time on reading articles and books, social media platforms can help them be aware of the regular and latest health issues (i.e., diabetes, obesity, nutrition, common diseases) through engaging contents like posters and short videos. 

Social media should be utilized to promote public health issues because On open access sites, social media hits millions of people.

Two-thirds of adults in 40 countries use the internet, with 76 percent of those using social media sites (Smith, A. & Anderson, M., 2021). As a result, proactive health promotion using these methods will save money that would otherwise be spent on costly advertisements in traditional media.

Sometimes raising awareness is simply reminding the target audiences about fundamental health practices or addressing common issues on healthy living. Sometimes it is sharing more factful information because of the emergency, such as, in current situation of covid 19 where people need to be informed with data on a daily basis on the case numbers, different government policies, etc.

1.       To provide input on a variety of topics;

2.       To respond to medical questions;

3.       To promote communication between patients and health care providers;

4.       To gather data on patient perceptions and opinions;

5.       To use SM as a health intervention, for health promotion and education;

6.       To eliminate stigma associated with illness; and

7.       To establish a mechanism for online consultations.

 Social media are used as tools for public health promotion not only by local but also many international organizations. WHO, the World Bank, and the United Nations Children's Fund are among the organizations that frequently use social media to promote health and have amassed millions of followers worldwide, thanks to accounts tailored to geographic contexts, cultural backgrounds, languages, and local issues. The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the global eHealth strategy in 2012 to promote, create, and evaluate activities that include these platforms (World Health Organization, 2016). The Center for Nutrition and Health Research (CINyS), a division of the INSP, began a comprehensive social media campaign in 2017 aimed at disseminating science and nutrition policies aimed at combating obesity, such as food advertisement laws, taxes, and FOPL programs (World Health Organization, 2016). 

But challenges are also present in using social media for public health promotions. Misleading information which is often supported by false accounts  is a great challenge to tackle  for health promotion through social media.

References

Smith, A. & Anderson, M., 2021. Social Media Use 2018: Demographics and Statistics. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/ [Accessed April 26, 2021].

World Health Organization. Global diffusion of eHealth: making universal health coverage achievable. Report of the third global survey on eHealth; 2016. https://www.who.int/goe/publications/global_diffusion/en/ [Accessed April 26, 2021]. 

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Digital Citizenship 2: Social Media Activism and Protest

A form of protest or advocacy for a cause through social media channels is known as social media activism. It includes using hashtags, posts, and campaigns to raise awareness and demonstrate unity. Hashtags especially play a pivotal role in mobilizing such digital movements. Since the 2010 Arab Spring rallies and the initial use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in2013, social media and activism have been inextricably linked. 

In 2010, social media had a role in the Arab uprisings. Online networks were critical in mobilizing a core number of activists, particularly in Egypt. In Arab countries, civil society leaders underlined the importance of "the internet, mobile phones, and social media" in the protests. Arabs have also embraced digital media to exercise their right to free speech and as a platform for civic involvement.

Following the murder of a young black boy named Trayvon Martin in 2013, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement started online when the co-founder Alicia Garzia posted the hashtag "#BlackLivesMatter." The BLM movement has pivoted on the social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook to spread its message by taking its inceptive standpoint on social media. Today BLM movement has become a global human rights movement in all 50 states of the United States and in over 20 countries worldwide, in the wake of the dreadful murder of George Floyd.

#DressLikeAWoman, #StopFundingHate, #YouAintNoMuslimBruv, #HeForShe,   #WomensMarch,  #BlackLivesMatter,  #ASLIceBucketChallenge,  #BringBackOurGirls are some other social media activisms that became massive among audiences. 

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Digital Citizenship 1: Political Engagement

Digital media has become an inseparable part of our daily life. From personal communication to promoting a business - we all use various digital platforms or social media everyday. But the usage of social media has not confined within pass time activities or as a marketing and branding tool. In recent years, social media is being hugely used in political activities too. While citizens are using social media to express their thoughts, for example, appreciating or criticizing a particular decision; political leaders are also using the media to more engage with public, influence them in voting and advertising freely for campaigns. 

What Is Political Engagement? 

The term “Political engagement” actually represents a broad range of activities. Citizens have their own views on the world and various regulations and policies because those decisions directly affect their daily lives. So, they try to engage in different political activities to shape those decisions. Those activities can be simply giving votes, or working as a volunteer or making a donation for campaigns, participating in social movements or protests, communicating with political leaders or expressing personal thoughts about politics on social media.

Political Engagement and Social Media 

Political campaigns demand a huge investment in terms of cash to be run. For example, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had spent more than $1 billion cash from his own pocket. 70% of the money was spent for only advertising and still he dropped out of the race. But the game has changed because of social media. According to a study in Management Science found that politicians raised 1% to 3% within the first month of using Twitter while It was the same range they were able to raise in a two-years long traditional campaign (Wharton Business Daily North America, 2017). 

Barack Obama first used social media as a presidential candidate and today Donald Trump expresses his opinions via Tweets almost daily without any helping hand from a PR or any filtered traditional media (Wharton Business Daily North America, 2017). Thus politicians have become very accessible to the public for communication unlike the previous eras.

References 

Wharton Business Daily North America, 2017. How Social Media Is Shaping Political Campaigns. Knowledge@Wharton. Available at: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-social-media-is-shaping-political-campaigns/ [Accessed June 11, 2021].

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Is Tumblr a Blog or a Social Networking Site?

Tumblr is the new hit in the era of self publishing trend. Now we do not need a helping hand from big media like national newspapers or magazines to raise our voice. Sites like tumblr have set a new way of publishing one’s thoughts or opinions or any kind of writing, be it fiction or non fiction, journal or articles.  According to Lua, A., Tumblr is one of the most popular social media sites along with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest and others (2020). 

But the features available and used on Tumblr let us think a good question: “Is it a blog or a social networking site?’’  

Blogging VS Social Networking 

Before digging into the answer, we need to know how a blog and social networking site differs from each other and what common characteristics they have as well. Users of social networking sites mainly seek for connecting with friends and family, making new friends, collaborating with them for a shared purpose (Biteable, 2021). They also share their thoughts in a form of status or tweet, upload photos and videos to show their creativity. They can even share other people’s post if they find it matched with their own interest or to show support or praise to the original post if they like it. Today, social networking sites are also being used for as a marketing tool to reach a target audience through ads. Almost every brand has its own social networking account for marketing and promotional activities and creating a direct connection with the customers (Biteable, 2021). 

On the contrast, a blog works mainly as an online journal. The target audiences can be various - from an exclusive group of readers to the public according to the personal or professional goal of the blogger. Blog contents appears on the feed as post in a list-style format and chronological order by published dates (Jamie, 2019). 

But there are also some similarities between social networking sites and blogs. A prominent reason behind blogging is interaction with other people and sharing of knowledge and perspective with each other through writing (Jamie, 2019). We can see similarities in their formats too. Both social networking sites and blogs include text, pictures, videos, animated GIFs and some other common added features on their posts (Jamie, 2019). 

So what media is Tumblr exactly? 

Yes, we can come to the conclusion that Tumblr works as both as a blog and a social networking site. 

Although Tumblr is mainly used for writing short articles or reviews, it has a lot of common features as social networking sites such as users can follow or chat with each other. Users can also share each other’s post just like a status or tweet (Bump, P., 2021). The main purpose of using both type of media remains same - interaction. Tumblr can also be used as a marketing tool like other social networking sites as it allows brands to promote themselves through sharing knowledge (Bump, P., 2021). 

So, based on the features, type of usage and purpose, Tumblr can be called both a blog and a social networking site. Actually it is quite amazing how the developers of Tumblr have blended the features of both type of social media to give a unique experience to the users to meet the need of both connecting and publishing on one platform. But one of the characteristic that helps Tumblr stands out in the crowd is how it is used to post interesting niche topics (Bump, P., 2021) and follow each other based on that interest. 

List of References 

Anon, 2021. The 7 Different Types Of Social Media. Biteable. Available at: https://biteable.com/blog/the-7-different-types-of-social-media/ [Accessed April 1, 2021].

Bump, P., The 5 Types of Social Media and Pros & Cons of Each. HubSpot Blog. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/which-social-networks-should-you-focus-on [Accessed April 1, 2021].

Jamie et al., 2019. What Is A Blog? - A Guide to Understanding The Concept Of Blogging. Make A Website Hub. Available at: https://makeawebsitehub.com/what-is-a-blog/ [Accessed April 2, 2021].

Lua, A., 2020. 21 Top Social Media Sites to Consider for Your Brand -. Buffer Library. Available at: https://buffer.com/library/social-media-sites/ [Accessed April 1, 2021].