In academic writing, we are surrounded by social networks or social media platforms. But what criteria do we use to say "this platform is social media, but that platform is not"?
I know that having friends or contacts is mandatory. Is a timeline required? Public posts? Liking and commenting?
How do we differentiate a social media platform from other kinds of communication tools?
In the past (in the very beginning) RG used to have a micro-blogging feature. I think it was good but RG founders said few people used it so they decided to stop the experiment. I think it was not a good decision because some features need more time to develop and start being used to the max of their potential.
The mirco-blog allowed for a timeline and an interactive communication. It was a sign of personal activity over time and it was like a scientific twitter (short and to the point).
The more interactive features, the better.
Overall, timelines can be visually attractive - a quick tool to gather attention to something happening while it unfolds (e.g. a conference or a breakthrough) but public posts and meaningful comments are more important for me. Liking is also good (but not necessary and normally posts on the first 2 pages only make it) but down-voting is irrelevant for research. It is also good that there are limits to the number of contacts although we do not re-organize these on a regular basis, maybe it is not a bad idea to do so.
A social platform is a Web-based technology that enables the development, deployment and management of social media solutions and services. It provides the ability to create social media websites and services with complete social media network functionality.
Hi,
Maybe this paper could help in defining social media platform ?:
Telecommunications Policy
Volume 39, Issue 9, October 2015, Pages 745–750
SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE GOVERNANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Editorial
Social media definition and the governance challenge: An introduction to the special issue
Jonathan A. Obar,
Steve Wildman
Since you mentioned academic writing, it would be nice to see here (or on other similar platforms) specific features dedicated to writing, reviewing and editing services - people willing to volunteer or provide some help or a list of paid services - as well as calls for conferences and journals. Currently they are announced like public posts or through personal messages. I think these two features should be very visible, interactive (social) and important to any social platform in research or academia.
Is there any such criteria apart from any site that allows people from all walks of life to exchange views and or share ideas?
I see social media platforms as all new media templates through which the global human community interact, exchange ideas and even do business.
I would like to develop a specific list:
- Must have a way to designate friends/contacts
- Must have a timeline to see their posts
- Must allow interaction, such as likes and comments
- Must facilitate group interaction, not just one-to-one communication
- Must allow status-type posts
- Must allow curated content (posting pictures, links, etc)
- I am sure there are other "musts" as well.......
The definition of the concept of social media portals is still evolving because this area of internet technology is dynamically changing, new types of social media portals are emerging. In a few years this field of information services on the Internet may look completely different than it is today, so the definition is also changing and dynamic.
An interesting question. It is very good that this question appeared on the research portal Research Gate.
It's good that there was a discussion about this question. This is a very interesting and scientifically important topic.
Because the topic is very important so I still read the answers, I follow the interesting discussion.
Does anyone from you conduct research in this area?
The problems of the analysis of information contained on social media portals for marketing purposes are described in the publication:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322241537_THE_QUESTION_OF_THE_SECURITY_OF_FACILITATING_COLLECTING_AND_PROCESSING_INFORMATION_IN_DATA_BASES_OF_SOCIAL_NETWORKING
I invite you to discussion and cooperation. Greetings
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