Differentiation Between Facebook and Google+

Different media companies are like any other company in that they are always fighting to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Companies want to detract as many consumers from their competitors as possible. This is done through differentiation. A current important struggle between two media companies is occurring when Google launched its Google+ to directly compete with Facebook. I will be focusing on the difference between Facebook and Google+ as opposed to Google as a whole. This article gives a good idea of the differences.

For the social media world, companies try to differentiate themselves in a number of ways such features unique to a company or number of users. Examples of ways that they differentiate themselves is that Facebook has hundreds of millions of users and google+ has many new features that Facebook does not. One of the key features that Google+ has is that it lets users create groups among their friends to create privacy. This is different from Facebook where everything you post is visible to all your friends. While Google+ is still in its experimenting phase, we can see it as being major competition in the near and long term future.

Ethical Issues in Media

The media industry with its various branching industries faces a good chunk of ethical issues. The advertising industry itself brings most of these issues. And then we have the social media companies such as Facebook which are also the most controversial. Other sub-industries of media raise some ethical issues but are not as influential. In my opinion, the publishing industries are the least controversial if not at all.

One of the most controversial ethical issues in the advertisement industry is the use of sexual imagery in some ads –a term referred to as “sex sells”. Many people consider this tactic unethical and misleading. For example, Apple –one of the most successful/popular company selling electronic products– uses a shadow of a naked woman and a playboy-bunny earpiece wire as a marketing strategy to attract more customers to buy their products. This may be considered offensive to parents who are concerned about their child seeing such images.

Another method advertisement companies often use carry discriminatory messages and may cause prejudice for some people. For example, many consider Fair & Lovely –a company selling skin clarity products – TV commercials racist. This is due to the fact that they assume that women are happier with lighter skin.

Operators of TV broadcasting sometimes display pornographic images or reality TV shows that portray a message that is supposed to be directed only for a certain audience of certain age. No parent would want their child watching 18+ rated movies for the sexual and psychological implications it causes. They would want to make sure that their child is having a healthy childhood. Reality shows mess with people’s minds the most. Since viewers think they’re “real”, their message is going to be the most influential. Therefore, reality show producers should be very careful when choosing their theme point –in which unfortunately they’re not. Shows like the Bachelor influence what people think of relationships and how men treat women and so on.

With social media comes a whole stack of issues related to ethics; from hacking to abusing to privacy concerns. Many facebook users deactivated their accounts due to other people stalking their profiles which gave them a sense of insecurity. You might think social media networks are harmless, but they cause levels of harm from simple such as losing your privacy to criminal such as child abuse, rape and murder. To illustrate, there’s a story that Oprah thought was of major importance where a 14-year-old child called Kristin was raped by a 27-yer-old man and then committed suicide all resulting from social networking dangers.

Most newspapers carry only ethical messages and are of highest ethical standards amongst other forms of

media. In fact, their only relation to ethical issues is discussing them and raising more awareness to prevent and/or reduce them.

Social Media Use In Small Businesses

Keeping up with current events, social media is making starting up a new business easier than ever. An article in the Miami Herald shows that while most leading companies have already become accessible through social media, small businesses are just now seeing the potential. The most prominent new frontier opened up to small businesses with social media is advertising. Businesses can keep people up to date with upcoming promotional events and sales. Advertising in newspapers and on TV is extremely expensive, especially for small businesses. As a business gathers friends and followers on media sites, it becomes very efficient for businesses to advertise to this group of people. While most ads in other places would be useless for a majority of the people exposed, advertising to your followers saves money and targets people who would be most likely to respond.

With the use of social media sites by ordinary consumers constantly increasing, new and small businesses are given instant access to more views than ever before than if they had not gone to sites such as Facebook or Twitter.