RJ

Q1)
The first influential factor would be that Facebook gives us an outlet to express ourselves freely on matters that we wouldn't have revealed otherwise. There may be other social networking sites and other social media platforms however, the specific details like 'Relationship Status' and simply 'Status' which allows us to update friends on what's going through our minds right now, we wouldn't have thought of publicizing on for example, our blogs. Yes, there may be Twitter. However, the updates on Twitter would be much more frequent and more direct. There certainly would be a smaller and possibly more familiar audience on Twitter where we would post more personal matters. However on Facebook, where most of us have, on average, 100-200 friends, allows us to get our messages across on a much larger scale, therefore increasing our chances of our status being commented on by whoever bothers to. Besides updating our statuses, of course, there are other pointers leading to the free expression we are exposed to on Facebook. The (almost) limitless uploading of photos also allows us to show our friends what we've been up to, or even photography or designing skills for some of us. Sure, there are photo sharing sites but they wouldn't be as interactive as sharing the photos on Facebook, where, if allowed, can be viewed by friends of friends of friends or even strangers. This may even allow us to change the perceptions people may have formed of us when they see us from afar (citing an example, again), and they might think, "Hey, this guy can draw. Cool.", compared to their possible earlier impression, "He looks dodgy and gross." There also many other endless widgets and blanks we are asked to fill when we get a Facebook account that allows us to create an image of ourselves, whether its our perceived self perception or ideal self perception, Facebook allows you to portray just (either one of) that.

The impact of it is that we get to allow people to find out more about ourselves, changing impressions and perhaps even letting people know about some things even our closest friends or family don't know about. For example, by uploading an album of photos that I've taken recently because I just took up photography would let my friends on Facebook find out about my new hobby and perhaps those who share a similar interest could comment on my album, sharing tips and tricks or even panoramic sceneries where I could explore to get a good snapshot. On the downside, if privacy functions aren't carefully gone through and walls around your profile aren't built, it could also mean others (whom you might not want viewing certain things you post up on Facebook) getting access to your profile and content. A common example would be when you called in sick on Monday and your boss sees your album of photos at Zouk titled "Up all night got demons to fight" on Monday night, uploaded by your fellow party-goers. Which may lead to you becoming unemployed on Tuesday.

A second factor, would be that Facebook has an endless array of applications sufficing the old, young, male or female, any kind of person from any walk of life in short. Not only are there applications available, there are also fan pages of most applications created. Again, this creates a discussion board for fans or anti-fans of the applications where they can voice their opinions, subsequently influencing the mindsets of future users who might turn to fan pages to read comments of applications before adding them and using them. Users can also create and upload their own applications.

This creates an impact of more people creating Facebook accounts in order to gain access to such applications which are probably exclusively available on Facebook or exclusively free on Facebook. This would mean more traffic for Facebook and in the long run, more revenue. However, it could also mean other gaming sites losing traffic, and more drastically, companies like Hasbro and Mattel scratching their heads as to why sales don't seem to go up (theoretically speaking). The convenience of such applications, a large portion of which are games, may even lead to the extinction of conventional game play, such as board games, card games, etc.

Q2)
An example of an unethical use of Facebook in the movie would be when Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook himself uploaded an art painting in order to get his network of friends to comment on it, where he then plagiarized the comments into his report. This is considered highly irresponsible and those whose comments were included in his report could have taken legal action against him, on top of the consequences he had/might have faced when he was caught cheating. Though it was clever of him to upload the painting onto Facebook in order to hear opinions being voiced out about it, to take those comments as his own was derogatory to his own reputation. He could have instead posted it after he submitted his report, just to hear what his community of friends on Facebook had to say about it.

Besides Facebook, there are various other social media platforms. Another common platform where audiences can be engaged thoroughly in my opinion, would be Twitter. Nowadays, Twitter is used for an endless list of purposes. One purpose, for example, for an artist to gain a larger fanbase or a brand to gain more support and recognition, would be to conduct contests from time to time on Twitter. Specifically for a singer or artist, competitions such as imitating the artist's dance performance or singing a cover of the artist's song and uploading it onto YouTube (yet another tool), and then submitting it by replying to the artist's Twitter (e.g. @JustinTimberlake) and including a specific hashtag (e.g. #SexyBackDanceContest), limiting it to only one entry per person and then announcing the winner on the Twitter account itself, would engage fans of the artist, fans of the song or simply interested dancers or singers into participating in such a competition. Attractive prizes would also have to be provided in order to attract participants. Constantly holding such competitions from time to time would let fans and followers know that the artist is aware of the audience participating and following him/her on his/her Twitter, thus making their time, money and effort spent on supporting the artist well-spent. Such a marketing campaign would also measure his/her success in terms of fans who are Twitter-users, aka Tweeters/Twitterers.

In terms of a certain company or brand, a real life example would be the Klondike bar (chocolate coated vanilla ice cream bar yum :D) campaign launched in 2008. It is mainly a video competition, so the main tool used was YouTube. However, an official website, a blog, Twitter, Facebook and many other tools were also used coherently. The main theme of the competition was tied in with their tagline "What would you do for a Klondike bar?"

The winning video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce3PDB5HeR4

(sorry for the horribly late entry :/ )

Mayuri Raj
0940322
DMC/FT/2B/05