The document analyzes various social media platforms, focusing on Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, discussing their purposes, content types, and target user demographics. Instagram is an image-centric platform popular among younger users, while Snapchat features ephemeral content favored by teens and celebrities. Facebook, initially popular with younger audiences, now has a predominantly older user base, reflecting shifts in demographics over time.

1. P1 - Learners analyse a range
of existing social media
products.
a) purpose
b) content
c) target user/membership
d) sources of revenue
e) legal/ethical issues
By Bethany Blackburn

2. A – Purpose, Instagram
The purpose of Instagram is very fatigue and can be interoperated differently by different people.
Its basic uses allow the users to upload their own pictures or videos and add a filter and caption before
share them on their account. The account they create can be linked with other social media sites such as
Facebook which is an easy way people can find Instagram friends yet there is an option to start from
scratch and gain follows through interacting with others on the platform.
The app firstly allows you to interact with the people via their pictures, you can like and comment on
their pictures and more recently like each others comment on the picture. This is dependant on factors
like privacy setting some people you my have to request to follow in order to interact with their them
and view their profile and photos other you don’t necessary have to follow.
The purpose can be a medium for some users to share creative content, this can be short videos,
photography pictures or art work. More and more people who use the social media account have artsy
photos with creative shots, good lightly and a filter to top it off but the medium can be just as much
uploading your own content as it is finding other content. Your feed is a long page full of picture that the
people you follow have recently uploaded. The explore section of the app combines a mixture of photos
‘you may like’ based of your recent interactions and searches. Therefore, Instagram has plenty of options
to explore content.
Hashtags are another way photos can be found and shared as they provide users with the chance to link
photos to popular or trending things. They were created originally by another social media called twitter
but later made there way to Instagram were they were added to the bottom of peoples photos.
A – Purpose, Snapchat
Snapchat is a unique form of social media in which the main interaction between users is through photos and videos that only last a brief amount of time before they disappear forever. This
makes the app ephemeral in nature, though you can take a screenshot of all the snaps you receive to save them in picture form. You can also save your own snaps before sending them to
friends or you story.
As of May 2014, the app's users were sending over 700 million snaps collectively a day. Due to the instant popularity of Snapchat, Facebook reportedly offered to acquire Snapchat for $3
billion. Yet one of the app's cofounders later declined the cash offer. Facebook later launched a similar app, called Slingshot, but it failed to catch on as Snapchats popularity hit an all time
high.
A – Purpose, Facebook
The official stated purpose of Facebook is to make the world more open
and connected. Facebook’s latest mission statement is that people use
Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, discover what’s going
on in the world and share and express what matters to them. Facebook was
founded in 2004 by one person called Mark Zuckerberg. It has grown into a
global sensation having more than 750 million users. The social networking
site was started with a much more modest purpose. Founder Mark
Zuckerberg developed Facebook while he was a student at Harvard
University initially as just a social networking site for the university's
students. The social media also allows businesses, organizations and public
figures to connect with customers, and fans just as much as it allows
general users to connect with family and friend. Facebook is a business that
has a purpose of creating revenue, enriching investors and providing jobs.
Because it does not charge users for having Facebook pages, it needs to
generate revenue from other sources. Facebook produces most of its
revenue from advertising, including ads for both large and small advertisers

3. B – Content, Instagram
Instagram is a social media app which is majority image-centred, this means that users can
post images from their phones or computer to the website and gain social responces form
their friends. The application offers users the option to edit their images within the app
before uploading them, as well as allowing them to write a caption, add a location and tag
other people within the image. Whilst Instagram is useful to many it is only available for
people to use on smartphones, Instagram can be accessed through a web browser but users
are unable to upload images, but instead can still like and comment on images, as well as
explore other user’s profiles.
Video can now also be upload to Instagram and allows users the same options before
posting as a picture would, however you are unable to edit the video. Instagram is widely
used by Celebrities all over the world, many use it as a place to stay in touch with their
fans/followers and may even ‘announce’ certain events on their by posting a simple picture.
Within the app, users are able to like other posts, as well as comment, including a new
feature which enables user to like comments made by other followers. Instagram now
includes new features, such as direct messages which allows users to talk privately between
them, sending both text and image messages, as well as allowing them to send links to
posts on Instagram to each other, this also includes the ability to create a ‘group chat’.
Instagram Stories is a new feature to Instagram, this allows users to upload images and
videos, which will be available to their followers for a limited amount of time, as well as
letting them add text and drawings to the images/video.

4. B – Content, Facebook
• The news feed is the primary system through which users are exposed to content posted on the network. Using a secret method (initially
known as EdgeRank), Facebook selects a handful updates to actually show users every time they visit their feed, out of an average of
1500 updates they can potentially receive.
• The Wall is the original profile space where Facebook users' content until December 2011 was displayed. It allowed the posting of
messages, often short or temporal notes, for the user to see while displaying the time and date the message was written. A user's Wall is
visible to anyone with the ability to see his or her full profile, and friends.
• A Timeline is the new virtual space in which all the content of Facebook users is organized and shown. It replaced the Wall, the main
differences between the two are the fact in a Timeline the photos, videos, and posts of any given user are categorized according to the
period of time in which they were uploaded or created. Rather then in any order which was the method the wall adopted.
• Adding friends on Facebook known as "Friending" someone is the act of sending another user a friend request on Facebook. The two
people are Facebook friends once the receiving party accepts the friend request. In addition to accepting the request, the user has the
option of declining the friend request or hiding it using the "Not Now" feature. Deleting a friend request removes the request, but does
allow the sender to resend it in the future. The "Not Now" feature hides the request but does not delete it, allowing the receiver to
revisit the request at a later date.
• Reactions this is described by Facebook as a way to "give positive feedback and connect with things you care about", users can "like"
content such as status updates, comments, photos, and links posted by friends, pages, groups, and advertisers. It was originally just a
Like feature brought in, in 2010 which allowed users to react to a post but now you can react with emjoi type faces such a ‘crying
laughing’ face or a ‘smiley happy’ face.

5. B – Content, Snapchat
Snapchat is one of the current trends in social media to date, it has a massive audience of teenagers and celebrities who uses its
content to connect with friends, or fans. Some of snapchats content includes;
Snapchatters: This are the name given for Snapchat users.
Snaps: This is a photos or videos taken with Snapchat that is then sent on to fellwo users on the platorm. You can send a snap to
another snapchatter, but it can only be viewed by the recipient for one to 10 seconds before it disappears forever.
Snapback: This is what replying to a snap is called.
Story: This is a snap that you can broadcast to all of your followers it allows them to view your ‘snap’ story an unlimited amount of
times in 24 hours. You can post multiple snaps to your story in one day to create a narrative loop of stories.
Scores: This is a special equation combining the number of snaps you've sent and received, stories you've posted, and other factors.
Snapcode: Snapcodes are a relatively new featured added to the app in the last few updates. It’s a scannable code, essentially a QR
code that allows you to add a new Snapchat friends even easier.
Chat: A feature that lets you directly message another Snapchatters. You can access the Chat screen by swiping from left to right on
the Camera screen. Tap the create new message button in the upper corner to select a friend to chat with.
Video chat: This is a feature within Chat that lets you start a live video call. To start a video chat, simply tap the video record button in
a chat. If your friend is available they can choose to ‘Watch’ or ‘Join’. If your friend chooses to ‘Watch’ you will be unable to see them
but they can hear you, see you, and send you chats. If your friend chooses to ‘Join’ you will be able to see and hear each other.
Snapstreak: You may have noticed that some of your fellow snapchatters have different emojis next to their Snapchat names in the
Chat screen. That means you're on a Snapstreak, aka you and your friend have snapped each other (not chat) within 24 hours for more
than one consecutive day.
Lenses: You can make Snaps even more fun by adding real-time special effects and sounds with lenses. Go to the Camera screen in
Snapchat, tap on your face, and lens options will appear below. Swipe left to select the lens you want to use, then tap the capture
button to take a snap.
Filters: You can zazz up your snap by adding a fun overlay with a filter. After you take a Snap, swipe right or left on the preview screen
to add colored filters, the current time, local weather, speed overlays or geofilters to your snaps. After taking your snap and applying
your first Filter, you can press and hold then swipe to add another filter too.

6. C – Target User/Membership, Instagram
• Instagram is very popular amongst the younger generation with over 90% of
the 150 million people on Instagram being under the age of 35, which makes
it an attractive platform for many clothing, entertainment, and media brands
focused on the 18- to 34-year-old age bracket. The app's users are alos neatly
divided 50/50 between the half that use Android and the other that use
Apple devices.
• Instagram has a weighted audience toward women with 68% of its users
being female. It is believed that 17% of its users live in urban areas which
means most are people living in the city Its also proven through its users that
Instagram is also about quality not quantity as only 7% of all account holders
post daily photo uploads.
• In relation to educational demographics, users with university education
have proven to be the most active, on the social media platform with 23%,
followed shortly after by people who have actually graduated university with
a degree, at 18%. Users with high school education only make 15% of the
users which is surprising considering Instagram is considered to be popular
amongst teenagers.

7. C – Target User/Membership, Facebook
Over the years Facebook has had a wide diverse market in which it has been the
pinnacle of the social media, with most of its users being young. Yet as the social media
world has grown around it Facebook soon got left by the teenagers and the marjority of
its users today are middle age women
A study that was done by Pingdom in 2012 showed that 65 percent of the users on
Facebook were 35 or older. The average age being just over 40 with the largest groups
of people being aged 45 to 54. This study backs my previous statement that the
majority of the users today are middle aged.
Pingdom also did a study in 2010 which investigated the same thing; the average age of
most users on Facebook. In comparison to the one done in 2012 it showed that the
average age of the Facebook user had in fact increased by two years with only 14
percent of Facebook users being under the age of 24. this is a dramatic difference with a
short space of time, this suggests that the target user of Facebook was quickly
changing.
More intriguing now is that this seems to have changed yet again now in 2017 with the
majority of the users being aged 25 to 34 as they make up 30% which is higher then in
oprevious years. Facebook users are now 76% female which is out of 100% of all
females who use the app and 66% male which is out of 100% of all males that use the
app.
Percentage of U.S. internet users who use Facebook in April
2016, by age group
Distribution of Facebook users in the United States as of January 2017, by
age group and gender

8. C – Target User/Membership, Snapchat
• Snapchat is mostly a hit among teenagers, according to many research firms,
this is also a fact that is highlighted below with the pie chart of the snapchat
demographics it show that 45% of the audience are 18 to 24 years of age.
This leave more then half to be older which is actually a pretty surprising
amount considering the morjoriy of the apps users are young. Yet this could
be explained via the growing tech savvy community that is developing
amongst the middle aged group of adults who did not grow up with
technology and social media. Snapchat is catching on and embracing new
demographics every day with more and more middle age people jumping on
the trend to see what its all about
• One large section of its demographic are Viners (creators who used Vine),
YouTubers, and celebrities, they are very much known to use Snapchat as an
alternative means of communicating with their followers. Which fulfills the
needs of most of its young users as they get to see their favorite star posting
on the app.