Social Networking Sites

The four social networking sites I will be comparing is Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.  Starting with the home pages, users on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are bombarded with words, pictures, advertisements and icons that are overwhelming.  These social networking sites have content on the right and left side of the page.  On the other hand, Pinterest’s homepage takes on a simple form with very minimal words but an abundance of pictures that are visually pleasing.  All the sites have the number of followers/connections in a very visible position on the home page.  Although these pages are meant to connect people for different purposes, they have messaging capabilities that allow uses to privately direct message other users.  On all four platforms, users can share pictures and videos but on like the other platforms, Snapchat does not achieve pictures and images that are shared.  Pages can be created by individuals and businesses or organizations.  As expected, on all four platforms, pages are riddled with advertisements.  On Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest, these advertisements appear as posts or pins on the users’ pages while Facebook advertisers decided where they want to post their Ads. These platforms have users create profiles that include profile and background pictures, name and brief biography of the user however, none of these platforms have customizable pages.  This means that you cannot change the theme or layout of your personal page.

The setup and features of these four platforms are virtually the same but the target audience is different.  Facebook seems to be more for entertainment purposes.  I see that a lot of people use Twitter as entertainment but also as a news outlet.  Twitter is also used to repost others people’s words.  LinkedIn is more of a professional site and instead of followers, the users make connections.  Lately Pinterest is used to post pictures.  Users can create boards as inspiration for a future project.  For instance, I created a board filled with pictures of custom suits as inspiration for my wedding looks.