D1 - Privacy and security measures

D1 – Privacy and security measures

Privacy and security measures are extremely important for any social media app, this is because people need to know that it is safe to have their information on the app otherwise they will be too scared to go on the app in case it puts them at risk.

One way in which Crepcheck deals with privacy and security is through password encryption. Everyone who signs up for Crepcheck will be required to enter a safe and secure password to protect their account. This prevents users from simply being able to enter a user’s username and gaining access to their account, as most people will not be able to crack a secure password. To prevent hacking software from cracking passwords, users will be required to confirm that they are not a robot after 3 failed password attempts, which should stump any basic hacking programs that are trying to gain access to a user’s account.

For more advanced hacking defence measures, a team of IT specialist will be hired to set up a fully secure firewall into the app complete with a state-of-the-art anti-trojan software. These employees will also be required to offer around the clock maintenance so that they can respond as soon as there is a potential threat. Although all of this may be rather costly, it is well worth it as without these defences against hacking; Crepcheck could end up having to be shut down indefinitely.

Another privacy and security measure that will be in place is for the app to not store any private information that it does not need. For example, Crepcheck would never ask for something as sensitive as a credit card number as this would put user’s bank details at risk of being hijacked. Instead, Crepcheck will only ever ask for a user’s full name and date of birth when making an account which prevents any serious harm from coming to them.

M2 - Site Plan

M2 - Legal and ethical issues

M2 – Legal and ethical issues

When creating a social media app, it inevitable that a number of legal and ethical issues are going to come with it. One of the biggest legal issues my social media app is going to face is copyright. This is when a person/organisation uses something that is copyrighted by another company without their permission. To avoid this scenario, I will ensure that every brand that is featured on my website will be informed of my plans for a social media app and will have given me permission to use their brand via a documented signature. However, to be extra safe, I will get in contact with ISPO who will check my app for any copyright infringements before the app is launched to avoid any law suits being filed against Crepcheck.

An ethical issue that I will have to pay attention to is a user’s ability to hurt of offend another user via the app. This could potentially be done in the ratings section in which users are allowed to leave a small comment to sum up their views on a particular pair of shoes. If bad language etc. is used in their comment, then this could offend some users which may put them off visiting Crepcheck again. To combat this, I will put a language filter in the comments section which means that comments containing any strong language will not be able to be uploaded until they are rid of any bad language.

P5

P5– Social Media

a)      Purpose

The purpose of my app is to inform. More specifically, to inform users on what the best shoes currently on the market are through a series of ratings and quotes from people who own or have owned the shoes that the user is interested in. This therefore allows them to make an informed decision on what shoes they should purchase based on how other people have rated them. This helps prevent customers buying shoes and becoming dissatisfied with them after only a number of weeks, due to them being low quality or uncomfortable etc. Users may also already have their hearts set on a particular pair of shoes, which means they can then check the app to see if they have an overwhelming amount of negative ratings. If this is the case, users can then search for a better rated pair of shoes to purchase.

b)      Content

When users press on the app to open it, the first place they will be taken to is the login page. Here, users will be able to either log in to their existing account or; if they are a new user, they can create an account there and then to become part of the Crepcheck experience. Once users get past the login page, they will be taken straight to the homepage. Whilst on the homepage, users will be shown all the latest and most popular shoes. This will help prevent users from having to search through the app for the shoes they want, as there is a good chance they could be shown on the homepage alongside other shoes that are trending. However, it is not a problem if users cannot find their shoes right away, as the app includes a search bar across all pages meaning that users can simply search the name of the shoes they are looking for and more likely than not there will have been a user who has given them some sort of rating and comment. Users should keep in mind however that the less popular the shoes are that they are searching, the less ratings they are likely to have. Some of the popular brands included within the app are Adidas, Nike, Puma, Jordan’s, Converse and many more.

 

c)      Target user /membership

If we break down the specifics of Crepcheck’s target user/membership, we see that the age range of the app’s target audience is between 12 – 25. This is because the app is made up almost entirely of trainers which are much more popular amongst youths than say middle age and above. This therefore makes sense to aim the app towards a youthful audience as these are the ones who are most likely to take an interest in the app.

My target user/membership will also care about the way the look and will want to fit into modern culture by being as trendy as possible. This is because all the trainers featured in my app are all from well established brands and have either been popular at one point in time or are currently popular right now. People who do not care about meeting modern day trend standards will most likely overlook my app as they will not really care about what shoes are trendy or being raved about.

In terms of gender, my app is aimed towards both boys and girls as shoes are not necessarily considered an interest of just one gender as both genders generally tend to what to have the trendiest shoes. Not having my app aimed towards just one gender also means that my consumer base will be much larger than if the app was aimed at just one specific gender.

d)      Production plan with launch date

I have created a Gantt chart for my social media app so that I can schedule exactly how long the app is going to take in total as well as how long each individual task is going to take. All-in-all, my Gantt chart shows that my social media app should take around 20 weeks to complete as long as there are no delays. However, it is unlikely that delays will occur due to everything being so well scheduled. I believe 20 weeks is a sufficient amount of time to create a high quality, professional social media app which serves its purpose and functions exactly the way it is supposed to. The launch date of my social media app is 2^nd August 2017. I believe this is the perfect time to launch an app as many people look to purchase new shoes for the summer holidays which means that my app is likely to get a lot of traffic in the first few weeks of its launch. This date is also only a few months away from Christmas in which once again many people will be looking to purchase shoes to go with their Christmas clothes, which will again increase the amount of people downloading my app.

e)      Possible revenue streams

Since my app is free to download, it only makes sense that I will have to find alternative revenue streams to allow my social media app to make a profit. The main way in which my app will earn a profit is through advertisements. One form of advertisements I will use are ‘pop up ads’ which will appear throughout the app as users are browsing through. Companies will pay me to advertise their brand on Crepcheck which should help give Crepcheck a steady revenue stream.

Another way in which my social media app will make a profit is through paid verification. Accounts that have over 10,000 followers on Crepcheck can pay a small fee of £100 to get their Crepcheck account verified. This will mean that their Crepcheck account will be recommended to a large portion of users on the app which will in-turn lead to a massive increase in followers.

P4

P4 – Social Media

Crepcheck

P4 A - Purpose

‘Crepcheck’ is an interactive social media app which seeks to help people who want to see what the freshest and trendiest shoes are currently in stores. The app relies on a rating system, in which users will upload an image of the shoes that they own along with a rating out of 5 stars and a comment explaining what their experience with shoes has been like. This therefore allows other users to see what the highest rated shoes are which should help them make a decision on what shoes they should purchase from a retailer such as JD or Footasylum. Users may also already have their hearts set on a particular pair of shoes, which means they can then check the app to see if they have an overwhelming amount of negative ratings. If this is the case, users can then search for a better rated pair of shoes to purchase.

My app will consist mostly of trainers; meaning that brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok and New Balance will be featured thoroughly throughout the app’s contents. Although, my app will not only be exclusive to new trainers; as it will also feature trainers that came out a few years ago. An example of this would be Vans, where even though a lot of their most popular shoes came out a few years ago, they are still in style today and are still being worn.

 

P4 B – Format/Style

Featured on the homepage of my app is a trending section and a recently added section. The trending section will show users all of the shoes that are currently trending on the app to give them an idea of what shoes are currently popular. The recently added section will show users all the latest shoe ratings that have been uploaded to the app. Users can browse freely through both sections without having to leave the homepage. Not only does this create a more seamless experience, but it also gives users a brief overview of what to expect as they delve deeper into the app. Near the top of the page, multiple popular brands are shown to serve as an example of what kind of brands are featured on the website so that users know this website focuses on popular brands other than niche brands.

At the very top of the page just beneath the logo; is the four sections that are available to users to browse. This includes the ‘Home’ section, the ‘Popular’ section, the ‘Brands’ section and the ‘About’ section. The ‘Home’ section has already been discussed above, however; the ‘Popular’ section will show all of the all-time most popular shoes that have been uploaded to the app, this will be based on the positivity of their ratings as well as how many times they have been viewed. The ‘Brands’ section will gives users a selection of every brand that is included within the website to help them narrow down what they are searching for, although there is a search bar at the top of the page to narrow down their search criteria even more. Lastly, is the about section; which will give uses a description of what the app is all about as well as what its purpose is.

At the very bottom of the page is a tag saying, ‘Follow us on social media!’, next to this are the logos for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. Each of the logos are also hyperlinked so users can simply click on the social media platform they wish to follow Crepcheck on the they will be taken straight to the app’s page.

P4 C – Target audience

If we break down the specifics of Crepcheck’s target audience, we see that the age range of the app’s target audience is between 12 – 25. This is because the app is made up almost entirely of trainers which are much more popular amongst youths than say middle age and above. This therefore makes sense to aim the app towards a youthful audience as these are the ones who are most likely to take an interest in the app.

My target audience will also care about the way the look and will want to fit into modern culture by being as trendy as possible. This is because all the trainers featured in my app are all from well established brands and have either been popular at one point in time or are currently popular right now. People who do not care about meeting modern day trend standards will most likely overlook my app as they will not really care about what shoes are trendy or being raved about.

In terms of gender, my app is aimed towards both boys and girls as shoes are not necessarily considered an interest of just one gender as both genders generally tend to what to have the trendiest shoes. Not having my app aimed towards just one gender also means that my consumer base will be much larger than if the app was aimed at just one particular gender.

 

P4 D – Mock up

Shown on the left is a mock-up I made for the homepage of my app. In terms of layout, I have tried to make the layout as square and as simplistic as possible, whilst still maintaining a level of professionalism. This makes the app look more presentable as well as easing navigation for new users.

The colour scheme I have used for my app is white and red. I believe these colours go well together and give the app a youthful and trendy feel. This colour scheme is maintained throughout all of the apps pages which again helps maintain a level of professionalism.

Featured on the homepage of my mock-up is a trending section and a recently added section. Users can browse freely through both sections without having to leave the homepage. Not only does this create a more seamless experience, but it also gives users a brief overview of what to expect as they delve deeper into the app. Near the top of the page, multiple popular brands are shown to serve as an example of what kind of brands are featured on the website so that users know this website focuses on popular brands other than niche brands.

At the very top of the page just beneath the logo; is the four sections that are available to users to browse. This includes the ‘Home’ section, the ‘Popular’ section, the ‘Brands’ section and the ‘About’ section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

P3

P3

 

A)     Advertising

Advertising is a big part of nearly every social media platform, this is mainly due to the fact that basically all forms of social media are free and therefore need to find another alternative to make revenue. One of the main ways in which this is done is through advertising.

Instagram

The main form of advertising on Instagram is ‘sponsered’ advertisements. This is when uploads from accounts that users do not follow appear on their news feed; usually advertising some form of product/service. This happens because the owners of that account of paid Instagram to advertise some of their uploads on user’s news feeds so that more people will be aware of the product/service they are trying to sell.

 

Furthermore, Instagram also has other forms of advertising such as ‘marquee ads’, which allows companies to pay Instagram to display their content at the top of user’s news feeds. User’s can expect to see extra content at the top of their news feeds up to three times a day.

 

Another form of advertising Instagram uses is video ads, this is often refered to as the ‘future of marketing’ and is done very easily through Instagram due to Instagrams short video feature which allows users and advertises to upload short video clips for other Instagram user’s to see. Again, companies can pay Instagram to show their video advertisements on people’s newsfeeds via sponsered posts.

 

Facebook

Facebook is much more simplistic when it comes to its advertising techniques and generally sticks to just keeping the advertisements on the side of people’s news feeds instead of them being actual posts themselves. Shown on the right is two examples of this, with one being an advertisement from Knoor advertsing food, and the other being an advertisemnet from Jumia which is advertising a blazer.

 

Statistics have shown that the percentage of pages of that feature advertisements is only 6% which shows that Facebook does try and keep its advertisements limited to give users a more seemless and smooth experience on the platform. However, on the contuary, research has also shown that the number of advertisements on Facebook has seen a 50% increase between 2015-2016.

 

Twitter

Twitter is generally a little bit more technical when it comes to advertising compared to Instagram and Facebook. Twitter will actually use people’s cookies and location to determine what advertisements users are going to be interested in as well as what advertisements are advertising companies that operate close to their area. This means that the advertisements shown are most likely going to be relevant to the user and catch their attention.

 

Twitter also gives users suggestions on which users/companies to follow. This is usually because this user/company has paid Twitter to advertise their accounts to users who may be interested in them based on their internet cookies. This helps them garner a larger following on Twitter which ultimately means a larger consumer base.


 

B) Viral Marketing

The term ‘viral marketing’ refers to a marketing technique which aims to make a particular advertisement viral. In order for this to happen, the advertisement would need to be extremely entertaining and above all else unique to all other adds that are currently in rotation at that point in time. Having an ad go viral is very beneficial for the company behind the advert as their brand will be featured somewhere throughout the ad, this means it will create a lot of exposure for the company’s brand as everyone will be watching the advert and see the brand name pop up within it.

 

Instagram

A good example of a viral campaign that took place on Instagram came from energy drink powerhouse Red Bull. They launched a campaign revolving around their three new Red Bull flavours; Red Bull Red Edition, Red Bull Silver Edition and Red Bull Blue Edition, in which Instagram users were told to guess what inspired each of the three Red Bull Edition energy drink flavours along with the hashtag of what flavour of drink they would like to win (i.e. #rededitionplease). Many users jumped on board with this campaign as they wanted the opportunity to potentially win one of the new flavours and have it sent to them by Red Bull themselves.

 

The advert also allowed users to get creative as there was thousands of possible answers to choose from which encouraged people to think outside of the box. At the end of the campaign, a huge collage was made of all the posts that Red Bull was sent regarding the campaign to showcase the Instagram community’s creativeness.

 

 

Facebook

An example of a video that went viral on Facebook was when life insurance company TVC; uploaded an advert on their Facebook page. In the advert is a man who goes about his daily business, however, he decides to help people in whichever way he can along the way. The message is that he never actually gets a reward, instead, the reward he gets is seeing the smiles on people’s faces once they have been helped. This advert went viral as it is a very emotional advert that tugged at people’s heart strings, which therefore led to them wanting to share it with their friends on Facebook.

 

Twitter

A prime example of a viral campaign that took off on Twitter would be the ‘What bean are you?’ quiz from Heinz. This was a quiz that would come up as a sponsored post on people’s news feeds and would require them to answer a series of questions to determine what type of bean they were.

 

This was a very successful campaign for Heinz as the quiz managed to garner around 10,000 retweets and boost Heinz’s Twitter following by an estimated 22,000 followers. This was all achieved in a two-week period which just goes to show how rapidly successful this viral campaign really was.

 

C) Product Service Reviews (Amazon, Ebay, Uber etc.)

Product service reviews are very important in this day and age and have been made more prominent by the rise of social media. It is estimated that between 2008-2013; there was a growth of 32 million people who posted user-generated content reviews at least once a month. These reviews were most commonly featured on either Facebook, Instagram or Twitter however a good portion did come other platforms to make up the 32 million reviews.

A good example of user-generated reviews comes from the social media platform Facebook; which has recently added a ‘user reviews’ section in which users can simply input a topic (i.e. a restaurant) and see what people have said about it and what they have rated it out of 5 stars. This page has undoubtedly contributed to the growth of user-generated reviews in the past decade.

 

Another prime example of product service reviews we see today comes from Amazon. Amazon allows users who have made an account with Amazon to review the products that they have bought off the sight to give other users an idea of how worth it a particular product is. This means that users can first look at the reviews of the product they are interested in before purchasing it from Amazon, and if they are not content with the product they have bought off the site, they can give it a low star rating as well as leave a negative comment about the product to warn other users who may be interested in purchasing the same product.

P2

P2 – Social media discussion

 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwrBJblJ7CA&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We formed a focus group to discuss the positive and negative effects of social media, as seen in the video, we went in depth about what problems social media has brought about in recent years as well as what benefits come with social media. In the video, we discussed how social media can be used as a platform for bullying through the use of memes and trolling which everyone can agree is a clear negative effect of social media. The example we gave in the discussion was a child who had been getting bullied by a troll who was using an account with a fake alias. Another negative effect of social media we discussed was its capabilities of sharing offensive content to those who do not wish to see it. The example we gave in the discussion was a video of animal cruelty towards a pigeon being shared around Facebook.

We also looked at what everyone’s favourite form of social media was, the majority of people within the focus group said that Instagram was their favourite form of social media because the pictures make the app simplistic and fun. However, one member of the focus group did say that they prefer Twitter which shows how different forms of social media appeal to different people. We also asked how many hours people in the focus group spend on these social media platforms, and it would seem on average the people in this focus group spend about 4-5 hours a day on social media.

The final thing we looked at was what people actually use social media for. We put our heads together and came up with a number of things people now-a-days use social media for which included; talking to friends, shopping (through social media advertisements) and looking at memes.

 

P1

P1 – Social Media

Sources: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/100215/twitter-vs-facebook-vs-instagram-who-target-audience.asp

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-twitter-makes-money-2013-9?IR=T

Facebook

Purpose

The purpose of Facebook is to connect people from all over the world using the ever expanding web as a way to link people together. It does this by allowing people to discover each other via Facebook and then keep in touch no matter where they are in the world.  Social media platforms such as Facebook aim to make the world a more sociable place by allowing people to talk no matter where they are, however, some people do argue that this makes people less sociable as they are less likely to go out and speak to people face-to-face as they can just do it through social media platforms such as Facebook.

Content

Facebook uses a predominately white and blue colour scheme, this is calm and laid back which suits the relaxed approach that Facebook likes to take. The main element of Facebook is the news feed; this is where users can see everything that their friends are posting as well as posts that Facebook has suggested to users. Users are taken to this page as soon as they log into Facebook. There is also a page in which users can search for friends and then “friend” them so that they can see what they have posted.  All pictures/videos uploaded save onto the user’s profile so that they can be viewed at a later date either by them or their friends.

Target user/membership

The type of people to use Facebook are generally people that like to see what other people are getting up to. This can vary from friends that they see daily to old friends from the past who may now have completely different lives and be completely different people from the person they remember being friends with. Facebook users also generally like to let people know what they are doing with their day which is the whole purpose of the famous Facebook wall. Facebook targets a younger audience (usually ranging from 13 -30) as this is the age range that is considered to be the most tech savvy in today’s society.

Sources of revenue

Due to Facebook being free, Facebook cannot gain money for people simply signing up for the website, instead, Facebook uses two different sources of revenue. The first is the inclusion of advertisements within the site, companies will pay Facebook to advertise their company throughout Facebook. The second way is through the inclusion of mini games such as Restaurant City in which Facebook users can make micro-transactions in a bed to get better stuff in the game.

Legal and ethical issues

One of the major issues that Facebook faces is identity fraud, this is when a person claims to be someone they are not. There have been many cases of users doing this which has ultimately led to their arrest as it has been believed that they have made the fake account to cause harm/offence to others. To combat this, Facebook always encourages users to double check with their friends which account is there’s so that they do not add anyone who is claiming to be their friend.

 

Instagram

Purpose

The purpose of Instagram is to allow people to share their favourite pictures and experiences with the world and also having the ability to gain an insight into their friends lives by following them on the platform allowing them to see each other’s content. Users can grow their Instagram page by gaining followers from all over the world who can show their appreciation by “liking” photo’s that appeal to them. This particular social media platform is also favoured by celebrities who allow their fans to follow their page so that they can get a better look into their favourite celebrities live on a daily basis.

Content

Instagram uses a predominantly White and Black colour scheme within the actual app, however, for the logo Instagram has gone with purple, pink and orange colour scheme. The Instagram news feed is made up of only pictures, which you can double tap and “like” if the post tickles your fancy. Instagram also has a page in which you can see posts/users that Instagram has suggested for you, allowing you to find more people who post content that you enjoy. Another popular page on Instagram is the ‘recent activity’ page, this page shows the people who have most recently liked/commented on your photos

Target user/membership

Instagram is aimed towards a much younger audience than most other social media platforms, this is because Instagram does not necessarily focus on users being able to communicate with each other which is the reason why most middle age users use social media in the first place. Instead, it aims itself at users that simply want a quick snap representing what their friends/favourite celebrities have been getting up to, without them having to read a lengthy post to achieve this. Instagram actually has the youngest membership of the three social media platforms, with 53% of Instagram’s 200 million users being between the ages of 18-29.

Sources of revenue

Like many other social media platforms, Instagram’s main source of income is through adverts. Users will often see adverts as they are scrolling down the Instagram homepage seeing what the latest posts are; as some posts will be labelled ‘sponsored’ meaning that that particular company/brand has paid Instagram to show their post of your news feed without you actually following them. Examples of companies who do this are Nike, Adidas, Lucozade and BooHoo.

Legal and ethical issues

Since Instagram is a picture based form of Social Media, most of its legal and ethical issues are going to revolve around the type of pictures people are posting. For example, models and any other users for that matter; are limited to how much of themselves they can show as nudity is not prohibited on Instagram. If users do decide to post a picture that is too revealing, not only will it be offensive to some users in an ethical sense, but it will also be a violation of Instagram’s code of conduct and could result in the user’s account being banned.

Twitter

Purpose

The purpose of Twitter is not primarily to allow friends to keep in touch with each other as is the main purpose of Facebook and Instagram.  It is more focused on allowing people to voice their opinions on whatever events may be occurring in the world at that particular time which has let to many debates being engaged on Twitter over the years. Twitter was also the first social media platform to introduce hashtags (#party), trending hashtags can be seen below the search bar so people can see what people are currently talking about on Twitter. However, like Instagram, Twitter allows users to gain followers and also follow the people they want.

Content

Twitter’s content is similar to that of Facebook’s and Instagram’s in the sense that it mainly revolves around its homepage. On the homepage is a news feed, showing users what the latest and most popular tweets are out of everyone they follow. A blue tick is featured next to the names of celebrities so that users know that they are celebrities as well as being able to confirm that this is their actual Twitter account, this is known as being ‘verified’. Twitter then has a notification page which lets users know when other users have liked their tweet/retweet as well as letting them know when they have been followed by other users.

Target user/membership

It appears that Twitter has the second youngest usership of any of the social media sites mentioned. A study showed that around 35% of Twitter’s 271 million users are between the ages of 18-29 with the majority of others being above the age of 29. This shows that twitter has a youthful target audience. Twitter’s target membership also tends to be people who enjoy stating their opinion and letting other people see/hear about it, as the likes of Donald Trump, Jeremey Clarkson and many other big names have made a Twitter a platform to get their opinions on things out there and many other twitter users have followed ship.

Sources of revenue

Twitter has 3 main sources of revenue, promoted tweets, promoted trends and promoted accounts. Promoted tweets are when a particular account gets in touch with Twitter and pays them for putting their tweets in user’s news feeds as sponsored tweets. Twitter will get further payment when users click on the sponsored tweets. Next up is promoted trends, this is when Twitter will be paid by various sources to put a particular topic on the ‘trending’ section. It costs around $200,000 a day to keep a topic on the trending page which makes this a great source of revenue for Twitter especially considering the trending page is different in each country. Finally, is promoted accounts, Twitter can recommend accounts to users based on the people they follow; however, users can also pay twitter to recommend their account to users in an effort to try and increase their following.

Legal and ethical issues

One of the biggest criticisms of Twitter is that the content found on the site can be offensive to a wide range of users. This is down to the culture of Twitter being a platform in which people can let off steam and state their real opinions for the world to see, not really caring if what they are saying is offending people as to them it is just their opinion. Twitter has also had bit of a problem with trolls in recent years, a prime example of this being Katie Price’s son Harvey, who has been on the end of a lot of abuse on social media (mainly twitter) because of his mental problems; which trolls have found fun by ridiculing through offensive imagery.