SOCIAL MEDIA:SWOT ANALYSIS

 Man is a social animal and so meeting and interacting with friends, family and love ones to share new things, feelings etc. is his basic necessity of life. But associating with all of them over long distance has become a big concern for centuries and even now in this COVID-19 pandemic. There were time when people use to do handshakes, hugs, face to face communication, which was latter followed by letters, telephone, the internet and lastly social media. Nowadays letters and text modes of communication has outlandish which is fulfilled by the innovations of new social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, YouTube etc. which not only became medium for text or message but also became medium for sharing photos, videos, thoughts, news, calling, video-calling or face-time etc.

Little Introduction of 3 Most Famous Social Media Applications

Snapchat filters, Instagram stories, captions and hashtags, WhatsApp blue ticks, last seen and online status are major parts of the lives of the millennial. We have been using these social media applications for Daily basis from ages but have never stopped for a moment and tried to understand differences between them. So let’s understand how these similar looking sites are very different from each other.

Taking about WhatsApp, it is free messaging application for Smartphones which able us to send messages, audio, video, images by using internet. It is similar to a text messaging services but as it operates using the internet, the cost of using WhatsApp is lesser. It is popular app due to some of amazing features like group chatting, location sharing, voice messaging, group calling and group video calling, memes, stickers, status, sharing upto 100MB files like PDF, slide shares, links etc. It is also advertisement free app which also have some other features like delete a message before viewing in 1 hr, if message is delivered and seen to user, intuitive chat, access to smart chat etc.

Now next is Snapchat which is also a free mobile messaging app for sharing images, videos, drawings and text. It has achieved great popularity among the youngsters in very short time span due to its photo and video editing filters and features. But major difference between WhatsApp and Snapchat is that Snapchat the messages disappear from the receiver’s phone after a few seconds. It is user friendly application being used mostly for multiple communication features.

Now last come Instagram which is also free social media platform for online photo sharing app which allows users to edit and upload photos/ short videos. Users also have the option to add a caption to each of their uploads along with hashtags. These hashtags and location based geotags make the posts visible to other users of Instagram.it is also an option to share photos with a single click on other social media platforms like Twitter & Facebook. It also has some amazing features like IGTV for long videos, Instagram Direct to message anyone in following list, Stories, explore, private and public policy etc. which attracts many people towards it.

Head to Head Comparison

ORIGIN

WhatsApp has been around the social media since 2010, January while Instagram came to floor on 2010 October and Snapchat in September 2011.

OWNERSHIP

While both Instagram and WhatsApp are owned and operated by Facebook, Snapchat belongs to Yahoo.

DEVICE COMPATIBILITY & COSTING

We know that all applications are available mostly on all the devices. WhatsApp is available for Android, iOS, Windows phones and even desktops. Instagram is also available on Android, iOS and desktop, but the web version of desktops is very basic. Snapchat is the most selective one it is only available for Android & iOS. All these applications are free to use as long as you have sufficient data plant. Talking about cost, there is no major difference between them.

NAVIGATION

All these applications have matured with time, WhatsApp will open with chat list, giving you immediate access to previous conservations. It has very simple navigation buttons for us which is just to click them or shift between chat, calls, camera or settings. Though WhatsApp & Instagram are owned by Facebook yet their navigation is different. When you open Instagram, you come across the photo stream of your friends. As the chat option doesn’t open directly so you have to swipe left to go Instagram Direct page. Instagram is mainly focused on images. If we compare Instagram and WhatsApp with Snapchat has the least intuitive UI. Though it isn’t complicated to use but takes sometime to start using it comfortably. When you open it camera appears, for chat window swipe right and swipe left to open stories. Anything uploaded by you or your friends will be deleted in 24 hours and so snapchat has more temporary feels.

IMAGE SHARING AND EDITING

Instagram is considered to be pioneer of the filters craze as still it remains favorite for those people who want to have classic touch to their pictures which even crop, color/temperature balance, frames, filters and multiple images into a collage. Though Instagram doesn’t have a crazy list of animations like Snapchat but it has Boomerang! If we compare Instagram with Snapchat, then Snapchat have more youthful approach. It gives option to add facial animations, artistic style filters and you can also draw on images or include geo-tagged titles. To sum up it can be said that it has more fun to use than Instagram. And if we see WhatsApp it is least fun in terms of image editing. There are few filters, emoji, text etc. but there is no animation. Hence when it comes to image editing Snapchat and Instagram take the lead.

REQUIREMENT OF SIM CARD

WhatsApp requires a SIM Card to activate the application but Snapchat and Instagram both doesn’t require SIM Card for activation, instead they require some personal details like name, email address, password etc.

STORIES

Stories are a small collection of videos, images or audios that can be combined and shared with friends. Creating stories is a common feature of all these applications. Snapchat was creator of the idea and is still unbeatable in this feature with the Group Story Mode.

AGE GROUP

While Snapchat is mostly supported and used by youths & teens, WhatsApp has a broad user-base, from teens to adult to senior citizens and on other hand Instagram mostly consist of youths and middle aged people who love to share their personal memory of pictures and videos online.

•     While WhatsApp has recently updated its privacy policy with end to end encryption for better and stronger security, Snapchat & Instagram lack its facility.
•    Though all 3 apps allow individuals to share their pictures & videos, rather than WhatsApp no application from Snapchat or Instagram allows their users to send documents online.

CONCLUSION

It is very clear from above comparison about basics of all the applications as well as how each of them work. These all platforms can be considered amazing in their own right. Furthermore, all 3 applications have different target audience like WhatsApp as a platform is used by people belonging to all age groups while Instagram & Snapchat are the applications mostly being used by youngsters. All these application are free and easily accessible to anyone and have their own amazing features so there can’t be single winner. The reason being WhatsApp is extremely user friendly and its own features to attract more and more people while on other hand Snapchat and Instagram have more options to edit and upload images and videos with amazing filters.

So at last it depends on individual requirements to choose between 3 of them.

BLOG BY:- DEVANSHI PATEL & MEGHA BHATNAGAR

DEPARTMENT:- AIB

UNIVERSITY:- AMITY UNIVERSITY RAJASTHAN