An Essay On The Importance Of Social Media

In 21st century, Internet has basically changed everything. It has changed how people see lifestyle, business, politics, and so on. Moreover, with a great development in technology, it is becoming easier to access Internet wherever you are. It can be seen from the statistics of Internet users in the world.

Figure 2.1 Internet Users in the World by Geographic Regions – 2012 Q2

Source: Internet World Stats [1]

According to Figure 2.1, in second quarter of 2012, there are more than 2.4 billion of Internet users in the world. Asia has the greatest number with almost 1.1 billion Internet users. Other than Asian great populations, this number is also caused by the development in technology by Asian countries in the past 20 years. China, Japan, and South Korea are some of the countries which take over technology sectors. These countries produce high quality yet affordable mobile phones, computers, and tablets which are distributed across the world.

Figure 2.2 Total Time Spent Worldwide

Source: Huffington Post [14]

According to Figure 2.2, social networking takes 22% of total Internet hours spent by the users. It means one Internet user spends approximately 5.28 hours per day for social networking. It proves that social networking has become more important to Internet users. Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with Internet access.

2.1.1 Social Media Definition(add the some definition come from journal.compare the different social media definition)

Social media is the interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Social media does not only give the users information, but it also allows the users to interact with other user...

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2.4 Summary of This Chapter

Nowadays, many companies prefer social media marketing to traditional media marketing because of social media popularity. Social media channels have millions of users and this is a great opportunity for businesses to do their marketing through social media. Social media marketing and traditional media marketing have many differences. Social media marketing is free, interactive, and marketers can directly analyze the results. Although social media marketing is time-consuming until the results appear and it is forgettable.

Popularity of social media in Indonesia is caused by a great number of social media users in Indonesia. Most of them are young generations who prefer communicate through social networking to e-mail. Also the number of smart phone users in Indonesia is one of the reasons why social media is popular among Indonesian.