Bordey, Jansen A.

BSMA 2-2

Platforms Description

Facebook Facebook is the market leader when it comes

to social media platforms, with over 1.65
billion monthly active users, and a 15%
increase of growth year over year, Facebook
makes it easy for you to create a personal
profile and connect and share with your
family and friends online.

With users spending more time on Facebook

(40 minutes) than any other social platform
and almost half of consumers liking a brand
or business page on the platform, this
platform can be an effective tool for small
business owners to build an audience and
image for their brand and business.

Primary Audience:
Facebook has users from all age
demographics, making it one of the most
diverse social channels, but the largest age
bracket is young females (77%) between the
ages of 18-29 (87%).

Twitter Twitter is a social networking site that allows

users to send and read short (140 character)
messages referred to as “tweets”. The
platform has over 750 million users, and is a
great channel to engage with other users,
and make new connections. 67% of Twitter
users are also more likely to buy from brands
they follow on Twitter, so this can be a great
(and necessary) tool for some small
businesses.

Primary Audience:
Twitter’s largest demographic is young adults
between the ages of 18-29 (37%) and has a
pretty equal gender breakdown with 24% of
its users being male, and 21% being female.

LinkedIn A social networking site designed for the

business community to network and connect
 with one another, and with over 347 million
members, the site is clearly a popular one
among this community.

Primary Audience:
One of the only social networks that the
majority of users don’t fall between 18-29
years old, LinkedIn is more popular among
those that fall between 30-64 year olds
(61%), who are college graduates (50%) and
have a higher income level than the typical
young professional.

Instagram Instagram is an online mobile photo and

video sharing social networking platforms that
allows users to share photos and videos and
interact with other users. The platform has
over 300 million users that are sharing over
60 million photos each day.

Primary Audience:
More than half of the age demographic for
Instagram users is between the ages of
18-29.

Pinterest Think of Pinterest as an online bulletin board

as this platform allows you to search for
visual content such as recipes, fashion, or
do-it-yourself inspiration, and “pin” it on to
one of your boards. Pinterest can be an
excellent platform for businesses to drive
traffic to their website or blog, but only if the
demographics match your business.

Primary Audience:
Users of Pinterest are heavily weighted
towards young women (42%). The site has
been famously known to be a popular place
for moms and those looking for inspiration on
wedding, cooking, and do-it-yourself projects.

Snapchat Snapchat is an image and video messaging

mobile application. With 100 million active
users, this platform which was only
developed in 2011 has quickly become a
favourite among young people, so there’s no
question on why businesses are looking for
 ways they can use the platform to reach their
audience.

Primary Audience:
The user demographics for Snapchat are
70% female under the age of 25 years old,
and 62% of users make $50K or less a year.

How law enforcers used it to track down criminals?

Social media use has transformed the world, changing both personal lives and professional
lives. For law enforcement, Facebook in particular is revealing threats to communities. More and
more police departments, in their commitment to protect and serve, are finding that social media
can be an invaluable tool in their investigations.

Methods of Social Media Use by Law Enforcement

As in any field, social media can be used in a multitude of ways for various benefits. Police
approach social media similarly. Each social network has its own purpose and is meant for one
particular goal. In some ways, today’s police departments are using social media for the
purpose of public input, while other strategies are confidential parts of an investigation.
Together, these methods showcase how important a tool social media is for law enforcement.

Sting Operations
Police sting operations were used by “the first modern police forces,” as mentioned in an
article in the Missouri Law Review. A sting operation is designed to catch a person in the act of
committing a crime. Stings usually include a law enforcement officer playing the part as some
kind of accessory to a crime, perhaps as a drug dealer or a potential customer of prostitution.
After the crime is committed, the suspect is quickly arrested.

Police officers have begun conducting sting operations on the Internet, often involving social
media. A common example is the use of Facebook or other social networks to lure pedophiles
with fake profiles. During these investigations, an officer poses as a child or teenager and
makes contact via a Facebook group or other public action. The goal is for the officer to arrange
to meet the suspect in person. When that happens, an arrest can be made. This is similar to the
methods used on the TV series “To Catch a Predator.”

Subpoenas
Much of the information on social media is visible to the public, but law enforcement has
been able to use subpoenas to gather details on anonymous posts. Controversy surrounds
whether law enforcement should be able to subpoena social media networks. Court rulings have
been mixed on the issue of subpoenas and social media, with decisions on both sides of the
issue.

Location Tracking
 As social media has evolved, location-based sharing has become incredibly popular. This
metadata that links text, pictures and video to an exact geographical location is a great tool for
law enforcement to find suspects. Some police departments are using a product called BlueJay
to scan tweets so they can pinpoint the actions of known criminals and identify what is
happening that would be of interest to law enforcement.

Thanks to location tagging, police can search for particular hot spots of crime and even gain
instant photographic evidence from a crime. While only some Twitter users leave the location
tagging option enabled, on photo-based social networks like Instagram it is far more common.
Small clues can be a potential gold mine of information for police investigations.

Public Outreach
Although social media networks can certainly be helpful in a criminal investigation, they’re
also beneficial to police departments wanting to connect with the public. A social media
presence is essentially mandatory for today’s police departments. It allows for police to
communicate important announcements to the community and solicit tips on criminal
investigations.

When used properly, a social media presence can pay dividends for police departments. The
Mountain View Police Department in the heart of Silicon Valley has been at the forefront of
social media relations with the public. The MVPD routinely engages with citizens in an effort to
promote transparency. In many ways it’s easier than face-to-face outreach.

When an MVPD officer was arrested in a child pornography sting, the department issued an
apology and promised a full investigation on its social media platforms, which invited
conversation between the department and community members. Such interaction through social
media could help improve citizen–police relations across the country.