A very happy and prosperous new year to all the readers and non-readers of The Socionauts. 2014 was a year significance for social networks. As we fervently wait for the new surprises that awaits us this year, let’s take a look at the highlights of the previous year and also peep into the future of the world of social networking.

•   19 Feb – Facebook buys Whatsapp for a whopping $19 billion. Soon after, whatsapp experiences downtime.  

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  5 March – Oculus Virtual Reality is acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. 3. July – Facebook initiates Internet.org, an initiative to provide free or cheap internet services across different nations.

• July – ‘Ello’ a brand new social networking site that claims to be ad-free created, a facebook page opened soon.  

• 1 August – Twitter acquires Mitro, a password security service.  

• September – Whatsapp adds the blue tick feature to symbolize read messages. While some welcome it, some look for ways to cheat it.  
  

• 30 September – Google’s first social networking site, Orkut closed down. 

• November – Katy Perry becomes the most followed person on Twitter with 61 billion followers.Shakira’s page becomes the most popular facebook celebrity fan page. Facebook’s official page and ‘Facebook for every phone’ page receive the most number of likes.

• Virat Kohli becomes the first cricketer to have 5 million twitter followers.

• Fifa world cup becomes the most tweeted topic with over 618,725 Tweets sent per minute.

• The golden tweet a.k.a the most re-tweeted tweet of the year was @TheEllenShow’s starry photo from the March Oscars telecast.

          What to expect in 2015

Alike 2014, 2015 is expected to be a great year for social networks. Let’s have a look at what could be expected from the giants:

• Twitter is planning to introduce  a curated timeline for new users to reduce the friction of having to find people to follow when first signing up on the social network.

• Whatsapp may include live calling features. More stickers and emoticons are also expected.

• At the analyst event, Twitter's team said it plans to introduce "significant functionality to private messaging" soon.
  

• New social networks such as ello are expected to gain popularity. Social messenger apps may also receive more users.

  

  the ello logo

• Both Facebook and Twitter may make notable acquisitions and more priority may be given to smartphone applications.

• Facebook and twitter may introduce buy now feature that allow people to buy products from e-commerce sites with just a click or two.Facebook is also expected to release service that allows users to send money online by using just the debit card information. 

• Internet.org is expected to extend its reach to more countries.

  

  internet.org

What are your expectations from social networks this year? Use the comment box below to share your views.

 
  In the age of Internet, what matters most is how you look, converse and behave online irrespective of what your character is in the real world. Social Networks act as a platform where you can create a virtual you and deceive people into believing that it is the real you. While some manage to draw ‘likes’ as well as attention, some others stay in a constant anxiety due to the scanty attention their stuffs receive.

What I am going to tell you is not how to get more no. of likes or followers (though it may help you get that), but to make a smarter social presence.

Also don't freak out your friends like this..

       The profile picture:  The first thing someone ever notices. It is always a better idea to keep a high-resolution picture than one taken with a webcam or a VGA camera. In case you want to edit the photo, make sure it doesn’t look like as if you have undergone a plastic surgery. Note that selfies are not always the best choice on every social network. Be creative, think something unique. For example, searching for ‘creative facebook covers’ in google images will give you images of profiles where their profile picture is in accordance with the cover.

                  Profile name: Keeping a profile name containing symbols such as ‘@’ instead of ‘a’ or ‘$’ instead of ‘s’ and using adjectives such as ‘cool’, ‘sweet’ etc. may look cool, but not smart. I recommend limiting them to your Facebook or whatsapp account. Real names are nothing to be ashamed of and that’s why three out of four people go for it.

                 Basic info: Be genuine. Fill up the details that you wish to share keeping in mind your privacy. Never ever assume that people will be impressed if you fill up fields like – ‘working at Google’ or ‘engineer at Facebook’. I can’t help but laugh out loud when I come across people like – ‘working at I am not working yet. I am still studying’.

                What you post and chat about: (warning: this one is gonna be long) Last but not the least; your status speaks a lot about you. You are free to post about anything, anytime but make sure the language you use is proper and clear and your message makes the impact it is supposed to. A mixture of upper and lower case letters ‘eg. hI mY n@mE iS Sh@RaTh’ frustrates me, I can’t say about others. If you are using two or three different languages in a single post, make sure it is separated and easily understandable.

       Another important thing to keep in mind is that, you may be the most handsome or beautiful person in the world, but keeping on changing the profile picture every hour or so is not going to get you a million fan base. You may change it monthly or weekly but make sure changing your profile picture is not the only activity you do on social networks.

       While chatting, be aware of the age (approx.), gender, and character of the person you are chatting to.

Do you have any other ideas for being smart on social networks? Share it in the comment box.