Slicing Into Social Media
Using Fruitcake to Explain Social Media Platforms
Nowadays, it feels as if everyone is on one social platform or another. Being a part of these platforms is critical to staying connected and feeling like we’re "in the loop." Understanding every nuance of each social media site can become pretty overwhelming, but have no fear! Collin Street has created the perfect guide for differentiating between all these sites. With fruitcake as our one constant, we’re going to slice into each social media platform to understand what the platform is and how you, as its user, can maximize its value.
YouTube
YouTube has the most monthly users of any social media platform out there. Why? Probably because YouTube offers a place where users can watch videos on everything from how to rebuild a car engine to how to make an origami swan. However, YouTube’s not just a place for learning. It’s also a place to go and simply be entertained with hours of funny pet videos. Essentially, YouTube is a video-sharing service where users can create their own profiles, upload videos, watch, like, and comment on other users’ videos.
Creating your own YouTube page or "channel" isn’t necessary to use the site, but it is required if you’re interested in publishing your own videos. With your account, you can share videos, start a playlist, and comment as you wish. You can even upload movies to YouTube straight from your phone.
Facebook is essentially the original social media site. Created back in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, the site allows users to post comments, share photographs, link interesting web content, create groups for upcoming events, message fellow Facebook-ers, and much, much more. Facebook even allows you to create groups centered around specific interests. So if you really, really loved fruitcake, for instance, you could join this group dedicated to those who consider themselves superfans of Collin Street Bakery.
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Although YouTube and Facebook are the most popular social media platforms, Instagram has grown exponentially since its founding in 2010. With an Instagram account, you can share photos from all of life’s adventures! You can search and click on “hashtags” (ex: #fruitcake) to find your favorite topics. And, of course, follow your friends (and celebrities) from across the world. Utilizing captions to promote a cause or a positive shoutout is just as good as posting photos from your vacation to Corsicana, TX, and Collin Street Bakery!
Pinterest allows users to visually share and discover new interests by saving, known as "pinning," images or videos to "boards" or a collection of pins with a central theme. The platform’s name even combines the site's two main ideas: pins and interests… pinning your interests… Pinterest.
Pinterest is a great place to go when searching for new recipe inspiration, themed party decor, wedding looks, interior design.. the list goes on. Creating your own Pinterest account takes just a few steps. Once you have your own account, it’s time to create boards about whatever piques your interest—boards like fruitcake, for example. Scroll endlessly through mouthwatering images of "homemade fruitcakes," "traditional fruitcakes," and "rum-soaked fruitcake," or perhaps narrow your search to find images of just "Collin Street Bakery fruitcake."
Don’t have a specific Pinterest agenda? That’s perfectly fine! Simply enjoy the visual feast of beautiful photography.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a direct messaging platform that allows users to send videos and pictures directly to other users or groups of users. On the surface, it sounds a bit like all other social platforms, BUT Snapchat has a unique twist. Messages sent through the app have an extremely limited lifespan of just a few seconds before they disappear permanently from the receiver's phone. In a sense, Snapchat is the digital version of handing someone a polaroid picture, allowing them to look at it for up to ten seconds, then asking for the picture back to immediately place it in a shredder.
What’s the appeal of such a platform?—limited visibility of visual commentary.
Unlike platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, whose job is to host memories indefinitely (sort of like an art gallery), Snapchat enables its users to send mundane or embarrassing pictures securely and temporarily. For example, if you were hanging out in your kitchen, casually munching on a wedge of Collin Street fruitcake, you could snap your friends a brief video of you comically shoving the whole thing into your mouth. No one needs to see that more than once... Thanks, Snapchat!
Snapchat also allows users the opportunity to play around with augmented reality. Through the use of "filters," or digitally superimposed props over your own image, props like bunny ears, nerd glasses, flower crowns, and much, much more.
If social media platforms could wear clothes, LinkedIn would rock a suit and tie. LinkedIn, sometimes called the “professionals’ Facebook,” is geared toward helping professionals connect with other professionals. With the ability to share pictures, videos, and articles, the platform mirrors many features offered by other social media sites. The appeal of LinkedIn over, say, Facebook is the ability to advertise jobs and search for qualified candidates. Essentially, every user’s personal LinkedIn Profile is a digital resume, where employment history, work portfolios, personal websites, and much more can be displayed.
LinkedIn is the platform to be on if you are looking to change careers or searching for open positions to apply. For example, if you wanted to be Collin Street’s official Quality Assurance Fruitcake Taste Tester, you would find that position more than likely, on LinkedIn. …Truth be told, that’s not an official job, but one can dream. Here are some steps for success as you edit your LinkedIn profile.
Twitter is all about short, quick wit. Its key differentiator from the aforementioned platforms is its focus on the “written word” as opposed to visual content. A "tweet" is a 280-character post that can include a picture but does not require one. The point of a tweet is to be concise!
On this platform, you can follow all your favorite authors, athletes, brands, influencers, or news outlets. Twitter is also a place to gain access to “trending” or quickly developing popular topics. For example, as the holidays start heading our way, we can expect more and more tweets about #fruitcake.
Even if you are not into posting your own tweets, you can "Retweet" or share someone else's post. Essentially, Signing up for Twitter means access to hundreds of news sources and experts in their field—that’s an exciting component of this platform!
Spotify
Spotify is a music and podcast streaming service that gives you access to millions of songs and other audio content from artists and creators all over the world.
Long gone are the days of CDs and cassette tapes. Spotify is a free service that allows you as a consumer to find the exact music you want to hear the second you want to listen. So if you wanted to hear songs about fruitcake or written by bands named Fruitcake, all you have to do is search “Fruitcake” and VOILÀ!
Setting up a Spotify account is easy. After creating an account, all you need to do is launch the Spotify Web Player or download the Spotify app, search for your favorite artists, and hit play. You can also create playlists and share music with your friends through text or email.
Reddit (cleverly named after the phrase “I read it”) is a massive online forum sometimes referred to as the “front page of the internet.” Oftentimes, the trending content published on other social platforms and even news outlets began on Reddit. This is for a specific unique reason.
Unlike many other platforms, the content trending on Reddit is not predetermined by the personal agenda of the platform’s creators but instead by the platform's users. Ranked through a non-biased system of ‘upvotes’ and ‘downvotes,’ trending content is socially curated and ranked through judicial online polling. This means the topics which genuinely have the most interest around them are ranked higher and therefore seen more often.
Reddit is categorized by a variety of topics called "subreddits," so you can specifically search for topics that most interest you. For example, there is a subreddit completely dedicated to fruitcake!
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is a restaurant and travel-centric website that presents its users with hotel and restaurant reviews, accommodations, booking options, and other travel-related content. If you are planning your next vacation, TripAdvisor is the place to consult. By consolidating thousands of hotels, rentals, activities, flight, and dining options, the platform enables users to plan a whole getaway from the comfort of a single website. So if you’re planning a road trip from Dallas to Austin and are needing a place to charge your Tesla and grab a cup of coffee, Collin Street Bakery is the perfect stop!
Yelp
Yelp is a business directory service that allows its users to rate and review various business services. Sort of like digital yellow pages, Yelp enables individuals to find and rank local restaurants, repair shops, spas, drug stores, coffee shops, gas stations, and bars.
Just like Reddit, Yelp is crowd-sourced, meaning the site's users determine the value of the page's content instead of the app creators.
Businesses are ranked via reviews submitted by fellow consumers and are tiered through a system of stars. A zero-star rating is bad-bad-bad; your fellow locals are telling you to ‘STAY AWAY!’ A five-star rating is amazing and indicates that the location is highly recommended by your digital neighbors.
For example, here's a review from Ray—a Yelper from Dallas:
“My family has been eating Collin Street Bakery fruitcake for over 100 years . . . Fruitcakes are not just for Christmas. - 5 STARS”
Quora
Quora is a question-and-answer website where opinions are asked and answered by Internet users. The keyword in the former sentence is ‘opinions.’ Quora is not a fact-based platform where you will find one correct answer. Instead, it’s about finding out highly vetted opinions. For example, you might ask, “Where is the best place to buy a fruitcake?” Cue the flood of opinions by fellow foodies. Users on Quora can collaborate by editing questions or suggesting edits to submitted answers.
Essentially, if you want to get diverse opinions about a subject or the reason why something works the way it does, Quora is the place to go.
Reward Yourself for Learning Something New!
PHEW! Are you social media’d out? It sounds like what you need is to recharge with a slice of fruitcake. Luckily, you're in the right place. Shop our selection and sizes of fruitcakes today to reward yourself for learning something new!
