Being Digital - Social Networking Platform Coursework

Being Digital - Social Networking Platform - Coursework Example Best practice # 1: objectives of the media Identifying the objectives of the social media is the first best practice when developing a social media. This is a critical phase the help in deciding what the social media will do. This objective is the main thrust of the House party, therefore, shaping all subsequent practices. Objectives of a social media have more influence on the features and the operations of the social media under development (Evans, 2010 p. 291). To refine this objective, the task of keeping all students informed about parties in campus must be broken down into simpler tasks that students can achieve using the social media. For instance, students can use messaging, chats, and writing notes on their walls. Best practice # 2: Knowing the target audience Understanding the target audience forms a critical part of the developing the House Party social media. To understand the audience, it is critical to evaluate the characteristics of students, and tailor the services ac cording to their needs. For instance, most students use their cell phones to access social sites. In addition, student prefers sharing content such as photos or video clips with one another. Segmentation of the audience is a necessary step in defining the audience and meeting their needs (Powell, Groves, & Dimos, 2011, p.114). It is also valuable to determine the average age, location and gender of students, and how they access internet. Most important, it is essential to understand how students communicate with other student about parties and how these parties are organized. This information will be helpful in deciding on the strategy. Best practice # 3: Applying a strategy Selecting a proven strategy is one of the essential tasks of building a reliable and efficient social media (Golden, 2011, p. 56). With consideration of the users of House Party, the strategy will centre on the development of a social tool that will accomplish the above-identified objectives, and for a specific audience (University students). The social media must allow other students to create party events and other to join them. Typically, the strategy will be to mimic the usual activities that university student engage in relation to parties. Best practice # 4: implementation-picking the right tools With a well-defined social media—House Party, it is essential to select the right tools to implement the above strategy. Successful implementation require both software and hardware resources to design, build and run House Party giving it an online presence. The required are:- a) Computers: The developers of House party will require 3PC and 2 Macs. In addition, one Server will be required, as well. Developers will use two PCs will be used to develop the social media using website authoring tool selected for this project. These PCs will have all software using in building House Party. The Mac’s will also help in creating stunning images that will form part of House Party. Dell P recision workstation with Dual Core i3, Windows 7 professional, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard drive, and Intel graphics will cost with 17† LCD screen will cost$ 1169. Two Macs each with 2.5Gz speed, 4 GB RAM, AMD Radeon graphics adapter with 511MB, 500 GB hard drive will cost $ 1199 apiece. These Macs will help in producing graphics for the website. For a server, Dell Power Edge