Social Media ± E-commerce
According to our text, “E-commerce refers to the use of the internet and the web to transact business”. But how beneficial (+) or detrimental (-) is social media to e-commerce? Is social media the internet/web that e-commerce
uses to transact business? The book goes on further to say how the ‘new
Internet’ has opened the market place where business transactions provide a
unique many-to-many model for mass communication. Technology and the internet
have far evolved from the brick and mortar business place to a digital business
model. A positive and negative impact of social media on e-commerce is
advertising and marketing.
Benefits would include: cost of digital marketing as opposed
to physical marketing (billboards, TV, newspaper inserts, etc.), larger
worldwide community (Charlotte vs. the USA), and broadcasting (many-to-many vs.
one-to-many) just to name a few. E-commerce isn't confined to large
corporations or the government, its available for small businesses as well as non-profit
organizations. On mediabistro.com, Rich Gorman has a list of 10 social media
must haves for e-commerce sites. In the article he gives what he believes are
key attributes in maximizing the benefits of using social media to be profitable in e-commerce. He mentions
enabling social sharing from the company’s website, hitting the thumbs up as a
consumer would post the company’s info directly onto a newsfeed on Facebook. Newsfeed
on Facebook has become the new ‘refer a friend’ for services or local business
places, which puts the company out there as a recommendation from the user.
A significant detriment would
be the the larger worldwide community and how negativity would be publicized. Not
only dissatisfaction from a customer, but any potential scandal that might arise
from a key member at the organization. According to ecommercetimes.com, “Angry
post spread faster on social networks than those indicative of any other
emotion”. The conclusion was reached after a recent study was conducted at the
Beihang University in an attempt to test whether homophily, the tendency of individuals to associate or
bond with similar others, occurs in social media interactions. The results
were that anger spreads the quickest. Dissatisfaction sometimes conceives anger,
which conceives slander or negativity to a product, service, or the company as
a whole.
Info.syncshow.com recommends multiple best practices for
dealing with negativity. Spot-check is one of the best practices that acts as
an early detection. Identifying and repairing the negativity can reduce the
damage. The site also mentions respect; it works well in person as well as
online.
Bibliography
Laudon, K. C. & Laudon, J. P. (2012). Management
Information Systems- Mangaing the digital firm. Upper Saddle River:
Pearson Education Inc. (Chapter 10 pg.378)
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