Users of the world, unite! the challenges and opportunities of social media

Kaplan. M, Haenlein, M (2009) Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Kelley School of Business, Indiana

The sector of Social Media

As of 2009 the  users of social media sites such as Facebook, Youtube, and Flickr  went up by 56% from 2007. Besides posting images, watching videos the social sites have  led consumers to write reviews to the shopping sites. The users of the social media sites aren’t just teenagers or the generation X but also the group from 35. 44 years olds.

The businesses are slowly adapting to having less control over the information presented on the internet and are unable to change anything posted about their company over the internet. Even though, the internet has been out since the 1990s, we only saw a huge a change since the dot.com bubble in 2001. The purpose of internet was always to exchange information between users, but the sharing of information has become more powerful over the years. As business are able to use the social media sites for advertising selling products online in more innovative ways.  Nowadays, consumers are able to gather all the information before making a purchase by comparing prices, product quality with all the information listed on the internet. The internet offers both advantages and disadvantages  to companies. Companies are able to watch how their products are performing in the industry through product reviews and implement changes to further accommodate their customers. But it can also offer some disadvantages, for instance a bad product review listed on the website can effect a company’s reputation and have further implications.

The article focuses on the history of social media, technical specifications, differences from other entities and six types of social media. It discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by the firms due to the social media evolution. Finally, it provides recommendations for companies to develop a social media strategy

The article focuses on the history of social media, technical specifications, differences from other entities and six types of social media. It discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by the firms due to the social media evolution. Finally, it provides recommendations for companies to develop a social media strategy.

What is social media – What is it not?

Social media was first started of as an “open diary” as an easily social networking site by Bruce and Susan Abelson. It turned into the term “web blog” which we commonly refer to today as “blog”. Later, the creation of Facebook and MySpace came into play.

The term as we commonly use as “ social media” is related to the terms Web 2.0 and user generated content/ Web 2.0 term is used to defined a platform where all users are able to create and modify the published online content. For instance, the Adobe Flash that allows users to add animation and audio/videos to a webpage. Similarly, the RSS feeds allowing users to publish frequently and update content in forms of blogs. The term User Generated Content is used to describe any form of media  content that is publicly available and is created by the end user, such as blogs, posts, tweets.

Furthermore, we all refer to Facebook, Youtube, Wikipedia as social media but there is no other classification. To classify  the term social media, we use the Social Presence theory, which is an acoustic, visual and physical contact. The higher the social presence, the larger the social influence that communication partners have one each other’s behaviour.

Media Richness, depends on the amount of information allowed to be transmitted in a given interval, resulting in more effectively than others in resolving ambiguity and uncertainty.

Retrieved from Google Images

Social media is moving very fast, so it is important for companies to set up a set of guidelines that can be applies to any form of Social Media.

Five points about using media

Choose carefully

Since, there are so many of social media applications available out there, it becomes difficult for companies to choose the right one. It is important to chose the one that considers the target group and the message to be communicated. For instance, book lovers community would include a place where user are able to share self written novels or poems.

Pick the application, or make your own.

Another common decision faced by companies is to whether buy an application or make their own? By buying an existing application, you are able to benefit from its popularity. However, you might need to make one to just to fit your unique needs, for instance, Japan Fuji-film developed its own social network to build a community of photo lovers.

Ensure Activity Alignments

It is important to align all your  social media activities with each other. For example, Dell uses a combination of sites like Facebook, Youtube, Blogs, and LinkedIn to show how its range of laptops allow individuals to become a nomadic mobile workforce.

Media Plan Integration

Integration is “key”. For instance, Coca Cola, took a video shot by customers that  become a major hit and used it as part of their own advertising.

Access for all

Managing how employees can access a company’s social media sites. But it is important for employees to have access to the social media sites in order to post their comments that are read by the customers. However, the site should be well administered to make sure employees are not wasting their time on the corporate site just watching videos.

Five points about being social

Be Active

If you want to develop a relationship with your customers, than you have to take the lead and be active. It includes allay sharing, engaging in open discussion with the customers.

Be interesting

In order to gain the attention of your customers you must first listen to them and find what they would find interesting and enjoyable and post content to fit their needs.

Be humble

Don’t forget the customers spend a lot of time using social media sites, so before entering any application it is important to learn about its history and basic rules.

Be unprofessional

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, try to blend in with others on the social media site.

Be honest

Try not to create anonymous accounts to publish positive comments about your company, as users are most likely to notice.

Collaborative Projects

They enable a joint and simultaneous creation of content by many end-users and are the most democratic manifestation of UGC. The main idea of collaborative projects relates to Fama’s 1970 study of Efficient Market Hypothesis, where the joint efforts of many actors lead to a better outcome than could be  achieved individually. And the collaborative projects are the main source of information for customers.

Blogs

Represent the earliest form of Social Media, and are special types of websites that display posted information in a reverse order according to the date posted. They are managed by  one person, and include author’s personal experiences, life summaries, and information on any types of topics.

 Content Communities

The main objective of content communities to share media content between users. Content communities include text, photos (Flickr), videos ( Youtube), powerpoint presentation on  SlideShare. Amongst the popularity, content communities face the risk of Copyright material that is posted on these sites such as videos of  recent TV shows which difficult to remove.

Social networking sites.

Social networking sites basically allow users to access and share personal information with others over the internet. These sites include Myspace and Facebook that are highly in demand with the younger generations where they share videos and photos of each other. In addition, companies use social networking sites to promote their products and services. For example, the Fred Claus was shared on Facebook with its trailer for viewers to watch and like the movie.

 Virtual Game Worlds

Virtual Games World allows users to play games online by following strict rules with other players. The popular game tools include the X-Box and Play Station