As part of the information systems I have learned about the impact and distribution of information on social media. I want to highlight the good, the bad and the ugly I picked up from the course Module 2: Social Media and Building a Digital Portfolio, a video from https://campus.college.ch/video/167660614 which requires RKC credentials/login (Kreps, 2016).
1.1. The good
The internet vastly developed away from a “simplex” read-only web, where many people read information from a few to a web that allowed may people to generate content that can be consumed by a lot of people. Also the phenomena is called Web2.0, which is usually understood as the technology of interacting with the homepage content, for example for enhanced ontology learning (Kurilovas & Juskeviciene, 2015) and not (solely) content creation, this interaction allowed people to do easier content creations on the various social media platforms arising (like Facebook 2006 onwards (Hisrich & Kearney, 2016)), allowing users to interact more, or as Krebs puts it do a “Social Internet Revolution”.
It is currently evaluated that Web 3.0 is developed considering the spread of mobile devices and using data from various sources like IOT for user consumption and prediction of what the user wants to consume.
Business should also participate in the social media, using it for new distribution channels, Dell and Blendtec are mentioned to do well in generating profit and gaining growth via using the social platforms like twitter or YouTube. The sharing mechanism of such platforms allow the presence of a message/content to be multiplied massively in a short amount of time.
1.2. The bad
Implications for businesses is that they watch out that there is such a presence and they do not fall behind in being not presented online or only via a mere static page.
As the virtual connection and content exchange for people is gaining more weight in the private and professional life, Internet Access is declared as a basic human right as Bernasconi & Maxlow (2010) put it. However, many people around the world still don’t have (adequate, highspeed) internet access, for example only 52% in South Africa (Business Source Premier, 2017).
1.3. The ugly
#bashtag:
Even businesses are encouraged to have a social media presence, they must carefully plan and watch it, to avoid that their presences are used to massively denounce the company. For example, if their #businessNow-hashtag is overly used to describe stories about the company that is not complementing it but rather damaging their reputation, it may be the case that the hashtag or encouraged content to share was not thought about enough or risks not evaluated properly. Such a shitstorm (yes, it’s also called that) can also develop from not replying to complains quickly or accurate enough; however, if complains are answered to satisfaction of the customer, maybe even before the questions were posted numerous times, the company can go avoid reputation loss and show itself as responsive and responsible.
References
Bernasconi, N., & Maxlow, J. (2010, March). Is internet access a basic human right? Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(6), 6+. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.salford.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A226162649/AONE?u=salcal2&sid=AONE&xid=7a47d27c
Business Source Premier. (2017). Internet Access Industry Profile: South Africa. Internet Access Industry Profile: South Africa. Ipswich, MA: EBSCOhost .
Hisrich, R., & Kearney, C. (2016). Facebook. SAGE knowledge. Cases. Retrieved from http://sk.sagepub.com.salford.idm.oclc.org/cases/facebook
Kreps, D. D. (Director). (2016). Social Media [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from https://campus.college.ch/video/167660614
Kurilovas, E., & Juskeviciene, A. (2015). Creation of Web 2.0 tools ontology to improve learning. . Computers in Human Behavior, 1380.