For our discussion this week, we had a few options for the topics we could discuss. I will start with the question of three social trends affecting US based businesses. The first trend I discovered was the power of Facebook. “. . . Facebook has the highest penetration among the top social media entities” (Cohen, 2013). Through Facebook, people are able to not only set up personal profiles but also post reviews and recommendations about businesses that can be viewed all over the world. This is a huge tool that essential works like word-of-mouth, but electronically. To be competitive businesses are setting up additional advertising here to help bolster crowds which frequent this site. The other social trend I found interesting was of the use of twitter which is essentially a site that streams blasts and updates continually for people that a user chooses to follow. As businesses have seen the power of Facebook, they have also jumped on this new trend so consumers can follow a not only people like celebrities, but also businesses and get the most up to date news at the touch of a finger. The last social trend that seems to be quite prevalent is the use of spam mail. When businesses want to easily promote something like a product or service, it is fairly easy to do this by bombarding people will e-mails by way of advertising and phishing. While most respectable businesses don’t normally do this, many others take advantage of be able to reach multiple people without them having to visit their home web site directly. I then looked at three technological trends that are affecting business and found something like a new industrial revolution. Each day, as technology advances we are given more tools to make our job easier, but in some cases jobs can be automated by machines. “Smart machines and robots will redefine society” (The Economist Newspaper Limited, 2014). As an example, doctors’ offices have moved to an electronic format. You will notice the medical assistants and doctors carry smart tablets and laptops to do patient screening and history and to send requests for testing to outside entities. Gone are the days of paper forms which have to be manually filed and stored by a person. Another technological trend is that of the personal smart phone which allows a person to control their whole world from one device. The best example I think of is mobile banking, where customers can complete multiple transactions without ever having to see a teller. Banks that are not taking advantage of having an app the consumers can download to their phone could potentially lose those customers for lack of convenience. The last technological trend that I found to be super interesting was that of the decline of newspapers and the post service. As technology has made it possible to receive news and emails which contain the same information but with less clutter and little to no cost, companies like The Times and the USPS have been pushed to raise prices in order to continue to remain in operation.
The finish up my research, I decided to view three governmental policy trends faced by US based businesses and saw that technologically data analytics, civic innovation, and procurement reform are the hottest items to watch for 2014. Data analytics will allow “. . . policymakers new tools for spotting trends, allocating resources and modeling the impact of decisions” (Towns, 2014). In regard to civic innovation, the government would be able to acquire new technology at lower cost so that they can get software that not only fits the need but can encourage and support local tech firms to help spur the market. Lastly, procurement reform deals with attracting new and potential companies to join in the buying process so that the same long-time companies who know how to work the system do not continue to dominate it. As a plus, this type of reform would allow for the government to get closer to some of the private sector trends that work well currently.

References
Cohen, H. (April 9, 2013). 2013 Social Media Trends and Your Business. Retrieved February 26, 2014 from, http://heidicohen.com/2013-social-media-trends-and-your-business/
The Economist Newspaper Limited (2014). A top ten for business leaders. Retrieved February 26, 2014, from http://www.economist.com/blogs/theworldin2013/2012/11/global-trends-2013
Towns, S. (2014). Government Technology Trends to Watch in 2014. Retrieved February 26, 2014 from, http://www.governing.com/columns/tech-talk/gov-government-technology-trends-to-watch-in-2014.html