SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS IN E-COMMERCE

Social Media Tools in E-Commerce
Richard Weyers, James Conner, Roselyn Singh
University Of Phoenix
Communicating in the Virtual Workplace
Comm/470
Brooke Linderman
July 05, 2010

Social Media Tools in E-Commerce
Introduction
Successful businesses are built on a common theme; customers! As is the case with just about everything in the world, the way in which businesses expand their customer base is an ever-evolving process. How does a business build a brand name with a strong reputation, and once they’ve achieved those qualities how do they spread that word for all to hear? For a long time businesses used tools such as door-to-door salesman, radio, print, and television ads as their means of spreading word about their product. And while those tools remain alive today, the explosion of the internet has broadened the horizon of the common business. With the internet came electronic commerce, or simply e-commerce. E-commerce is simply the conducting of business over the internet and it is becoming a major part of the business world today (UMSL Online, n.d.). It’s important that businesses embrace the new possibilities or find themselves at a disadvantage. “The successful adaptation of e-commerce can lead to improved efficiencies, growth in market share, expansion into new markets, or simply survival in competitive markets” (Ferguson, Finn, Hall, & Pinnuck, 2010, p. 80). The internet has also provided new methods of spreading the word of business beyond the old reliable like television and radio. Understanding these new social media tools and the ethics behind them is an important part of successful e-commerce.
Social Media Tools and Uses Many people start projects without realizing many types of social media tools that are available to their company. When companies learn about the tools required, and how to understand them, the company will get better use out of them. Social media have numerous tools of different categories that they offer to consumers, and businesses. Learning to use the different types of media that best fit a company project can be difficult for even the smartest of social marketers. The main objective of social media is to communicate and engage the consumer or potential clients a much needed desire to achieve better sales, or improve the consumer satisfaction. Businesses most often use social media as a public relation tool and to help their marketing efforts. To help in the battle for consumers, small organizations employ the use of social media. Social media are used in businesses to improve the areas of branding, public relations, collaborative work, and internal communications. In the past businesses would frown on their employees using social media while at work (Gordon, n.d.). Today, almost half the businesses have workers whose mission includes spending time on social sites. In today’s society Twitter and Facebook are the most commonly used social medias. Organizations tune in to them as they inquire about the future of blogging. To reach a large group of consumers or clients on a personal point of view is an ability a company must have in order to remain competitive with their competition. The four services that use social media tool and network the most are LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and the use of blog (Gordon, n.d.). When it comes to social networking twitter has the most potential for success from a business point of view. This is accomplished with the retweets. The retweet is the same as forwarding e-mails, or links to anyone on the company e-mailing list. Retweets is a great tool to get people exposed to the company who might not have otherwise. Topsy is a new search engine which shows twitter users about the most influential topics. When companies are developing their tweets they should consider how the community will benefit from their tweets. They should have a good mix of education, entertainment, and promotions. Businesses should make sure they leave plenty of space for retweets. When companies use twitter it is mainly as an external source. Sharing breaking news is the most commonly external use of twitter. When companies use twitter internally it’s mainly for sharing information. Sales, marketing, public relations, and internal communication are the four areas of function that businesses use in social network. Maintaining and building relationships are the main use of the social network when it comes to sales. Facebook and LinkedIn are the two social medias that are commonly used to maintain contact with clients (Gordon, n.d.) As for marketing, the social network is used for monitoring customer trends and for promoting organic messages. The social network also provides a shift toward interaction with the customers. When a company uses the social network as it pertains to public relations, there are four main functions. These functions are maintaining profile page of the company, distributing press releases with new items, responding to and monitoring any mention of the company product, and interaction with bloggers. The public profile is a way for companies to communicate with customers and for the company to get a better understanding of consumers. All social media may not fit a company’s particular situation. The end goal must remain one of the businesses main focuses (Social Media Marketing Best Practices, 2008). The company needs to understand who is their target audience and for what purpose. A company must evaluate what social networks fit their business objectives. When you have a self-employed business person or a new start up business, making customers aware of their business will be instrumental in the company’s primary stages. Twitter and MySpace are used to connect members to others they have never met. When small businesses use these tools to add members to their social network, the potential of their success will go a long way. When a company has compiled a network of social media users, they must learn the best strategy to use to get their message circulated. Twitter has the capability to allow members to send out small messages called tweets through their entire network of followers. A business must also think about the way they deliver a message. A company message should be setup depending on the type of business being represented. If the company is a business dealing with serious issues or from a professional standpoint, then the messages they send out should reflect that image. If a company is in a situation where they want to find and maintain new business contacts they will want to look at LinkedIn. LinkedIn has emerged as a great online site for finding, making, and maintaining contacts. LinkedIn also gives companies the advantage of connecting with other businesses that share the same mind-set as their company. With a feature like faceted search a company can have plenty of specific and personal information at their disposal. As we look on, if a business in local areas have an actual storefront, Yelp can provide a great deal of information. With the Yelp tool a business can manufacture their own listing with important information for consumers to find them. One of the more important parts of Yelp is the customer feedback. If there is positive feedback from consumers it will better the chances to increase the gain of potential consumers (Evans, 2010). If the company brand is something that customers use regularly, Facebook will be especially effective. For example, observe Starbucks. Millions of people drink coffee particularly at work, so it would be only right for Starbucks to have a good presence on Facebook. Last, but not least, if the company situation is to provide consumers with insight, or information about any fast rising trends, then blogs will be an excellent media to have. The most important thing about social media we must remember is that it’s not a one-size-fits all situation.
Ethical Issues The business ethics of any organization is instrumental in its long-term success. Values such as honesty, trust, respect, and fairness make up the culture of an organization. How these values are integrated into an organization’s policies and practices as well as the organizations following of legal standards and regulations is called business ethics (Turbin et al., 2008). “The scope of business ethics has expanded to encompass a company’s actions with regard not only to how it treats employees and obeys laws but to the nature and quality of the relationships with shareholders, customers, business partners, suppliers, the community, environment, and future generations (Turbin et al., p. 782).” The development of new social media tools used in e-commerce has challenged organizations from an ethical standpoint in areas such as security, privacy, and credibility. All members of any organization engaging in e-commerce need direction from that organization about what behaviors are reasonable and what risks are potential under different circumstances (Turbin et al.). Security and privacy are two ethical issues that have been greatly compromised by the advent of information technology. “In the past, the complexity of collecting, sorting, filing, and accessing information manually from several different government agencies was a built-in protection against misuse of private information. It was simply too expensive, cumbersome, and complex to invade a person’s privacy. The Internet, in combination with large-scale databases, eliminated those barriers” (Turbin et al., 2008, p. 785). While this technology has the ability to do plenty of good, it also has created an ethical issue for organizations when it comes to how they gather, protect, and use private information. Failure to follow ethical guidelines can result in identity theft as well as the sharing of private information without the consent of the individual. The ideas of credibility and trust should be important concepts to any organization as it relates to employees, customers and clients. When it comes to social media tools, organizations have an ethical obligation to be honest in their communication. Ethical boundaries are crossed when organizations manipulate the information accessible to their customers. Examples of manipulation include false advertising, fake product reviews and comments that appear to come from actual customers. Taking part in such activities can seriously damage the credibility of an organization. Addressing Ethics There are several different methods organizations can use to address ethical issues with regard to communication technology. The first possible method is by following government legislation. However, because communication technology is relatively new, laws are difficult to pass because of lack of precedence. A second method of managing ethical concerns is through open discussion. Conversation about the relationship between computer technology and ethics should be welcomed and initiated. Another option for organizations is the creation of a code of ethics that specifically deals with the use of technology. A code of ethics helps guide employees in their ethical decision making. Codes of ethics are very common documents within an organization when dealing with many issues; however the need to create a code dealing with technology specifically is becoming more and more necessary. A final option for managing technology ethics involves creating more technology. “Companies can develop technology=based solutions to technology-related problems” (Roebuck & McKenney, 2006, chap. 15). An example of such technology would be a firewall. A firewall is software that enables an organizations network to access the Internet without compromising security (Roebuck & McKenney). Conclusion As has been shown, knowledge of the many new social media tools available to organizations taking part in e-commerce is beneficial. More so than being aware of them, knowing how to appropriately utilize them is essential to producing successful results. With that being said, it isn’t enough to simply jump in and put those tools to work for your organization. It’s important to understand that new ethical challenges will be presented. Understanding those challenges as well as methods for dealing with them must carefully be reviewed and practiced. Business Plan Outline I. Title Page A. Personal Contact Info – Includes items such as name, address, email address, contact number. B. Business description – Describe the company and the nature of the business C. Confidentiality Statement – Used to protect your business endeavor II. Executive Summary – This summary should be used as a quick overview of the entire plan. This should give the reader a good, however brief, idea of your plan. III. Business Description A. Mission Statement – States what you hope to accomplish. B. Beginning – Explain how business got started or how you plan to begin it. C. Management – Introduce your management team and their backgrounds. D. Organizational Chart – Shows lines of authority so the decision makers know who is in control and how communication flows. E. Achievements – Explain any results or achievements of the business to date. F. SWOT – Analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the company. IV. Operations Plan A. Product – A description of the product or service being offered by the business. B. Concept – A specific and detailed description of how the business is going to work. C. Market Analysis – Explain how the product differs or is unique from others in the market. What makes it special? D. Customer Profile – Describe the profile of the potential customer and explain why they would want the product. V. Financial Plan A. Investment – Detail the money required for the plan. B. Forecast – Summarize expected sales and expenses for the first three years. VI. Marketing Plan – Discuss how products or services will be distributed, priced, and promoted. Explain how much will be invested in promotion and marketing of product or services. VII. Competitor Analysis – Assess the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential customers.
References
Evans, M. (2010). How to choose your social media tool. The Globe and Mail, (), . Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com
Ferguson, C., Finn, F., Hall, J., & Pinnuck, M. (2010). Speculation and e-commerce: The long and short of IT. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 11(2), 79-104. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com
Roebuck, D. B., & McKenney, M. (2006). Improving Business Communication Skills, Fourth Edition. Available from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu
Turbin, E., King, D., McKay, J., Marshall, P., Lee, J., & Viehland, D. (2008). Electric Commerce 2008: A Managerial Perspective. Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu
UMSL Online (n.d.). Define E-commerce!. Retrieved July 5, 2010, from www.umsl.edu