Social Media Information Systems

Social Media Landscape

  • Networking, publishing, sharing, collaborating, discussing, and messaging are key activities.

What is Social Media?

  • Social Media involves word of mouth amplified by technology.
  • The first recorded handwritten letter was around 500 BC.

Impact of Social Technology Addiction

  • Addiction can lead to:
    • Reduced conscious reasoning and language abilities.
    • Impaired cognitive shifting.
    • Low emotion and decreased memory.
    • Depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
    • Memory impairment.
  • A social tech-addicted brain resembles a drug-addicted brain.

Big Data

  • The global datasphere is projected to reach 175 ZB by 2025.
  • Data sources include activity, conversation, photo/video, and sensor data from the Internet of Things.

The Internet in One Minute (Example Statistics)

  • Millions of messages, connections, photos, and songs are shared every minute.

Key Questions About SMIS

  • What is a social media information system (SMIS)?
  • How does SMIS advance organizational strategy?
  • How does SMIS increase social capital?
  • What roles do SMIS play in the hyper-social organization?
  • How do companies earn revenue from social media?
  • How do organizations develop an effective SMIS?
  • What is an enterprise social network (ESN)?
  • Does mobility impact social media economics?
  • How can organizations manage social media risks?

The Internet and Business Disruption

  • The Internet is a major force changing business.
  • Organizations must adapt to changing markets and technologies.
  • Social media is a disruptive innovation.

SMIS: Social Media Information System

  • SMIS uses IT to support content sharing among networks of users.

SMIS: Convergence of Disciplines

  • SMIS integrates psychology, organization theory, sociology, marketing, computer science, and MIS.

SMIS Organizational Roles

  • Social media sites, application providers (e.g., Facebook), and sponsors (e.g., REI.com) interact with user communities.

Social Media Application Providers

  • Platforms like Facebook and Twitter offer features and functions, often free to users.
  • Revenue is typically generated through advertising.

Types of Communities

  • Defenders of Belief: Seek conformity and aim to convince others, facilitating sales and marketing with strong bonds.
  • Seekers of the Truth: Desire to learn and solve problems, but seldom form strong bonds.

Social Media and Sales & Marketing

  • Customer relationships are dynamic, with customers having significant control.

Social Media and Customer Service

  • Customers have as much control as companies.
  • Users help each other, risking loss of control.

Social Media and Manufacturing & Operations

  • Improves communication and efficiencies, including crowdsourcing.

Social Media and Human Resources

  • Used for employee communication, recruiting, and expertise sharing.
  • Risks include erroneous conclusions about employees.

How SMIS Increases Social Capital

  • Social capital includes information, influence, social credentials, and personal reinforcement.
  • Value metrics: number of relationships, relationship strength, and resources controlled.

Increasing Social Capital

  • Ask for favors, interact frequently, and connect with those with more assets.
  • Social Capital = NumberRelationships x RelationshipStrength x EntityResources

Facebook vs. LinkedIn

  • Facebook has more users and higher average connections, while LinkedIn caters to professionals.

Utilizing Social Networking for Business

  • Enables targeted marketing, closer customer relationships, community building, improved feedback, and data collection.

Hypersocial Organization

  • Transforms interactions into mutually satisfying relationships.
  • Shifts from market segments to tribes and from channels to networks.

Indirect Social Networking: Viral Marketing

  • Focuses on creating viral content.

Microblogging

  • Microblogs enable users to publish ideas and find like-minded individuals.

Benefits of Microblogging for Businesses

  • Public relations, relationship sales, and market research.

User-Generated Content (UGC)

  • Includes ratings, reviews, stories, discussions, wikis, blogs, and videos.

Crowdsourcing

  • Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving model, broadcasting problems to an unknown group of solvers.

Benefits of User-Generated Content

  • Increases trust, loyalty, brand involvement, and provides useful information while reducing support costs.

Risks of Using Social Networking and UGC

  • Includes uncontrolled brand risk, misleading content, and inappropriate content.

Responding to Social Networking Problems

  • Options include ignoring, responding, deleting, or proactively managing content.

Enterprise Social Networks (ESN)

  • ESNs use social media to facilitate cooperation within an organization.
  • Improve communication, collaboration, knowledge sharing, problem-solving, and decision-making.

ESN Implementation Best Practices

  • Define strategy, communicate, identify sponsors, provide support, and measure success.

Future Trends (202X)

  • Liberal BYOD policies, vendors lose control, and employees craft relationships.
  • Leverage social behavior to advance business strategy, emphasizing mobility, cloud, and non-routine cognitive skills.