Essay 2

Social Networks: Helping You Expand Your Business.

By Nareg Theodore Ohanessian

A social network is defined as a website which offers online services allowing users to interact with each other through profiles, to make new acquaintances, and expand their existing social circle. Brainwork. Nowadays there are numerous social network sites (SNS), which allow people to intermingle. Some being specific and targeting certain crowds, like CafeMom, targeting mothers, while others target a much broader audience, like MySpace and Facebook which aim at the general public with no special emphasis. Boyd.

A brief history of social networks will allow us to analyze and understand the process of implementing social networks into the workplace and applying its concepts in businesses. It is said that the first recognizable social networking site was launched in 1997: SixDegrees.com. But since the internet was a new concept back then, people did not have many friends online, and the service was shut down, some saying that the business was ahead of its time. After that, a wave of social networks appeared, targeting millions. Boyd. Later on, in 2005, after several years of SNS development, the public began to show bigger interest in these sites. MySpace which had grown to host millions of users was bought by News Corporation for $580 million. Boyd. Businesses had begun to notice the importance of these social network sites.

When a company releases a new product, its main concern is to render the public aware of the existence of this product. It would also be interested in reviews, ratings and comments, very valuable information which SNS provide. With the emergence of social network sites, advertising has been reformed and played a role in widening companies’ audiences. A study shows that 80% of Facebook users login everyday to the service and about 93% login once a month at least. Rajat Raizada. Those figures should speak for themselves. If a company were to advertise on a social network site, it would have a much larger reach, and would certainly gain more hits than it would on its official website. Salman. Since the ad is on the individual’s profile page, he does not go into the effort of entering the company’s website URL, rather he clicks on the link which is provided and goes directly to the page of the advertisement, or is redirected to the company’s official website. But that would not be efficient, if the general public was to be targeted, since a lot of people would neglect the ad because of their lack of interest in that particular product. That is why social network sites allow business to target specific people, people with certain interests that would go hand in hand

with the company’s products. Chappell. For instance, if Mercedes-Benz were to advertise on Facebook, it could target people who Like the “Mercedes-Benz” fan page, people who have “luxury cars” as interests, it could even target a certain age group, or even choose to target men exclusively. Targeting also reduces costs since the number of times the ad would appear on pages would be reduced. In addition, since people spent a lot of time on SNS, they would be exposed to a larger number of ads, which would be to companies’ benefit. Pennsylvania.

Social network sites undoubtedly serve their purpose when it comes to advertising, but they also play a crucial role in evaluating products and services. When a company creates a fan page, it is very likely that it will post news about the release of new products and services on that page, which means that it will be subject to comments, ratings, opinions, etc. Companies consider this information a very valuable asset since they are receiving reviews from the public, which will enable them to improve their product or service to increase customer satisfaction. Pennsylvania

These sites also help users build businesses from scratch. For instance, Nick Kellet, a board game designer, had left his job to publish his board game, and when he got in touch with a former co-worker over a social network site, he was glad to hear that she was teaching Chinese to another board game owner to facilitate communication with factory owners in Shanghai. Later on, that friend arranged a meeting with the factory owners and Nick had found a manufacturer for his game. He also put up his game on boardgamegeek and had applications designed on SNS to have people play his game online. Swearingen.

In a nutshell, Social Network Sites, since their creation, have revolutionized the way businesses maintain their social image online. Whether it is the way their advertise and target a specific audience through queries, while having very low costs, or the way they track the public’s preferences and changes of taste, or even the way their use reviews, opinions, ratings and comments to perk up their products, Social Network Sites have become an essential and indispensable tool for businesses. In some cases, Social Network Sites might even hel individuals speed up the process of launching a new business, through communication with key people, since it is common for people to use their social network to establish businesses Jenssen. Social Network Sites have revolutionized the way people receive information from companies and vice versa.

Bibliography

Boyd, D. M. (n.d.). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Retrieved 05 22, 2011

BrainWork. (2010, 12 1). Expand Business Through Social Networking. Retrieved 05 22, 2011, from articlesbase.com: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/expand-business-through-social-networking-3764222.html

Chappell, B. (2009, 08 18). How to Target Users within Social Networks. Retrieved 05 20, 2011, from Search Engine Journal: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-target-users-within-social-networks/12558/

Jenssen, J. I. (2002). Does the Degree of Redundancy in Social. Retrieved 05 25, 2011, from homes.chass.utoronto.ca: http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~agreve/IJEBR_Jenssen-Greve.pdf

Pennsylvania, M. T. (2008). Advertising on Social Networking Websites. Retrieved 05 22, 2011, from repository.upenn.edu: http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1054&context=wharton_research_scholars

Rajat Raizada, T. V. (2009). The Effect of Social Networking Sites on The Personal Lives of People. Retrieved 05 21, 2011, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/13653301/The-Effect-of-Social-Networking-Sites

Salman. (2011, 01 12). Expand Business through Social Networking. Retrieved 05 24, 2011, from http://www.ustaadkhan.com: http://www.ustaadkhan.com/ustaadkhan/2017

Swearingen, J. (2008, 09 05). Social Networking for Business. Retrieved 05 23, 2011, from Bnet.com: http://www.bnet.com/article/social-networking-for-business/219914

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSne4YBY1Js&feature=player_embedded

This Video helped me see the impact social media has on businesses, and how they might profit from them.

http://www.business.att.com/binary/content/whitepaper/WP-soc_17172_v3_11-10-08.pdf