How social computing improves customer service

1 | Office | Faculty | Department

Week 6

Social Computing

Fundamentals of Business Information Systems

2 | Office | Faculty | Department

Why are we doing this?

The concepts and activities in the this week are designed to help you successfully complete

Assessment Tasks 1, 2 and 3.

1. By completing the activities in this week, you should be able to:

2. Describe major web 2.0 applications.

3. Describe the benefits and risks of social commerce to companies.

4. Identify the methods used for shopping socially.

5. Discuss innovative ways to use social networking sites for advertising and market research.

6. Describe how social computing improves customer service.

7. Discuss different ways in which human resource managers make use of social computing.

8. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of crowdsourcing to organisations

3 | Office | Faculty | Department

9. Apply additional formatting and charting techniques in Excel

Essential Question

• How is social computing empowering individuals?

Source: www.promptcloud.com

What is Social Computing?

4 | Office | Faculty | Department

• Humans orient their behavior around other members of their community.

• As a result, people are sensitive to the behavior of those around them.

• Many of our decisions are influenced by our social context.

What is Social Computing?

5 | Office | Faculty | Department

Social computing is a type of IT that combines social behavior and

information systems, to create a digital social context that has value.

Therefore social computing concentrates on improving collaboration and interaction among people through user-generated content.

What is Social Computing?

6 | Office | Faculty | Department

• Social information is not anonymous.

• Linked to particular individuals who are in turn linked to their networks.

• Users rather than organisations, produce, control, use and manage content via interactive communication and collaboration.

• Employees and customers are empowered by their ability to use social computing to organize themselves.

What is Social Computing?

7 | Office | Faculty | Department

• Social computing can influence those in power to listen to the issues and concerns of ordinary people.

• Read example on page 252 of your textbook. 1. What are the forces behind social computing?

2. What are the types technology or applications help social computing?

8 | Office | Faculty | Department

What is the difference between Web 1.0 and Web

2.0?

Web 1.0 – First Generation of the Web (1990) • Ability to create websites

• Commercialisation of the Web

• Minimal user interaction with Web 1.0 sites

• Passive reception of information

9 | Office | Faculty | Department

What is the difference between Web 1.0 and Web

2.0?

Web 2.0 • A loose collection of information technologies, applications, and the websites that

use them

• Provides enriched user experience

• A new digital ecosystem that promotes creativity, connectivity, collaboration,

convergence, and community

10 | Office | Faculty | Department

Web 2.0 & Web 2.0 Applications

Web 1.0

• Web pages connected by hyperlinks

• User views static web pages

Web 2.0

• A loose collection of IT apps and websites that use them

• Users interact, collaborate,

create…

11 | Office | Faculty | Department

Web 2.0

Applications

Tagging – A keyword is used

to describe a piece of

information in multiple,

overlapping associations

rather than in rigid categories

RSS - Really Simple Syndication.

Subscribers receive customised

information when they want it,

Blogs (or weblogs) - Personal

websites, open to the public.

Microblogging - A form of blogging

using short messages, image, or

video Example: www.twitter.com

http://www.twitter.com/
12 | Office | Faculty | Department

without having to surf thousands of

websites

Wiki - A website

made up entirely of

content posted by

users Promotes

collaboration

Example:

www.wikipedia.org

Social networking websites A

website that supports activities for

maintaining social networks – e.g.

Facebook

Business-oriented social network

www.linkedin.com

Enterprise social networks

Corporate social networks to

facilitate employee communication

and interaction

– e.g. IBM’s Social Blue

Mashup

A website that takes content from

other websites and mixes them

Web 2.0 Applications

http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.linkedin.com/
13 | Office | Faculty | Department

together to create a new kind of

content - list:

www.programmableweb.com

Social computing in business

• Social Commerce

• The delivery of electronic commerce activities and transactions through social computing

• Supports social interactions and user contributions

• What is electronic commerce?

http://www.programmableweb.com/
14 | Office | Faculty | Department

Figure 8.5

15 | Office | Faculty | Department

Social computing in business Benefits to

customers

Better and faster

vendor responses

to complaints

Customers assist

other customers

Customers’

expectations can

be met more fully &

quickly

Customers can

easily search, link,

chat & buy

Benefits to businesses

Test new products and ideas

quickly & inexpensively

Learn a lot about customers and

their experiences

Identify problems quickly and

alleviate customer anger

Increases sales with positive

customer feedback

Better & cheap marketing

campaign and brand awareness

through usergenerated content

& viral marketing

Risks to businesses

Negative, unedited,

possibly invalid,

unethical reviews

Potential bias content

(2080 rule)

Information security

concerns

Invasion of privacy

Violation of intellectual and

copyright

Figure 8.5

16 | Office | Faculty | Department

Social shopping

A type of e-commerce using social networking tools to enhance the shopping experience

Ways of social shopping:

• Ratings, reviews, and recommendations to guide purchases, e.g.. www.epinions.com, www.shopsocially.com

• Group shopping - Major discounts offered for a short time. e.g.. www.groupon.com.au

• Shopping communities and clubs - Offer discounts for members for limited time without diminishing a brand’s image. e.g.. www.ruelala.com

• Social marketplaces and direct sales - Online intermediaries using social networks for buying and selling products and services. e.g.. www.craigslist.com.au

• Peer-to-peer shopping, e.g.. www.ebay.com

http://www.epinions.com/
http://www.epinions.com/
http://www.shopsocially.com/
http://www.groupon.com.au/
http://www.ruelala.com/
http://www.craigslist.com.au/
http://www.ebay.com/
17 | Office | Faculty | Department

Social marketing

• Social advertising

• Influence consumers by peer pressure, friend recommendations, likes, etc.

• Social apps

• Branded online applications that support social interactions and user contributions - e.g.. Nike+ app,

• Viral marketing (word of mouth) - e.g. Twitter account @capitalwines

• Market research

• The open nature of social networking allows merchants to understand, identify, and target potential customers at zero or low cost

• Ways of social market research:

• Conversational marketing: use blogs, wikis, online forums, and social networking sites to collect feedback from customers

• Social intelligence: a process of monitoring, collecting, and analysing socially generated data to support strategic decisions

http://www.nike.com/au/en_gb/c/nike-plus?ref=https://www.google.com.au/
http://www.nike.com/au/en_gb/c/nike-plus?ref=https://www.google.com.au/
18 | Office | Faculty | Department

• How do companies use social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter for market research?

Social computing in human

resource management

Recruiting • Recruiters scan online social networks, blogs, etc. to find information about potential

employees

• Job seekers are more visible to recruiters if they are online and active

Training • Several companies use virtual worlds for training purposes

• Example: www.secondlife.com

• Cisco uses its virtual campus in Second Life for product training and executive briefings

• IBM runs management and customer interaction training sessions in Second Life

http://www.secondlife.com/
19 | Office | Faculty | Department

Social computing in business:

customer relationship management

• Social computing helps

businesses improve customer

service, maintain loyal relationships

and track business opportunities

• Companies are aware of the

effects of negative comments posted

by social network members

• Opportunity to involve customers

proactively to reduce problems

through improved customer service

20 | Office | Faculty | Department

Customer reports produced by Salesforce.com

Crowdsourcing

• Taking a job traditionally performed by an employee or a consultant and

outsourcing it to an undefined group of people in the form of an open call

• Assumption: A large number of enthusiasts can outperform a small group

of experienced professionals

• Let freelancers, volunteers, customers, and low-paid amateurs solve

problems, innovate, and get work done

• Examples: www.innocentive.com; www.istockphoto.com

• What are the benefits and risks of crowd sourcing?

http://www.innocentive.com/
http://www.innocentive.com/
http://www.istockphoto.com/
21 | Office | Faculty | Department

Chapter Summary

This chapter focused on • The emergence and impact of Web 2.0 technology and websites

• The application and benefits of social computing in the areas of business, shopping,

marketing, CRM, and HRM as well as the associated risks

• The challenges and benefits to be derived from crowdsourcing to an organisation