Social Media in Business

Challenges “ If your prospects like your product, they'll tell 10 people. If they don't, they'll tell 1,000.”                       ―  Timi Nadela ,  Get To The Top Social media can be the most wonderful promotional tool for business but as the quote above suggests it can harm the reputation of a business too. Sometimes negative comments may not be based on truth but you can depend on it that the stigma of negative feedback will blot the best business. With social media exposure comes the possibility of theft of ideas, product design, identity and hacked accounts. Inside the organisation social media has it's pitfalls too. While it has the capability for collaborative innovative project management it can also be distracting, taking employees attention away from the real work of the business. Cultural considerations need to be addressed in an organisation. Different age groups in an organisation re...

Web 1.0 to 4.0 Evolution The four generations of the Web so far cover Web 1, 2, 3 and 4. With Web 4.0 in transition and still developing, Web 5.0 is the great unknown and as such will be the next step in the evolution of the Web. I can say there will be some exciting new technology that we have not yet imagined. Perhaps the science fiction of today will become the reality of tomorrow. We may take part in participatory web action as holographic beings! For now we will look at how the web has evolved from the first iteration to the most current. Web 1.0 Web 1.0 is the first iteration of the Internet. Introduced by Tim Berners-Lee as a way to transfer information over the Internet, it is the read only version. This is the passive web of communication where people used the Internet to read and assimilate information. This is referred to as a web of cognition. This early version of the web allowed businesses to broadcast their information to prospective clients. It allowe...

You are what you share As a society and in particular the western world we have embraced the age of sharing all aspects of our lives online. This has become very easy with the rise of social sharing sites, such as Facebook where people share short stories and photo albums of their lives. Instagram has been a powerful photo sharing site that, in my opinion shares more positive aspects of people's lives, as words are limited and for the most people share the good parts of their lives and don’t get caught up in online arguments like those in Facebook. Google Plus connects us with people who have similar interests and Twitter gives us selective capability to share our thoughts with the limitation of 140 characters. Snapchat is even more selective as the images shared only last for ten seconds and they are gone. Linked in is particularly focused on business interests and sharing with a view to attracting an employer or employee. Online sharing often promotes an idealized vision ...

History of Social Media  Social media is described in the Oxford Dictionary as " Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking." The Internet is the medium for social media and with the advent of Web 2.0 bringing communication capability to the web people were able to communicate within a global perspective.  The following info-graphic shows the progression of social media. It is interesting to see the various icons, many of which are recognized today. Of particular interest is the year in which Google was first registered, twenty years ago!  One of the first popular social media tools were blogs (web logs) and these are still popular today. Wordpress and Google's Blogger were the two main early contenders. Today we have micro blogging applications such as Twitter which limits posts (tweets) to 140 characters. The immediacy of these posts enable global events to be shared in real time and now even...

Welcome! Welcome to this blog which explores the possibilities of social media for enhancing business. I will be discussing  multiple aspects of social media and how it has evolved over time since the second iteration of the web - Web 2.0.  From blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, SMS messaging, cloud based video conferencing to whatever Web 4.0 holds we have developed a new way of communicating and this has made a big impact on our lives.  I hope you will enjoy these blog posts and I look forward to reading your comments and hearing your opinions about the fascinating role social media plays in our lives with regard to business.