Social Commerce Tutorial W3 (Chapter 2)
Q1. What is social media? (S13)
- Social media is a blend of technology, content, and social interactions for the co-creation
of value.
- a form of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking) through
which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages,
and images or videos.
- E.g. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Q2. What are the three major components of social media? (S14)
➢ Media components and applications
- Contents such as text, image, video and audio that social media use to present
- to encourage interaction with the viewers
➢ Social network sites and services
- A website platform to connect with people online
- a free web space that allow people to build their own profile
- E.g. Facebook and Snapchat
➢ Social media activities
- aka Functional Building Blocks/activities
- whatever you do in social networking sites are called activities
- Such as Sharing, Buying, Conversations, Relationship, Identity and so on
*1, 2, 3 are interconnected by people, by network and by technology.
Q3. Describe user-generated content. What is its importance? (S17)
➢ User-generated content (UGC)
- aka consumer-generated media (CGM) and self-publishing
- used to describe a wide range of applications, content creation and other activities
by users. E.g. reviews, recommendations, news, WOM and entertainment.
- is any content that has been created and published by unpaid contributors. Often,
those contributors are fans who promote a brand instead of the brand promoting
itself.
- UGC can be content of any type, including blogs, website pages, images, social
media posts, and testimonials.
➢ What is its importance ?
- It helps brands to better understand their target audience and their communities
better.
- It provides social proof. Seeing content from real customers increases a
company's credibility and brings its brand’s promises into perspective.
- It improves site engagement and time spent on the website.
- It provides an opportunity for people to connect with like-minded individuals and
helps to build a bigger, stronger, more unified community.
Q4. List five major Web 2.0 tools. (S18-19)
➢ Blog (Web Log)
➢ Video Blog (vlog)
➢ Microblogging
- Exp : Twitter, Facebook
➢ Wikis
- Business Applications of Wikis
- Exp : Wikipedia
➢ Multimedia sharing sites
- Exp: Youtube, Flickr
➢ Social bookmarking
- Exp: Pinterest
Q5. Define social networks as compared to social network services (sites). (S20)
➢ Social network is a structure that describes social relationships and flows of information
and activities among the participants (people, objects) in a community.
➢ Social network services (SNSs)
- aka social network sites
- provide and host free web space for people to build their public profile
- E.g. LinkedIn, Facebook
➢ Social Networking refers to the execution of any social media activity, including having
a presence in social networks.
Q6. Describe the major capabilities of social network sites.
- Users can construct a web page where they are able to present their profiles to the public
- Users can create a circle of friends who are linked together
- The site provides discussion forums (by subgroup, by topics)
- Photo, video and document viewing and sharing (streaming videos, user-supplied videos)
are supported.
- Wikis can be used to jointly create documents.
- Blogs can be used for discussion, dissemination of information, and muchmore.
- Consumers can rate and comment on products and services.
Q7. What is an enterprise social network? List some of its major capabilities.
(benefits/function) (S23)
- Is a private/internal social network which is used to aid communication within a business
- Exp: My Starbucks Idea.
- This network is available to customers or solely to the employees of Starbucks.
Major Capabilities:
- Reduce the clutter in email inboxes
- For organisation, ESN can improve collaboration.
- ESN can have a positive impact on overall company culture.
Q8. Define crowdsourcing. (S25)
- (Crowd- refers to people or any group of people)
- Utilizes the wisdom of crowds to collectively execute tasks.
- Exp: problem solving, innovating, completing large projects by dividing the work among
many people.
Q9. List the elements of crowdsourcing and describe the process. (S26 & S27)
➢ The elements of crowdsourcing
- Task (problems)
- Crowd ( known crowd or unknown crowd)
- Process and models through Web 2.0 or mobile application.
➢ The process of crowdsourcing
- Problems are broadcasted to either known crowd or unknown crowd.
- The members of the crowd are organised as online communities. Crowd members
submit individual solutions.
- Crowd members discuss the solutions and to vote for a final short list.
- Final selection can be made by the crowd or management and the winner is
compensated.
Q10. What are the benefits of crowdsourcing? (S29)
- Problems can be solved at little cost or less cost rather than hire others.
- Solutions can be reached quickly.
- Talents may be discovered.
- By listening to the crowd, companies gain first hand insight into their customer’s desires.
- Able to tap into the global world of ideas.
- Customers tend to be more loyal if they participate in a company’s problem solving
process.
- Eg: Starbucks members and Wikipedia’s content created by users.
Q11. Describe the major types of crowdfunding.
➢ Reward crowdfunding
- Allows investors to contribute to your venture in return for non-financial benefits.
- Commonly used for creative projects.
- The more an investor donates to your fund, the greater the reward they will
receive.
➢ Debt crowdfunding
- Provides investors with the chance to fund your project in exchange for financial
interest on their investment.
- Provide you with borrowing at a lower cost than that offered by applying for a
loan through a bank.
- The advantage of this model is that it may be easier to win support for a
campaign, as the backers are attracted to getting a return.
➢ Equity crowdfunding
- Will invest money in return for shares, or a small stake in your business, project
or venture.
-This type of crowdfunding could work best for growth-focused companies in
areas where there is potential for return.
➢ Donation crowdfunding
- is designed for charities, or those who raise money for social or charitable
projects, to gather a community online and to enable them to donate to a project.
- While most established charities coordinate this through their own website,
crowdfunding platforms can be useful for smaller organisations and people raising
money for personal or specific charitable causes.
Q12. Describe avatars. What are they used for?
➢ Avatars
- Are interactive, animated, computerized characters that are graphical images
designed to look like people and are programmed to exhibit human behaviour.
- Have unique names and can move around.
- Advanced avatars can ‘speak’ and display behaviours such as emotions, gestures,
and facial expressions.
- They can be fully automated to act like robots.
- They are designed to gain the trust of users.
➢ Avatars use for
- To act as tour guides or staff virtual reception desks.
- To make the human-computer interface more realistic.
- To conduct vocal conversations with passengers.
- To act as guides in some companies, universities, and tourist attractions.
