Social Computing or Social Commerce – Part 1
Social computing is an area of computer science that is concerned with the intersection of social behavior and computational systems. The example of Social Computing are blogs, podcasts, wikis, goods auction sites (auction web sites), online games, which are all of them use the facilities of global connection Internet connects people and content information (content).
We can also define Social Computing as social commerce (means Social Computing in Business), which refers to the delivery of electronic commerce activities and transactions through social computing. Social commerce also supports social interactions and user contributions, allowing customers to participate actively in the marketing and selling of products and services in online marketplaces and communities. With social commerce, individuals can collaborate online, obtain advice from trusted individuals, and find and purchase goods and services. Below we list a few examples of social commerce:
- Disney allows people to book tickets on Facebook without leaving the social network
- PepsiCo gives a live notification when its customers are close to physical stores (grocery, restaurants, gas stations) that sell Pepsi products. The company then uses Foursquare to send them coupons and discount information
- Mountain Dew attracts video game lovers and sports enthusiasts via Dewmocracy contests (discussed later in the chapter). The company also encourages the most dedicated community members to contribute ideas on company products
- Levi’s advertises on Facebook by enabling consumers to populate a “shopping cart” based on what their friends think they would like.
- Wendy’s uses Facebook and Twitter to award $50 gift cards to people who submit the funniest and quirkiest responses to various challenges.
There are several benefits of Social Commerce to customers and vendors, such as :
- Better and faster vendor responses to complaints, because customers can air their complaints in public (on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube)
- Customers can assist other customers (e.g., in online forums)
- Customers’ expectations can be met more fully and quickly
- Customers can easily search, link, chat, and buy while staying on a social network’s page
Also there are several benefits of Social Commerce to Business, such as :
- Can test new products and ideas quickly and inexpensively
- Learn a lot about their customers
- Identify problems quickly and alleviate customer anger
- Increase sales when customers discuss products positively on social networking site
- Use low-cost user-generated content, for example, in marketing campaigns
- Get free advertising through viral marketing
- Identify influential brand advocates and reward them
References :
- https://edugen.wileyplus.com/edugen/student/mainfr.uni
- Rainer, Prince, Cegielski (2014).Introduction to Information Systems. 5th John Willey & Sons, Inc. Michigan. ISBN: 978-1-118-80855-9
