Emerging trends and advances in Information Technology –
Social Networking system (Facebook)
Abstract
Facebook is a social networking site which is extremely popular and is accessed by people all around the world. Facebook is a very popular social networking site today. Privacy and protection of personal data becomes extremely important on Facebook. It is extremely important that the right data usage policy is created so that the personal data of an individual is not misused for any commercial or non commercial purposes.
Introduction
Information technology has been growing in importance and acceptance. Information technology has helped to revolutionize the world to a great extent. It has enabled conversion of data, information and communication or dissemination of information into the electronic form in almost all fields. E-commerce includes several online services which revolutionized the world of trade and communication. Social networking has become a rage with the present generation.
Usage of social networking for marketing
Presently Facebook has evolved as an important platform for advertising. It sells space on the website for a small amount of money to put up advertisements and marketers can reach to the specific target segment of Facebook users based on the demographic segmentation of the customers. The advertisements are targeted to the Facebook users based on their actual tastes and preferences and not on keywords. The sheer size of Facebook users attracts the marketers to explore the potential of the Facebook platform.
Popularity and success
The cost of developing a Facebook page is minimal or actually even free. But the cost of development of a secure integration of the Facebook based marketing plan and customer relationship network is not free. Securing the system requires the help of expert technicians. A combination of business and technology is extremely important as the present day businesses are greatly dependant as well as oriented towards e-commerce and other several applications using information technology. Facebook came in when the e commerce trend was catching up.
Facebook is a very popular social networking site today. But when formed by Mark Zuckerberg, like any other invention and innovation its actual chances of success were not known. It was known to him that social networking is catching up and does have a lot of scope. But this level of success was definitely not expected. It was also not expected that the speed with which Facebook would become a trend, a rage, a necessity would be this fast. Facebook is a financially strong player in case of the social networking business. This was not expected initially.
The origin of Facebook was a combination of a lucky strike and a stroke of genius. It was a lucky strike based on the speed and acceptance with which it was received by the target audiences. But it definitely took a lot of hard work and genius to create a site like Facebook. Constant changes and up gradations are also being made which helps sustain the popularity of Facebook
Facebook has remained for a long period and should be a good investment in the long run. It is possible to align Facebook page with several business processes and be able to create better customer relationships, better teams and economical yet effective results. It helps in ensuring that there is a better state of communication with the customers and also marketing. Facebook pages helps create stronger socialization within the organization which can help formulate better and dynamic teams in the organization. In this way Facebook pages, if aligned to several business processes in organizations and can help in improving the processes to a great extent and technological progress will result in increase in stock value and returns. This requires a higher level of genius and business management skills.
Impact of Facebook on lifestyle
Social media has profound influence on our day-to-day life, the way we interact, our attitudes and behaviors. Influence of Facebook on lifestyle of people is an emerging trend.
- Source of news: People now often refer to the trending news shared by friends on Facebook in the morning even before going through the newspaper. People are increasingly considering the opinions, attitudes and behaviors of friend on Facebook as trusted source of information. News has become more social and interactive than ever before.
- Ways business is done: starting a business and reaching out to the target customer has become quick and easy through Facebook groups. For many companies Facebook has become the primary media for marketing rendering other forms of media unnecessary, especially for small companies and start ups.
- Ways people socialize and interact: Through Facebook, it has become easier than ever before to keep in touch with friends and relations, either by means of groups or friend list. Communication between people at different geographical locations has become convenient.
- Revealing information: Previously people used to prefer to reveal only limited information and what is exactly required. But this notion is gradually shifting. People are becoming more transparent about their opinions and beliefs and share it with others. Facebook has increased the personal transparency of individuals.
- Circle of influence: Now social media plays an important role in influencing public opinion. Facebook pages have thousands of fans. These influencing powers are not concentrated to big companies, but these are common people who are Facebook users.
Privacy policy of Facebook
Privacy on the internet is extremely important for the purpose of ensuring that the safety of the people is ensured. It is extremely important for them to maintain their reputation as a responsible form of information. It is essential that they ensure that the information of the people is protected. It helps ensure that the information is not misused.
Facebook does have a strong privacy policy. But when compared to my expectations, it does not have too many options for people to choose from when it comes to usage of their personal data. Moreover it does not even spread sufficient awareness about its privacy policy and how it can be used for the purpose of data usage prevention and this is creating a gap between formation of an effective privacy policy and implementing it in an effective manner which is extremely harmful.
The privacy policy and data usage policy of Facebook is in consistency with my expectations to a great extent. It does help ensure that people have a chance to avoid their information from being misused. The personal data should not be used without permission and Facebook does implement this policy. But people or users of face book are not aware of the privacy policy and protection of their private data which is creating a high level of inconsistency when it comes to implementing the privacy policy.
Rules on Facebook
The three different points of Facebook's privacy policy are as follows:
1. Sharing and finding: Facebook has a policy of blocking sharing and finding which can help us protect personal information even though it is put on the internet and this does surprise me. In this way it is possible to limit access and still share information only with those with whom we wish to thus helping us create a strong way of limiting access to others for accessing our information.
2. Ban on multiple accounts: Multiple accounts does result in several issues and makes it very difficult for others to ensure and check the identity of the person they are actually communicating personal information to and sharing a lot of information with. So it is very important that multiple accounts be banned.
3. Information shared with games and applications: Facebook has a tie up with several applications. It does share personal information with these applications. But it has put a control factor where in if a user requests, then they can ask the application to delete all the information that they have about the user and restrict the application from using this information.
The privacy and data sharing policy of Facebook is in level of the accord. Modern times have led to an increased importance of web based platforms for communicating to the clients and presenting them with the required information. They cannot share information of personal nature without the consent of the parties involved and this has been well understood by them as well as been included in their data usage policy but their honesty and credibility are of great importance and the advertisements that they give should also be honest. In this way the media being ethical can benefit the society in a great way.
Conclusion
