Final Take Home Paper
3. The Importance of Artifacts on Establishing Social Business Practices within Organizations
There are various artifacts that contribute to the overall design and success of a business. The first artifact refers to the mainstream business needs, goals, and objectives, which impacts in communicating business drivers in its social business strategies. The second artifact refers to social tools, infrastructure and various standards, and it helps in the identification of a key technical element that shall be invoked in solving various social issues to a business. The third artifact refers to security and identifies issues which help in the enumeration of different security issues facing a business, and how these issues can be addressed. Another importance served by artifacts relates to provision of social business solutions to the outstanding needs of the organization, and this is aided by the artifact know as social business design. Artifact on social business support strategies helps in providing a key outline to the community management as well as other supporting capabilities such as listening, which are instrumental in building a formidable social business strategy. There are other several functions that artifacts play in establishing social business practices with the organization.
Most organizations have a lot of data that they store and retrieve to make various analyzes in crucial areas that concern them. Some of the data may be presented to the public, but some of it may be confidential to the organization thus requiring a great degree of confidentiality. This is where the issue of security comes into play. Hackers are always on the lookout for openings through which to infiltrate an organization's data system. A social media identity gives the organization some almost human qualities as it can now communicate with the public, listen to complaints and even have jolly interactions with those it connects. Social media provides an easy avenue for people with bad intentions to hack into the data of an organization. Some competitors may want to get vital information that gives them an upper hand in the industry. A disgruntled worker may feel the need to get back at the organization for some wrong it did towards him. Some organizations are involved in insider trading be it directly or indirectly by providing tips that alter the course of their stocks in the markets. Furthermore, every entity requires some degree of secrecy in its operations rather than be an open book for everybody to make their critique. It is, therefore, paramount for every organization to ensure that all such loopholes are sealed. Antivirus software may be a great option for organizations with a small operation but on a large scale, the organization may require an expert IT team to handle social media and create solid firewalls to deter hack and the entry of any form of malware. Social media should also not be used to air all information that concerns the organization.
Social business design is important in that it creates a face that the public can place on the organization. It makes the organization move from being an abstract entity to one that is more easily recognizable. However, a social business design serves more than just giving the organization a face; it's used more to market its brands. An inappropriate design may end up making the public lose confidence in the organization. A good design, however, promotes the public's investment in the brand. It is because the analysts will give a good review of the business if its design is efficient. It helps the organization in its quest to seek to fund and even gives a definite roadmap as to how to achieve its objectives. An appropriate social business design also boosts the public's interests in the organization and even other smaller ones as they may implement it to reach the levels attained by the organization in question. A social business achieves this by implementing a design that is easy to make developments upon making it better in the future. It shows that the organization has put all the measures to protect their interest and those of the public. It also helps the organization to reach a greater audience in the form of end-user stakeholders than it initially would. Identity is consequent, used as a marketing tool, a good image boosts productivity, but a poorly engineered design is usually a prerequisite to bad publicity.
4. Sustainable Adoption
Care and nurturing are key insights to sustainable adoption as most businesses experience changes triggered by external influences. Therefore, any business that seeks to be self-sustainable has to be left on a free evolution with minimal or no external restrictions. It is imperative to note that a business balances to external changes since the long run duration is subject to either diversification in the business products, change in customer choices, and many other external changes. Thus, this is a very critical stage where the business must be monitored, and it has to keep pace with the changes in the market. ‘
Considering a business that specializes in Software generation and installation, its sustainable adoption platform could be considered in different ways. This is a short run business area of operation, but it is likely to change in the long run, if the business realizes that the venture’s future is threatened by the entry of giant firms into the market. Other means would be to engage in the sales of hardware and software in order to retain a sizeable market base. This decision will make the company become self-sustainable and to adapt to changes in the market forces.
Sustainable adoption is necessary as a control measure for the always imminent decline of social business. Care has to be taken to ensure that the business does not go into extinction. One of the ways to ensure sustainable adoption is to nurture the business by reducing the level of restrictions from outside. Restrictions come in the form of poor infrastructure, be it communication or transport related. Another restriction is from high taxes and corruption which increase the costs of operations. Strict and suppressive laws make businesses operate under extreme pressure thus limiting the level of production. Poor security is also a factor. The organization may be able to control some of these factors but only to a small extent. The government, on the other hand, has greater control over these issues. It is capable of relaxing laws to reduce the pressure put on the organizations in their operations. Improved security will boost its motivation of continuing operations without fear even late into the night. Appropriate tax charging systems are also motivation in that the organization will not feel that it is giving back more to the government than what it ought to remit. Clear communication and transport infrastructure enhance business as they reduce the time taken to complete tasks. They also help avoid the frustrations that come with waiting for long to accomplish a given task. Good infrastructure, therefore, creates time to generate greater production compared to the level of production if the infrastructure is poor.
On its part, the organization must keep its most efficient workers and customer loyalty is maintained to ensure sustainable adoption. It will keep these employees if its method or remuneration is in line with the work done by the workers. Also, the working conditions at the workplace have to be comfortable and safe, which gives the workers a feeling of peace as they handle their duties. Other factors like insurance policies, pension schemes, and health benefits will also make the organizations workers comfortable and not want to leave. As for customer loyalty, the organization has to keep developing its product to the needs of the time. The organization should strive never to stagnate, but rather evolve together with its customers. It should attempt to improve its products from their initial form to increasing customer satisfaction. Customer loyalty is also built upon quality and good service to customers. Better quality and service delivery will make customers prefer the organization to its competitors. Customer loyalty is thus a great tool for enhancing an organization's competitiveness in the industry.
Ensuring community participation in its activities also aids in the sustainable adoption strategy. The community feels that it is part of the organization if it initiates projects that help it and maintain the surrounding environment. This ends up creating good publicity and even incorporating the community into the organizations already existent market. Sustainable adoption is, therefore, necessary if an organization wants to continue to be in operation in the long-term.
Chapter 17 discusses the broad phases of adoption, from the small,select group of “core member” (phase 1), to the “critical mass” (phase 2), to the last two phases of mainstream and sustained adoption. Using a business scenario of your choice, choose one of the four phases and discuss the specific issues that would be faced by that business at that phase in the social media adoption process. Be very specific in your discussion (for example, size of the business, the social media service, whether it is a customer-facing or internal-facing solution, or others). Feel free to draw upon change management literature for additional background (approximately 500 words).
2. The value of the Adoption of Social Media to Business.
International organizations need detailed business scenarios to formulate efficient business strategies to gain support and approval from relevant stakeholders in the corporate environment. Social businesses models are, therefore, perfect examples of successful businesses due to their adaptation of unique techniques such as management of the business community, social business environment management, employee policies among others.
In the case of Uber Taxi Company, adaptation of social media in the organization is a pivotal element to the company’s operations in this Information Technology era. Uber Taxi Company operates in the transportation industry which is essential, if not a human necessity to be able to move from one point to another in the least time possible. Part of Uber’s success is attributed to the use of social media platforms for integrated operations which in turn distinguishes it from other conventional transport service providers.
Below are detailed statistics that prove far and beyond the value of adopting social media for business operations:
• Increased Productivity
In the case of Uber, increased productivity is achieved through faster support systems whereby, potential customers can connect to the service provider through application software developed to inter-connect all services offered in the shortest time possible, this is evident from the 30% less time taken to handle complaints made possible by social media. Also, Uber management can make quick and successful decisions by using social tools to communicate with the customer increasing the chances of making appropriate decisions by 20%.
• Cost Reduction
In the Uber software application, customers can locate and book for taxi services hence strengthen self-service support cycles in the organization. This in turn makes communication costs to be greatly reduced up to 20% whereby access to taxi services is through the use of internet connectivity instead of the traditional making calls for taxi bookings and subsequently reduction of operation costs by 15%.
Geographical boundaries and time zone barriers are also dissolved due to the sharing of relevant information between Uber outstations in different regions and countries. This reduces the costs of travel and communication by a joint 20%.
• Revenue Creation
Customer satisfaction has risen by 30% and customer loyalty at a slightly lower rate of increase of 20% is also prevalent due to the quick and efficient provision of taxi services and easy access to customer relations in any matters arising.
• Connected Culture
Uber experiences connectivity to varied cultures globally thus increased access to expertise at 35% more which is essential for the organization's growth and efficient human resource. Access to the same is also faster rising by 30% due to the use of social media in careers advertisements and recruitment.
Connections between outstations, departments and the international teams are also improved by 35% through the use of social media consequently reducing the costs of communication by 20%.
All the statistics above show the greatness of the impact of social media on business in the modern world
6. What do the Internet and Social Media give today's' businesses that previous communication tools did not offer?
Previous communication tools included; Telegram, letters, telephone and word of mouth among others. These communication tools were relevant in their time but with the emergence of the information technology era, they have been rendered almost obsolete. The reason why the Internet and Social Media are more reliable and relevant is due to the following observations.
In telegram use, for example, it was required to write a specified number of words which could have been easily misunderstood and misinterpreted by the recipient, whereas in social media the information relayed is expounded in details and the recipient can use the internet to define the meaning of certain phrases or words. Also, the telegram machines were not mass produced thus rare to find making it expensive to use and difficult to locate one, and if necessary, one needed to travel to obtain a telegram machine thus increasing the cost of sending a message even more by adding transportation costs to the equation. However, in the use of social media and the internet, one can easily relay a message by using their phone handset to another person in a different geographical location, and it is instant hence less time, cost consuming among other factors.
Letters are also an outdated means of communication. The process of sending a letter is a long and tedious one, whereby once written, one has to take it to the post office then the letter is forwarded to the indicated address. This process is time-consuming, unlike the use of social media, where which information is sent and received instantly. Also, letters can be damaged along the way or get lost hence destroying or losing the message, but in social media, the information cannot be lost as it can be retrieved when necessary, hence important in the business environment.
The use of the telephone (not mobile phones) is also outdated. Telephone handsets are big in stature and quite immobile, and the telephone handset has to be connected to the internet through a cable otherwise, it will not function. Lack of a telephone will mean that relevant information cannot be relayed. Social media on the other hand uses mobile phone handsets, which are portable and easy to use thus relevant information can be communicated making it necessary in the current business environment.
Lastly, word of mouth is a previous means of communication which have many disadvantages such as; Information can be misunderstood thus misinterpreted, the language barrier can affect the relaying of information and also the need for physical contact to pass on valuable information. Whereas in using social media, information can be written in a comprehensible manner, one can translate information by use of internet thus dissolving the language barrier factor, and also information can be relayed globally; hence physical contact is not needed.
