9. Social Networks and communities

Question 1

Types of online social networks and their business models

Answer 1

• General communities
  
  • Offer opportunities to interact with general audience organized into general topics
  • Sdvertising supported by selling ad space on pages and videos
• Practice networks
  
  • offer focused discussion groups, help and knowledge related to area of shared practice
  • May be profit or non-profit, rely on advertising or user donations or fees
• Interest-based social networks
  
  • Offer focused discussion groups based on shared interest on some specific subject
  • Usually advertising supported

Question 2

Affinity communities

Answer 2

• Offer focused discussion and interaction with other people who share same affinity (Verbundenheit) (self or group identification within a gemographic or geographic category)
• advertising and revenues from sales of products

Question 3

Social Network Features and technologies

Answer 3

• Profiles
• Friends network
• Message boards
• Instant messaging
• Discussion groups
• Games/widgets/apps

Question 4

Turning social networks into businesses

Answer 4

• Social networks can address a wide range of audiences and at the same time it is possible to specifically target certain groups through data that the users reveal themselves

→ Marketing and branding tool

→ Listening tool

→ CRM tool

Question 5

Social networks and challenges

Answer 5

= issues regarding anonymity, privacy and security

→ Cyber crime (money or personal information stolen online)

→ Companies collecting and sharing personal data

→ Surveillamce of citizens by government

→ Children accessing inappropriate content

→ Cybermobbing

→ Cyber attacks disrupting daily life

Question 6

Evolution of the use of Technology platform in B2B

Answer 6

automated order entry systems

= the use of telephone modems to send digital orders directly to the appropriate specialist (seller-side-solution = seller-biased markets that are owned by and show only goods from a single seller)

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

= communications standard for sharing business documents and settlement information among a small nubmer of firms (buyer-side-solution)

Digital Storefront

= website that offers goods/services for sale and which the customers can visit at any time and from anywhere

Private Industrial Networks

= Internet-based communication environments that extend far beyond procurement to encompass truly collaborative commerce → extension of EDI-Systems

Net marketplace

= mean to bring a huge amount of suppliers and buyers into a sell-side, internet-based environment to conduct trade → extension and scaling up of B2B e-Commerce websites

Social networks