The emergence of Online Social Media

Episode 5: Monday, May 3, 2010, 8:06 pm
I remember some years of my childhood when I was probably 13 & I had this special subject added in curriculum of seventh standard that year. It was Computers. After making an impact on western world, it had arrived in India and was creating waves. Many private & some government firms were transforming themselves from the legacy system to more profound IT infrastructural system. At that time, having the knowledge of computers was seen as something extra-ordinary. Parents used to send their children to computer classes in summer vacations instead of hobby classes. Personal computer was replacing TV in home for the mode of entertainment for children. Then there was internet which changed the way companies do their business. But year 2001, brought the much hyped havoc on the businesses all over the world with very infamous Y2K threat. Some IT specialist termed it as 'dot-com bubble' (web 1.0), but many other see it as a turning point for the internet.

After the burst of dot-com bubble, the second generation of internet emerged, coined as web 2.0, as it moved from personal website to blogs & forums, from publishing to participation (from read only to write too), & from content management to tagging (folksonomy versus taxonomy). This change was mainly due to the technological refinements like broadband, improved browsers, Ajax, widgets like Flickr & You Tube. It later led the dawn of Social networking whose widespread applications can be seen in the form of online social media.

What is Online Social Media?

Consider the media like newspaper, radio, television or some other website which are mainly one sided means of communication where audience are only passive recipients. On the other hand, Online Social Media provides a platform for community collaboration for active conversation & sharing of ideas, basically interaction. This social media involves networking which is soul of any successful business, where one get the ability to reach to the audience and the audience can get in touch with the other party real time. Definitely it requires a great commitment and knowledge of the market to tap the right customers out of the myriad available. To post regularly, to keep an eye on market to get the visitors on site & the right use of web 2.0 features are the requisites.

Why Online Social Media is so famous?

1. Form relationships for all purpose: Personal, Business etc. Imagine for your business how many people can you meet in one day personally and now compare it with the number you can meet through social networks. SAVES TIME
2. Real time information sharing: Online social networks allows both the parties to share the information almost real time. It helps both the parties to complete the transaction early. And they can get in touch with each other virtually.
3. Reviews & Forums: Online social media provide a strong platform to discussion. Have you ever liked a particular restaurent or an apparel store? Want to tell someone? Try social bookmarking! Take feedbacks of your customer anytime.
4. Video pod-casting: Online social media allows you video pod-casting on the go. Imagine the situation when a customer wants some information for your product and instead of sending him brochure on his mail you upload a video which not only explains the features of the product but also the ways to use it. Incredibly interesting..!
5. Long-lasting relationship: Today is the era of e-business. want a long lasting relationship with your customer at distant land? Make a community/page on Orkut/Facebook & get in touch with him instantaneously.
6. Inexpensive & easy to launch: Unlike other media, social media is inexpensive and easy to launch. It doesnt need any specialized people to back. All you need is to be a little tech-savvy & ofcourse garrulous.
7. Wide reach: Online social media allows you to get in touch with everyone; buyers, peers, competitors, vendors. It helps you to reach the people you may one day need to sell or work or anything.

Issues with online social media
The most difficult part of marketing through online social media is the active participation & to maintain the multiple networks simultaneously viz. twitter, Facebook, Orkut.
Privacy Issue: Too much of information available on social networking sites sometimes can turn damaging the faith of customers specially when the host doesn't take sufficient steps to protect users' privacy. Third parties are always very active to steal the information of the users.
There is a high risk of misuse of online social networks where a third party can make a duplicate profile of patron which can mislead others.