How Has Social Media Affected Commerce?
After a particularly harrowing visit to a nearby restaurant you are furious.
The waitress only showed up twice, the first time after a ten minute wait to get your order, and the second to bring out someone else's food and drop off the check.
After requesting a manager, you wait another ten minutes to tell your story to someone who couldn't care less.
Ten years ago you would have either demanded the number to the corporate office or merely left the restaurant fuming, never to return again.
Possibly you would have even complained to friends or co-workers the next time you saw them.
But today, the more likely response is to immediately go to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or all of the above, and decry your terrible service.
It used to be that when one person had a bad experience that a retailer or business could expect that between three to twenty people would find out, via word of mouth.
However times, they have a-changed.
The way that social media sites affected commerce is hard to calculate.
Depending on the number of followers on Twitter, or friends on Facebook or Google+ a person has, a complaint could reach hundreds, or with re-tweets, thousands of possible consumers.
How social media has affected commerce is something that marketing analysts are still coming to grips with.
Something that truly shows how has social media affected commerce is the way that so many retailers and restaurants have developed social advocate teams.
These are groups of employees whose sole job is to monitor Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and to reach out to customers detailing poor experiences.
These employees are there to simply make a company look good online.
Another telling sign of how social media has affected commerce is via the creation of Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounts specifically for retailers.
By having a large number of followers that allows the company to demonstrate the amount of loyalty their brand has, which is used to entice others to try their product.
Social media sites affected commerce in yet another way, it has given these companies a free source of advertising space.
By using these fan sites on social media networks, they are able to post messages detailing sales and new products coming out, which are delivered straight to frequent consumers.
So you might ask how has social media affected commerce? The better question might be how hasn't it affected commerce?
The waitress only showed up twice, the first time after a ten minute wait to get your order, and the second to bring out someone else's food and drop off the check.
After requesting a manager, you wait another ten minutes to tell your story to someone who couldn't care less.
Ten years ago you would have either demanded the number to the corporate office or merely left the restaurant fuming, never to return again.
Possibly you would have even complained to friends or co-workers the next time you saw them.
But today, the more likely response is to immediately go to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or all of the above, and decry your terrible service.
It used to be that when one person had a bad experience that a retailer or business could expect that between three to twenty people would find out, via word of mouth.
However times, they have a-changed.
The way that social media sites affected commerce is hard to calculate.
Depending on the number of followers on Twitter, or friends on Facebook or Google+ a person has, a complaint could reach hundreds, or with re-tweets, thousands of possible consumers.
How social media has affected commerce is something that marketing analysts are still coming to grips with.
Something that truly shows how has social media affected commerce is the way that so many retailers and restaurants have developed social advocate teams.
These are groups of employees whose sole job is to monitor Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and to reach out to customers detailing poor experiences.
These employees are there to simply make a company look good online.
Another telling sign of how social media has affected commerce is via the creation of Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounts specifically for retailers.
By having a large number of followers that allows the company to demonstrate the amount of loyalty their brand has, which is used to entice others to try their product.
Social media sites affected commerce in yet another way, it has given these companies a free source of advertising space.
By using these fan sites on social media networks, they are able to post messages detailing sales and new products coming out, which are delivered straight to frequent consumers.
So you might ask how has social media affected commerce? The better question might be how hasn't it affected commerce?
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