Research on Learning Team Social Media Tools in E-Commerce

Learning Team - Executive Summary

Social media tools are becoming a crucial tool for contemporary organizations that opt to conduct any form of online business. Increasingly, social media is becoming a preferred method of connecting with consumers, advertising, and maintaining levels of interaction with employees. However, some organizations use social media as recruiting tool. This paper addresses social media as a viable tool for conducting business online. The authors review some of the various social media tools to explain how they may be used to distribute messages to consumers and clients, while they also address ethical issues associated with the use of social media tools.

Some forms of social media among students are social networking (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn), blogging (eBlogger, WordPress, website enabled blogs), and feeds (RSS, Google, Yahoo). While there are a number of uses for social media, corresponding, networking, and citizen journalism and blogs are the most common. Correspondence tools may include email functions for general communication, feedback forms located on the organization's website, and sharing information using a "widget" share feature. Online networking has become a valuable tool for keeping consumers and other businesses abreast of important information related to the organization's functions. Each of the referenced social media tools have some form of "feed" function where users can share newsworthy information. However, as with any form of business, e-commerce organizations must be aware of the ethical issues associated with social media use, including security concerns, such as identity theft; credibility, maintaining trust and honestly in marketing and advertising, product reviews, and comments; privacy policies; and maintaining a positive reputation.

Social Media in Academic Learning Environment - Conclusion

As this paper has provided, the uses of social media tools in e-commerce are vast and with the use of these tools comes the responsibility of proper use and ethical issues. As the research has illustrated, there are a variety of social media tools, including social networking, blogging, and feeds. However, many e-commerce organizations are realizing the benefit of using services, such as Ping.fm, that link most known social media services in one. Apart from the collaborative aspects, the Ping service is free and can be used to update all media tools with one easy post. Moreover, Ping is designed to work alongside a mobile phone, e-mail, instant messengers, and most major networking applications, which make advertising and information sharing quick and easy.

Social networks are becoming commonplace as many organizations encourage employees to use social media tools to communicate with coworkers and clients. However, employees are instructed on the mannerisms that are expected from using social media tools in conjunction with business.

Communications must remain positive and upbeat because persons outside the organization will have access to the comments or information posted. The tools can be used to post success story for the overall business and for employee's to share good news (e.g. milestones, sales records, etc.). Managers can also use the social networks, including messages posted by employees, as a motivation tool.

Ethical issues are a major concern in e-commerce, particularly in light of recent developments related to the abuse of social media tools. While many people use social networks for business networking, others use them for connecting with friends and for online gaming. When businesses join a social networking site, they are joining a community. The online community is similar to a real community where a business has a place; however, a business should never invade the privacy of its neighbors (Craig) as this may be construed as being pushy and overly aggressive business risk failure. Taking precautions to ensure e-commerce communications are wanted, the organization should utilize anti-spam tools to prevent unwanted messages or emails being sent to others. Collectively, however, the various social media tools can be some of the greatest and most productive assets for the e-commerce industry, but the organization must be familiar with the individual tools and intended use, and they must take care to maintain ethical practices. When these simple rules are followed, the outcome will be a successful online enterprise.