Daddy “slap” me, I want to be on Face book, my
mummy is on Face book, these are the words of my three year old daughter, the elder
sister corrected her, it is not slap, it is snap. I laughed, and talked to
myself that after all my money is not vain. But on second thought , I begin to imagine
the impact of social networks on this generation.
Nothing is constant, only change is the constant
thing. The business environment is becoming more and more complicated. Within a
very short time, we have moved from the period
of cold war where Einstein’s laws and
postulations dominated,( Kiyosaki 2000;398) for the students of physics, they will
understand more on the laws and postulations of Einstein, to the period
of globalization, where the world has been described as a global village.
We subsequently moved from the period of
globalization to the period of Moore” s
law where the power of microchips doubles every three months , to the period of
Hyper globalization, where it was stated that what affects one economy may
definitely not affect the other as enunciated
in the world 3.0 mindset.
The clear nature of business environment manifested
more clearly when the owner of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, instantly became a billionaire
by putting wall mart on line.
Where are now in the era of social networks, where
social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn , instagram etc have made
their owners instant billionaires.
What that portends is that organization has started
realigning their corporate communication, Customer Relationship Management within
the dictates of the business environment. What it means is that there are new
professions, social media practioners ,social media managers and social media
marketers.
The impact of the social media networks on business
cannot be over emphasized, organizations, PR managers, advertising practioners
have equally discovered that advertising in social media has more target
audience and a better reached audience , more over it is cheaper and real time
and it is also across the globe especially when organizations advertised
through Google Ad word. The Google Ad word definitely target a larger audience
and advert is tailored to the motives
and aspirations of the site and blogger for example a business site will attract
business adverts on it, a relationship
site, will attracts wedding planning
adverts, women” s clothing’s etc.
The impact of these on business environment is that
virtually every organization wants to be on Face book, Twitter, Pin crest,
weibo, LinkedIn, the list could be endless as there more than 1000 social
network sites, there is also the YouTube
especially for mass media. And that lead to an idea of having an anchor on
those social media., as aggrieved customers hit these media to express their
dissatisfaction, regret, misgivings about the organization, and it calls for
swift response, as dissatisfied update, tweet or you tube upload can go viral.
Even militant are not left out as they hit social
media to upload their latest exploits, while denouncing Americanism but the irony of it is that virtually
majority of the social media networks
are all American companies. In a special
report in 2003 by Business week captioned “The Best Global Brands”, Annual
Ranking of the top 100 Brands. In a sub title “Brands in an age of Anti
Americanism” the report stated and I quote” Park Young Hoon of Seoul was quick
to clench his fist and yell slogans against George W Bush in a giant rally
denouncing the US president’s tough policy on North Korea. The report went on
to say “but that doesn’t mean the 33 year old Computer Engineer is willing to
loosen his grip on his favorite American coffee or cola”
“Calling for political independence from the US is
one thing and liking American brands is another” he says off course I like IBM,
Dell, Microsoft, Starbucks and Coke”
The report also stated that “Yemeni students were
out burning American flags, chanting kill the Americans noted by Valenti CEO of
the Motion Pictures Association of Americans, as soon as the theaters open at
7pm, bingo, they are all there”.
In my article on the power of branding, I opined “
the popular Islamic fighters also stated that they are against western education,
but bingo, they are carrying the latest assemblage of state of the art weapons
and ammunitions which are the products of foreign countries , they are also uploading their videos, pictures of their
exploits in You tube, and other social networks, the Islamic State
militants that killed the American In
Iraq were busy castigating the Americans, yelling anti American slogans, but by
evening they are communicating their exploits in Twitter, Face book and You tube.
One thing is to hate a country, a society and another thing is to like its
product or service.
That is the power of social networks, when Mark
Zuckerberg, the owner of Face book, pioneered Face book, the American
discovered one thing, it gives them a data base of one third of the world, they
decided to encourage him. And today virtually everybody is on Face book,
getting about any person is by the click of the mouse, and recently you can’t update
name in Face book especially if you have done that within six months.
Social Networks have changed the business
environment and the social life of the world; people are easily connected by
the click of the mouse, so also businesses are connected with the click of the
mouse. But there are other issues in these social networks, like uploading of
nude pictures, which Face book should look into as it evades people’s privacy.
I will say that we are now in the period of social
networks, and until another period resurfaces, let us all remember, that as we
click, give a status update, upload that beautiful pictures of ours, like and
create a page for a cause Zuckerberg and other social network owners are busy
smiling to the banks, But with the introduction of Netropolitan, a social network for rich, where subscribers
are expected to pay heavy amount of money and according to its website, it
states that “ THE NETROPOLITAN CLUB
is a global online community for affluent and accomplished individuals
worldwide to socialize in a private and secure manner. Current total first-year
fees to join Netropolitan are $9,000, payable at registration; subsequent
annual dues are $3,000 a year“
There is Globallshare, where you are expected to make money, if you subscribe
free of charge during its formative time. There also the BB channel, whatsapp, google + , yahoo messenger, etc.
The youths are not left out as majority of them are
using Pandora, in a research by The Atlantic, it noted that “Yes, it's a social
network. Also: Just a third of high school seniors place a call each day, and
more teens report using Pandora than Instagram or Snapchat” the research went
on to say that “Pandora is doing something
very, very right, and it's still barely
making money. Distributing music on the Internet,
ladies and gentlemen: Great service, rough business”
What we need
to do is to tap in to it and discovered how we can benefit from the gains of
the social networks. And until another period resurfaces, we are right now in the
period of social networks.
Odunze Reginald
Lead Consultant, Chareg Consulting.
