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i to the Internet
—JP
Businesses are always evolving, and therefore businesses are always going to be affected by new trends and ways of thinking. The latest trend to really hit businesses is social media. Sites like Twitter and Facebook have taken off as business platforms that have really enabled businesses to reach out.
Social media has been such a benefit for businesses because it is inexpensive to use. Not only are most social platforms free to use, but they reach out to millions of people. There are an estimated 500 million people using Facebook (according to Facebook). This means that a business has access to a potential client base of 500 million people. Granted, there are a lot of people out there socializing, but there are others out there who want to know more, about businesses and opportunities.
Social media is very simple to use. A company can even assign an individual to be in charge of social media and not have to worry too much about training. The company's social networking strategy is as complicated as the company makes it out to be.
An easy to use and free platform reaching out to millions of people means a huge return on investment. If a company makes even one sale because they have used social media, it is a win for the company. Social media can be used as a cheap form of advertising instead of having to spend large amounts of money on an advert that might be used once.
Social media is going to completely revolutionize how business is done in the near future. Once businesses harness its full potential, and the last remaining holdouts come on board, it will level the business playing field. The best thing about social media is that small companies can use the same tools as large companies to compete, while making the consumer the overall winner.
In the use of social media, organizations are seeing increased brand recognition, customer satisfaction and sales revenues. It is now easy to obtain consumer feedback - often within minutes of a news announcement or product launch. And monitoring what the competition and customers are doing and saying has never been easier.
Companies in Select Countries that Successfully Use Social Networks for Customer Acquisition, 2010 & 2011
% of respondents 161% China 65% us ________________ ■HHHHB35。,。I I 43% ! 41% _______________ 40% 12010 _2011
Source： Regus, "A Social Recovery： A global survey of
Information Technology in Financial Services | Reference Book 2
Social Media Risks and Challenges
In the rush to acquire tens of thousands of online friends for their brands, many companies are not pausing to consider the potential risks. Since social media tools are new to many organizations and do not require an additional IT infrastructure, they may be introduced to the enterprise by a business unit, marketing team or individual employees, bypassing the normal safeguards and risk assessment provided by the IT, HR and legal departments.
For these reasons, it's important to create a social media governance strategy and a plan to address the risks that come with these new communication tools. There are three scenarios that companies should consider when evaluating risk
：
1. T h e use of social media as a business tool to communicate with customers, employees and other stakeholders.
2. Access to social media sites while employees are on the corporate network.
3. Employees/ use of social media tools from their corporate-issued
mobile devices, which are often not subject to the same controls and monitoring as corporate computers.
To effectively manage social media use, organizations should develop a documented strategy - with associated policies and procedures - that involves all relevant stakeholders. This inciudes leaders from the business units, sales and marketing, risk management, HR and legal departments. This holistic approach helps ensure that risks are being viewed through the lens of broader business goals and objectives. The five primary business risks associated with the use of social media are
：
1.Introduction of viruses/malware to the corporate network.
2. Branding hijacking, such as a brand being impersonated on a site. 3. Unclear or undefined content rights to information posted on
social media sites.
4. Unrealistic customer expectations of service through the ability to communicate with companies online 24/7.
5. Non-compliance with record management regulations because of mismanagement of electronic communications.
The introduction of social media can produce significant shifts in both culture and process - particularly in the areas of communications, marketing, customer service and business development. As companies consider setting up a social media site fan club, they should look to established frameworks such as Risk IT and COBIT for clear processes and controls to help them form sound social media governance policies.
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Introduction to the Internet
Some questions to consider are
：
What is the strategic benefit to leveraging this technology? What are the risks, and do the benefits outweigh the costs? What new legal issues does it raise? How will customer privacy issues be addressed? How will awareness training be delivered to employees? Does the enterprise have enough resources to sustain this type of initiative?Clearly, the use of social media provides new entry points for technology risks such as malware and viruses. But what magnifies these risks is the lack of employee understanding of the potential threats. A social media governance strategy should focus first on user behavior by developing policies for personal use in the workplace, personal use involving business information outside the workplace, and business use. These policies should be reinforced through ongoing training and awareness programs.
As social media sites continue to grow in popularity, organizations should embrace them, not block them. But companies that want to succeed at social media governance need to look beyond technology controls and empower employees to reduce risk by becoming more aware of the threats.
Summary The Internet is here to stay and prosper. While it started as a research project half a century ago, it has now become an integral part of personal lives and businesses. The early Internet was used by computer experts, engineers, scientists. There was nothing friendly about it. The Internet started to mature beyond the mid 1970's as a result of the TCP/IP architecture. The first effort to index the Internet was done in 1989. As the Internet became ubiquitous, faster, and increasingly accessible to non-technical communities, social networking and collaborative services began to grow rapidly, enabling people to communicate and share interests in many more ways. The use of the Internet has now become so common that people who are unaware of it are thought of as being completely out of touch with modern globalised communications.
Internet uses include shopping, communication, banking, learning, etc. Every day hundreds and thousands of websites are added to the World Wide Web. Websites can be either informational or transactional depending on their interactiveness. The Internet and its myriad of applications, tools and technologies have been adopted quickly by most businesses since the mid- 1990s. The Internet has affected communication paradigms, advertising methods, information access and dissemination, workforce mobility, business practices and operational methods of businesses.
The Internet has grown enormously and became more complex, with millions of websites and users. Consequently it has become difficult to manage and effective tools are required to derive the most benefits from Search engines are the most popular and useful Internet tool. Search engines comprise three parts
：
crawlers or spiders, an index and a search interface.97 Information Technology in Financial Services | Reference The Internet has helped to create new revenue streams for businesses and new business models. Electronic commerce (EC) is the process of buying, selling, transferring or exchanging products, services and/or information via computer networks including the Internet. EC can take several forms depending on the degree of digitization of (1)the product or service sold/transacted (2) the process (e.g. ordering, payment, fulfillment) and (3) the delivery method. Popular e- commerce types are B2B, B2C, and C2C etc.
E-commerce benefits include convenience, cost, time and effort savings, access to more options, etc. Concerns include those of security, trust and some legal issues.
Internet popularity has also grown in the social domain and social media have matured during the past few years. Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. Businesses have also started using social media to sell, market and launch new products, etc. Some questions to consider regarding social media are
：
What is the strategic benefit to leveraging this technology? What are the risks, and do the benefits outweigh the costs? What new legal issues does it raise? How will customer privacy issues be addressed?Reference Links http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5595213jmpact-internet-business.html
http://community.mis.temple.edu/mis3537sec001s11/2011/04/21/comment-on-wee k-2-impact-of-internet-on-
supply-chains/
http://stongeassociates.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/reducing-social-media-risks/
Part 4： Introduction to Networking
In this part Basic concepts
Student Learning Outcome