Page 269 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

254 8 Social Enterprise and Other Social Commerce Topics

website to French and German, falls into this category. 3. Idea generation by the employees or customers using
Crowdfunding is an application for raising funds only crowdsourcing is becoming popular. However, some say
from a large number of people. it is only an electronic suggestion box. Others disagree.
8. Social collaboration and the future of social commerce. Discuss.
Many see social collaboration (Collaboration 2.0) as the 4. Enter quara.com and ask for the benefits and limita-
major activity that social media supports. Activities sup- tions of social enterprises. Write a report.
ported range from joint design to problem-solving. 5. Debate: Should companies build in-house social net-
9. The future of social commerce. The general consensus is works for external activities (e.g., marketing, CRM) or
social commerce will grow rapidly; but some disagree. A use existing public social networks?
major boost to social commerce is IBM’s innovations (par- 6. Examine the Grand Theft Auto game. Why the game is
ticularly the Watson Computer and Smarter Commerce). so popular? Are there any social elements there?
7. Why does one need a special entrepreneur network?
What features make it effective?
KEY TERMS 8. What are some of the risks companies may face if they
decide to use public social networks?
Business social networks 9. Review the features of Socialtext (socialtext.com). Dis-
Gamification cuss how you would make use of this platform in a small
Social business enterprise in (a) retail, (b) manufacturing, and (c) finan-
Social collaboration (Collaboration 2.0) cial services.
Social enterprise 10. Would you use monster.com or linkedin.com for recruit-
Social game ing top managers, or would you rather use a traditional
Social network game agency? Why?
11. Crowdfunding is becoming very popular. Find recent
information about its success. What are some of the imple-
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS mentation challenges?

1. How do public business-oriented networks and private
enterprise social networks differ? INTERNET EXERCISES
2. Discuss the role of crowdsourcing in idea generation and
in other enterprise activities. 1. Enter xing.com and linkedin.com and compare their func-
3. Corporate social networking: Booster or time-waster? tionalities (capabilities). Also, enter youtube.com/watch?
What are the pitfalls of enterprise social networking? v=pBAghmYMG0M and view the video “Ryze Business
Discuss. Networking Tutorial” (7:20 min). Compare Ryze’s capa-
4. How can crowdsourcing reduce risks to merchants? bilities with those of LinkedIn.com. Write a report.
5. What are some of the risks companies may face if they 2. Enter pandora.com. Find out how you can create and
decide to use public social networks? share music with friends.
6. Discuss how social collaboration can support commercial 3. Check several crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter
activities. and GoFundMe and compare their processes. Find
7. How can gamification be used in business? information about crowdfunding in China. Can it be a
8. Compare and contrast social collaboration and crowd- $50 billion by 2025? Write a report.
sourcing. 4. Post a question on quara.com about the future of social
commerce. Summarize the answers and comment.
5. Enter innocentive.com. Describe how this site works.
TOPICS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION List their major products and services. Identify benefits
AND DEBATES and challenges.
6. Enter hulu.com/plus. Why is it an online entertainment
1. Debate: Should a crowd have professional knowledge of service? What are the benefits to viewers? Compare this
the task it has been given or not? site to starz.com.
2. Some claim that using social collaboration may be slow 7. Enter gaiaonline.com and find all socially oriented
and ineffective. Others disagree. Debate the issue. activities. Write a report.