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Chapter 8 Social Media Information Systems

“I have no idea; I need an architect, I need a contractor, and I need to know how
much it costs to tear this building down.” Nicki smiles at his analogy.
“OK. You’ve got it now.”
As Michele listens to this, she wishes she hadn’t left her last job. “Well, I’m telling
you two, I can’t sell anything with 10 people at an event. That’s crazy.”
“Well, what about 1,000 events with 10 people? You’ll still get your 20,000 eyes …
well, that assumes everyone has two eyes; probably a few less than 20,000.” James
likes accuracy.
“Come on, James, no vendor’s gonna ask me how many one-eyed racers we’ve got.”
“Stop it, you two! Michele, James is on to something. Think about it. How many
people are in an online chess game?”
“Two, and let’s assume that means four eyes, OK?” Michele is disgusted at
James’s comment.
“Let it go, Michele. But those online chess vendors make money. What if we did
heats of races of 10 people each, then let the winner of each heat compete in the next
round? We’d have continuing events and be able to sell between events … ” Nicki
trails off as she considers the possibilities.

Chapter preview

Changes to social media are happening so rapidly that we all struggle to keep up with
the latest developments. We revise this textbook every year, and even still, writing in
August, we know that by the time you read this in January or later, a good portion of it
will be obsolete. Unfortunately, we don’t know which parts they will be.
In our experience, the best response to rapid technological change is to learn
and understand underlying principles. Rather than show you Facebook or Google+
features that we know will change before the ink on this page is dry, let’s instead
focus on principles, conceptual frameworks, and models that will be useful when you
address the opportunities and risks of social media systems in the early years of your
professional career.
This knowledge will also help you avoid mistakes. Every day, you hear
businesspeople saying, “We’re using Twitter” and “We’ve connected our Facebook
page to our Web site.” Or they mention that they are creating ads and news releases
that say, “Follow us on Twitter.” The important question is, for what purpose? To be
modern? To be hip? And do they have a social media strategy? Will using social media
affect their bottom line?
We’ll begin in Q8-1 by defining and describing the components of a social
media information system, which will help you understand the commitment that
organizations make when they use social media. As you’ve learned, the purpose of
information systems is to help organizations achieve their strategy, and, in Q8-2, we’ll
consider how social media information systems facilitate organizational strategies.
Next, in Q8-3, we will address how social media information systems increase social
capital. Q8-4 will address how some companies earn revenue from social media; Q8-5
will look at how you can develop an effective social media strategy; and Q8-6 will look
at enterprise social networks. We will then describe in Q8-7 how organizations can
address security concerns related to the use of social media. We’ll wrap up in Q8-8
with an odd analogy about the change in the relationship between individuals and
organizations heading into 2026.