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Chapter 8 Social Media Information Systems
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So Facebook for Organizations . . .
What?
and Machines

Social media is fun and entertaining for individuals, but what
about commerce?
For example, what would happen if you took Facebook
functionality and created an enterprise social network? How would
the organization change if everyone was talking with everyone?
That’s exactly what Salesforce.com did when it created Chatter.
Chatter can be used to connect employees and customers via
social media. For example, retail salespeople can communicate
directly with managers to give instant feedback about a new sales
promotion. Chatter can also connect salespeople with presale
support personnel or customer service personnel with customers.
With Chatter, or its rival Yammer, organizational communities
of practice identify and solve problems more quickly and more
effectively than before. With social media, communities of
practice readily find needed experts within the organization and
recruit them to help solve problems. Organizations become more
responsive because of faster project collaboration. Internal-facing
communities of practice use all the things you like about your
personal social media to make organizations better.
Enterprise social media is taking off, and consumer social
media is an established success. But what lies ahead? Where will
social media be applied next? Well, there’s one player that’s been
left out of this scenario—the machines. Source: Tuomas Kujansuu/iStock/Getty Images.
Machines have helped facilitate communication, but
they haven’t really been treated as communication partners.
We’re starting to see human-to-computer communication in From a consumer perspective, social media among machines
applications like Apple’s Siri and IBM’s Watson, which allow might have distinct advantages. For example, your car could
humans to naturally interact with machines. The potential communicate with each traffic light along your route to work to
here is tremendous. But what about machine-to-machine speed up your commute. No more sitting at red lights. Your car
communication? could perhaps even communicate with your phone, watch, tablet,
A startling, and potentially groundbreaking, application is and home (appliances, lights, doors, etc.) to solve problems you
mentioned in a video of Beth Comstock, Chief Marketing Officer for didn’t think were solvable.
General Electric. In the video, she makes the statement, “We want For example, once self-driving cars become widely used, they
to use Chatter to connect our employees, our customers, and our will interact with a host of different devices. Your self-driving car
machines.” Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHaBCcn-9BU and will get information from your health monitor indicating that you
listen yourself. haven’t eaten in 5 hours. Your car will also know, via your online
Did Comstock mean that GE jet engines are going to be social calendar, that you have a meeting across town in an hour. Your
media users? Will jet engines share their flight data (weather, air car could then map out a route with a stop at your favorite bistro,
speed, chop, pilot effectiveness, etc.) with other planes that fly the pick up an electronic coupon, call in your order, send the dietary
same route? Will they submit reviews on mechanics, as in “Don’t information to your health monitor, and get you to your meeting
accept maintenance from Charlie Smith; he’s too rough with his on time.
tools”? Will GE’s jet engines chat with GE’s servers about their Social machines will change the way organizations operate
performance and need for scheduled maintenance? and the way people live their lives. Embrace the change.