How social media influence online market

Mgema Musa z.
PRM 42615
The use of social media is growing at an astronomical rate. With Facebook floating on the stock exchange at a mind boggling $104 billion, many naysayers predict a bubble. However, there is no denying the power of social media and the impact that it can have on the business of marketing.

Tactics
Social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, instagram, viber   represent a huge opportunity for businesses to grab the attention of customers while simultaneously building a brand image. There are plenty of tactics that businesses can employ to do this including the creation of brand profiles on social networks such as Facebook fan pages and creative advertising via branded podcasts and applications, also known as apps.

Word of Mouth
Social media platforms provide the perfect opportunity to take advantage of word of mouth and to see it spread. Social media is growing at its fastest rate in developing countries. People are connected on a global scale and casually participate in each others lives through online observation. Something as simple as “Liking” a brand on Facebook can spread virally very quickly throughout the various social media channels. It is worth noting that individuals trust the opinions of their peers far more than a glossy magazine advert.

Millions of people review products and services directly via social media sites using video through Youtube, which in many cases is then shared and disseminated via various other social media websites. As a consequence, the public increasingly look to social media to find reviews on various products and services to help them to make buying decisions.
As a result, companies can and do provide products to popular Youtube users to review for their subscribers as well as create their own branded Youtube channels with branded videos about their products.

Communicating with Customers
Companies may see the spread of negative reviews about their products or services as a bad thing, when they can use it to their advantage. By utilising social media effectively, companies can reach out to dissatisfied customers directly, within their own social media environment, to find innovative ways of improving the product or service they have on offer.

Influence
When creating a social media marketing strategy, it is worth thinking very carefully about who is being targeted. There will be people within your social networks who may not necessarily be customers, but who nevertheless can have a massive impact on your marketing efforts. Forrester Analyst Augie Ray broke the various types of social media influencers into three distinct

categories:
Social Broadcasters at the top
Mass Influencers middle
Potential Influencers bottom of the pyramid
More than 80 per cent of that population is made up of “potential influencers”. It is worth making the effort to identify who these people are in your network and connect with them to attract shares and likes which ultimately help to spread your brand name. One website which is excellent for identifying these people is
Klout. Klout gives social networkers a score out of 100 which indicates how influential an individual is over their network while also identifying who the broadcasters and influencers are within that network.
Considerations
Social media has had and is continuing to have a huge influence on business, marketing and on how businesses engage with their target market. The use of social media to share and engage with others continues to grow at an astounding rate, so it would be wise for any business to develop and implement a sustainable social media strategy in order to successfully take advantage of this rapidly changing environment.

By charles kulwa n reg no 42688

Network society and communication technology

A network society is a society whose social structure is made of networks powered by microelectronics based information and communication technologies. By social structures you know the organization arrangements of human in relations of production, consumption, reproduction experience, and power expressed in a meaningful communication coded by culture. Network is a set of interconnected nodes. 

A node is the point where the curve intersects itself. A network has no centre, just nodes. Nodes may be of varying relevance for the network. Nodes increase their importance for the networks by absorbing more relevant information, and processing it more effectively. The relative importance of a node does not stem from its specific features but from its ability to contribute to the networks goals. However, all nodes of a network are necessary for the networks performance. 

When nodes become redundant or useless, networks tend to recon figurate themselves, deleting some nodes, and adding new ones. Communication networks are the patterns of contact that created by flows of message among communications through time and space ( Monge and contactors 2003) so, network process flows. Flows are streams of information between nodes circulating through the channels of connection between nodes. A network is defined by the program that assigns the network its goals and its rule of performance. 

This program is made of codes that include valuation of performance and criteria for success or failure. to alter the outcomes of the network a new program (a set of compatible codes) will have to be installed in the network from outside the network. Network cooperates or compete with each other. Cooperation is based on the ability to communicate between networks. 

This ability depends on the existence of codes of translation and inter operability between the networks (protocol of communication), and on access to connection points (switches). Competition depends on the ability to outperform other networks by superior efficiency in performance or in cooperation capacity. Competition may also take a destructive form by disrupting the switchers of competing networks and or interfering with their communication protocols. 

Networks work on a binary logic: inclusive /exclusive within the networks, distance between nodes tends to zero, as networks follow the logic of small worlds, properties, they are able to connect to the entire network and communicated  networks from any node in the networks, on the condition of sharing protocols of communication. Between nodes in the network and outside the network, distance is infinite, since there is no access unless the program of the network is changed. Thus, networks are self reconfigurable, complex structures of communication that ensure the unity of the purpose and the flexibility of its execution, by the capacity to adapt to the operating environment.

Networks however are not specific to 21^st century societies or for that matter, to human organization. Networks constitute the fundamental pattern of life, of all kinds of life. As fritjof capra writs ‘’ the networks is pattern that is common to all life., wherever we see life, we see networks ( 2002)

Laizer Edwin n Baprm 42691

Digital Has Changed the Way we Communicate

The dynamics of communication change in cyberspace; people are more open and do not use as many filters as they would in face-to-face communications. Sometimes people share very personal things about themselves. [On the other hand] out spills rude language, harsh criticisms, anger, hatred, even threats. This feeling of over-familiarity confers undue credulity and equality on even the most pedestrian of bloggers. No one knows your credentials or lack thereof, so you are taken as seriously as everyone else.

How can businesses stand out in what is now considered to be an equal playing field where everyone and anyone can create a website or blog, and say what they want? Perhaps they can take a lesson from the way today’s celebrities, who are learning to interact with their fans in a whole new way. “Prior to computers, magazines and cinema were the sole outlets influencing your perception of beauty. Now, Stars lives are chronicled on a daily basis thanks to Twitter, blogs, online magazines and other easily attainable media, creating an almost intimate relationship between the public and the stars. While stars and celebrity fan sites may be focused on perceptions of gossip, beauty and popularity, business managers can use these very same outlets to build similar, almost intimate relationships with the consuming public.

Our Sense of Self-Identity is changing

Online capabilities allow people to take on virtually any personality or body form. There are Avatar representations of who you ‘are,’ but you can change them as you wish. This flexibility of personality makes it possible for celebrities to occupy multiple identities at once (such as Beyonce/Sasha Fierce), and for multiple people and graphics to occupy the same identity or role/function, similar to the Lara Croft, the pope, and kings.

This blurring of the individual, cultural, and societal lines makes managing and marketing even more challenging in the 21st century. McLuhan recognized how our society had changed radically with the introduction of the visual language of writing and the further widespread impact following the introduction of the printing press. Recently, we have faced another revolution of communication, the digital age. But even he might have difficulty formulating an effective approach to today’s employees, business colleagues and consumers.

Building upon the evolution from quill pen and printing press to cyberspace, what is today’s business managers to do to maneuver this revolution of technology, communication, and identity in order to appeal to their target audience? They could rely on the skills of anthropologists and ethnographers to help them understand the cultural changes in society, and their business sensibilities, advising them accordingly to adapt.

Ten benefits of Digital Marketing vs Traditional marketing

MGEMA MUSA Z.
BAPRM 42615

10 Benefits of Digital Marketing v. Traditional Marketing

Clearly the world of technology, digital marketing and social media is having a significant impact on how we behave socially, act as consumers and how we do business so it could be fair to say that any business that does not adapt to the new era of marketing and communications is in danger of losing out.

Customers and prospects use and what currently works.  It could be that a blended strategy of traditional and digital marketing can still yield returns for your business.

Here is how I see the 10 benefits of Digital Marketing v. Traditional Marketing:

1. Level playing field, any business can compete with any competitor regardless of size with a solid digital marketing strategy. Traditionally a smaller retailer would struggle to match the finesse of the fixtures and fittings of its larger competitors. Online, a crisp well thought out site with a smooth customer journey and fantastic service is king not size.

2. Reduced cost, your business can develop its online marketing strategy for very little cost and can potentially replace costly advertising channels such as Yellow Pages, television, radio and magazine.

3. Simple to measure, unlike traditional methods you can see in real time what is or is not working for your business online and you can adapt very quickly to improve your results. For measuring traffic to your site you can use Google Analytics to measure specific goals you want to achieve for your website or blog and most packaged email marketing solutions provide good insight into how many people are opening, reading and converting from your emails.

4. Real time results, you don’t have to wait weeks for a boost to your business like you would have to waiting for a fax or form to be returned. You can see the numbers of visitors to your site and its subscribers increase, peak trading times, conversion rates and much more at the touch of a button.
5. Refinement of your strategy, basically anything that you capture in your customer journey can be reported on and honed for greater success at the fraction of the cost of traditional marketing. After all, how annoying is it to get a couple of forms returned from a mailshot. Marketing online enables you to refine your strategy at any point in time and see any improvements or opportunities for further refinement almost instantaneously.
6. Brand Development, a well maintained website with quality content targeting the needs and adding value to your target audience can provide significant value and lead generation opportunities. The same can be said for utilising social media channels and personalised email marketing.

7. Far greater exposure, your business can be seen anywhere in the world from one marketing campaign, the cost to do this using traditional methods would be considerable. Plus once you have optimised the key word search content in your website you should see a long-term return on your investment and will be fairly low cost to maintain your ranking.
8. Viral, how often do your sales flyers get passed around instantly by your customers and prospects? Online, using social media share buttons on your website, email and social media channels enables your message to be shared incredibly quickly, just look how effective it is for sharing breaking news. If you consider the average Facebook user has 190 friends of which an average of 12% see their liked posts your one message has actually been seen by 15 new prospects, now imagine a number of them also like and share your message and their friends do the same? Mind blowing isn’t it. However a word of caution, bad news can travel much quicker so make sure you have a risk management strategy to tackle negative press as soon as it is circulated.
9. Not Intrusive, know most people hate receiving sales mail shots or phone calls at inconvenient times on stuff that they have little interest in.  Online people get the choice to opt in or out of communications and often it is relevant because they were the ones searching for it in the first place. Also, have you ever got frustrated receiving a regular email on a topic that interests and adds value to you Nor me so don’t underestimate the power of market segmentation and tailored marketing.
10. Greater engagement, with digital marketing you can encourage your prospects, clients and followers to take action, visit your website, read about your products and services, rate them, buy them and provide feedback which is visible to your market. So it doesn’t take long for good publicity to enhance the prospects of your business.

E GOVERNMENT AND ITS TYPES.

Jackson Aneth BAPRM 42565

E Government.

Definitions of E Government range from the use of information technology to free movement of information to overcome the physical bounds of traditional paper and physical based systems to the use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners and employees.

The common theme behind these definitions is that e government involves the automation or computerization of existing paper based procedures that will prompt new styles of leadership, new ways of debating and deciding strategies, new ways of transacting business, new ways of listening to citizens and communities, and new ways of organizing and delivering information.

Ultimately, e government aims to enhance access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens. More important, it aims to help strengthen government’s drive toward effective governance and increased transparency to better manage a country’s social and economic resources for development.


The key to E Government is the establishment of a long term, organization-wide strategy to constantly improve operations with the end in view of fulfilling citizen needs by transforming internal operations such as staffing, technology, processes and work flow management.

Thus, E Government should result in the efficient and swift delivery of goods and services to citizens, businesses, government employees and agencies.

To citizens and businesses, E Government would mean the simplification of procedures and streamlining of the approval process.

To government employees and agencies, it would mean the facilitation of cross agency coordination and collaboration to ensure appropriate and timely decision making.

What are the types of E Government transactions.

E Government services focus on four main customers

1. citizens.
2.The business community.
3.Government employees.
4.Government agencies.

E Government aims to make interaction with citizens, businesses, government employees, government agencies and other governments more convenient, friendly, transparent, inexpensive and effective.

In an e government system, individuals are able to initiate a request for a particular government service and then receive that government service through the Internet or some computerized mechanism.

In some cases, the government service is delivered through one government office, instead of many. In other cases, a government transaction is completed without direct in person contact with a government employee.

By charles kulwa n reg no 42688

Network society and communication technology

A network society is a society whose social structure is made of networks powered by microelectronics based information and communication technologies. By social structures you know the organization arrangements of human in relations of production, consumption, reproduction experience, and power expressed in a meaningful communication coded by culture. Network is a set of interconnected nodes. 

A node is the point where the curve intersects itself. A network has no centre, just nodes. Nodes may be of varying relevance for the network. Nodes increase their importance for the networks by absorbing more relevant information, and processing it more effectively. The relative importance of a node does not stem from its specific features but from its ability to contribute to the networks goals. However, all nodes of a network are necessary for the networks performance. 

When nodes become redundant or useless, networks tend to recon figurate themselves, deleting some nodes, and adding new ones. Communication networks are the patterns of contact that created by flows of message among communications through time and space ( Monge and contactors 2003) so, network process flows. Flows are streams of information between nodes circulating through the channels of connection between nodes. A network is defined by the program that assigns the network its goals and its rule of performance. 

This program is made of codes that include valuation of performance and criteria for success or failure. to alter the outcomes of the network a new program (a set of compatible codes) will have to be installed in the network from outside the network. Network cooperates or compete with each other. Cooperation is based on the ability to communicate between networks. 

This ability depends on the existence of codes of translation and inter operability between the networks (protocol of communication), and on access to connection points (switches). Competition depends on the ability to outperform other networks by superior efficiency in performance or in cooperation capacity. Competition may also take a destructive form by disrupting the switchers of competing networks and or interfering with their communication protocols. 

Networks work on a binary logic: inclusive /exclusive within the networks, distance between nodes tends to zero, as networks follow the logic of small worlds, properties, they are able to connect to the entire network and communicated  networks from any node in the networks, on the condition of sharing protocols of communication. Between nodes in the network and outside the network, distance is infinite, since there is no access unless the program of the network is changed. Thus, networks are self reconfigurable, complex structures of communication that ensure the unity of the purpose and the flexibility of its execution, by the capacity to adapt to the operating environment.

Networks however are not specific to 21^st century societies or for that matter, to human organization. Networks constitute the fundamental pattern of life, of all kinds of life. As fritjof capra writs ‘’ the networks is pattern that is common to all life., wherever we see life, we see networks ( 2002)

Laizer Edwin n Baprm 42691

Digital Has Changed the Way we Communicate

The dynamics of communication change in cyberspace; people are more open and do not use as many filters as they would in face-to-face communications. Sometimes people share very personal things about themselves. [On the other hand] out spills rude language, harsh criticisms, anger, hatred, even threats. This feeling of over-familiarity confers undue credulity and equality on even the most pedestrian of bloggers. No one knows your credentials or lack thereof, so you are taken as seriously as everyone else.

How can businesses stand out in what is now considered to be an equal playing field where everyone and anyone can create a website or blog, and say what they want? Perhaps they can take a lesson from the way today’s celebrities, who are learning to interact with their fans in a whole new way. “Prior to computers, magazines and cinema were the sole outlets influencing your perception of beauty. Now, Stars lives are chronicled on a daily basis thanks to Twitter, blogs, online magazines and other easily attainable media, creating an almost intimate relationship between the public and the stars. While stars and celebrity fan sites may be focused on perceptions of gossip, beauty and popularity, business managers can use these very same outlets to build similar, almost intimate relationships with the consuming public.

Our Sense of Self-Identity is changing

Online capabilities allow people to take on virtually any personality or body form. There are Avatar representations of who you ‘are,’ but you can change them as you wish. This flexibility of personality makes it possible for celebrities to occupy multiple identities at once (such as Beyonce/Sasha Fierce), and for multiple people and graphics to occupy the same identity or role/function, similar to the Lara Croft, the pope, and kings.

This blurring of the individual, cultural, and societal lines makes managing and marketing even more challenging in the 21st century. McLuhan recognized how our society had changed radically with the introduction of the visual language of writing and the further widespread impact following the introduction of the printing press. Recently, we have faced another revolution of communication, the digital age. But even he might have difficulty formulating an effective approach to today’s employees, business colleagues and consumers.

Building upon the evolution from quill pen and printing press to cyberspace, what is today’s business managers to do to maneuver this revolution of technology, communication, and identity in order to appeal to their target audience? They could rely on the skills of anthropologists and ethnographers to help them understand the cultural changes in society, and their business sensibilities, advising them accordingly to adapt.