Facebook Case Analysis

Case Study: Facebook| Introduction Recently, the social networking sites are getting much more popular on the internet. They are playing a vital role in the way that individuals can easily create their own online profiles, construct their identities and help communicate with each other. Literally, there are many social networking sites worldwide; however, Facebook is the most well-known one since the number of its visitors is significantly increasing.Historically, Facebook was founded almost nine years ago by three undergraduate students of Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg and his two colleges, where it was firstly used by the members who have only ‘. edu’ email addresses. A month later since Facebook had been launched; it was spread very fast where it was used by the majority of Harvard students, then the number of Facebook users increased rapidly after Zuckerberg had left Harvard and move to California in order to make the site expanded more and more (Valenzuela, Park, Kee, 20 08). The majority of the individuals who are surfing the internet, spend lots of time on Facebook.They are able to visit their own profiles as well as they can even browse profiles of other people and share interests like photos, games and information (Mikolaj et al. , 2011), (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). In this paper, there are a number of questions concerning the Facebook and will be answered. Question 1: Why do people use Facebook, and what do they do when they are on the site? What are the implications of this behaviour for individuals, organizations and for Facebook? Facebook is one of the social networking sites, which has become the most popular site globally (Lipsman, 2011).The number of individuals who registered in Facebook site reached a billion about four months ago (Mikolaj et al. , 2011). Generally, individuals are doing a variety of activities using Facebook platform on the internet. People have a great opportunity to create their own public profiles, in which their old an d recent information can be browsed, where Facebook users are able to write their personal information on their own profiles like names, living places, interests, study programs, contact details, photos and pictures as well as the other favoured sites (Hargittai, 2010). In addition, Facebook nables the individuals to communicate and connect with distant friends, colleagues and strangers, showing and sharing their lists of connections as well as extend and strengthen their relationships and friendships, meet each other and sharing their interests, and they can even share the media content (Griffiths & Kuss, 2011). People can also shop online using Facebook browsing shopping pages, seeking for groups or members, and browse people’s walls (Mikolaj et al. , 2011). Moreover, Facebook users are able to play free social games such as Zynga, which in turn would help them connect with the other communities.According to Piskoriski (2011), there was a survey done by Information Solution Group demonstrated that more than 30 percept of Zynga game players pointed out that the games enabled them to connect with family and present friends whereas another third admitted that playing games on Facebook made them connect with old friends and one third used them in order to make new friends. Additionally, concerning the effect of Facebook on organisations, organisations are using Facebook platform to make their names much more well-known which in turn leads to increase their sales and profits (Mikolaj et al. 2011). Actually, there are two main factors that have made Facebook the most popular social site internationally: Firstly, the need to belong, secondly, the need to view limitation. All those factors could be influenced by several variables such as demographic and personal attributes, and social and cultural background (Ashwini & Stefan, 2012). In contrast, using Facebook could be leading to the negative consequences. In other words, the increasing hours people spend on line, may be indicative of potential addiction particularly for students (Griffiths & Kuss, 2011).Grabmeier (2010) claimed that there is a strong link between using Facebook and low grades achievement at universities. This is correlates with the recent study showed that â€Å"Facebook users had lower grade academic performance and spent less time studying than students who did not use this social networking sites† (Griffiths & Kuss 2011, 10). Furthermore, Griffiths and Kuss (2011) claimed that Anecdotal case study evidence reported that some Facebook addicts are more likely to have potential mental health problems.Moreover Accessibility of the others’ privacies using Facebook could also be considered as one of the negative impacts of using Facebook. Question 2: How can organizations leverage Facebook for commercial purposes? How effective are company pages on Facebook? Facebook platform is playing a crucial role in commercial purposes, particularly for companies. They are able to create free profile page in order to post information about their products and receive comments about them, as a result, Facebook might invest more in order to enhance advertising products (Mikolaj et al. , 2011).Additionally, further investment in this social site assist the firms improve their own applications, letting the Facebook users engaged in some social events that they might be interested in and consequently the relationship between the firms and their fans would be strengthened (Mikolaj et al. , 2011), (Piskoriski, 2011). Facebook also made new business pages which permitted businesses, brands, products, artists, and public figures to build free custom Facebook pages and attract Facebook users to like them so that users would then see status updates, pictures and videos which posted by the organisation on their page (Mikolaj et al. 2011). This can create an effective negotiation between the firms and their fans. Companies can also advertise their pages on Face book to be liked by users. New advertising products were improved using Facebook which in turn leveraged its users in terms of social relationships (Mikolaj et al. , 2011), (Piskoriski, 2011). To illustrate, friends of a certain company would see ads about that company regularly (Mikolaj et al. , 2011). As a result, Facebook has achieved massive financial benefits from those developers and applications.Question 3: Regarding the Facebook platform, what role does it play for both individuals and organizations? Facebook has some approaches that make it different from other social sites. For example, Facebook users are able to browse each other’s profiles as long as the profiles’ owners allowed that (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Moreover, Facebook permitted users to add applications in order to enhance their profile and they were set up by Facebook developers (Mikolaj et al. , 2011).One of these applications is games, where more than 40 % of Facebook users had been attracted to play games by 2011. A year after Facebook extended its API to comprise other actions, such as listening to music or reading an article and might be also shared with other users (Mikolaj et al. , 2011). Facebook platform also play a significant role in increasing the profitability of the firms. The immense increase in the number of the Facebook users has made it much more attractive to the traditional companies (Piskoriski, 2011).Firms started to create application platforms and look for new customers and engaging the existing ones on Facebook site by advertising and offering new special prices and posted them on their own profile page (Piskoriski, 2011). As a result, the number of visitors to that profile page of that firms would be increasing which led to a substantial increase in the number of users who are interested in the their applications and brands. Individuals can also see other brands using advertisements for those brands on Facebook. Then the firms’ incomes would b e increasing dramatically. Question 4:Finally, review the final paragraph on page 14. How would you respond to these questions? What should Facebook concentrate on? Recently, there has been a huge collaboration between firms and Facebook platform in terms of commercial aspects. In fact, offering free profile pages on Facebook has made it much more attractive and valuable to many companies. Firms have been able to utilize this feature by doing businesses with Facebook through which they capable to advertise their brands and products on Facebook users’ profiles so that companies can increase their revenues (Mikolaj et al. , 2011).In addition, Facebook application developers have great opportunities to create additional applications, and update and enhance the old ones based on users’ interests due the massive increasing in the number of Facebook visitors who have different desires and needs (Egele et al. , 2012). Therefore, Facebook plays an essential role in products di spersal and increasing sales and then profits of the firms as a result of advertising and applications. Facebook should be focusing on deploying much more effort in order to support its businesses with organisations based on the interests of the users.Development its tools is another factor that can increase its attraction to the investors and then increase profits. There is also an important issue that Facebook should concern about which is privacy in terms of data hankering. Facebook should be aware of keeping its users privacies secure. Otherwise, it will lose its admiration in terms of limiting the objectives for both individuals and companies (Fowler & Geoffre, 2010). Conclusion There is no social networking site as popular as Facebook. It can be used either for communication between individuals worldwide or for commercial aspects.Facebook has several advantages in terms of strengthening the social relationships as well as providing new marketing strategies which in turn leads to the increasing the growth of economy. Nevertheless, Facebook has some negative impacts such as students’ achievement and browsing the others’ privacies. In general, Facebook is experiencing massive challenges to keep and advance its reputation. References Ashwini, Nadkarni, and Hofmann, Stefan G. â€Å"Why do People use Facebook? † Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 52, issue 3 (2012): 243-249.Egele, M. , Moser, A. , Kruegel, C. and Kirda, E. â€Å"PoX: Protecting Users from Malicious Facebook Applications. † Computer Communications 35, no. 12 (2012): 1507-1515. www. scopus. com. Fowler, Geoffrey A. â€Å"Corporate News: Facebook Fights Privacy Concerns. † Wall Street Journal, Aug 21, 2010. http://search. proquest. com/docview/746178017? accountid=10382 Grabmeier, J. â€Å"Study Finds Link Between Facebook Use, Lower Grades In College. † Research News (2010). http://researchnews. osu. edu/archive/facebookusers. htm Hargittai, E. , and Hsieh, Y.P. (2010). â€Å"Predictors and Consequences of Social Network Site Usage. † Information, Communication and Society, 13, 515–536. Lipsman, A. â€Å"The Network Effect: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Tumblr Reach New Heights in May. † (2011, June 15). http://blog. comscore. com/2011/06/facebook_linkedin_twitter_tumblr. html Mikolaj J. , Thomas R. , David C. and Brian F. † Facebook†. Harvard Business School Publishing. (2011). Patrick Van Eecke and Maarten Truyens, â€Å"Privacy and Social Networks. † Computer Law & amp; Security Review, vol. 6, issue 5, 535-546. http://www. sciencedirect. com/science/article/pii/S0267364910001093) Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, F. K. (2008). â€Å"Lessons from Facebook: The Effects of Social Network Sites on College Students’ Social Capital. † http://online. journalism. utexas. edu/2008/papers/Valenzuela. pdf * Boyd, D. M. , & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, his tory and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 210–230. * Online Social Networking and Addiction—A Review of the Psychological Literature

Porters Five Forces on Retail Industry Essay

Five forces Model 1) Suppliers power 2) Buyers Bargaining Power 3) New Potential Entrants 4) Threat of Substitutes 5) Industry Competitors STRENGTHS 1) Suppliers power A segment is unattractive if the company’s suppliers are able to raise prices or reduce quantity supplied Ss in apparels section have major brands like, Arrow, Levis, lee, Provogue, Pepe, loues Philip, Zodiac Weakness 2) Customer Buying Power The bargaining power of customer at SS can be a weakness if customer shift to substitutes.There are various other brands which could act as a substitute to SS for eg: Zodiac, Raymonds, Color plus, and Arvind Mills 3) Industry competitors  competitors like Globus, Westside and Lifestyle, Wills Lifestyles, Rpg ,Pantaloon who catered to the same segment of customers, entered the market. 4) New potential entrants Preferred Partner for Foreign Players SS is the preferred partner/retailer for foreign brands entering India. The company has already signed an agreement with UK retailer Mothercare to retail their products. The company has tied-up Estee Lauder’s MAC brand of cosmetics with one strongly performing outlet opened so far. SS has also tied up with Austin Reed for both manufacturing and retailing its brand in India. We expect many more opportunities for similar tie-ups, particularly  as the government has allowed up to 51% FDI in single brand retailing. Shoppers’ Stop has 4 division the Men’s apparels, ladies apparels, kids wear and the Non-apparels. Following is their contribution to the turnover. * Men’s 43% of sales * Women’s 18% of sales * Kids 8% of sales * Non-Apparels 31% of sales SS LOYALITY PROGRAMES SS PIONEERED INDIA’S first loyality programes They have 3 tier loyality programme 1) classic moments for entry level 2) silver edge 3) golden glow, members fall in different cateogory dependimng on theior spends with the company, they also receive reward points which they can redeem later on.

Critical Book Review of “Fast Food Nation” Essay

In this essay, an attempt is made to critically review the book, â€Å"Fast Food Nation† which deals with the process of emergence of fast food culture in America leading to significant social changes. Analysis The meticulously researched book â€Å"Fast Food Nation† is written by the journalist Eric Schlosser. The author devotes much attention to unhealthy fast food, labor violations, and many cases of food poisoning. The author gives information regarding the process of emergence of fast food culture in America; the health issues related to fast food culture, and the government regulations regarding the fast food. In this book, the author demonstrates the ugly side of American food culture. According to the author of this book Americans spend more on fast food than on books, movies, etc. In 2001, Americans have spent $110 billion on fast food. There are 43000 meatpacking workers. Fast food industry spends $3 billion to attract the young people to the fast food centers. The author states that every American consumes three hamburgers and four orders of French fries every week. He says that the social price of fast food has neglected the traditional American values. The attempt of the author is to argue against the consumption of fast food by the Americans. He obtained information through fieldwork and by interviewing different categories of workers involved in fast food production. The author argues that the main reason for opening so many fast food centers was to attract large number of people to the fast food culture. This is a part of the capitalist agenda since the fast food centers have increased the capital of the owners of these centers. Due to this, few corporations have dominated the fast food business in America. The author does not hide his distrust regarding the fundamental principles of the capitalist system. He has given information regarding the economic strategies of the capitalists in popularizing the consumption of fast food among the American youth and other sections of American society. The book also gives information regarding the problems faced by the teen-aged workers who were paid low wages. The author mentions that one out of every eight worker in America is employed in McDonald. McDonald’s hire nearly million people a year. However, they work under dangerous working conditions. It is mentioned that three companies master 80 percent of US demand for frozen fries. The author visited the slaughterhouses and comprehended the potential health hazards both to the workers and the consumers. He mentions that each year one in three workers go to doctor due to problem with their stomach. The author gives the information that two thirds of fast food workers are under 20 and most of them work 12 hours shift. To demonstrate his argument the author has used the examples, logos from the companies such as MacDonald’s. The fast food culture has few negative impacts on the health and society of America. For instance, this has increased the problem of obesity. These restaurants use items such as potatoes and cattle to produce the popular food. The use of items such as oil and method of production of meat has increased the problem of obesity in America. Obesity in the recent years has emerged as the one of the most severe social and health problems among the American youth. Thus, fast food culture can be considered as one factor leading to this problem of obesity in America. However, the author has neglected the role of consumer while discussing the growth of fast food culture. The author points out the need for government regulations to curb the freedom of multi national companies in imposing their capitalist agenda on the people. The fast food mostly produced and consumed by the younger generation are not healthy. Regarding the health hazard, the author refers to E. coli and salmonella infection. The author blames the politicians for taking money from agri business capitalists, which has increased the number of fast food restaurants throughout America. The author has urged the readers that they should run away from the fast food in order to maintain their health. The fact that fast food culture is becoming popular indicates the emergence of significant changes in the American society. The fast food centers have on the one hand created health problems, and, on the other, they have led to changes in the social values among the American youth. The author says that everyday one-quarter of adult population in America visit fast food centers. Although people are aware of the bad effects of the fast food, still fast foods have not lost their popularity. Thus, the author does not give clear explanation regarding the reasons for the popularity of these fast food centers. However, the author, by the use of statistics, symbols, and examples has succeeded in arguing against the monopoly of few companies in fast food business. He has demonstrated the negative impact of fast food on health and society of America. Those who read this book would not send their children to the fast food centers. Conclusion The book â€Å"Fast Food Nation† has convincingly proved that fast food culture has led to problem of obesity and affected the workers and health of consumers of fast food. This also demonstrates that the nature of changes that would emerge in the future American society.

Managing International Trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words - 1

Managing International Trade - Essay Example The 1960s saw the company diversify into research and manufacturing of drugs with development of the Ibuprofen painkiller. The company has diversified its development to other places and in 1968, the company acquired through purchase Timothy Whites and Taylors Ltd chain. Ion 1978, the company acquired Tamblyn Drugs chain in Canada which saw it entering the market. In 1987, the company became UK’s second largest drugs chain by acquiring Clement Clarke Ltd. and Curry and Paxton Ltd. In 1998, it ventured into dentistry and ‘well-being’ services offered to its customers. The company has seen sales and acquisitions with companies related to the field such as Optical Express but in 2006, the company developed a merger with Alliance Boots Ltd. In 2012, it was announced that Walgreens wanted to acquire a 45% stake in Boots. This is supposed to be a long term investment issue. The company mission statement is, â€Å"to become the world’s leading pharmacy-led health and beauty group†. This would be done through collaboration with Walgreen where Boots would boost Walgreen in the UK market and Walgreen boost Boots in the American and Chinese markets where it has prospered. The corporate level strategies of the company are to focus on its core activities in business. This is specific in the pharmacy led health and beauty retailing as well as pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution. This is to be achieved alongside realizing international branding of the products so that a third dimension is created. The strategy therefore includes growing the core businesses in the existing markets as well as continued delivery of improved products and saving of costs. Growth opportunities are supposed to be achieved through pursuing the growth opportunities in new high growth markets. The company also seeks to launch new brands in new markets, deliver synergies through strategic partnerships with other companies. The partnerships may

Implementing & managing change (in tables) Assignment

Implementing & managing change (in tables) - Assignment Example National planning exercises are fundamentally important undertakings for any government. Nevertheless, the plans drafted to be used in the realization of national goals and objectives may be variant from one country to another due to a number of reasons. Basic to the explanation is that countries often differ in visions, resource endowment as well as the stage of economic development. Moreover, planning documents may be different in on the time stipulated for the development process or realization of the set aims. In this understanding, this paper therefore, focuses on comparing national development plan documents for three countries; England, Scotland as well as the Wales. The analysis will focus on the aims as well as objectives outlined in either, the primary focus of development, time frame within which the plan is to be actualized as well as likelihood of its success. This paper therefore, presents a discussion in segments which will be under the above sub-headings.

Using Ethos In Designing Of Websites Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Using Ethos In Designing Of Websites - Essay Example The website for a project management tool, Basecamp uses Ethos to appeal to its customers by showing its credibility. The website shows a picture of two men talking to each other. One man asks the other, â€Å"How did you get that project done without losing your mind?† The second man Answers, â€Å"BASECAMP, we love it.† The answer from the second man proofs that the website is credible and reliable in project management. There is also the bold sentence on the website that shows that last year alone, the website helped over 285,000 companies complete more than 2 million projects. When navigating through the website one realizes that Basecamp marketing site builds credibility for their products and services by listing prominent customers that depend on the company to finish their projects. The method appeals to new customers who will trust and believe that the company will also give them good products and services. The website underlines and bold statements such as â€Å"Millions of people† use Basecamp. An indication of a strong and trustworthy customer base helps the website to build credibility among other people especially new clients. The website also shows that the company’s software for doing project management can operate on a variety of operating systems both on computers and smartphones. Customers will thus, understand that the information is true and credible. The website continues to appeal to customers by putting videos of important customers explaining what they like about Basecamp. It is clear that the Basecamp marketing website ap peals to ethos.

Choosing MBA Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Choosing MBA Program - Essay Example The most vital factor considered when choosing an MBA program is the cost of the program. In Canada, the most expensive business administration programs are offered in Rotman (Toronto), Ivey (Western), Queens, Schulich (York) and Desautels. Their prices range from $50,000 to around $100,000. Also, the cheapest business administration programs range from $5,000 to approximately $10,000. They are offered in institutions such as the University of Quebec, Royal Military College, Sherbrooke, Laval and Memorial (MBA Programs.org., 2012). The other factors considered when selecting an MBA program include the teaching quality, peer group, competition, international accreditation, reputation of the school, curriculum, and bilingualism among other factors (Hecterra Inc., 2012). All these factors are of vital importance before an individual selects his or her Masters in Business Administration program of choice. When one earns a Masters in Business Administration degree, they are able provide m anagement skills and business skills. Furthermore, the program shapes one’s vision to do international business. Most school profiles provide convenient information regarding the programs (Bragg, 2011). In Canada, these programs at accredited schools are similar to those in Anglo-Saxon countries. This is because the accreditation standards are not similar in most countries. Some states have various legal requirements for accreditation. Firstly, the learners cover a wide field of programs. Afterwards, in their second year they specialize on their curriculum of interest. Most of the business administration programs provide training which goes beyond general business management. Additionally, the programs allow the individual to earn joint degrees (Corbett, 1998). The full-time and part-time Masters in Business Administration programs are often seen as the tradition education model. This is mainly because the students cover a wide range of topics in their first year. Lucky enoug h, the part-time MBA programs are flexible because, the student can multitask. This asserts that learners are able to work while subsequently pursuing their studies since; there programs require less class time (Corbett, 1998). In this case, I have chosen to specialize in the accounting field. The Master of Accountancy is regarded as a graduate professional degree which prepares the learners for public accounting. Furthermore, this field of specialization provides the learner with 150 credit hours as required by most states before taking the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination. The program runs for a period of one year which contains over twelve semester credit courses. On the contrary, the accounting field is not liable for preparing the learners to undertake (Certified Public Accountant) CPA examinations. From research, after graduating, one enters into the consulting or the corporate accounting field. Alternatively, the graduates have the capability to pursue Certifie d Internal Auditor (CIA) or Certified Management Accountant (CMA) among other certificate programs. For online accredited programs, accounting allows learners to perform duties such as financial planning, information technology operations, reviewing corporate budgets among other operations. The Master of Accounting Program (MAcc) also develops the learner’