Chapter 4.

Social Media,
E-Commerce and
E-Operations
GEE-LIE (Living in the IT Era)
Lesson 4.4: Social Media
GEE-LIE (Living in the IT Era)
Introduction
 Socialmedia has grown tremendously in the
last few years. From 2006 onwards the
growth rate is unexpectedly very high.
Specially Facebook and Twitter have grown
much faster and captured millions of users in
just a few years. The way technology is
growing, it is obvious that more and more
people are going to grasp its benefits. It has
brought a lot of advantages for the society.
DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Cyberbullying
According to a report published by
PewCenter.org most of the children have
become victims of the cyberbullying over
the past. Since anyone can create a fake
account and do anything without being
traced, it has become quite easy for
anyone to bully on the Internet.
Hacking
Personal data and privacy can easily be hacked
and shared on the Internet. Which can make
financial losses and loss to personal life.
Similarly, identity theft is another issue that
can give financial losses to anyone by hacking
their personal accounts. Several personal
twitter and Facebook accounts have been
hacked in the past and the hacker had posted
materials that have affected the individual’s
personal lives.
Addiction
The addictive part of the social media is very
bad and can disturb personal lives as well. The
teenagers are the most affected by the
addiction of the social media. They get involved
very extensively and are eventually cut off
from the society. It can also waste individual
time that could have been utilized by
productive tasks and activities.
Fraud and Scams
Several examples are available where
individuals have scammed and commit fraud
through the social media. For example, this list
contains the 5 social media scams that are done
all the time.
Security Issues
Now a day’s security agencies have access to
people personal accounts which makes the
privacy almost compromised. You never know
when you are visited by any investigation
officer regarding any issue that you mistakenly
or unknowingly discussed over the internet.
Reputation
Social media can easily ruin someone’s
reputation just by creating a false story and
spreading across the social media. Similarly,
businesses can also suffer losses due to bad
reputation being conveyed over the social
media.
Cheating and Relationship Issues
Most of the people have used the social media
platform to propose and marry each other.
However, after some time they turn to be
wrong in their decision and part ways. Similarly,
couples have cheated each other by showing
the fake feelings and incorrect information.
Health Issues
The excess usage of social media can also have
a negative impact on the health. Since exercise
is the key to lose weight, most of the people
get lazy because of the excessive use of social
networking sites. Which in result brings
disorder in the routine life. This research by
discovery will shock you by showing how bad
your health can be affected by the use of the
social media.
Social Media causes death
Not just by using it, but by following the stunts
and other crazy stuffs that are shared on the
internet. For example, bikers doing the
unnecessary stunts, people doing the jump over
the trains and other life threatening stuffs.
Glamorizes Drugs and Alcohol
One of the disadvantages of the social media is
that people start to follow others who are
wealthy or drug addicted and share their views
and videos on the web. Which eventually
inspires others to follow the same and get
addicted to the drugs and alcohol.
ADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Connectivity
The first and main advantage of the social
media is connectivity. People from anywhere
can connect with anyone. Regardless of the
location and religion. The beauty of social
media is that you can connect with anyone to
learn and share your thoughts.
Education
Social media has a lot of benefits for the
students and teachers. It is very easy to
educate from others who are experts and
professionals via the social media. You can
follow anyone to learn from him/her and
enhance your knowledge about any field.
Regardless of your location and education
background you can educate yourself, without
paying for it.
Help
You can share your issues with the community
to get help and giddiness. Whether it is helping
in term of money or in term of advice, you can
get it from the community you are connected
with.
Information and Updates
The main advantage of the social media is that
you update yourself from the latest happenings
around in the world. Most of the time,
Television and print media these days are
biased and does not convey the true message.
With the help of social media, you can get the
facts and true information by doing some
research.
Promotion
Whether you have an offline business or online,
you can promote your business to the largest
audience. The whole world is open for you, and
can promote to them. This makes the
businesses profitable and less expensive,
because most of the expenses made over a
business are for advertising and promotion. This
can be decreased by constantly and regularly
involving on the social media to connect with
the right audience.
Noble Cause
Social media can also be used for the noble
causes. For example, to promote an NGO,
social welfare activities and donations for the
needy people. People are using social media for
donation for needy people and it can be a quick
way to help such people.
Awareness
Social media also create awareness and
innovate the way people live. It is the
social media which has helped people
discover new and innovative stuffs that
can enhance personal lives. From
farmers to teachers, students to
lawyers every individual of the society
can benefit from the social media and
its awareness factor.
Helps Gov’t and Agencies Fight
Crime
It is also one of the advantages of the social
media that it helps Governments and Security
Agencies to spy and catch criminals to fight
crime.
Improves Business Reputation
Just like it can ruin any business reputation, It
can also improve business sales and reputation.
Positive comments and sharing about a
company can help them with sales and
goodwill. Since people are free to share
whatever they want on the social media, it can
impact positively when good words are shared.
Helps in Building Communities
Since our world has different religions and
beliefs. Social media helps in building and
participating in the community of own religion
and believes to discuss and learn about it.
Similarly, people of different communities can
connect to discuss and share related stuffs. For
example, Game lover can join games related
communities, car lover can join communities
related to cars and so on.
Lesson 4.5 E-Commerce
and E-Operations
GEE – LIE (Living in the IT Era)
E-operations
 The area of e-operations encompasses the
processes of how customer commitments
get fulfilled through products and services
within companies. This includes procuring
products, arranging shipping and transport,
and handling production—in short,
developing fulfillment systems for handling
the business that e-marketing and
ecommerce generate.
 Electronic commerce or e-commerce
(sometimes written as eCommerce) is a
business model that lets firms and
individuals buy and sell things over the
internet. Ecommerce operates in all four of
the following major market segments:
 Business to business - When a business sells
a good or service to another business (e.g. A
business sells software-as-a service for other
businesses to use)
 Business to consumer - When a business
sells a good or service to an individual
consumer (e.g. You buy a pair of shoes from
an online retailer).
 Consumer to consumer - When a consumer
sells a good or service to another consumer
(e.g. You sell your old furniture on eBay to
another consumer).
 Consumer to business - When a consumer
sells their own products or services to a
business or organization (e.g. An influencer
offers exposure to their online audience in
exchange for a fee, or a photographer
licenses their photo for a business to use).
E-Commerce
 E-commerce, which can be conducted
over computers, tablets, or
smartphones may be thought of like a
digital version of mail-order catalog
shopping. Nearly every imaginable
product and service is available
through e-commerce transactions,
including books, music, plane tickets,
and financial services such as stock
investing and online banking.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
 E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods
and services over the internet.
 E-commerce can be a substitute for brick-
and-mortar stores, though some businesses
choose to maintain both.
 Almost
anything can be purchased through e-
commerce today.
 E-commerce lets firms and individuals
conduct business over the Internet.
Understanding Electronic Commerce
(e-commerce)
 E-commerce has helped businesses establish a
wider market presence by providing cheaper
and more efficient distribution channels for
their products or services. For example, the
mass retailer Target has supplemented its
brick-and-mortar presence with an online
store that lets customers purchase everything
from clothes to coffeemakers to toothpaste
to action figures.
E-commerce offers consumers the
following advantages:
 Convenience - E-commerce can occur 24
hours a day, seven days a week.
 Increased selection - Many stores offer a
wider array of products online than they carry
in their brick and-mortar counterparts. And
many stores that solely exist online may offer
consumers exclusive inventory that is
unavailable elsewhere.
E-commerce carries the following
disadvantages:
 Limited customer service - If you are
shopping online for a computer, you cannot
simply ask an employee to demonstrate a
particular model's features in person. And
although some websites let you chat online
with a staff member, this is not a typical
practice.
 Lack of instant gratification - When you
buy an item online, you must wait for it to
be shipped to your home or office. However,
retailers like Amazon make the waiting game
a little bit less painful by offering same-day
delivery as a premium option for select
products.
 Inability to touch products - Online images
do not necessarily convey the whole story
about an item, and so e-commerce
purchases can be unsatisfying when the
products received do not match consumer
expectations.
Examples of Ecommerce
 Ecommerce can take on a variety of forms
involving different transactional relationships
between businesses and consumers, as well as
different objects being exchanged as part of
these transactions.
 Retail:The sale of a product by a business
directly to a customer without any
intermediary.
 Wholesale: The sale of products in bulk,
often to a retailer that then sells them
directly to consumers
 Dropshipping: The sale of a product, which
is manufactured and shipped to the
consumer by a third party.
 Crowdfunding: The collection of money
from consumers in advance of a product
being available in order to raise the startup
capital necessary to bring it to market.
 Subscription: The automatic recurring
purchase of a product or service on a regular
basis until the subscriber chooses to cancel.
 Physical products: Any tangible good that
requires inventory to be replenished and
orders to be physically shipped to customers
as sales are made.
 Digital products: Downloadable digital
goods, templates, and courses, or media
that must be purchased for consumption or
licensed for use.
 Services: A skill or set of skills provided in
exchange for compensation. The service
provider’s time can be purchased for a fee.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxSDHBdsWqA&list=PPSV
 Quiz/Essay 5pts each
1. In what ways has the rise of social media impacted education, both
positively and negatively, and what potential does it hold for
transforming the future of learning?
2. How do e-operation and e-commerce benefit individuals in terms of
convenience, accessibility, and personal empowerment, and what role
do they play in shaping modern consumer behavior?