The Concept of Social Networks and Web Analytics on Individual Consumer Shopping Behavior - Report Example

Web Analytics Your name Presented to Institution name Date of submission Decision making is a process that requires the decision makers to have information and knowledge about the impact of their decision. People make decisions based on opinions of other people or groups. Social media (Facebook) has provided an avenue where individuals of similar interest or opposing interest also meet to form groups and express their views. These views change the way individuals make decisions. When it comes to organizations, how do they make decisions based on social media response? Which metrics do they use to measure the impact of their posts and web pages generally? I have developed fan page for Ipad Concept where Ipad users express their experiences with different Ipad versions. A fan page is a fundamental tool for content-sharing. The page also updates it clients on Ipad about the new applications, how to solve some issues among other issues. I will use the activities of the fans on this page to be able to explain how companies can use Facebook Insights tool to fan pages. This tool gives the company an insight of what works with the client and what does not. Internet has bridged the gap between consumers and organizations who were initially constrained with geographical and time issues (Harris & Rae, 2009). With the advent and rapid growth of information communication, individuals can access internet via social media to perform several tasks (Gretzel, Kang, & Lee, 2008). The concept of social networks was initiated by sociologists as a means to share similar interests. The Internet has millions of individuals who are looking forward to meeting other internet users with an aim of gathering information and sharing experiences. Facebook is the number one social media site with over 400M members in February 2010. Social media are defined as “the online activities and behaviors among a group of people who gather in order to create and exchange user generated content (information, knowledge, opinions) for using web-based media or applications” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 61). There is a continuous access to social media with the increasing access to the internet. Spending more time on the internet changes the behavior of in sharing and interacting. Consequently, it can be noted that social media networks influences individual behavior progressively. Social networking sites (SNs) are recognized worldwide as the most prominent category of social media (Donath & Boyd, 2004). Users of this platform are able to express themselves, exchange information and knowledge, establish a social network connections and develop and maintain social relationships (Ellison et., al 2007). Fan pages are a virtual brand as a result of Facebook revolution. Fan pages can improve brand attractiveness and attract clients’ attention. For this reason, companies have decided to capitalize on this strength and create fan pages. The primary objectives of these companies now are increasing fans which serves as a marketing campaign tool within Facebook (All Facebook, 2011). This paper seeks to go beyond attracting fans to the page and make some statistical significance of the numbers. Social media has an influence on the individual consumer shopping behavior since they are able to share their experiences on this platform. Organizations are out to attract more clients to their sites and into buying their products and services. It is beneficial for an organization to have online sales, get fans and followers around their brand, provide a platform that clients can discuss products and services because this will provide an avenue for people to spread the word about your qualities. There are many potential clients on Facebook hence having a page is to put a company in a strategic position. Methodology Application deployment was used to understand the behavior of the fans on the Ipad Concept fan page. Custom application is a method of collecting data from the social networks and its usages. Since time was not enough, an application was not developed to be used to monitor the activities of the fans on the page. A fan page was creating designed then I send out invitation to friends to participate in on the webpage. Other fans from who were not directly invited found the page by searching. Deploying applications is the best way to collect data since Facebook users are not disturbed with direct questions. Data collected in a passive way presents the actual behavior of users. From a management perspective, online community for brands indicates the level of innovation and creativity in the model of commercial development and the best way of client relationship management (Hanson, 2000). Creating a Facebook page as a business strategy requires one to make a decision between attracting likes to the page and making online sales by driving traffic to the websites. In both cases, the company strives at increasing sales and improving operations. There must be a clear objective why the company wants to have a social media presence. Metrics to measure the progress of accurately should be established. The company should be aware of what their clients like to see on the web page and most importantly the dislikes of the company. This paper will put to test customer response by changing webpages and giving different posts. Facebook Insights Analysis The fan page Figure 1 the Ipad Concept fan page Demographic data Gender of those who like Ipad concept page Chart 1 Gender of fans on Ipad Concept page The above graph shows the gender representation of the Ipad Concept webpage fans. The graph shows that there were more male than females who like this page. Overly, 67.3% of male responded and participated to the posts on this site while 28.8% of fans are females. Most fans are within the age of 18-24 with 44.2% male and 19.2% female. Location of the fan page members Figure 2 locations of fans United Kingdom is the area where most of the fans are located or liked Ipad Concept page. These fans are English speakers and they were mainly from London city. Australia also had three fans who are English speakers too. Other countries represented in the figure above had one fan for the page. Devices users used to participate on the page Chart 2 Devices users used to participate on the page The graph shows the source of new likes and unlike. The source implying the devices used to access the fan page. Out of the new 8 likes, 5 fans accessed the page on the page while 3 used mobile to view the fan page. Figure 3 overview of the fan activities How people care talking about the page METRICS The data points that will be used to analyze the page are; Lifetime Total Likes, Daily Friends of Fans and Daily Page Consumption. Total Life Time Likes are the actual number of fans who liked Ipad Concept page, Daily Friends of Fans shows the number of friends of those who liked the page can be reached while Daily Page Consumption shows the number of people that were reached from the possible number of those who can be reached. When you sum Lifetime Total Likes and Daily Friends of Fans you get a new matric called daily reach this is an indicator every single fan who can possibly see the content Chart 3 daily reach Chart 4 daily page consumptions Conclusion The above two graphs (chart 3 and 4) shows the actual activities on the fan page. The matric daily reach is used to project the number of the individuals (Daily Friends of Fans and Daily) who can be reached from the actual numbers who like the fan page (Lifetime Total Likes). Chart 4 provides the actual performance, showing the number of individuals (Daily Page Consumption) reached from the possible number of those who can be reached (Daily Friends of Fans). Chart 3 shows a line graph with a steady performance for the first 4 days then a sharp drop to slightly above 3000 daily reach of fans. The graph rapidly moves up within 2 days to reach the value it was previous before dropping. The graph further shows a stable growth up to the 7th of March where it dropped drastically to zero. At this point, there was no daily growth since there were no Friends of Fans. From chart 3 which shows the possible number of individuals who can be reached, chart 4 shows the actual number reached. The highest possible number of individuals who can be reached in a day according to chart 3 is 9103. The highest number of actual individuals reached is 18 people. This shows that the fan page did not reach out to many fans based on the probability of getting them to like the page. There are many incidences where there was zero daily page consumption. The paper sought to find out if Facebook Insights can provide useful information that managers can use to make decisions. When it comes to organizations, how do they make decisions based on social media response? Which metrics do they use to measure the impact of their posts and web pages? I have developed fan page for Ipad Concept where Ipad users express their experiences with different Ipad versions. A fan page is a fundamental tool for content-sharing. The page also updates it clients on Ipad about the new applications, how to solve some issues among other issues. I will use the activities of the fans on this page to be able to explain how companies can use Facebook Insights tool to fan pages. This tool gives the company an insight of what works with the client and what does not. Managers can base on this information to make decisions, for instance the period when it was able to reach the maximum number of individuals can be used to identify what Ipad Concept fans like. Posts and webpage changes that attracted low number as low as zero can be used to as dislikes of the fans. Social media has an influence on the individual consumer shopping behavior since they are able to share their experiences on this platform. Organizations are out to attract more clients to their sites and into buying their products and services. It is essential for an organization to have online sales, get fans and followers around their brand, provide a platform that clients can discuss products and services because this will provide an avenue for collecting enough data to make a decision. References All Facebook, 2011, The Facebook Marketing Dictionary. Retrieved August 19, 2011, from http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-marketing-dictionary Donath, J., & Boyd, D, 2004, Public displays of connection. BT Technology Journal, 22(4),71–82. Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C, 2007, The benefits of Facebook “friends”: Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143–1168. Gretzel, U., Kang, M., & Lee, W. J, 2008, Differences in consumer-generated media adoption and use: A cross-national perspective. 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