I have used social media tools a lot in the past as a way to research various things. In this day and age, social media has grown in popularity and has become one of the first places to access when you are in search for information. Like it says in the Groundswell chapters, "blog reading is one of the most popular activities... with one in four online Americans reading blogs." That is a pretty surprising statistic and gives insight into just how many people use social media. I think it is very important for companies to learn what to do with this information and how they can use it to their advantage. One thing that stuck out to me in the article was about Wikipedia. This website is made up of various people on the Internet that want to contribute what they know about various brands, people, and companies. Most of the time the source is unreliable and the items posted on the website are inaccurate. However, if companies are able to create their own web pages clarifying facts, people will be more inclined to rely on that information, rather than on stuff they find on Wikipedia. This website is just an example of how popular social media really is. People want to connect and be able to rely on others to find out information. Social networks provide a way for people to form relationships and maintain old ones. I like how the chapters listed out various reasons why people use social media because it gave me an idea of all of the different motives for why people share so much information online. However, the fundamental reason is to connect with people.
Another thing I learned from the Groundswell chapters was the fact that people don't even have to be too technologically savvy in order to participate in social media. There were numerous charts showing how people of all ages, and of all different backgrounds use social media in their lives. Now that I think about it, my older sister who hates computers and anything that has to do with the use of technology, still has a Facebook account. Despite the fact that she does not have much experience with computers, she still finds a way to connect to people through Facebook.
My friend has a chronic illness, which she got diagnosed with a couple of years ago. She doesn't know anyone that has the same illness, but she is able to connect to people online with the same problem as her. She says it helps her to know that they are people out there going through what she is going through. It is nice to have someone that understands your pain and so you don't feel alone. This social network is a wonderful opportunity for her to keep her spirits up and to remain positive about her health condition.
I have a facebook account and have been active for about 5 years. At first, I thought it was really cool because it was so exclusive and only people with proper college email addresses could join; however, over the years everyone is on Facebook, which makes it less desirable. A problem that I have had with the growing population is the increased amount of people that have access to your profile. I do not want everyone I know, from my mom's family friends to my family in Pakistan to know what is going in my personal life. So because of this, I have had to set a lot of privacy setting restricting access to a numerous amount of people. The reason why I want to keep my account open because I think it is a great way for people to keep in touch with old friends and it also is something that is enjoyable for me. Whenever I want to take study breaks from CPA studying, the first thing I usually do is check my Facebook account. In addition to Facebook, I have searched Google a lot to find information on products through blogs and reviews. Before I purchase a new product, I usually search it online to find people's experience with it. These reviews are usually very helpful and I am usually convinced at the things they have to say. I know that these people who write blogs and share information are not experts by any means, but I still feel that their information is helpful because they don't gain anything by posting their experiences online. Because of this, I think the reason people create blogs or take time to write reviews on products is so that people can be warned before purchasing a bad product, or to promote the use of things they find to be useful.
I used the Google blog search to find information surrounding Bobby Flay. I love watching him on food network! Google blog search was very user friendly, all I did was type in Bobby Flay into the search bar and a whole bunch of information popped up. I had no idea that there were so many blogs relating to him and that so many people had an opinion about him! There was this one blog that I opened called "Guyism: what guys need" which had information on what the six most annoying celebrity chefs were. After searching more sites, I found information on his recipes, where he is cooking next, and also some of his most popular dishes. There was also this one blog called the "Weekend Grillers Blog" which had a video of Bobby Flay cooking with President Obama which I thought was pretty cool. It is amazing how much information is out there, both good and bad, relating to Bobby Flay. It goes to show that social media is growing and companies should be aware of this, so that they can learn how to use it to their advantage.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Blog #4
After reading the article “What Walmart Knows About Customers’ Habits”, I was very surprised at the amount of information they collect on their customers. I had no idea that this practice was even in existence and I am glad that I was able to read about their methods of increasing sales and keeping an efficient supply chain.
Given the enormous amount of data that Walmart captures, do you think they have been successful at converting into an experience that serves as a competitive advantage for them?
I do think the amount of information Walmart is able to capture puts them at a competitive advantage. It only makes sense that the more information you are able to get, the better prepared you are in various situations. For example, since Walmart was able to gather information relating to what products were purchased during hurricane season, they were able to stock their shelves with those items for any upcoming hurricanes (the pop-tarts and beer). This is a competitive advantage because their competitors may not be doing the same thing. Walmart seems to invest a lot of money into this kind of technology and it has become an essential part of their sales and production supply in stores.
What do you think about the privacy issues associated with all of that data and the amount of personally identifiable data they are able to capture. Does it bother you? Do you trust them with it?
I think that the amount of personal information they gather crosses the line of privacy. I had no idea that they were able to gather so much information about each and every one of its customers just by checking out at the store. That makes me wonder; how much stuff do they know about me? I shop at Walmart quite frequently and was completely unaware of their ability to access all of my personal information. I think that if they disclosed it to their customers, then it wouldn’t be that big of an issue. This technology can access any number of items pertaining to your identification and it makes me concerned because I don’t know where all this information is going and who will be looking at the data. It bothers me a lot! I don’t trust Walmart with this information. They privacy policy doesn’t even sound that effective. It just seems that Walmart thinks they have the right to this information and they can do whatever they want with it. Also, I think it would be more fair if Walmart had something similar to Sam’s Club where customers give their personal information in exchange for a membership. This way customers are aware of how much personal data is given to the store. However, the way that Walmart currently operates seems inappropriate and sneaky. I don’t understand why it is necessary for them to capture information relating to things outside of purchasing items in the store; such as, you mortgage amounts, your court dates, etc. Why do they even need this information? I can understand why they would want to track their customers’ purchasing habits, because that directly relates to sales and gives Walmart information on how much inventory to have stocked on their shelves; but there is no need for them to have all of this other personal information. Walmart’s customers walk in to their store and innocently purchase their grocery, not having a clue that they are being examined, with all of their personal information revealed. Additionally, the fact that Walmart is so huge is a concern for me. Like it says in the article, “the Internet has less than half as much data.” That just gives insight into the huge amount of data they collect, I’m shocked!
What aren't they doing with technology that they could; that is, are they using all of the technology that is available to them to capture insights and create great experiences for their customers and, if not, what could they do?
I think they could be doing more with the technology they use to gather information. They are not doing anything to improve their customer’s overall experience in the stores. I think in addition to gathering information as to how much inventory to have stocked on their shelves, Walmart should implement a system to gather information on customer insights. This way the store would be even more competitive and have an even stronger competitive advantage. A strong indicator of a successful company is how satisfied their customers are, and Walmart is not really doing anything to find out if their customers are in fact satisfied or not through their technology mechanisms. Maybe they can start asking one or two questions at the end of the check out line pertaining to their customer’s needs and preferences. For example, they can ask if the customer’s are satisfied with their experience in the store today. This way Walmart will be on its way to gaining the satisfaction of more and more customers. Since Walmart has the ability to gather so much information through their technology, capturing customer insights and creating a great experience will be just another reason why people are drawn to the store. Another thing they can do is e-mail questionnaires relating to customers’ satisfaction levels. It states in the article that Walmart has the ability to get their customer’s e-mail addresses, so they can use it to gather insights via e-mail. I think customers will be willing to give this type of information because it will provide a direct benefit to them in the future.
What impact do you think they are having on their suppliers - making them better and more efficient or driving them too hard and reducing their profitability. Again, try to keep this in the context of technology.
Walmart is a huge distributor and is market leader. They set the tone for competition and have a lot of power as to what prices to set for various items in the industry. Walmart is the only buyer of many of its supplier’s goods and without Walmart, the suppliers may not be able to survive. The fact that Walmart has all of this power is a good thing for them, but not for everyone else in the industry, like their suppliers or other competitors. The article mentions that with Walmart, it is a world of supply and command, rather than supply and demand. That is scary for their suppliers because they are required to have the items ready for Walmart to purchase and make sure they remain happy. With their technology, Walmart is able to track what products will be needed and the suppliers must abide by their expectations. This puts a lot of pressure on their suppliers to meet their demands and poses the risk of losing them as a buyer altogether. I don’t think they have a positive impact on their suppliers. I think their suppliers just do what is asked of them and just try to maintain good relations. Walmart drives their suppliers too hard and has the power to reduce their profitability. It says in the article that if suppliers are unable to meet any sales goals in the upcoming year, Walmart will have even harder negotiations with them. The suppliers should be concerned if they are even being profitable selling to Walmart, and not about the possibility of losing them. Their plan of using their technology to institute “scan-based” trading, in which their manufacturers own each product until sold causes some concern for me. This puts all of the risk with their suppliers if products don’t sell and some companies won’t be able to handle those losses. However, because of Walmart’s size and ability to control their suppliers, most companies will be forced to be okay with this change.
Given the enormous amount of data that Walmart captures, do you think they have been successful at converting into an experience that serves as a competitive advantage for them?
I do think the amount of information Walmart is able to capture puts them at a competitive advantage. It only makes sense that the more information you are able to get, the better prepared you are in various situations. For example, since Walmart was able to gather information relating to what products were purchased during hurricane season, they were able to stock their shelves with those items for any upcoming hurricanes (the pop-tarts and beer). This is a competitive advantage because their competitors may not be doing the same thing. Walmart seems to invest a lot of money into this kind of technology and it has become an essential part of their sales and production supply in stores.
What do you think about the privacy issues associated with all of that data and the amount of personally identifiable data they are able to capture. Does it bother you? Do you trust them with it?
I think that the amount of personal information they gather crosses the line of privacy. I had no idea that they were able to gather so much information about each and every one of its customers just by checking out at the store. That makes me wonder; how much stuff do they know about me? I shop at Walmart quite frequently and was completely unaware of their ability to access all of my personal information. I think that if they disclosed it to their customers, then it wouldn’t be that big of an issue. This technology can access any number of items pertaining to your identification and it makes me concerned because I don’t know where all this information is going and who will be looking at the data. It bothers me a lot! I don’t trust Walmart with this information. They privacy policy doesn’t even sound that effective. It just seems that Walmart thinks they have the right to this information and they can do whatever they want with it. Also, I think it would be more fair if Walmart had something similar to Sam’s Club where customers give their personal information in exchange for a membership. This way customers are aware of how much personal data is given to the store. However, the way that Walmart currently operates seems inappropriate and sneaky. I don’t understand why it is necessary for them to capture information relating to things outside of purchasing items in the store; such as, you mortgage amounts, your court dates, etc. Why do they even need this information? I can understand why they would want to track their customers’ purchasing habits, because that directly relates to sales and gives Walmart information on how much inventory to have stocked on their shelves; but there is no need for them to have all of this other personal information. Walmart’s customers walk in to their store and innocently purchase their grocery, not having a clue that they are being examined, with all of their personal information revealed. Additionally, the fact that Walmart is so huge is a concern for me. Like it says in the article, “the Internet has less than half as much data.” That just gives insight into the huge amount of data they collect, I’m shocked!
What aren't they doing with technology that they could; that is, are they using all of the technology that is available to them to capture insights and create great experiences for their customers and, if not, what could they do?
I think they could be doing more with the technology they use to gather information. They are not doing anything to improve their customer’s overall experience in the stores. I think in addition to gathering information as to how much inventory to have stocked on their shelves, Walmart should implement a system to gather information on customer insights. This way the store would be even more competitive and have an even stronger competitive advantage. A strong indicator of a successful company is how satisfied their customers are, and Walmart is not really doing anything to find out if their customers are in fact satisfied or not through their technology mechanisms. Maybe they can start asking one or two questions at the end of the check out line pertaining to their customer’s needs and preferences. For example, they can ask if the customer’s are satisfied with their experience in the store today. This way Walmart will be on its way to gaining the satisfaction of more and more customers. Since Walmart has the ability to gather so much information through their technology, capturing customer insights and creating a great experience will be just another reason why people are drawn to the store. Another thing they can do is e-mail questionnaires relating to customers’ satisfaction levels. It states in the article that Walmart has the ability to get their customer’s e-mail addresses, so they can use it to gather insights via e-mail. I think customers will be willing to give this type of information because it will provide a direct benefit to them in the future.
What impact do you think they are having on their suppliers - making them better and more efficient or driving them too hard and reducing their profitability. Again, try to keep this in the context of technology.
Walmart is a huge distributor and is market leader. They set the tone for competition and have a lot of power as to what prices to set for various items in the industry. Walmart is the only buyer of many of its supplier’s goods and without Walmart, the suppliers may not be able to survive. The fact that Walmart has all of this power is a good thing for them, but not for everyone else in the industry, like their suppliers or other competitors. The article mentions that with Walmart, it is a world of supply and command, rather than supply and demand. That is scary for their suppliers because they are required to have the items ready for Walmart to purchase and make sure they remain happy. With their technology, Walmart is able to track what products will be needed and the suppliers must abide by their expectations. This puts a lot of pressure on their suppliers to meet their demands and poses the risk of losing them as a buyer altogether. I don’t think they have a positive impact on their suppliers. I think their suppliers just do what is asked of them and just try to maintain good relations. Walmart drives their suppliers too hard and has the power to reduce their profitability. It says in the article that if suppliers are unable to meet any sales goals in the upcoming year, Walmart will have even harder negotiations with them. The suppliers should be concerned if they are even being profitable selling to Walmart, and not about the possibility of losing them. Their plan of using their technology to institute “scan-based” trading, in which their manufacturers own each product until sold causes some concern for me. This puts all of the risk with their suppliers if products don’t sell and some companies won’t be able to handle those losses. However, because of Walmart’s size and ability to control their suppliers, most companies will be forced to be okay with this change.
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