Fa c e b o o k

Course:
Electronic Commerce: MGT 3346
Professor:
William Reisel
Date:
April 8th, 2013
Group Members:
Faneeza Khan, Vincent Martinelli, Jason Ramsahai,
Yunong Wang, Tingting Zhang, Zhongya Zhang

Facebook Team,
14 of 15 points. Wonderful job of researching FB. You delivered
nicely on all of the required points in the assignment. In your
revision, youll see quite a few issues of copy editing that need to
be addressed in the first half of the paper. My suggestion is to
focus on tightening up the writing for your revision which Ill see in
the final paper when you combine the revisions of assignments 1-3.
Keep up the good work on the next assignment and this will be a
fine paper. FYI, great ethics section!
Dr. R.

Type of B2B Commerce Facebook Participates In

Facebook is offers a massive opportunity for online advertising when it
comes to e-commerce. Businesses take the opportunity to use the social
media site to connect with past, current , and potential customers.
According to the textbook, Facebook would best beis classified as an
exchange form of B2B. It conducts transactions and activities with many
sellers taking part in order to get theirpromote their products/services out to
a wider range of potential buyerscustomers. Facebook as is an e-commerce
vehicle is still in its beginning early stage of growths, as it is still trying to
incorporate the action of having viewers purchase items directly off the
page, without having to leave to open up a third party link good point but
sentence is confusing, please modify. Many e-commerce sites have
incorporated Facebooks popular like button onto their web pages as well.
Facebook works as a channel to retailers, driving viewers in their direction
with the use of advertisements. Facebook was able to refer 328% more
traffic to Amazon in recent times, and 81% more to eBay. Meanwhile,
Googles ability to refer has begun to drop slightly. Facebook has been
contributing to sales in immense ways, as a 1-800-Flowers.com Valentines
Day ad on Facebook generated 4,000 transactions. Youre making some good
points here but the facts jump around from FB Like to traffic on ebay,
amazon, 800 flowers.

Many companies have begun the attempt to sell directly on Facebook. A few
participating examples includecompanies include Delta Airlines, HauteLook,
and Brooks Brothers. Viewers Facebook members are able to see a scroll
through video in which they can browse items for sale please explain clearly.
It is believed people are 18 times more inclined to buy something if they can
do it directly on that page as opposed to opening a new window reference?.
Facebook is expected to bring in please be clear about revenue/income
distinction which is it$100 million dollars through sales this year.1
Some products have proven to sell better on Facebook than others. This
includes tickets to events, and the sale of community services what is that.
Items that are harder to sell consist of cellular devices, electronic devices,
baby products, and sporting goods. The reason for this is that consumers
want to know the item comes from a valid source in the event that
something goes wrong with it. It is also useful for the sale from one person
to another that you may know, instead of ordering something online from a
stranger. Confusing 2

Benefits and Limitations of B2B

There are mostly benefits to the use of B2B e-commerce. Facebook
increases the opportunity for customer service, real-time feedback,
relationship building, low cost marketing, sharing of unique content, crosspromotions, and positive word of mouth.3 okBenefits to the supplier include
the following. Creating new sales opportunities is a plus, as you can now
reach markets that are outside of the business local community. Marketing
and sales cost is lowered as Facebook is a free service and yet an
opportunity for advertising to millions worldwide free to members not to
advertisers. Benefits to the buyer include a decrease in search costs and
time for buyers to find products and vendors as all the information can be
located on one page. It also creates an increased opportunity for
collaboration as more than one person can operate the Facebook page and
manage the content. There are many joint benefits shared by the buyer and
seller as well. It eliminates paper and reduces administrative costs,
expedites processing and reduces cycling time, reduces errors and improves
the quality of services, and enables customized online catalogs with different
prices for different customers. The main limitations that exist are the lack of
the ability to see they item physically before purchasing and the necessity of

paying additional fees for shipping and handling ok paragraph provide

references.

Does your firm use B2B social networks?

There are many companies which utilize B2B social networks and it is gaining
in popularity each year. Looking at Facebook, you can see that this is clearly
evident in the fact that Facebook includes substantial information on
companies and their individual employees, as well as discussion groups and
comments from members in order to better the companys image and
service. Different tactics and approaches to the way in which these
companies are using Facebook to promote their businesses are quite
common as is seen in the following example: Marketing software vendor
HubSpot ran a campaign that saw a 71 percent increase in sales during a
campaign with clicking coming off Facebook back to their blogs or
websites. Another example follows: VendorShop Social, which offers
software services to create e-commerce stores on Facebook, the regular
Web, or via mobile, started its business with a Facebook focus. Statisticallyswise, it was seen that the number of business pages on Facebook has
increased 40 percent year over year (state the two years) and the number of
businesses with local pages that have also tried advertising companies were
doubled. In the first six months of promoted posts, 300,000 businesses used
it with 75 percent being repeat customers. You can clearly see that Facebook
is constantly expanding to accommodate to more of the business world
through its popularity factor and is definitely utilizing B2B social networks.4
yes

Does your company use E-learning for its employees? Does your
company use knowledge management?
For a truly unconventional workplace as described by Facebooks senior
managers, it should not be surprising that the company takes a very
innovative approach to training its employees. E-learning, defined as the
online delivery of information for purposes of education, training, or
knowledge management (e-commerce text) is not an approach used much at
all by Facebook. The Web-enabled approach to training whereby knowledge
is accessible anytime, anywhere, anyplace to those who need it through
virtual classrooms or through mobile learning is an approach not well

documented by Facebook employees. Rather, Facebook appears to train its

employees through focused sessions called boot camps where software
engineers are taught in a traditional classroom setting to think like Zuck
(founder Mark Zuckerberg). Missing from the training landscape are
traditional course curriculums which are replaced by training programs and
communication tools that keep the company as lean and as fearless as a
startup.5 The goal at Facebook is to get employees comfortable with the
concept that they are empowered to make software-coding changes and to
promote those changes to make Facebook a bug-free site. Not wanting its
engineers to feel confined by being trained via a traditional approach to
solving problems, Facebook Engineering Director, Jocelyn Goldfein, wishes to
foster independence and creativity in solving problems as there are a
billion users waiting for a particular issue to be fixed.6 Differentiating
Facebook from say Google or Microsoft, Facebook trains its people to take
risks and learn from their failures; they want to show employees that there
is a tolerance for failure, allowing Facebook employees to stay on the cutting
edge of innovation. Good paragraph
Describe the use of mobile features by your firm
It is true that Facebook users are spending more time on the service on
mobile devices. Now mobile is one of Facebook top priorities. Facebook
provides different visions for different types of smartphones and tablets such
as iPhone, iPad, Android phones, Blackberry and so on. People can download
the latest version of Facebook app for free once they can access to the 3G or
4G networks or wireless network. The basic features of Facebook app are
news, status, photo, check-in, notifications, and chat room. The mobile app
has most of the features on Facebook website and put the most common
features on top so that make it convenient to use. With Facebook app, people
can follow the news, share the photos, and check in at any location at any
time by using their mobile devices. Compare with traditional Facebook
website, Facebook app is more convenient for users to interact with other
friends on Facebook. All the news and statuses are right in your pocket. Also,
mobile devices are highly personal. Some features such as check-in, chat
room, and notifications are customized. Users can turn off these features by
themselves if they are not interested. Since the Facebook app is very
convenient and popular, more Facebook users are switching to mobile apps
and mobile-only users have increased dramatically. Facebook's latest 10-Q
filing reveals that nearly 20 percent of its more than 543 million monthly

mobile users accessed the social network in June solely on their mobile
device.7 8 very good

What part of the mobile enterprise is your firm involved with?

Since most of the Facebook services and products are intangible and
provided online, currently Facebook mobile enterprise basically includes the
social networking and advertising service. Facebook users can report a
problem and the field service workers will help them to solve the problem.
The mobile service enterprise helps Facebook analyze the customer service
quality, reduce costs, and eliminate redundant activities.9

How your firm uses or may use mobile entertainment

Facebook has developed software for phones that is designed to put users
friends on their phone. This software is called Facebook Home and can be
downloaded for free or attained pre-installed on your phone. Facebook Home
works together with the Facebook for Android and Facebook Messenger apps
to enable its main features:
-

Coverage feed: Glance at your phone for photos and posts from your
Facebook News Feed.

Chat heads: Send and receive texts and Facebook messages in one
place. Open, close and drag chat heads around your screen to keep
chatting while youre using other apps.

Notifications: See news as it happens with bigger, bolder notifications

on your home screen.

App launcher: Get right to your favorite apps and post to Facebook
from the same place.

Certainly, its other major form of mobile entertainment would be in mobile

gaming. There are a lot of games that people play frequently on Facebook,
including the very popular Candy Crush. These games attract a lot of people
to make in-game purchases using real cash, and with these games becoming
mobile, people are able to play even more frequently given that Wi-Fi is
available. This form of mobile entertainment has led to Facebook making
almost 25 percent of its income.

Facebook has also released an application of its own for sharing videos on its
site. Users can add their videos to the service by uploading, be it through
mobile or pc use. Additionally, users can tag their friends in videos they
add, much like the way users can tag their friends in photos, except the fact
that individuals can be precisely pinpointed in photos and not in videos.
Users are also given the option of video messaging with Facebooks videosharing app.10 good

How does your firm use location-based commerce?

Facebook uses location-based commerce to share picture or the places you
have been to let people know where you're headed and where you are now.
Facebook users can add a location to their posts for different reasons: to
remember where you were in your favorite photos, let friends know where
you are so they can meet you there, and share where you're going to get tips
and advice from friends who've been.
The location button in the sharing tool lets you add your general location to
all your posts after you turn it on and is applicable until it is switched off. You
can also add a specific place, like a restaurant or park, to your posts.
These are some of the ways in which Facebook utilized location-based
commerce, and they do indeed peak users interests and adds to their
appeal to visit new places.

What ethical issues does your firm face or need to consider?

1. Privacy Issues
We all have faced privacy concerns while being on Facebook. The social
network has been under severe attack from users and legal honchos alike
over the paucity of online privacy. A lot of privacy issues are concerned with
Facebook usage and need to be considered by Facebook management. For
instance, there are a lot of scammers that create fake accounts on Facebook
to perform identity theft. There are also instances of child predators who
pretend to be children in order to befriend others, getting to know them to
the point that they can take advantage of them. There are a lot of concerns
with privacy issues on Facebook and using sound judgment is the best way
to use this social media site.
6

Facebook has tried to shut down some of the spammers along with the
privacy issues that are part of the social media site. However, even with the
higher privacy settings, Facebook is still vulnerable to a lot of attacks. Here
are some of the biggest concerns with privacy that comes with Facebook:
-

Malware attacks from advertisements on Facebook

Third-parties can gain access to your personal information

Scammers are very frequent on social networking site

Pictures and videos posted on Facebook are automatically deemed the

property of Facebook and can be used against your will

Background checks About 30 percent of employers report that they

use Facebook to check up on interviewees in order to make sure that
their character fits in with the company.

Identity theft

With these facts in mind, Facebook should consider having more restrictive
signup processes as well as personal checks on people that use the site and
what theyre using it for. Blocking Internet Protocol addresses should be
active for repeat offenders and personal information should be handled with
more care and not so easily accessible. More detailed options should be
added in to control as much information from being leaked as possible.11 12

2. Health Issues
A study conducted by a psychologist in the University of California concluded
that children and young adolescents who tend to spend too many hours on
Facebook may develop health problems. These health problems are
associated with the fact that your entire lifestyle is being publicly exposed
and it could result in changes in your personality, paranoia, anxiety, and can
also lead to the overconsumption of alcohol.
Despite these findings, the psychologist also has contrary beliefs that these
communication channels are good. They can lead shy people to break out of
their shell and integrate more easily into society thanks to these social
networking sites.13excellent ethics section, well written and thought out.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/04/12/what-is-facebooks-future-as-an-ecommerce-platform/
2

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/04/12/what-is-facebooks-future-as-an-ecommerce-platform/
3

http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/the-handiest-dandiest-guide-to-facebook-forecommerce/
4

http://www.inc.com/erik-sherman/does-facebook-work-for-b2b-marketing.html

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/16/inside-facebook-2/

http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/04/18/facebook-uses-hacker-bootcamp-train-engineers

Turban, Efraim. Electronic Commerce 2012: A Managerial and Social Networks Perspective.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012. 243-50. Print.
8

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57484036-93/facebooks-mobile-only-use-jumps-23percent-since-march/
9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_enterprise

10

http://www.facebook.com/home

11

http://www.surfnetkids.com/tech/792/facebook-privacy-issues/

12

http://socialexcerpts.com/2012/01/facebook-privacy-issues/

13

http://tekreaders.com/blog/2011/08/09/facebook-can-cause-health-issues/