Social media heavily affects the decisions of people. From one restaurant review to the number of likes on its Facebook page, it can either pull or push customers away. As mentioned in the article, companies nowadays have taken advantage of the ability to improve their online reputation through fake reviews. They will often give positive feedback on their company or even pay others for false testimonials. This ties in with what we learned in COMM 101 about business ethics. I believe such false reviews are extremely unethical as it deceives the customers. As a user of Yelp, I heavily rely on customer reviews and ratings for unfamiliar restaurants. However, if the owners give incorrect and higher reviews than they deserve, it misleads the customers. There are even internet marketing and online reputation management companies that boost a business’ online image with “fake testimonials on a variety of popular review websites for a price”. These companies run their own businesses unethically by providing positive reviews while making revenue. This is a highly improper way for business to gain a better brand image as it is completely false. In my opinion, businesses, even though they are desperate for profit maximization, should not buy fake support, reviews, or likes, and risk their ability to run a long-term business.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/fake-online-reviews-4-ways-companies-can-deceive-you-1.2825080

While on LinkedIn, I came across a blog posted by Sam Lu on the concept of entertainment for smartphones and tablets. Nowadays, millions of forms of entertainment are made available on the App Store or Play Store with no need to pay a single cent. Every week there are always new games and new apps waiting to be downloaded by such lucky consumers. I have to agree with Sam Lu’s view on the new and greater consumer-focused market in the world. Through smartphones, consumers have it lucky these days by being provided free games at click of a button. In comparison to the pre-smartphone era, every game cost several bucks but now, the entertainment industry can effectively target consumers’ demands online and more conveniently.

“Competition in mobile entertainment is squarely focused on what the consumers enjoy”. This is utterly true since there are literally millions of games ready to be downloaded and not every game can do well. I remember when the game Flappy Bird was extremely popular for its unique but simple approach to entertainment. However, the game was suddenly removed from the App Store and not so long after, numerous games very similar and if not, exactly the same were designed and put on the market. It is very clear that the mobile entertainment industry quickly took advantage of what the consumers enjoy and made it accessible to them in the fastest way possible.

The mobile entertainment industry has taken over the market so quickly with the same number of hours and costs put into production, but making it much more convenient and cheaper for consumers. With the increasing number of smartphones and tablets being purchased today, it shows that the market will continue to evolve and deliver what consumers want, and at the same time, satisfy consumers in the same way as other megahit and high-priced products, if not more.

Sources: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20141109074329-8501469-freemium-isn-t-free-but-it-s-not-the-canadian-devil?trk=tod-posts-post1-ptlt

The importance of social media has drastically increased in this time period. The relevance of its products such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has developed immensely that people today live in the social media era. Such an increase in the usage of websites has created a new and significant way of marketing, bringing forth a large target audience of numerous social media users.

As stated in the article, people are interested in topics recommended by familiar users and not brands promoting themselves. This leads into the power of “beauty gurus” on YouTube mentioned in Stella Cho’s blog post. These girls who make weekly videos on makeup tutorials, product reviews or product recommendations greatly influence the consumers’ choices. Through their hundreds of thousands of views from their videos, they are able to promote such brands and products with a greater influence on the consumers’ decisions than some official advertisements. As an active user of social media myself, I can relate to the audience. Also being an enthusiastic viewer of fashion vlogs myself, I have to say these girls’ comments and reviews on products have affected my purchases as well. I would most often rely on their opinions, heavily depending on their knowledge of the quality and price of several products because in the end, would you rather believe a regular person like yourself or an official advertisement? Realizing the heavy impact of social media like these YouTube videos, companies have begun to partner with many of these sites and open up a new customer segment. With the social media industry growing, companies can find a new means of marketing and gaining revenue.

Sources:

Stella Cho’s Blog Post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/stellacho/2014/10/05/marketing-in-a-digital-age/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/twitter-conversation-more-important-than-blatant-advertising/article20898781/

Google, one of the youngest firms among the leaders, has become one of the world’s leading companies recognized for its innovation and creativity. After only 16 years in business, Google has become the largest brand name. Why is that? Google hires and manages the relationships of their employees in a way that maximizes productivity in the workplace. The human resources department called “People Operations” at Google, effectively manages the lifecycle of an employee’s relationship with the firm from hiring to the employee leaving.

Similar to the online shoes and clothing company Zappos, Google maintains a positive organizational culture through its human resources management. Google’s HR policies enable Google to build a workforce that provides high quality service. The employees being most important, Google hires talented and innovative people who really want to work. This provides an opportunity for its employees to work on shared goals and impacts how people feel about the organization. As a result, employees are able to motivate each other in such a positive environment and increase productivity in the workforce. Google’s policy of not counting the number of sick days or hours at work also greatly affects the behaviour of its employees, as such flexible conditions encourage the measure of productivity by output from the workers.

I believe Google’s policies and practices benefit the company’s effectiveness and in turn, contribute to the success of the company.

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRsJbpppvEU

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/01/google_people_operations_the_secrets_of_the_world_s_most_scientific_human.single.html