Business and Social Media -- A case of Cameron's Coffee Social Media

Definition and Use of Social Media

Social media and how businesses use it

Big Data

Definition and Use of Big Data

Big data and Businesses uses

Cloud Computing

Definition and Use of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing and businesses use

Social Media

Definition and Use of Social Media

The collection of internet based online communication channels that are dedicated for community based input, content sharing, interaction and collaboration is broadly defined as social media. There are a number of different types of social media that include websites and applications that are used by forums, microblogging, social bookmarking and social networking.

Social media is generally used to communicate with the members of a particular community who are members of a particular type of social media. Such communication can also take place through Blogs like WordPress and Blogger or through websites where there is scope for creating articles and where comments are allowed. Popular social media platforms like Facebook, twitter, and Instagram are used to share ideas and communicate with the users.

Social media is also used for collaboration where members contribute for a single cause. Social media is also used for expressing reviews and opinions in various blogs and social networking sites. Another use of social media is for entertainment where people engage themselves with interesting contents. Social media is also used simply for media sharing of content including video through some channels that allow them like you tube.

Social media and how businesses use it

Modern business cannot do without a presence in the social media there are a number of ways in which business utilizes social media.

Social media is used as a channel for advertising and marketing efforts with the ultimate aim of increasing sale and thereby revenues. Apart from helping in revenue generation, business also use social media for brand development and establishment. Continuous activity in the social media enables businesses to spread and popularize the brand and develop it so that it becomes easily recognizable (Partners, 2009).

Through brand development and advertising and marketing efforts on social media, business hopes to attract customers. Customer research and feedback is also possible by the use of social media. Companies can get direct feedback from potential clients about products and services. Social media also improves the networking of a company by bringing together like minded people which can help in improving the business.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1:

It is evident from the study of the company website that it is not very active in the social media. Though it displays some information of articles about it published in different media, there is no direct link to the company social media pages. It is suggested that the company design a Facebook page and a twitter account among other social media channels and start posting interesting articles and blogs about coffee and tea which can be found in the company website but not on the social media (Food and Drink International, 2016).

Recommendation 2

It is suggested that the company hires a few specialists in social media marketing and articles writers so that interesting topics about coffee and tea such as how they can be prepared or best use of the beverages can be posted on the social media on a continuous basis. It should also create a separate blog for this purpose with its links on the social media.

Big Data

Definition and Use of Big Data

Any data that is significantly large either structured, semi-structured or unstructured and which has the potential to be used and analyzed for obtaining insight into one or more aspects is termed as big data. Such data is generally collected on a day-to-day basis. While the term is relatively new, the concept of gathering, storing and analysis of large amounts of data is quite old (Dumbill, Cowles, Lorica, Howard & Lorica, 2012). However, what has changed in the modern era is the means of getting data. In today's world there are a number of ways that organizations collect data which constitute big data such as business transactions, information from social media and from sensors or data transferred from machine-to-machine which generally travel very fast and often in real time and are of a variety of nature.

Big data is used in a number of ways by organizations that include analysis for health care, scientific observations, weather forecasting, flight monitoring, transport planning, education, banking retail trading, etc.

Big data and Businesses uses

There are a number of ways business can make use of Big data.

Companies...

This is possible since the data is collected in real time and can have billions of data point related to its products, resources and customers. Such data can instantly be repackaged to be used for optimization.
The cost and effectiveness of existing applications used by business can be improved by the use of big data. Commodity hardware can be used to run standard solutions got from big data analysis and replace highly-customized and generally expensive legacy systems. Being mostly open sourced, the big data technology can be used more cheaply compared to proprietary technologies.

Efficient analysis and utilization of Big data can provide competitive advantage to business companies and firms would be able to adapt to changes faster using big data analysis as it makes them nimbler. Companies are able to more rapidly respond to demands of customers as it increases the speed of update of shared information.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1

Cameron's Coffee is specialist in coffee brewing and has a number of recopies for preparing tea as well. However Big Data can be used by the company to know and understand customer wants and accordingly adjust business. For example, the page on brewing recipe is nearly empty. Big Data can be used to gather information about what are the most popular coffee types that customers want and accordingly such tips can be uploaded. This would help to connect with the customers and create interest in the brand.

Recommendation 2

It is also recommended that Cameron's Coffee utilizes Big Data that it collects from various sources including its website, social media and stores to gain real time data to understand what type of products and innovation they are looking for. For example, the company get real time data about its soon to be launched new lidding system that would not require the "TOO SMART FOR 2.0" clip that was introduced by the company for Keurig's recently launched their 2.0 technology for coffee making. Using big data analytics, the company would be able to exactly know what solutions the customers are looking for so that the company offer a better solution for the Keurig 2.0 technology.

Cloud Computing

Definition and Use of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the process where resources are got back from the internet using web-based technology and applications in an information technology scenario instead of using a direct connection with a server. In this form of IT, data and software are kept in remote servers and connected to electronic device which has access to internet (PCMAG, 2016).

Cloud-computing helps organizations to reduce cost by reduction of hardware costs and limited use of physical resources. It also allows for universal access and can be accessed remotely allowing organizations to update software faster and in a cheaper manner. Organizations are also allowed to have a wider choice of applications thus allowing greater flexibility. Organizations are able to quickly change and use the application that is best suited for a situation.

Cloud computing not only reduces costs but organizations can also become greener in its data analysis processes as the average quantity of energy required is far less for a computation that is done in the cloud compared to an on-site hardware deployment. This is so because the same hardware in cloud is shared and used by a number of organizations (PCMAG, 2016).

Cloud computing and businesses use

There are a number of ways that business makes use of cloud computing which helps companies to enhance efficiency and helps improvement in cash flow among others.

Cloud computing allows business to be flexible as businesses can easily change applications as and when demanded. It is much easier to scale up capacity of cloud computing with the need for capital expenditure as remote servers are used. In a similar manner business can scale down requirement when needed. Since business does not need to invest in additional software in scaling up and hence there is a reduction in capital investment in business (SearchCloudComputing, 2016).

Companies are saved from the need to invest heavily in disaster recovery which is critical for businesses that do not have additional cash to do so. The backup of information that cloud computing provides helps companies to be secured in case of any disaster.

Cloud computing also allows companies to automatically update the software used as suppliers who manage such cloud computing services themselves update and upgrade software.

Cloud computing is used by companies to keep large amounts of data that they get directly from various sources. Companies can then use analytics to obtain information from the data that is stored in the cloud computing…