Social Media Networks and Personalization, Networks Business Model

Social Media Networks and Personalization
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Institutional Affiliation
Social Media Networks and Personalization
Social Media Networks Business Model
Over the turn of the 21st Century, the marketplace has changed tremendously following the exponential advancement in technology. Social media platforms are one of these technologies that have played a fundamental role in the outlook of the business environment. They have presented a vast range of new entrepreneurial opportunities that many people are seizing and ones that are based upon entirely different principles when factors such as partnership, networking, customer-producer relations, and communication collaboration are taken into account. In defining a business model, Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010, p. 14) cite it as “the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers and captures value.” In this definition, a business could also be used in place of an organization.
Social media networks have orchestrated a relatively quicker path for people to establish their businesses justifying the rising number of teenagers who have created businesses through the internet via social network platforms, virtual worlds, content aggregators, communities, and blogs. These dimensions have eliminated the essence of enterprises, which are characterized by “rigid structures” and “solid blocks of functions of activities in the field of finance, production, management, R&D, and marketing” (Kokavcova, 2017, p. 13). Web 2.0 has ideological and technological foundations that have enabled the realization of internet-based applications that allow creating as well as exchanging user-generated content (UGC).
UGC is earmarked as the basis for social media and is highly responsible for the re-shaping of the internet. UGC encapsulates tweet, forum discussions, user profiles, comments, activity updates, audio, video, text as well as pictures. Social media is a self-sustainable machine as people are creating content constantly. The collaboration that is apparent in online applications and technologies does not only enable but also encourages socialization, creation, openness, conversation, and participation amongst a community of users. These factors are central to the quick proliferation of information across people on these social media platforms. In this regard, the business model is predicated on the role and relationships that the firm has with suppliers, allies, and customers as well as significant flows of money, information, and commodities. The final determinant is the significant benefits to participants. According to Mayfield (2009), five major features define social media and thus, the ensuing type of business. These features include connectedness, community, conversation, openness, and participation.
Participation is akin to encouraging persons to contribute, create as well as share their content. On the other hand, the openness of social media networks facilitates participation among parties. Conversation comprises communications and transfer of information from one individual to another. Communities refer to groups of people that share similar interests such as political discussions, fans to a particular singer, classmates, and movie f...