1. Social Media
Opportunities
For Northwestern Technologies
Kevin T. Brockway
IMTK120
Dr. Powell

2. Northwestern Technologies
As a part of a Collaborative and Functional Social Network

3. Why Social Media?
Interactive platforms provide a means of communication for people,
companies, organizations and social media sites. “Two out of every three
internet users regularly visit a social networking site.” (Postman) Having a
social media platform with accessibility to information and elements that
create a sense of permanence are a key strategy in getting your business
where you want it to be. To have a successful business, one needs to be
able to form relationships with consumers easily. Creating brand
awareness through social media is an easy way to verify your identity as a
contender in the business world, where there are thousands of companies
competing for the attention of a mass population. Probably the best feature
of attaining a social media platform is that you will be able to
communicate with consumers and stay up on the trends, while tracking
feedback through third party references by allowing users to collaborate
and share information.

4. The Debut of Social Media
Social media is everywhere, but it wasn’t always this way. The
“world of communications is changing dramatically with the
introduction of the social media phenomenon.” (Postman) Social
media presented itself as a means of bringing people together
interactively, starting in the 1980’s. “For many people AOL
(American Online) was the Internet before the Internet, and it’s
member-created communities.” (Goble) By the mid 1990’s social
media was fully loaded and ready for take off with companies like
Yahoo, Amazon and of course AOL. One of the very first sites to
allow users to have profiles with friends, view other profiles and
organize groups was called SixDegrees.com.

5. Benefits of Market Research through
Social Media Platforms
Every company in this day and age needs
media to thrive. Methods like Surveys,
Mining for data, analyzing content, and
experimenting with different ways of
accumulating research are all ways to
sustain a successful business.

6. Who Uses Social Media?
The answer to this question?;
pretty much everyone.
In some countries, like the UK, social media is
cited to be 75% of the web traffic alone.

7. Impact of Social Media on
Business
Through a “river of data, content,
and news available to analyst,”
(Lalwani) businesses are able to
gather data and advertise their
services or products to the masses.
The world we live in today is
shaped by social media, because
we are able to make connections
with people who live on the other
side of the world, in real-time. It’s
truly a phenomenon that will not
dwindle off any time soon.

8. Resources
Goble, Gordon. "The History of Social Networking." Digital
Trends. Designtechnica Corporation, 6 Sept. 2012. Web. 01
Apr. 2013.
Postman, Joel. SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate.
Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2009. Print.
Rajesh Lalwani, et al. "Social Media And Business." Vikalpa: The
Journal For Decision Makers37.4 (2012): 69-111. Business
Source Premier. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.