Most of them intend to build their business through the comments and attention of their members. Whether through targeted ads or selling access to user data, social networks can become very lucrative businesses. Why else would Twitter, a service with apparently no business model, be worth over a billion dollars? Twitter 's goals to grow to one billion members and provide interested parties with the pulse of the planet.
How do users feel about their "personal" comments being harvested to make billions for Internet companies? With social network growth rates in 2009 ranging from 228 percent for Facebook to 1,382 percent for Twitter, users are either unaware unconcerned. Regardless of what users think, it is likely that businesses will increasingly analyze the continuous flow of data over social networks to generate insights they can use.
Discussion Questions
1 Do you think it is ethical for social networks to sell access to user information to businesses for market research and other uses ? or why not
2what service does the monitoring of social media ultimately provide for consumers?
Critical Thinking Questions
1. What competitive advantage does the monitoring of seen media provide to companies that invest in it?
2. Why is the monitoring of social media considered a CBIS?