IT  Learning Aim C -Implications of Online Communities (Organisations)

Organisations and online communities

To share news about new or improved products or services

To post photographs of customers enjoying their products or facilities to encourage others to buy or join. 

Employee and customer experiences 

There is a need to evaluate the groups that the company has joined and focus on the top three to five groups that most accurately reflect the target viewing audience. 

They need to ensure that the company proactively visits each of the groups top three or four times a week. 

Ease of use, availability and accessibility

An organisation using social media to connect with their customer base can help to make platforms more accessible by:

Adding caption or alterative text to images

Adding captions to videos

Giving hyperlinks meaningful text so people know where the link goes.

Capitalising the first letter of each word in a hashtag to make sure its read out properly by screen readers.  

Cost

There is an overhead cost for an organisation setting up and maintaining an online presence, it is time consuming and the organiser or marketing staff have to be paid. 

Some large organisations may outsource this function to social media management companies. This can cost from £5600 to £20,000 a month. 

Social media will charge for advertising on their site, there are several variables that can increase or decrease the price of an advertisement sites like Facebook. 

Implementation 

An organisation or company planning to develop its online presence needs to be…