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Business Applications: Reading Text 14 Social Networks

Social networks can benefit businesses by helping to expand contact bases and act as customer relationship tools, and they are beginning to be used in healthcare for managing knowledge and highlighting professionals. They have also grown to cater to different languages and countries. While few currently charge for membership, they make money through advertising and seeking ways to monetize user data like targeted ads based on detailed profiles.

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Bui Chi Thanh (K17CT)
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42 views

Business Applications: Reading Text 14 Social Networks

Social networks can benefit businesses by helping to expand contact bases and act as customer relationship tools, and they are beginning to be used in healthcare for managing knowledge and highlighting professionals. They have also grown to cater to different languages and countries. While few currently charge for membership, they make money through advertising and seeking ways to monetize user data like targeted ads based on detailed profiles.

Uploaded by

Bui Chi Thanh (K17CT)
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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READING TEXT 14

Social networks

Business applications
Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for
entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to expand their contact
base. These networks often act as a customer relationship
management tool for companies selling products and services.
Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form of
banners and text ads. Since businesses operate globally, social
networks can make it easier to keep in touch with contacts around the
world.

Medical applications
Social networks are beginning to be adopted by healthcare
professionals as a means to manage institutional knowledge,
disseminate peer to peer knowledge and to highlight individual
physicians and institutions. The advantage of using a dedicated
medical social networking site is that all the members are screened
against the state licensing board list of practitioners. The role of social
networks is especially of interest to pharmaceutical companies who
spend approximately "32 percent of their marketing dollars"
attempting to influence the opinion leaders of social networks.

Languages, nationalities and academia


Various social networking sites have sprung up catering to different
languages and countries. The popular site Facebook has been cloned
for various countries and languages and some specializing in
connecting students and faculty. Social networks for social good
Several websites are beginning to tap into the power of the social
networking model for social good. Such models may be highly
successful for connecting
otherwise fragmented industries and small organizations without the
resources to reach a broader audience with interested and passionate
users. Users benefit by interacting with a like-minded community and
finding a channel for their energy and giving.

Business model
Few social networks currently charge money for membership. In part,
this may be because social networking is a relatively new service, and
the value of using them has not been firmly established in customers'
minds. Companies such as MySpace and Facebook sell online
advertising on their site. Hence, they are seeking large memberships,
and charging for membership would be counter productive. Some
believe that the deeper information that the sites have on each user
will allow much better targeted advertising than any other site can
currently provide. Sites are also seeking other ways to make money,
such as by creating an online marketplace or by selling professional
information and social connections to businesses.

Privacy issues
On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns
about users giving out too much personal information and the threat of
sexual predators. Users of these services need to be aware of data theft
or viruses. However, large services, such as MySpace, often work
with law enforcement to try to prevent such incidents. In addition,
there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much
personal information in the hands of large corporations or
governmental bodies, allowing a profile to be produced on an
individual's behavior on which decisions, detrimental to an individual,
may be taken.

Investigations
Social network services are increasingly being used in legal and
criminal investigations. Information posted on sites such as MySpace
and Facebook, has been used by police, probation, and university
officials to prosecute users of said sites. In some situations, content
posted on MySpace has been used in court.

1 According to the text, social networks .......

A. advertise on business web sites.

B. are being used by businesses for marketing.

C. are about friendships.

D. can damage business reputations.

2 Why do advertisers like social nework sites?

A. They are cost-effective to advertise on.

B. Most users have high disposable income.


C. Detailed information on each user allows
targeted ads. D. They can influence consumer
behaviour.

3 What does the expression 'sprung up' in paragraph 4 mean?

A. there has been rapid development of social


networking sites B. the development of social
networking is unplanned

C. everybody is trying to copy Facebook

D. social networking works in all languages


4 What does the word 'Few' at the beginning of paragraph 6 mean?

A. Not any

B. Some

C. Only
D. Hardly any

5 What should users not do on social networks?

A. be too free with their personal information

B. download viruses

C. contact predators

D. upload copyrighted music

6 What does the word 'deeper' in paragraph 6 mean?

A. more spiritual

B. more detailed

C. more profound

D. more emphatic

7 Personal information on social network sites .......


A. can be used in court

B. gives a good description of the user's personality

C. is sold to the government

D. is translated into many languages

8 Social networking is great for ......

A. academic organisations
B. people who write too much information about
themselves C. the law enforcement agencies
D. groups of people separated over wide areas

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