When you shop for products online, do you seek the opinion of others?

For me, when I shop for things online I like to read the feedback of what other people thought of the product, customer service or seller. Even when you choose a restaurant or decide where to get your haircut, you tend to ask your friends, family or colleagues, for recommendations on where to go. Similarly, shopping online is no different and therefore blogs and feedback comments are ever so important in equipping the online shopper.

When I shop for textbooks online, I read others comments on the seller, to determine if that seller is reliable or not. Even to shop for electronic items such as digital camera’s the comments people place on the products are invaluable, to determine whether that camera might be right for me.

Example of Best Buy User Comments on Digital Cameras

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=product&tab=7&id=1170290185792&skuId=8266208&childSku=null&count=null#headerCustomerReviews

The simple ratings, for example, out of five yellow stars for a camera on walmart.com, are not enough as it does not provide the detailed feedback of what makes the camera special and who would it be suitable for eg. a leisure picture taker or professional.

Walmart Link: http://www.walmart.com/search/browse-ng.do?ic=48_0&ref=125875.137971+500566.501090&catNavId=3959

Blogs are greatly improving the information available on products out there. It makes companies more accountable and customers can provide their input on how to improve a product. By discovering the opinion of others, we can better gauage whether a product might be suitable for us. For example, a comment like the one below reflects on the product bought as well as on Best Buy:

Customer Rating: 1
Not good... 01/23/2008
By amyd Read all my reviews

Cons: Batteries
"I bought this camera and as soon as I got it I put in the batteries and immediately a low battery signal appears. The camera shortly turned off. I sent it in to get repaired not one...but TWICE! Canon sent me back the camera without anything changing. I tried 4 brand new sets of batteries and rechargable batteries...no change. I reseached and found that others are having the same problem. Luckly Best Buy refunded my money. Good Luck!"

However, I believe that some aspects of e-tailing cannot mimic shopping at physical stores, especially for products such as clothing, where you want to feel the texture of material or to try the clothes and see if they look good on you. However with blogs, it provides more information on products and services from actual users, and so it gives us extra sets of eyes and opinions to help us in our decision-making process. Through an online community, we are able be more knowledgeable about the things we buy. Thank goodness for blogs, as it makes shopping online so much easier.

Social Networking, Six Degrees

The articles I read were the “Six Myths about Informal Networks” (Cross, Nohria & Parker) and “IT Conversations” (Stephenson).

The first article highlights the importance of informal or social networks in the work place. The writers emphasize that it is crucial for managers to realize that when people work collaboratively and use their networks, they perform better at their jobs. Yet an emphasis on individual performance sometimes goes against the benefits of synergy within a group.

It was interesting to see how network diagrams could be drawn on how decisions or information is disseminated between different people in a group or organization and who depended on who for information. From the diagrams you could also discover if bottle-necks exist which may reduce efficiency or may increase control of the work performance. For example, one individual who has too much decision-making power and exclusive access to information can cause major inefficiencies. Therefore, as the article was alluring to, empowering workers by making resources more available and letting them make their own decisions, can improve productivity.

The other article I read which was written by Karen Stephenson, is also about human social networks. I found it very interesting to learn from both articles, that the study of human networks can be applied to solve problems in the corporate world, the medical field, to hunting down terrorists by understanding the terrorist network.

A major issue touched on by Karen Stephenson is that of trust-based networks as oppose to hierarchal or authoritative networks. I can imagine that a network based upon “trust” is more long-lasting and sustainable simply because stronger bonds will be made and there may be more open lines of communication. On an organizational level, I understand that a lot of turnover is due to interpersonal reasons. As many human resource managers may tell you, this is highly the case. Compensation may not be the only factor in job satisfaction, and similarly from what I understand from Stephenson’s discussion about trust, the social aspect plays a great factor in human social networks.

My First Blog

I am student at American University and I am doing this blog post as part of my course.


“On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own”