SMIS Components

Because they are information systems, SMIS have the same five components as all IS: hardware,
software, data, procedures, and people. Consider each component for the roles shown in Figure
8-4.
Component Role Description
Hardware Social media providers Elastic, cloud-based servers
Users and communities Any user computing device
Software Social media providers Application, NoSQL or other DBMS, Analytics
Users and communities Browser, IOS, Android, Windows 10, and other
applications
Data Social media providers Content and connection data storage for rapid
retrieval
Users and communities User-generated content, connection data
Procedures Social media providers Run and maintain application (beyond the scope
of this text)
Users and communities Create and manage content, informal, copy each
other
People Social media providers Staff to run and maintain application (beyond the
scope of this text)
Users and communities Key users, adaptive, can be irrational

Hardware
Both users and organizations process SM sites using desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. In
most cases, social media providers host the SM presence using elastic servers in the cloud.
Software
Users employ browsers and client applications to communicate with other users, send and
receive content, and add and remove connections to communities and other users. These
applications can be desktop or mobile applications for a variety of platforms, including iOS,
Android, and Windows.
Social media providers develop and operate their own custom, proprietary, social networking
application software. As you learned in Chapter 4, supporting custom software is expensive over
the long term; SM application vendors must do so because the features and functions of their
applications are fundamental to their competitive strategy. They can do so because they spread
the development costs over the revenue generated by millions of users.
Many social networking vendors use a NoSQL database management system to process their
data, though traditional relational DBMS products are used as well. Facebook began
development of its own in-house DBMS (Cassandra), but later donated it to the open source
community when it realized the expense and commitment of maintaining it. In addition to
custom applications and databases, SM providers also invest in analytic software to understand
how users interact with their site and application software.
Data
SM data falls into two categories: content and connections. Content data is data and responses to
data that are contributed by users. You provide the source content data for your Facebook site,
and your friends provide response content when they write on your wall, make comments, tag
you, or otherwise publish on your site.
Connection data is data about relationships. On Facebook, for example, the relationships to your
friends are connection data. The fact that you’ve liked particular organizations is also connection
data. Connection data differentiates SMIS from Web site applications. Both Web sites and social
networking sites present user and responder content, but only social networking applications
store and process connection data.
SM providers store and retrieve SM data on behalf of users. They must do so in the presence of
network and server failures, and they must do so rapidly. The problem is made somewhat easier,
however, because SM content and connection data have a relatively simple structure.
Procedures
For social networking users, procedures are informal, evolving, and socially oriented. You do
what your friends do. When the members of your community learn how to do something new
and interesting, you copy them. SM Software is designed to be easy to learn and use.
Such informality makes using SMIS easy, but it also means that unintended consequences are
common. The most troubling examples concern user privacy. Many people have learned not to
post pictures of themselves in front of their house numbers on the same publicly accessible site
on which they’re describing their new high-definition television. Many others, alas, have not.
For organizations, social networking procedures are more formalized and aligned with the
organization’s strategy. Organizations develop procedures for creating content, managing user
responses, removing obsolete or objectionable content, and extracting value from content. For
example, setting up an SMIS to gather data on product problems is a wasted expense unless
procedures exist to extract knowledge from that social networking data. Organizations also need
to develop procedures to manage SM risk, as described in Q8-7.
Procedures for operating and maintaining the SM application are beyond the scope of this text.
People
Users of social media do what they want to do depending on their goals and their personalities.
They behave in certain ways and observe the consequences. They may or may not change their
behavior. By the way, note that SM users aren’t necessarily rational, at least not in purely
monetary ways. See, for example, the study by Vernon Smith in which people walked away from
free money because they thought someone else was getting more!
Organizations cannot be so casual. Anyone who uses his or her position in a company to speak
for an organization needs to be trained on both SMIS user procedures and the organization’s
social networking policy. We will discuss such procedures and policies in Q8-7.
Social media is creating new job titles, new responsibilities, and the need for new types of
training. For example, what makes a good tweeter? What makes an effective wall writer? What
type of people should be hired for such jobs? What education should they have? How does one
evaluate candidates for such positions? How do you find these types of people? All of these
questions are being asked and answered today.