Abstract:
As traditional advertising losing its impact, both advertisers and the media owners who are dependent upon them are desperately seeking alternative ways to reach consumers and alternative ways to earn revenues by doing so. Although there are many ways to earn money by creating and monetizing social network traffic, attempting to do so by treating social networks as just another entertainment medium is doomed to failure. Traditional entertainment and advertising media were unidirectional message-sending systems, where paid messages were pushed at viewers as part of the price they paid for being entertained. In contrast, online social networks are milieu, better viewed as places where people congregate to exchange information, observe and emulate each other, assess status, and above all entertain themselves; when they are not interested, not entertained, or feel that they are being manipulated, they simply leave. The guidelines for monetizing milieu are still being discovered.
Dr.
Eric K. Clemons is Professor of Operations and Information Management
at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has been
a pioneer in the systematic study of the transformational impacts of
information on the strategy and practice of business. His research
and teaching interests include strategic uses of information systems,
the changes that information technology enables in the competitive
balance between new entrants and established industry participants,
transformation of distribution channels, the structure and governance
of the IT functional area, and the impact of information technology
on the risks and benefits of outsourcing and strategic alliances.
Industries of focus include international securities markets and
financial services firms, consumer packaged goods retailing, and
travel. He specializes in assessing the competitive implications of
information technology, and in managing the risks of large-scale
implementation efforts. Additionally, Dr. Clemons is the founder and
Project Director for the Wharton School’s Sponsored Research
Project on Information: Strategy and Economics within the Program For
Global Strategy and Knowledge Intensive Organizations , founder and
area coordinator the School’s new major in Information:
Strategy, and Economics, director of the School’s new eCommerce
major and member of the Wharton eBusiness Initiative Curriculum
Oversight Committee, an active participant in the School’s
eCommerce Forum research program, and member of the Faculty Council
of the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management.
In his consulting practice, Dr. Clemons focuses on helping clients anticipate the fundamental impacts information technology will have on the structure of their industries and on helping them develop a range of strategies to deal with the changes to their industry. This has enabled his clients to develop strategies and prepare for their rapid deployment, even in the presence of a high degree of environmental uncertainty. He has participated as expert witness in cases involving software contracting fraud, antitrust, and intellectual property disputes.
Dr. Clemons is currently a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Management Information Systems and the Journal of Electronic Commerce. He has served on the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment study of securities markets and on the Quality of Markets Advisory Board of the London Stock Exchange and has three times been co-chair of the international Workshop on Information Systems Economics. His education includes an S.B. in Physics from MIT and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University. Dr. Clemons has thirty years experience on the faculties of Wharton, Cornell, and Harvard, and consulting experience in the private and public sectors both domestically and abroad.