Social Media: Latest Purchasing Tool for CIOs

Bangalore: Social media does not only have an impact on the masses, but apparently it has charmed the IT decision makers with its practicality and the pace with which it delivers. The potential benefits of social media is not only connectivity but also the fact that one can keep up with the latest trends, stay updated, have a knowledge of opinions and have a platform to be heard. Now these sorts of benefits have made an impact on the IT Decision Makers; especially on the decisions related to purchasing.

These challenges in a way directed the decision makers in IT towards social media for backing. Social media is also a significant source of influence throughout the decision making process in the IT field.  Dennis McCafferty  on CIO Insight stated that a massive number of IT professionals connect to the IT vendors and that’s how social media plays a major role in the selling-buying process.

Nowadays the impact of social media is so huge that most of the IT decision makers use at least one or more social networking sites for business and connectivity, making it a purchasing tool. One more trend which is also upbeat is the usage of social media for promoting the products to the potential costumers. This sort of platform enables the search for a decision maker to have a wide look at the variety of products available, discuss and thus make a decision of purchase. It makes the buyer-vendor relationship convenient.

The influence of social media is also evident during the five phases of decision making. These five phases are acquiring knowledge of the stats, gaining awareness and understanding the market value of the product to be purchased, estimating scope, planning and acquiring. Social networking also opens a variety of options for the buyers that helps them in accessing, collecting and comparing the information available, to end up with an appropriate decision for buying. Some IT decision makers make use of the social networking sites to readily connect them to the vendors. That also means value for time and resources.

 The social media sites not only directly connect the vendors and the buyers, but also enable the decision makers to connect to broader network during the purchasing phase. This helps in acquiring knowledge of the pricing and the availability of the wide variety, thus aiding to make better decisions. The one last and vital beneficial usage of a social media is that the information processed and acquired takes place on a very fast rate. These were some of the major benefits of social media as a purchasing tool and IT has benefitted from this on a large scale.