This chapter will cover development of business from and through the internet and social media. The aim of the chapter, which was set from the beginning, was twofold. The primary aim was (1) to explain the role of the effective usage of social media in the business environment and (2) to prove effective professional use-based communication process from and through audiovisual media technologies and, secondly, to become an important guide, but also a list of (new) strategic tactics and practices from and through the internet and social media, while providing a rich bibliography through literature (from theory to practice) and historical elements as a source of further study. The modern age is constantly changing, and there will always be room for improvement.
TopIntroduction
The advancement of new communication technologies and modern phenomena in recent years has influenced the businesses worlds which are still constantly in a new and fast changing area. The international literature and empirical evidence of recent decades suggest the need for prevention (proaction) in recession as a key term, which was developed to describe either the need for business to adapt the enterprise according to developments in the external environment affecting the economic performance operation (see Weick, 1979; Miller, 1987; Miller & Friesen, 1983) or/and at the level of manipulation of these developments in order to achieve the corporate and sustainability goals (see Bourgeois, 1984; Child, 1972). One such goal is considered, for example, to maintain the brand image of a business, which is not an easy task (see Nicolaou, 2011a, 2011b).
Nowadays, this specific suggestion for prevention, still remain valid in any business (including large firms as well as small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs]). Basically, the only thing that changes is the medium and the way which now comes mainly from and through the Internet. Businesses in order to further maintain their brand image; they must expand and explore new online services. A decade ago, there were no specific check lists and templates for official, acceptable and cross-cutting (digital or e-)strategic tactics and practices from and through the Internet (and Social Media) as a guide, however, many and several professionals and practitioners in the field of business (e.g., marketing, public relations, advertising, etc.) informally used various of them for customer personas and journeys (see Sarridis & Nicolaou, 2015; Nicolaou, 2011b).
Internet is the main factor of these changes due to the new communication tools, applications and services that characterize dynamic web platform Web 2.0 (and now semantic-oriented or Web 3.0) and which are the basis for the audiovisual media technologies as new technologies (or/and Internet-based tools or Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 tools / semantic web technologies) (see O’Reilly, 2005; Heravi et al., 2012; Sarridis & Nicolaou, 2015; Nicolaou et al., 2019; Saridou et al., 2019; Prandini &Ramilli 2012; Dimoulas et al., 2019), which allow people and users to develop relationships, collaborate and interact (Hopkins & Rees, 2007; Molnár et al., 2008) with each other and eventually become active members of the (virtual) community. New technologies from and through the Internet, which are today the backbone of information and online marketplace (see Nicolaou et al., 2021b; Novgorodtseva et al. 2020; Nicolaou et al. 2019; Sarridis & Nicolaou, 2015), resulting in the main way of absolute distance communication with sound/audio media, image/picture/photograph, video and data (e.g., big data, metadata, etc.) which were enriched, merged, morphologically modified or shrunk easily without altered or/and time lacking (Sarridis & Nicolaou, 2015; Nicolaou et al., 2019; Nicolaou, 2021).