Social Media & the Supply Chain

Today, there are more than 750 million registered users on Facebook, and more than 175 million on Twitter, which continues to grow at an almost dizzying rate. LinkedIn has more than 100 million users, and even Yelp has more than 50 million.

There's no doubt about it--social media is powerful stuff. But what can it do for you and your supply chain?

The most powerful thing social media can do is help you predict consumer demand. When you are able to predict consumer demand in real or almost real time, you can adjust your supply chain accordingly. Accuracy is an issue. Just because customers are talking about a product doesn't mean they're actually going to purchase it. Trend analyses will have to be performed so that you can learn about and understand trends in social media over time.

What do you think about social media and the supply chain? Do you think the they'll become more and more connected in the years to come? In what ways?