Podcasts
1st December 2010
Episode 2 - Episode 2 - Opportunities for business in social media
Hi and welcome to The Business Plan, brought to you by LeasePlan. I’m Jackie Allender. This week we’re looking at how businesses are reacting to the phenomenon of social media — blogs, Facebook, Twitter and the like.
If you thought that social media weren’t relevant for your organisation, some recent examples might cause you to think again. In the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January, the American Red Cross used the micro-blogging site Twitter to help raise more than $800,000 for the relief effort within just one day.
Another example comes from closer to home. Waiting for delivery of a replacement phone from the telecommunications company Optus, a Twitter user went online asking the company if the delay he was experiencing was usual. Within 10 minutes someone from Optus customer service had contacted him to let him know the status of the new phone. The result? The user posted another tweet saying he’d just received the best customer service of his life, mentioning Optus by name.
But social media need not be limited to Twitter or Facebook, even though these two may be the height of current fashion. Nor should businesses see social media as just another marketing tool, says Ross Monaghan, a lecturer in Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University in Victoria.
He says organisations can integrate social media into their HR, knowledge management and innovation strategies. In fact, he says, it’s hard to think of an area of business that couldn’t utilise social media.
Citing the Lego company and Procter and Gamble from the US, Monaghan talks of how organisations can use social media to foster innovation. Both companies asked their ‘fans’ — the people who interacted with them via Facebook or other sites — to help them develop new products. Another suggestion is using a wiki — a web-based technology that enables users to easily contribute and edit content directly. For example, your accounting department could set up a wiki on the company intranet to share information about new accounting rules. That’s the wiki as a knowledge management tool.
Perhaps more traditionally, organisations are using social media to improve employee retention and to recruit the best new talent. Facebook and Twitter can help companies demonstrate that they’re a great place to work. According to Monaghan, that’s exactly what some law and consulting firms are doing to boost their credentials with younger people.
When it comes to social media, engagement is the key, say the experts.
The single most effective way businesses can engage via social media is by listening to their customers and using that information to respond to them, according to the American information service, MarketingProfs. In a survey of B2B and B2C organisations, it found monitoring Twitter in real time, then responding to users who posted negative comments was successfully used by more than a third of surveyed organisations. On Facebook, the most effective marketing tactic was to create an application for users, followed by creating a survey of fans.
At the same time, many businesses remain cautious. There are issues to be dealt with such as security, resourcing and a need to develop a strategy for using social media — in the same way you would develop a strategy for marketing or HR.
Ross Monaghan says Australian companies may be more reluctant than those in the US or Europe. Key barriers he cites are:
- an older CEO who doesn’t understand social media and doesn’t want to be involved;
- Or — most likely —middle managers who don’t want to have to grapple with the challenges it creates;
- Or finally, that broadband internet capability within the organisation isn’t adequate.
None of those are insurmountable, he maintains, and companies need to remember that with more than 350 million active users on Facebook and millions more on Twitter, you ignore the power of social media at your peril.
That’s all for now. I hope you’ve found this of The Business Plan useful and enjoyable. Don’t forget, if you have something you want to say about this issue, go to the LeasePlan website at leaseplan dot com dot au and follow the links to ‘The Business Plan’, where you’ll find a transcript of this podcast, as well as a section where you can make a comment.
Next week, we’re looking at developing an online policy for your organisation. I’m Jackie Allender, thank you for listening.
LINKS RELATED TO THIS STORY
http://twitter.com/redcross
http://blog.komosion.com
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007449
http://www.marketingprofs.com
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The Business Plan - Series 2
| Episode 10 | Episode 10 - The Innovators |
|---|---|
| Episode 9 | Episode 9 - eGovernments: How governments are using the web |
| Episode 8 | Episode 8 - How the web is driving business innovation |
| Episode 7 | Episode 7 - Is the future cloudy? |
| Episode 6 | Episode 6 - Don't forget your change! |
| Episode 5 | Episode 5 - e-Commerce Trends |
| Episode 4 | Episode 4 - Should employees have access to Twitter and Facebook? |
| Episode 3 | Episode 3 - Developing an online strategy for your organisation |
| Episode 1 | Episode 1 - Data Security |