Web 2.0 has created numerous scenarios in which enterprise IT policies are at odds with social media. But we are seeing the early signs that the social media vendors have realized that a new focus is required to sustain businesses as customers.
While it's easy to paint IT as the Big Bad Wolf when it comes to prohibiting users from accessing social sites at work, the reality is not so black and white. Almost all social media Websites were created with a focus on individual consumers; most only began to focus on the business world when they began to search for a viable business model.
While businesses like Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL), Zappos, and JetBlue have had success in harnessing the power of social media, their customers are all consumers. Social media is much harder when you are in a business that sells products to other businesses.
When Facebook launched, it was a way for college students and then high school students to communicate. Indeed, initially you needed a valid university email account to join. While the first Twitter prototype was used as an internal service for Odeo (predecessor to Twitter) employees, Twitter Inc. only took off when it was opened to the consumer world.
Twitter asks the simple question: "What are you doing?" But the "you" is singular. What do you do when "you" is a global company that operates 24/7? One person can't tweet and answer that question for a global enterprise.
Due to this individual, consumer-oriented focus of social media technology, enterprise adopters have had to shoehorn business needs into social media. But now, with products like Buddy Media, which currently works with Facebook and Twitter but should soon offer functionality for MySpace and other networks, and CoTweet, vendors are pushing for greater enterprise credibility.
To manage a business presence you need multiple staff who represent one Twitter account. That's where CoTweet got started with the tools to allow multiple people to communicate through one corporate Twitter account. CoTweet includes tools to allow these multiple employees to stay in sync and not step on each other’s toes as they work together to give the appearance of "one corporate you."
Another issue is that for consumers, the excitement of gaining hundreds or thousands of followers is a great ego rush. Most businesses are so stuck in that same mindset that they have obtained thousands of followers or friends. But a recent survey showed that virality (the reach of your brand and how much your message is spread) and sentiment dominate as the most prominent social media metrics -- neither of which is likely to satisfy a CEO or shareholders looking for ROI. Buddy Media attempts to address the need to measure the performance of enterprise-level social media activity.
Tools like Buddy Media and CoTweet are starting to fill a void, but they can’t do it all. If social media companies want to have enterprises as a revenue source, they need to step up and make social media a shareable enterprise technology.
Ultimately, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites need to grow up if they want to effectively collaborate at the enterprise level.
— David Silversmith is Vice President Information Technology at FirstBook.org, an organization that provides new books to children in need.
I've posted with this angle before, but overall the IT shift has moved from encouraging employees to use IT tools (I'm old enough to remember the push IT gave PROFS) to IT staffs generally feeling burdened by users.
It goes beyond social media. In many organizations, your hope of getting Blackberry server sync data or a drop-down menu put on your website is more often hinged on a personal relationship with someone in IT than your perceived business need and the impact you can have to organization's results if you fill that need.
There are, of course, seurity issues with all things IT, but I don't think you see many CEOs or senior officers on the management side quoted that social media should be blocked for their employees. In fact, often, the senior leaders still don't understand social media themselves. The fact that this is IT-driven in most organizations, I think, is bad, but it says as much about the senior leaders as it does about IT.
For that matter, very few organizations have incorporated social media issues into their codes of ethics. Social media discussions should start at the senior level and filter down into policies rather than allow IT policies to bubble up and become defacto organizational policies.
The main problem with the cool things on the internet (Twitter, Facebook, etc) is that they are social tools and they are fun. One thing we might consider is that there is not a realistic place for these services in the workplace. Just because it's cool, just because it's fun, just because there is a possibility it could be used in the workplace, does not mean it really will. I love cool toys, gadgets, sites, and services...but I also realize that they are used mainly for non-work stuff. Despite what the die hards say, "I use it to communicate with my clients", I have a feeling not. Now, I do understand that there is a place for social media and services in the world, but they are also as distracting as they are entertaining and at times useful. So, businesses have to take a different approach. Schools have to take a different approach. Filter systems are probably not our best solution. Blindly NOT monitoring is NOT the answer either. So, in the middle there is a solution that is specific to the people involved, where they are, and when they are. Managers cannot offer full internet access and someone expect that people will not be tempted to check their private email and facebook accounts. I recommend that best approach is the face to face discussion about expectations and what is and what is not appropriate. I've heard the face to face communicate was popular in the 80s?
Good point by Princess_dascho. While princesses can demand that the citizens do certain things - companies can only hope.
Many businesses have succeeded at getting followers or fans - but what does that mean? A cute game or a coupon or a contest entry and you can get followers and fans. How do you obtain and engage involved and faithful fans - that is the challenge!
Great comments from jnieusma. Though I think that at the corporate level it is possible to use social media. In many cases this is true: "At the corporate level there is less personal investment into the business when a paid admin position is created to maintain the social media connections.
However, social media can apply for larger companies - Dell, Southwest Airlines and others have shown that. As with any assignment - if you set the right goals and find the right people - it can be great.
A paid social media person who hates their job and the company - boy will their social media participation suck! An employee who loves the product they support and/or likes enteracting with customers could be great! Small companies do not have the market on invested employees. I still remember the ice cream/yogurt in our neighborhod (since closed) where the grandmother yelled at all the kids. It's an ice cream store - what kind of customers were they expecting?
Social media is in some ways related to customer service - when you build a culture where employees care - that's a sign of a great company - be it a small business or a big business.
Twitter is good... but I think it needs to be accompanied by some tools that help track information that marketing needs in order to judge a campaign’s effectiveness. There are some interesting social media tools such as UserVoice and Get Satisfaction that can be used to help manage company communications, brand pomotions, and business developments.
Taimur has a very good point. Getting feedback from customers through a fan page is a good use of the social media. Posting regular updates keeps fans checking on the page as well. I personally ignore the ads but I do check the pages I’ve joined. ROI will always be a factor in business but the only investment for a fan page is time.
Since most business is small business, it is the owner or a family member that is personally invested in the business that is going to be investing that time. This can give a small business the edge it needs to compete in their market. People like making a connection and fan pages of small businesses will be able to generate the enthusiasm to do so.
At the corporate level there is less personal investment into the business when a paid admin position is created to maintain the social media connections. The information posted is clinical and there is less enthusiasm in the message. It’s just a job.
Good points taimur_tz. But this means that those customers will be faithful enough to keep the "connection" with the company and send feedback regularly.
I agree, magneticnorth. I think Google is doing a great job of providing the straight forward technical tools to help business more effectively use social media.
This is a great topic for discussion with very thoughtful opinions by David.
I have observed the Facebook feature of "Fan Pages" and i beleive that's what can serve as a promotional and communication point for the organization. I have seen many organizations who have made their fan pages and have several fans. They do update on their products and activities. They are also advertising through their fan pages using Facebook Ads.
But again the point is that many of those "fans" may just become fans for no reason and may not be affected by the company's message.
However, I beleive it's a strong feature if you can connect with your customers after they have bought your product or a service. After selling something to them, you can add them to your page and keep them informed about your upcoming offerings etc. You could also provide them a way to give back their feedback or report problems with the product right there on Facebook or any other social networking tool. You can perform live chat with the company for guidance. Using social media this way, I beleive, can be more productive than sending out promotional messages.
Social media certainly represents an undefined ROI - however al other media represent a gamble. The classic saying in marketing is "I know have my marketing is working - I just don't know which half."
Sure today enterprises have figured our ROI - but do you think that was the case in the 1950s. If a prure ROI model was required - few businesses would be on the Internet today. They built a webiste before they knew what the ROI on that site would be.
Social media is in search of ROI - but it is still young!
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