Getting value from social media
December 2009
The market is ablaze with the latest form of buzzword bingo: social media. Everything and everyone has become social – social CRM, social business, social government. Some of the biggest software vendors from Microsoft to Oracle have a new focus on social software.
Get past all the noise, and you may start asking some of the more challenging questions. How is the social web, and my participation in it, impacting my business? Can I measure the impact? Should I be involved, or is this just a passing trend?
Peel off the shiny packaging and look deeper into what social media really means for you.
At the recent Enterprise 2.0 Conference, MIT professor Andrew McAfee, said, ‘I have never come across a word [social] that has more negative connotations to a busy pragmatic manager.’ McAfee, who coined the term Enterprise 2.0, finished his keynote presentation with an illustration of social as two dirty hippies hugging at Woodstock.
I couldn’t agree more. The term ’social’ is a poor descriptor, and inadequate to describe the underlying value of what’s really happening.
Collaboration is a much more accurate definition for the objective of most organizations: collaborating with customers, prospects, partners, employees, and colleagues. Social media tends to be a type of activity, but collaboration is an activity with a purpose.
Dell is a well-known success story of an organisation that has maximized the value of social media. Dell’s very specific business purpose? Increase sales revenue and decrease support costs. What makes Dell successful in its foray into social media is a clear strategy with measurable objectives.
While Dell views Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube as new communication channels, the team at Dell runs its own collaborative community (on Telligent’s platform) for blogs, forums, profiles, groups and more. Using these tools, Dell can lower support costs by leveraging peer-to-peer communication. Often, the best answers in Dell’s communities come from Dell customers.
EA uses collaboration platforms to enable publishing and viewing videos. Gamers can record short video clips from games like EA Skate and publish them to the community to share. While the benefit to the gamer might be bragging rights, the benefit to EA is free advertising. Customers become advocates and evangelists for the game; new customers are introduced to EA products through word-of-mouth social sharing. This translates into bottom-line revenue growth from net-new sales.
So other than research what other companies are doing well with their investments into social media and collaboration, what can you do to achieve success?
Develop a clear strategy. First and foremost, that strategy should articulate a plan for what goals will be accomplished.
Find a platform to enable your strategy. You can start out simply by using a free service like Twitter, and graduate to an enterprise collaboration platform when you are ready.
Measure the results. This is the most important step, and one that is too often simply ignored. If the strategy is clearly defined, then there should also be measurable objectives.
Is there business value in social media? Yes, there is. But to extract that value you need a clear strategy, a platform to enable the strategy, and the tools to measure and analyse the results.
You are in business to make money, serve customers, and out-maneuver the competition. Don’t jump in blindly. Clearly define your objectives and identify your sources. Then listen, engage and measure.
Rob Howard is the founder and Chief Technology Officer at Telligent, a global enterprise collaboration and community software
‘Social media’ is undoubtedly the buzzword bingo phrase of the year. Everything and everyone has become social – social customer relationships, social business, social government. Some of the biggest software vendors from Oracle to Microsoft have a new focus on social software.
If you are looking beyond the hype and looking to find value in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter to name but three of the emerging players, you might be asking more challenging questions. How is participation in the social web impacting my business? Can I measure the impact? Is this just a passing trend or should I be involved? Beyond the shiny packaging, you can look deeper into what social media really means for you. The term ’social’ poorly describes the movement, and it is inadequate to describe the underlying value of what’s really happening.
‘Collaboration’ is a much more accurate definition for the objective of most organizations. This includes collaborating with customers, prospects, partners, employees, and colleagues. Collaboration is an activity with a purpose, social media is just a type of activity.
Dell has maximized the value of social media. Does Dell have a specific business purpose? Yes indeed: to increase sales revenue and lower support costs. A clear strategy with measurable objectives is what makes Dell successful in its social media activities. As well as using Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in its collaborations with the outside world, Dell also runs its own collaborative community in-house, hosting blogs, forums, profiles, groups and more. Dell lowers its internal support costs by using these communication vehicles. No surprise then, that some of the best answers in Dell’s communities come from Dell customers.
So what can you do to achieve success?
- Develop a clear strategy. Primarily, that strategy should articulate a plan for what goals will be accomplished.
- Measure the results. It is critical to measure results. If the strategy is clearly defined, then there should also be measurable objectives.
- Find a platform to enable your strategy. Twitter is a great free starting point.
Does social media have a business value? Yes, but to extract that value you need a clear strategy, a platform to enable the strategy, and the tools to measure and analyse the results.
You are in business to make money, serve customers, and out-manoeuvre the competition. Don’t make blind jumps. Objectives should be clearly defined, thereafter listen, engage, measure and improve.
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