Archive for Social Networking
Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens – Oct 17 09
Posted by: | CommentsIn this issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, reports on this week most interesting breakthroughs, events, new media technologies and on the social impact these have on society, work and learning.
Photo credit: Anatoly Vartanov
Inside this Media Literacy Digest:
- Decentralized Work: The Final Frontier – Consider work. Many people are now involved in work that does not require physical presence at an office. Yet, how we define and value work still carries the views from 50+ years ago.
- Value of Visual Thinking – Resources such as this – the value of visual thinking – are helpful in increasing my guilt and sense of inadequacy with visuals and increasing my desire to continue improving how I communicate.
- A Few Web 2.0 Resources – Microsoft and web 2.0 resources (via Stephen Downes) I am not sure how Microsoft defines web 2.0 – not much in the list that fits my definition. However, still a number of useful resources.
- The Chemistry of Information Addiction – The chemistry of information addiction indicates why many people find the internet (particularly under the banner of real-time tools) so rewarding: We crave information and we want it now.
- Using Technology To Improve The Cost-Effectiveness of The Academy – Tony Bates explores using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy (and part 2). Toward the end of the second post, Tony offers a series of 10 implications. I generally agree with these points, but do not think it offers enough about the systemic change required by universities.
- Personal Learning Environments / Networks: Call For Chapters – Our PLE / N conference is well underway. If interested, the recordings are available (under week five).
- Nowism – Google Wave, Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook have given rise to the what is known as the real time web. Trendwatching picks up on this theme and addresses it as Nowism (good list of realtime tools about 1 / 3 of the way in).
- Emerging Technologies, Africa – Introduction to Emerging Technologies, Africa is an open online 12 week course. I am teaching the course with Dave Cormier. IETA is delivered in both English and French.
Here all the details:
eLearning Resources and News
learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends
by George Siemens
Decentralized Work: The Final Frontier
The ideologies that give birth to systems remain long after they cease being valuable.
End result: We have systems and policies that function under ideologies / views that are no longer needed, and in many instances, have an overall negative impact. Consider work.
Many people are now involved in work that does not require physical presence at an office. Yet, how we define and value work still carries the views from 50+ years ago.
Taylorism is still reflected in how we see work and employees.
Inside Higher Ed considers decentralized work:
“Whether you call it teleworking, Web working, telecommuting, distance working or e-working, the concept is the same: Work is not some place you go, it is something you do. It focuses on the information-age idea of decentralizing the office, as opposed to the industrial-age idea of bringing everyone to one single location.“
Value of Visual Thinking
I am inept with visuals.
I made a decision at the start of the year to increase my use of visuals in presentation and blog posts. I have not been tremendously successful, but I will keep trying.
Resources such as this – the value of visual thinking – are helpful in
- increasing my guilt and sense of inadequacy with visuals and
- increasing my desire to continue improving how I communicate.
From the post:
“In the design of business, visual thinking will be key in the design of new processes, systems, and structures.
Expect to see the mapping of
- ecosystems,
- flows,
- org charts,
- social systems and
- data visualization.
All of which can help people understand and get behind change.“
A Few Web 2.0 Resources
A few (unrelated) resources on web 2.0:
Microsoft and web 2.0 resources (via Stephen Downes) I am not sure how Microsoft defines web 2.0 – not much in the list that fits my definition. However, still a number of useful resources.
The distance between Microsoft and Google is quite evident in participative / collaborative tools. Google is the web 2.0 poster child (have a quick look at their labs). I think Google needs a strong competitor. Microsoft has had trouble playing that role so far …
IBM & Web 2.0 – a number of videos, websites, whitepapers, etc. on how IBM uses web 2.0.
Adoption of emerging technologies for collaborating and organizational productivity (interesting to note that learning is not an explicit focus) is growing.
The Chemistry of Information Addiction
Information addiction is appearing more frequently as a term to describe how our brain craves information.
The chemistry of information addiction indicates why many people find the internet (particularly under the banner of real-time tools) so rewarding: We crave information and we want it now.
The author states that we find “not-knowing” to be stressful. I am curious how the stress of not-knowing relates to the stress of information abundance – i.e. “significant attainments lost in the mass of the inconsequential”
Using Technology To Improve The Cost-Effectiveness of The Academy
Tony Bates explores using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy (and part 2).
After exploring the challenges faced by universities, Tony concludes, logically, that:
I believe we need much more variety in institutional structures and models of educational delivery than we have at the current time.
We need in other words more innovation and experimentation, if the challenge of greater access, greater quality and lower cost is to be met.
Only through experimentation, trial and error and a certain amount of risk-taking are we likely to find new models that “work” in that they achieve the three goals stated: more access, better quality, less cost.
The problem with this observation is that traditional universities are generally too tied to existing models to innovate rapidly. I have met with too many departments that have plans like “next year, we will have two courses online“.
There is a sense that the university’s response is mismatched to reality of the scope of societal change.
Toward the end of the second post, Tony offers a series of 10 implications. I generally agree with these points, but do not think it offers enough about the systemic change required by universities.
If we are going to look 20 years in the future, I am less concerned about details such as instructional tactics than I am about the big issues of policy / funding / research / systemic structure of higher education.
Personal Learning Environments/Networks: Call For Chapters
Our PLE / N conference is well underway. If interested, the recordings are available (under week five).
A call for chapters has been issued as well for an upcoming PLE book.
Nowism
Google Wave, Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook have given rise to the what is known as the real time web. Trendwatching picks up on this theme and addresses it as Nowism (good list of realtime tools about 1 / 3 of the way in). This briefing is worth a skim.
Notable quote:
The bottom line: While the appeal and influence of “now” has been building for years, societal attitudes, sky-high consumer expectations and new technologies are currently converging in such a powerful way that brands truly have no choice but to go “real-time”:
- In their business intelligence processes,
- in their customer conversations,
- in their innovation labs,
- in their distribution, sales, marketing and branding departments…
Emerging Technologies, Africa
I have posted this before, but, since the course started today, I will mention it again: Introduction to Emerging Technologies, Africa is an open online 12 week course. I am teaching the course with Dave Cormier. IETA is delivered in both English and French.
More information:
- Google Groups – for regular emails from course instructors
- Moodle – English
- Moodle – French
- Syllabus – English
- Syllabus – French
Main landing page for the course.
Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on October 16th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.
About George Siemens
George Siemens is the Associate Director in the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba. George blogs at www.elearnspace.org where he shares his vision on the educational landscape and the impact that media technologies have on the educational system. George Siemens is also the author of Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and the book “Knowing Knowledge” where he develops a learning theory called connectivism which uses a network as the central metaphor for learning and focuses on knowledge as a way to making connections.
Photo credits:
Decentralized Work: The Final Frontier – Yuri Arcurs
Value of Visual Thinking – David Armano
A Few Web 2.0 Resources – TebNad
The Chemistry of Information Addiction – Scol22
Using Technology To Improve The Cost-Effectiveness of The Academy – Stephen Coburn
Personal Learning Environments / Networks: Call For Chapters – Luminis
Nowism – Mehmet Dilsiz
Emerging Technologies, Africa – Marc Dietrich
Emerging Technologies, Africa – Adama01
Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens – Oct 10 09
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are interested in finding out the key media trends, the events and the new communication technologies that are shaping your future, in this issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, takes you to places, people and new resources to help you make greater sense of this fast changing panorama.
Photo credit: Ndul
Inside this Media Literacy Digest:
- Trends… – What worked pre-internet for managing information will not work today. Little surprise then that trend watching / recognition is quickly becoming a field of value for educators, business leaders, and governments.
- History and Evolution of Social Media – We are still early on the social media hype curve. Letting people connect effortlessly produces all kinds of interesting results. But the implications of easy connectivity are not fully understood.
- The Great Keynote Meltdown – It seems that a poor keynote presentation caused the audience to go into mild mob mode through the twitter back channel.
- Personal Learning Environments Conference –
The Personal Learning Environments and Networks Conference starts next week (Oct 13-16). The event is free to attend. The event has been organized by National Research Council of Canada PLE Project and the Learning Technologies Centre at University of Manitoba. - Obesity, Politics, STDs Flow In Social Networks – I am interested in how networks influence learning. To date, this has received too little attention from researchers. Yes, I know, disease research generates more funds for universities
- Real Time Web and Google – Clive Thompson’s argument that the real time web is leaving Google behind makes a few interesting points… but it is essentially wrong.
- Saudi Arabia: KAUST – Education is rapidly globalizing. Local views need to give way to international perspectives. For example, consider the new $12 billion Saudi Arabian KAUST
- Local Politicians Use Social Media To Connect With Voters – Something as simple as an online forum or blog – or even online consultation – is not unrealistic. Decision made in isolation and then dropped on others is no way to run an organization or a community.
- Social Network Statistics – We rely on government to provide some level of protection (in Canada we have fairly rigid rules for the type of individual data that can be shared). Even then, sites like Facebook can gain a fairly accurate “picture” of who individuals are simply by mining network associations.
- Finding Data – Let’s say you have this idea for a visualization or application, or you are just curious about some trend. You can not find the data, and without the data, you can not even start.
Here all the details:
eLearning Resources and News
learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends
by George Siemens
Trends…
P. W. Anderson made the statement in the early 70’s that “more is different“. Or, as a slight variation, David Gelernter has stated: “30. If you have three pet dogs, give them names. If you have 10,000 head of cattle, do not bother.”
When considering the pace of information flow today, it makes sense that we need
- new skills,
- new attitudes, and
- new tools to function.
What worked pre-internet for managing information will not work today. Little surprise then that trend watching / recognition is quickly becoming a field of value for
- educators,
- business leaders, and
- governments.
Trendwatching’s monthly briefings are helpful in this regard. It is a well curated list of trends.
If you are interested in something a bit more chaotic, Trendsmap follows emerging Twitter topics.
The curatorial and the visualization of emerging trends approach are first generation attempts at making sense of abundance. We need better tools that are somewhat tied to our context (i.e. search patterns, our interests, needs).
History and Evolution of Social Media
We are still early on the social media hype curve. Letting people connect effortlessly produces all kinds of interesting results. But the implications of easy connectivity are not fully understood.
- Should we have “tech free” zones in schools?
- How does etiquette change when conversation continually flows on microblogging services such as Twitter?
- What is appropriate to post on Facebook?
- What about mobile phone etiquette? Or, perhaps most importantly for educators,
- How should teaching and learning be structured in a networked world?
These questions are already being addressed by educators and researchers (journal special editions and even new journal launches are focusing on the social media aspect of teaching / learning).
A quick look back – to gain a sense of history – is always a good idea.
The history and evolution of social media takes a rapid stroll through various services and potential implications. While the article is not focused on education, it is a good overview of how we got to where we are.
Social networking site: Definition, history, and scholarship tackles a similar theme…
The Great Keynote Meltdown
The Great Keynote Meltdown traces a failed keynote presentation and the response of the audience: “Presentational etiquette is changing along with audience expectations. Twitter is there, and people are going to use it, for good or for bad“.
It seems that a poor keynote presentation caused the audience to go into mild mob mode through the Twitter back channel. This type of critique often happens post-presentation (remember pre-realtime web? “I will not go to that conference again. Poor speakers, badly organized. It was a waste of time“).
The prominence of mobile devices and microblogging services surfaces this type of feedback and amplifies it when conference attendees connect to each other. It is a reality both speakers and organizers need be aware of… and plan for.
What is a conference organizer / keynote presenter to do these days? Create and encourage the use of channels for surfacing criticism and feedback. Hiding failures is not really success.
Personal Learning Environments Conference
The Personal Learning Environments and Networks Conference starts next week (Oct 13-16). The event is free to attend. We will be posting summaries on The Daily, so you might want to sign up for the week to keep track of the conference.
The event has been organized by National Research Council of Canada PLE Project and the Learning Technologies Centre at University of Manitoba.
Obesity, Politics, STDs Flow In Social Networks
Networks are the language of our era – explaining, among other things
- biology,
- information flow,
- disease transfer,
- financial market failure, and
- political structures underlying public voting records.
A recently published text – Connected – addresses how networks influence our lives on a daily basis.
From a promotional article on the book: Obesity, politics, STDs flow in social networks
Examining years of research of their own and from others, the authors conclude that social networks, both offline and online, are crucial in understanding everything from voting patterns to the spread of disease.
People have profound influences on each other’s behavior within three degrees of separation, the authors find. That means that your friends, your friends’ friends, and your friends’ friends’ friends may all affect your eating habits, voting preferences, happiness, and more.
I am interested in how networks influence learning. To date, this has received too little attention from researchers.
Yes, I know, disease research generates more funds for universities. For that matter negatives like disease, obesity, and other challenges confronting humanity provide greater motivation than pursuing positives like learning and development. Maybe that is part of the research problem…
Real Time Web and Google
Clive Thompson’s argument that the real time web is leaving Google behind makes a few interesting points… but it is essentially wrong.
Controversial statements draw more attention (hence, why I am linking to this!), but what Thompson overlooks is that the web is expanding and fragmenting into specialized subsets… not that the core web is changing.
For example, an individual wanting to research Michael Jackson (as stated in Thompson’s article), will not only be concerned with the events over the last few days, but over Jackson’s lifetime.
We use the web for different purposes at different times.
The author also states that Google’s contribution was organizing the web on authority, somehow suggesting that this is not the case with Twitter and Facebook.
Have you ever tried following a trending topic on Twitter? If you are tracking a hot topic, you will have 800 updates each time you refresh. It is a mess. It is like Yahoo in 1997: Topics by categories… but largely useless.
This trend-lover attitude (Ooh, look, it is new, that means it changes everything) is great for drawing attention… but rather useless for anything else.
A contextual, balanced, and nuanced understanding of search patterns and varying circumstance with varying needs is needed. But, it appears nuanced and balanced is now the new extreme.
Saudi Arabia: KAUST
Education can be somewhat insular.
A university campus is a community… a small city. For many students (if my experience can be generalized), understanding the local university environment is a big enough challenge in itself.
It is unrealistic to expect most members of society to be aware of the complexities of higher education in other provinces / states or even other countries.
Education is rapidly globalizing. Local views need to give way to international perspectives.For example, consider the new $12 billion Saudi Arabian KAUST.
Those who proclaim universities have a limited future need to redirect their focus to the enormous funds directed to universities and how national pride (and future identity) are reflected in “world class” universities.
Local Politicians Use Social Media To Connect With Voters
I live south of Winnipeg in a small community.
During my commute this morning, I noticed a section of our street “under construction“. The street was closed off. I have no idea what they are doing. And why.
It occurred to me that I am no longer satisfied in “letting things happen to me“. Perhaps I am influenced too much by participatory technologies, but I like to know what is happening my community.
- Who decided this road should be repaired?
- Why?
- How long will it take?
- What other priorities were shelved as a result?
Not-knowing is not acceptable. Something as simple as an online forum or blog – or even online consultation – is not unrealistic. It takes five minutes to set up a blog. Decision made in isolation and then dropped on others is no way to run an organization or a community.
Local Politicians Use Social Media to Connect with Voters:
“Perhaps most significant to the evolving shift in local political communication is the sense that social media is starting to fill the void left by downsized news staffs or the complete absence of journalists in smaller communities.“
We want information and we want to be involved. That is not asking too much, is it?
Social Network Statistics
The Internet knows us. Really. It does. It knows us at an aggregate level – consider the age / income / children / gender information on social network statistics. But, we are also known individually.
We rely on government to provide some level of protection (in Canada we have fairly rigid rules for the type of individual data that can be shared). Even then, sites like Facebook can gain a fairly accurate “picture” of who individuals are simply by mining network associations.
If I am predominantly friending people with certain religious or political views, I am signaling some level or probability as to my own views. But, it does not stop there.
Facebook has one of my favorite lines about data collection:
“Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as
- newspapers,
- blogs,
- instant messaging services, and
- other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags)
in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience.“
Finding Data
As little as 10 years ago, the barrier to finding data was something like a pay wall (or that the data was in a physical form and you had to go to a library to access it).
Today, data abounds. It is readily accessible. Which is great if you are trying to visualize data and / or interactions. 30 Resources to Find the Data You Need:
“Let’s say you have this idea for a visualization or application, or you are just curious about some trend. But you have a problem.
You can not find the data, and without the data, you can not even start. This is a guide and a list of sources for where you can find that data you’re looking for. There is a lot out there.“
Follow through to the comments – several additional resources listed there…
Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on October 9th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.
About George Siemens
George Siemens is the Associate Director in the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba. George blogs at www.elearnspace.org where he shares his vision on the educational landscape and the impact that media technologies have on the educational system. George Siemens is also the author of Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and the book “Knowing Knowledge” where he develops a learning theory called connectivism which uses a network as the central metaphor for learning and focuses on knowledge as a way to making connections.
Photo credits:
Trends… – Trendsmap
History and Evolution of Social Media – Dmitry Margolin
The Great Keynote Meltdown – Argus456
Personal Learning Environments Conference – Konstantin Chagin
Obesity, Politics, STDs Flow In Social Networks – CNN
Real Time Web and Google – Chris Lamphear
Real Time Web and Google – Wipeout44
Saudi Arabia: KAUST – University of Bradford
Local Politicians Use Social Media To Connect With Voters – Aliaksei Lakamkin
Social Network Statistics – Pablo631
Finding Data – Hypermania
Business Applications Of Social Media Inside Organizations: Social Networks
Posted by: | CommentsHow do organizations really use social networks? Is social media useful to acquire new customers or just to maintain strong relationships with existing clients?
Photo credit: Kheng Guan Toh
The answer to whether social media are good for customer engagement or relationship building is: “Social media is good for both“.
As long as you do not get too greedy or “salesy” in your business approach, social media proves to be very useful to connect with your audience.
Social media is free to join, easy to use and, most importantly, it is “a way to supercharge the word of mouth“, and as every marketer will tell you, a positive word of mouth is the best mean to convert prospects into sales.
Shel Holtz, summarizes well the impact of social media in business strategies:
“I see [social media] as a place to build relationships, but it is not for direct selling. That is not what people want to receive on Facebook. People are there to socialize, and if you can offer value through conversation, you can build relationships with those customers. If you pitch them, they will ignore you, or worse.“
In part 3 of this report (Part 1 – Part 2), marketing analyst Josh Gordon shares interesting data to make sense of the penetration and main functions of social media inside the corporate world.
Here all the details:
The Coming Change In Social Media Business Applications: Separating The Biz From The Buzz
by Josh Gordon
Business Applications of Social Networks
1. Sales Use of Social Networks
Top Uses of Social Networks
How organizations use social networks for sales
Top uses of social networks for sales are to maintain and build relationships.
The most common use of social media networks, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, is “Maintaining social contact with clients” (67.6%). After that, about half of businesses surveyed use social media to achieve a “Better understanding of client attitudes” (50.6%).
Sales Use of Social Media Networks
Sales functions organizations plan to adopt in the future
Sales use of social media networks could shift sharply toward an emphasis on customer prospecting.
As organizations look to the future, the same trend emerges as seen in the general social media and Twitter responses: a shift toward more customer communications and, in particular, toward prospecting.
The two sales prospecting options rise dramatically to become the top goals for social network usage.
“Sales prospecting by targeting ’self-identified’ new customers” moves up to the top choice, from No. 5 currently, and “Sales prospecting by social networking” moves up as well, from third place to second.
Moving forward, it seems clear that social networks will be a top lead generation tool.
Practical Advice On Use of Social Networks
Put this information to work:
According to Brian Solis, principal at FutureWorks,
“Human interaction is still human interaction, and what it takes to be successful with it has not changed. What has changed is the places where it happens.“
Says Solis:
“Social media tools help you find conversations that can give you insight into what individuals in your market are saying about your product. This can give you an opportunity to engage people on their terms, not as a salesperson, but as a resource, and then get the sale because of it.“
I use social networks to find out who my clients really are.
We all vary our modes of conversation when we speak to different types of people: an intimidating boss, a pesky child, a policeman giving a speeding ticket, or… a salesperson.
Often, when I “see” two of my clients “talking” to each other on a social network, their conversation with each other is very different from my conversations with either of them, as someone trying to sell them.
But when I see clients “talking” to their peers, I learn what is truly important to them, and it is rarely about me or my product. I look for what they are passionate enough to write about, how they react to each other, what they are afraid of, and who their heroes and villains are.
Understanding a person’s values and passions is a first step to understanding them, and a prerequisite to any sale.
Shel Holtz, principal of Holtz Communication + Technology, warns about being too “salesy” when you engage potential clients in a social media environment:
“I see it as a place to build relationships, but it is not for direct selling. That is not what people want to receive on Facebook. People are there to socialize, and if you can offer value through conversation, you can build relationships with those customers. If you pitch them, they will ignore you, or worse.“
Dan McCarthy, chairman and CEO of Network Communications Inc., shares that he becomes better at reaching out to new clients as they get to know him though his personal profile and postings on social media sites.
Years ago, McCarthy realized that the people with whom he had the best business relationships were also those who knew the most about his personal side.
Says McCarthy,
“If you connect the way you live to the way you make a living, you create an incredible degree of authenticity, which is what today’s digital generation is looking for in the people they work with.
My professional identity and my personal identity are very connected.“
Survey respondents also wrote in “other” uses of social media for sales, including:
- Project opportunity identification;
- posting discount codes on Facebook and Twitter;
- promoting educational collateral and events;
- listing salespeople in LinkedIn profiles; and
- highlighting case studies.
2. Marketing Use of Social Networks
Promoting Organic Messages and Monitoring Customer Trends
Marketing functions organizations adopt now
Top uses for marketing functions are promoting organic messages and monitoring customer trends.
About half of the organizations surveyed actively promote themselves through organic messaging (56%), monitor trends among their customers (53.1%), and provide ways for customers to interact with their company (51.5%).
About a third use social networks to research new product ideas (34.1%), while about one in four advertises on social networks (26.7%).
Providing Ways To Interact With Customers
Marketing functions organizations plan to adopt in the future
Top marketing use of social networks shifts toward providing ways to interact with customers.
Looking ahead, we see the same trend repeated as organizations refocus their social media toward customer-focused programs.
The top choice moving forward is “We provide ways for customers to interact with our company,” which is only the third most-used marketing function at present.
Marketing is part of the shift toward using social media as a way to connect and acquire customers.
“Understanding a person’s values and passions is a first step to understanding them, and a prerequisite to any sale.”
Please check all of the marketing functions offered by social networks-like Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace – that your organization now uses.
Practical Advice On Marketing Use of Social Networks
Put this information to work:
According to Dan Schawbel, social media specialist at EMC Corporation, and author of the book, Me 2.0:
“Social media tools are popular marketing tools because they are free, people are already using them, and there is an opportunity cost for not getting involved today.
Depending on your line of business, certain social networks will work better for you than others. It is all about aligning business strategy to the use of each tool. Otherwise, you are wasting time and not reaching the right audience with the right message on the right network.“
Brian Solis indicates that there could be more going on in social networks than you realize. He poses the question, “If a conversation takes place online and you are not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen?” In fact, there might even be dangers in not participating.
Says Solis,
“Conversations are taking place, with or without you.
If you are not part of the conversation, then you are leaving it to others to answer questions and provide information, whether it is accurate or incorrect. Or, even worse, you may be leaving it up to your competition to jump in to become the resource for the community.”
Monitoring and reacting to customer behavior is key. Ari Herzog, principal of Ari Herzog and Associates, learned that firsthand when a new pizza restaurant opened in his town. Herzog tried it, liked it, and wrote a positive review of it on the social media review site, Yelp.
A few months later, when he revisited the restaurant with his mother and sister, he was surprised when a waiter came by with a free order of chips and salsa as a thank you for the review.
What kind of impression did that make? Herzog shared the story with me when I interviewed him, and now you are among thousands reading about it here. Now that is good marketing!
Herzog ’s enthusiasm is typical of what social media can do for any brand.
Says Dan McCarthy:
“The Holy Grail for a marketer is positive word of mouth. If you can capture this, it is the highest means of converting prospects to sales, and at the least expense. Social media is a way to supercharge word of mouth.“
Survey respondents also wrote in “other” uses of social media for marketing, including:
- Showcasing case studies,
- running a professional group on LinkedIn, and
- communicating with media outlets.
Link to an extensive list of social media marketing examples on Peter Kim’s blog, “Being Peter Kim.”
3. Public Relations Use of Social Networks
Public Relations Functions
Public relations functions offered by social networks
Social networks serve a variety of public relations functions.
The four most common public relations functions using social media are:
- Maintaining a company profile page (66.6%);
- using social networks to distribute press releases and news items (59.3%);
- monitoring and responding to mentions of the company and its products (58%); and
- interacting with bloggers and members of the traditional press (54.6%).
Looking to the future, organizations plan no changes in how they use social networks to support their public relations efforts, with future uses being identical in sequence and proportion to current use.
Practical Advice On Public Relations Use of Social Networks
Put this information to work:
Public relations professionals would do well to monitor social networks for activity about their organization and products. Shel Holtz, calls this essential:
“If you are monitoring, you can be part of the conversation.
Social media is becoming the communication channel for breaking news.
Remember that the first reports of the US Airways flight that water-landed in the Hudson River were first reported on Twitter by someone with a cell phone on a nearby ferry.
If your company gets in the news, you may find out about it first by monitoring social networks.“
The other PR function unique to social media is the ability to post a company profile page. Some companies take this free service more seriously than others.
Annie Ta, from Facebook’s corporate communications team, says:
“We encourage businesses to really engage with consumers on their profiles. For example, businesses should update their status, post videos and photos, and start discussion threads with their consumers.
Public profiles provide a way for businesses to talk to consumers and understand them. Some of the most successful public profiles are those that create a genuine dialogue with their fans.“
Link to two great examples of company profile pages: Dell and Visa.
Survey respondents also wrote in “other” uses of social media for public relations, including:
- Updating fans and customers on company news;
- promoting company events;
- registration for events;
- maintaining an alumni group for past employees; and
- promoting a fundraising program.
4. Use of Social Networks For Internal Communications
Save Money Using Social Networks
Internal workflow functions that social network use and plan to use.
Organizations can save expense by using existing social networks to create work groups where documents, schedules, and communication are shared collaboratively, from anywhere on Earth.
While there are security concerns with posting potentially sensitive internal communications on a third party’s network, the irresistible “free” cost for simple groups is motivation for many.
Currently, the top uses of these services are “Sharing documents” and “Maintaining communication with teams.”
Looking ahead, the use of social networks to help internal workflow will remain similar to usage today with one difference: Fewer organizations will use social networks for file sharing.
Among current uses, “file sharing” is tied with “maintaining communication with teams” for the top use. For the future, it drops to fourth place, near the bottom.
Practical Advice On The Use of Social Networks For Internal Communications
Put this information to work:
The results speak for themselves here, and since not much is changing, there is little to add.
Survey respondents also wrote in “other” uses of social media for internal workflow, including:
- Training,
- building bonds with remote teams, and
- general social use with no professional communications.
Conclusions
This study is the first to document the coming shift in the use of social media – from a helpful tool for a variety of communication needs, to an essential tool for customer engagement.
As organizations invest in social media programs, incorporating this shift into the plans should be considered a high priority.
Skeptics might say that a more customer-centric approach is natural in a recession when business is scarce. But a recession is not just a time of slow sales.
More significantly, it is also a time when the pace of change accelerates, and the competitive landscape of industries is reshaped.
A research study done by Bain & Co. in the aftermath of the 2001 recession discovered that competitive change during the recession occurred at about twice the normal rate. In addition, companies that changed competitive positions against one another during the recession remained in their new rankings long after it had passed.
In 1929, rival cereal makers Kellogg’s and Post were in a close race to win the emerging cold breakfast cereal market.
Through the Great Depression that followed, Kellogg’s maintained an aggressive marketing posture, while Post slashed its ad budgets. When the slow time ended, Kellogg’s had a market advantage over its rival that it maintains to this day-almost 70 years later. (More on that story here)
It would be a mistake to assume that this shift toward customer-centric usage of social media is temporary.
In fact, the shift toward customer engagement, and away from general communications, shows a more important role for social media use at organizations. As Peter Drucker, known as the father of modern management, said, “The purpose of a business is to create a customer.”
On the same list as above, pick the one internal workflow function your organization is considering using in the future.
End of Part 3
Part 1: Business Applications Of Social Media Inside Organizations: An Overview
Part 2: Business Applications Of Social Media Inside Organizations: Twitter
Originally written by Josh Gordon for Social Media Biz Buzz, and first published on July 20th, 2009 as The Coming Change in Social Media Business Applications
About Josh Gordon
Josh Gordon is president of Selling 2.0, where he works to improve the performance of organizations and sales teams with research-based training and consulting services. Josh has written four books on the subject. For more information, visit www.Selling2.com.
Photo credits:
The Coming Change In Social Media Business Applications: Separating The Biz From The Buzz – Pjcross
Practical Use of Twitter – Andrzej Tokarski