Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
How To Develop a Business-Aligned Social Media & Social Networking Strategy
Definitions
Overview of three step process
- Describe Organizational Goals
- Describe Organizational Functions
- Describe Social Media Initiatives
- Maintain or increase profitability or levels of cost recovery.
- Improve communication among employees, customers, members, and/or stockholders.
- Help customers or members in their jobs or private lives.
- Increase the number of new and/or returning customers or members.
- Asset Management
- Billing, Payment, & Cash Processing
- Business Planning, Management & Administration
- Customer Service
- Supply Purchasing & Trading
- Financial Management & Accounting
- Materials Transportation, Sales & Purchasing
- Human Resources Management
- Information Services Management
- Marketing & Sales
- Market Research
- Planning, Management & Administration
- Work & Work Order Management
- Manufacturing
- Distribution
- Create and maintain a corporate Facebook page to serve as a corporate marketing and recruiting tool.
- Establish and operate blogs for all customer- or member-facing divisions or committees.
- Offer free web-enabled telephone conferencing services to customers.
- Create and maintain a CEO blog.
- Establish and operate wikis to create and share “best practices” information.
- Partner with a professional accreditation organization to develop a podcast based lesson series offering continuing education credit.
- Develop and implement training processes on how to employ dedicated blogs in support of project management.
- Create and publicize a network of experts within the organization who can be consulted on business specific topics.
- Establish a secure company wide social bookmarking system to support the tagging and sharing of internal and external information sources.
- Develop a corporate policy and training program on information security and privacy.
- Develop and implement a corporate security policy to monitor and control inadvertent leaks of sensitive or private information.
- Create and test a plan to employ social media and social networking in crisis situations.
- Create and implement a competitor monitoring system to track competitor activities on blogs, social networks, public wikis , feed subscription services, and social bookmarking systems.
- How can we use social media and social networking to improve how this function is performed?
- Can we improve conversations, information sharing, and collaboration among people who perform this function?
- Can we improve how feedback is obtained from people who benefit from the output or products of this function?
- Are there functions that are in need of innovation or creativity?
- Are there functions where the people involved currently have difficulty in communication or collaboration?
- Cost (e.g., fixed vs. variable; one-time vs. ongoing)
- Quantitative and qualitative benefits (e.g., revenue enhancement, cost reduction, improved public image, improved staff morale, improved innovation, etc.)
- Impacted function(s)
- Impacted goal(s)
- Priority level
- Impacted groups (e.g., internal vs. external users)
- Schedule
- Relationship to existing systems and processes (e.g., impacts, is impacted by, is dependent on, etc.)
- Likelihood of Acceptance (e.g., by management, by staff, by vendors, by customers, etc.)
- Report progress against schedule.
- Discuss intermediate findings.
- Store and share documents and multimedia.
- Obtain feedback on key topics to supplement — or replace — face to face meetings.
Discussion
- The role of strategy
- Accounting for organizational complexity
- Internal politics
- The role of technology
- Using the strategy development process to “bootstrap” social media adoption
- Sequencing the initiatives
- In many organizations staff members are already using social networking or social media while at work and away from work. They are already be devoting time and attention to learning about a wide variety of systems and processes. They may even be communicating about work related issues in their communications with others. If the strategy process can tap into this evolving proficiency, it might be possible to increase the efficiency of introducing social media and networking into the rest of the organization.
- Independent pockets of potentially incompatible social media and networking initiatives may already be evolving within the organization. Developing a unified strategy early may reduce the cost and time involved in later converting users away from competing or incompatible platforms, thereby speeding adoption of standard systems and processes.
- Establishing a formal strategy increases the likelihood of defining both ownership and responsibility of each initiative. Formalization of roles and responsibilities may not have taken place around various corporate activities, such as who is responsible for changing corporate blog access privileges when an employee leaves the company. Establishing ownership and responsibility early on will, at minimum, help to ensure that managers are held accountable for progress and performance.
- Top down. In the “top down” model the organization’s leaders implement and lead the adoption of tools and techniques such as blogs, wikis, social networking systems, shared bookmarks, and podcasting.
- Bottom up. In the “bottom up” model the workers start blogging, using wikis, and social networking systems to advance their jobs.
- Inside out. This is a variation of “bottom up,” only this time the tools are adopted internally by the organization and their usage spills over into external markets, members, or customers of the organization.
- Outside in. In this model the adoption of social media and social networking by the marketplace progresses to a point where the organization can no longer ignore it, especially if usage by competitors starts to become public.
Conclusions
Four Ways Social Networking Can Build Business
Finding Unexpected Collaborators
Building a Global Business From Scratch
Finding Talent in the Trenches
Viral Marketing on the Cheap
Friday, February 19, 2010
2010 Digital Marketing Outlook
- In 2010, two-thirds expect to spend the same or more than in 2009.
- Approximately 70% plan to increase (1-30%) or significantly increase (30%+) their unpaid/earned/proprietary media.
- The top priorities in 2010 will be social networks/applications and digital infrastructure.
Emerging Trends
- Customer experience will be more important than ever.
- Storytelling will evolve - location will become a key component; the speed at which stories are developed is crucial; and above all, emotional connections matter.
- The beginning of the end of the banner ad.
- Branded content syndication will replace some paid media.
- 40% of opportunity is mobile
- Social is becoming increasingly mobile.
- Social Networking Measurement will be more important than ever.
- Real-time search is inextricably linked to the "statusphere."
- Forms of content consumption will continue to be fractured; the nimble marketer will need to be in as many places as possible.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Marketing through Social Networks
Moreover, Social Networks and Marketing provides a primer on social networks targeted toward marketing practitioners and scholars. It explores main concepts, theoretical ideas, and empirical findings, with a focus on questions of relevance to managers. In addition, Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again.If you are selling products/services or just publishing content for ad revenue, social media marketing is a potent method that will make your site profitable over time.Those who ignore the efficacy of social media usually fall into three categories; the ones who don’t know much or anything about social media, the ones who are interested but don’t know how to use it and those who don’t believe in the value that a social media strategy can bring to any site or business.
Social network analysis
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Social Network
What Is Social Networking?
Social Networking - perhaps you've heard of it before, but are not quite sure what it means.
Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision, if you will. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities, and high schools, it is most popular online. This is because unlike most high schools, colleges, or workplaces, the internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences about any number of topics. . . from golfing, gardening, developing friendships and professional alliances.
When it comes to online social networking, websites are commonly used. These websites are known as social sites. Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users. Depending on the website in question, many of these online community members share common interests in hobbies, religion, or politics. Once you are granted access to a social networking website you can begin to socialize. This socialization may include reading the profile pages of other members and possibly even contacting them. Plus, you can organize and combine all of your online profiles into one at
The friends that you can make are just one of the many benefits to social networking online. Another one of those benefits includes diversity because the internet gives individuals from all around the world access to social networking sites. This means that although you are in the United States, you could develop an online friendship with someone in Denmark. Not only will you make new friends, but you just might learn a thing or two about new cultures or new languages and learning is always a good thing.
As mentioned, social networking often involves grouping specific individuals or organizations together. While there are a number of social networking websites that focus on particular interests, there are others that do not. The websites without a main focus are often referred to as "traditional" social networking websites and usually have open memberships. This means that anyone can become a member, no matter what their hobbies, beliefs, or views are. However, once you are inside this online community, you can begin to create your own network of friends and eliminate members that do not share common interests or goals.
As I'm sure you're aware, there are dangers associated with social networking including data theft and viruses, which are on the rise. The most prevalent danger though often involves online predators or individuals who claim to be someone that they are not. Although danger does exist with networking online, it also exists with networking out in the real world, too. Just like you're advised when meeting strangers at clubs and bars, school, or work -- you are also advised to proceed with caution online. By being aware of your cyber-surroundings and who you are talking to, you should be able to safely enjoy social networking online. It will take many phone conversations to get to know someone, but you really won't be able to make a clear judgement until you can meet each other in person. Just use common sense and listen to your inner voice; it will tell you when something doesn't feel right about the online conversations taking place.
Once you are well informed and comfortable with your findings, you can begin your search from hundreds of networking communities to join. This can easily be done by performing a standard internet search. Your search will likely return a number of results, including MySpace, FriendWise, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, Facebook, Orkut, and Classmates.