Social Media for Business, MBA March 2010

Social Networking for Business
March 2010
Lisa Harris
www.lisaharrismarketing.com
www.twitter.com/lisaharris

Session Plan
Innovation, adoption and the evolving role of social networks
Social media tools:
Blogs
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Social media challenges for business

Video Resources
Did you know 4? (5 mins) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8
10 Years of changes in technology, BBC report by Rory Cellan-Jones (3 mins): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8434373.stm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDi0FNcaock (Future of Shopping, Cisco, 1 min)
How social media can make history, by Clay Shirky http://tinyurl.com/nmeo3o
For more, check out what I am reading and saving on www.delicious.com/lisaharris1

Internet technology has changed the world
Years it took to reach an audience of 50 million:
US Dept Commerce Radio 50 years TV 13 years Internet 4 years iPod 3 years 2 years 2 years 1 in 8 marriages in US now as a result of online dating.

Internet usage European average source: EIAA 2009 Time spent online per week Hours 12 Hours 8.8 Hours Proportion of heavy users (16+ hours per week) Percent 28% 17% Weekend use Percent 51% 39% +36% growth +65% growth +31% growth

How many of these activities are you developing…?

Gartner’s “hype cycle” 2009

Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation With successive groups of consumers adopting the new technology (shown in blue), its market share (yellow) will eventually reach saturation

‘ Big name’ social media pioneers

Online communities
Social networks (Facebook, MySpace)
Business networks (LinkedIn, Ecademy)
Macro communities (Get Satisfaction)
Industry level communities (CIM)
Company-specific communities (Dell, Amazon)
See our article on Blackboard for background information: “ Communication, collaboration and aggregation: how online communities are transforming marketing strategy for entrepreneurial small businesses” published in Journal of Business Strategy

Social Networks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc
Total traffic to Facebook, Youtube, MySpace, Bebo and Wikipedia now accounts for 1 in 15 of all website visits in the UK
Latest favourite is the microblogging site Twitter (now ranked 12 on Alexa)
Online business networks also developing: LinkedIn, Ecademy, Zing…changing the dynamics of staff recruitment
Boundaries between social and business networking are blurring

Growth of Social Media

Google adds social networks to search
The experimental Google Social Search service adds opinions from friends and others to information provided on products and services
"We came up with a way to have social networks influence your search results. If you're signed into Social Search, you get content from your friends.”
Google also disclosed that it had inked a real time search deal with Twitter.
“ Social Search can mine your own circle of contacts for information, whether it's for recommendations on a handyman or a pointer to a company that's hiring. It will also encourage people to expand their networks, since more friends and a wider range of friends mean more useful information."
Google Social search is a good example of networks becoming more valuable as they get larger.
Users will be able to fill out a Google Profile, which links to friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and other social networks.
Opt-in basis to mitigate privacy concerns

Opportunity or threat?
Allow interaction and engagement between business and customers
Allow customers to engage with each other
Customers now more likely to take recommendations from a stranger than one directly from the supplier
Companies can no longer control the content of their message, but can influence the dialogue to some extent
http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/social-media-business/ (4 ways in which social media is changing business)

The 1:9:90 rule (Neilsen, 2006)
1% are content CREATORS (aka make a lot of noise)
9% will COMMENT (aka make some noise)
90% will CONSUME (aka say nothing, but presumably still obtain value)

Business Networking Trends Survey (UK)
80% of UK entrepreneurs had achieved business wins through social networking sites
LinkedIn was preferred to FB for business networking
92% said that they would recommend networking professionally online to their business contacts
24% of small businesses are now using sites like Twitter for business networking.
More traditional face-to-face networking continues to grow with 36% regularly attending networking meetings.
50% plan to maintain the same levels of F2F networking in 2010, 55% plan to increase the time they networking online.
Source: http://www.b2bm.biz/News/SOCIAL-MEDIA-NEWS-SMEs-shy-away-from-Facebook/ (Jan 2010)

SME use of social media: USA
Facebook ranked as the most beneficial social network for small businesses, followed by LinkedIn and Twitter (Ad-ology survey, US, 11/09)
Benefits of social networking were:
ability to generate leads
keep up with their industry
monitor the online conversation about their business

Blogs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI
As of December 2009, blog search engine www.technorati.com was tracking more than 194 million blogs.
Blogs are online diaries usually maintained by an individual or company with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, graphics or video.
Top 100 marketing blogs: http://veryofficialblog.com/2008/10/18/clearing-a-path-for-newbies-in-the-social-media-echo-chamber/
New verb: ‘to blog’

English Cut Thanks to his blog, London Tailor Thomas Mahon is one of the most well publicised tailors in Savile Row. The blog is full of talk about how suits are made and marketed. Mahon is offering his wisdom on his industry and publicly talks about the secrets of his trade.

Admitting mistakes...
http://socialnomics.net/2009/11/12/social-media-roi-examples-video/
The comments on the Socialnomics blogpost which includes the above video are very revealing. The author, Erik Qualmann, produced an earlier video which had many inaccuracies and he was heavily criticised. He has therefore changed his approach and the new video is excellent. One of the biggest critics has commented on this blog post stating that he has now been converted to a supporter because his feedback was responded to in a positive manner.

General Motors GM is using a blog as an instant publishing and marketing channel that bypasses mainstream media. It is a way to put their own version of the story out there and to get feedback. They have opened a window into their world.

Gary Vaynerchuk
http://garyvaynerchuk.com/2008/07/01/the-personal-brand-gold-rush-is-going-on-where-are-you/
Gary’s Internet celebrity can be attributed to his pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business building.
Over 6 years, Gary and his father Sasha rebranded the family business as Wine Library and transformed it from a local store doing $4 million in annual sales to a $50 million national industry leader.
In 2006, Gary launched Wine Library TV (WLTV), a free daily video blog in which Gary tastes and reviews wines in a creative way.
In 2008, Gary became increasingly known throughout the Web 2.0 community through F2F conference speeches and his hyperactive online networking.
Gary’s rationale is that with the proper utilisation of social media, brand building is simply a matter of passion, effort, and time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNM9kA1bSHk (CNN interview, 10 mins)

The power of video

Exercise 1
What lessons can we learn from Gary Vaynerchuk’s example?
What do you think might be the challenges in using a ‘personality’ like Gary to promote a business?

Twitter

Twitter
Twitter users are early adopters of web technologies
They are well educated, influential and earn high salaries
They are receptive to advertising and are likely to talk about products to ‘spread the word’

Rapid Growth
High profile real time coverage of major events, eg Mumbai attacks, Hudson river plane crash, #uksnow
Celebrity endorsement (@wossy, @stephenfry, @barackobama…)
User controls who and how many people to follow
Now 4 th most popular social network in UK, and 21 st in full website list (Hitwise)
Recent F2F ‘Twestivals’ in major world cities raised over $1M for charity

Exponential growth…

Example: Bletchley Park
World War 2 code-breaking centre outside Milton Keynes, Station X
Shortened WW2 by two years, foundations of computer industry
Very dilapidated: campaign organised by Dr Sue Black, U of Westminster
So far just under a million pounds has been donated to restoration work by the likes of Microsoft, IBM, and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
@bletchleypark has acquired over 1,000 followers, but its influence has spread far wider, informing a tech-savvy crowd about developments at the site and is used as a way of organising visits.
"We wouldn't have won without social media," Dr Black told me, "this kind of campaign wouldn't have been possible a few years back. It's power to the people."
Importance of #bpark

Practical examples
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o (Twitter in Plain English)
Suggested examples to follow:
www.twitter.com/delloutlet
www.twitter.com/gmblogs
www.twitter.com/barackobama
www.twitter.com/gartner_inc
www.twitter.com/davechaffey
www.twitter.com/bbcnews
www.twitter.com/johncleese
www.twitter.com/tubeupdates
www.twitter.com/lisaharris

The Scope of Twitter
Provide feedback . Become known as a reliable and informative source of help to your network
Get Feedback . Ask for advice and you’ll receive ‘collective intelligence’ from your network
Direct traffic . Include links in a tweet to direct traffic to your blog or to the recommended posts of others.
Read News . subscribe to feeds for specific websites/conferences, or from content providers such as the BBC.
Make New Friends . Twitter allows you to befriend and track the messages of other users.
Network for benefits . Interact with other like-minded people, or experts in your field. Develop relationships for future mutual benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.
Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on Twitter Search and then follow users.
Provide Live coverage . For example to provide real time coverage of conference keynotes
Set Up Meetings . An informal and casual way of arranging adhoc meetings.

‘ Givers gain’
Ask not what the community can do for you, but what you can do for the community…
The best long term way to build brand influence is to be seen as a ‘giver’ of good quality practical information and advice.
An authentic personal brand therefore delivers both a track record and a promise of the ongoing delivery of value.
How exactly will *you* deliver value??
Twitter guides can be linked from: http://www.twitip.com/personal-brand-how-to-build-yours-in-twitter
www.teachertrainingvideos.com has useful beginner guides to using Twitter (by @russell1955)

Exercise 2
What challenges might businesses face in making effective use of Twitter?

Live tweeting
It is increasingly common at events for the audience to tweet and for remote attendees to contribute aswell, using a common event hashtag (#) so that messages can be aggregated and found collectively by searchers for that term. If you do a search on twitter for #leweb, for example, you can see what was tweeted at and after the event about the various speakers and the good/bad points of their talk (this is called the 'backchannel'). Often these comments will be displayed as they are posted in real time, in the room while the presenter is speaking. 1. check out http://www.ustream.tv/channel/le-web-main-stage which was a major Web conference held in France recently. You can still view the videos of the presentations (Tony Hsieh of Zappos is there, also Gary Vaynerchuk, and others you may find interesting, including Facebook) and alongside is the twitterstream of comments made on the day (and since, by people visiting the site and viewing the videos) 2. check out http://mashable.com/2010/03/01/twitter-classroom/ which describes (with a short video) how twitter is helping students to engage in the classroom. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of live tweeting, for both the presenters and the audience?

Facebook

Facebook
23 million UK users as of January 2010.
To find local users, click the ‘advertising’ button. You can ask FB how many people are registered within a 10 mile radius of a town. The figure will be far higher than local newspaper circulation.
Pull in RSS feeds from your blog or twitter account
Post video and photos
Set up a Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=3120520301&ref=search&sid=581338827.4171081781..1
Or a Fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/TheIntelligentGarden?v=wall&ref=ts

Brands on Facebook
Through the use of engagement marketing tactics such as…
Applications
social ads
brand groups
sponsored pages
sponsored applications
… brands have opened up communication channels with their customers on social networking platforms

Facebook for Business
Create special interest groups
Companies can sponsor groups (see Apple Students and Ernst and Young)
RSS feeds can pull in content from your blog or other online source
Facebook Flyers for promotion
Facebook Polls to get quick answers to questions. Target Facebook users based on gender, age, school, location, or profile keyword.
Profiles can be created for brands, bands, etc and people can sign up as ‘fans’ rather than ‘friends’

Why do brands use social media?
"It's really important that we are on Facebook. We’re at the early stages so it’s all about lesson learning and gaining those insights in the early days rather than waiting for it to become massive and then jumping in and not knowing what to do with it."
(Ted Hunt, Innocent Drinks)
"We are a public service funded by the licence fee, so our
mission is to get the content that we are making for our
audience, to as large a section of that audience as possible. So what we are doing by publishing content on Facebook and MySpace is taking the content to the audience where they choose to go."
(Sam Bailey, BBC Radio 1)

The brand executive viewpoint
The brand executives interviewed also see engaging with social network users as a great way to ‘crowd source’ and innovate a brand product or idea with consumers.
By giving up control, a brand is seen to display trust toward the users. This trust is a powerful brand value which forms the basis of loyalty.
Any brand that offers value can tap into social network sites to create niche communities that users will want to self-identify with
“ Social network marketing, engagement marketing and brands” © Tom Chapman 2008

Dealing with negativity
"Brands should definitely take into consideration that users at
any time can turn on a brand; this is why they need to engage
with them honestly." (James Kirkham, Holler)
"There’s not a lot you can do with negative comments. I think
you’ve just got to let people get it out of their system and just
treat everyone else with the intelligence that they will be able to
make their own decisions from the comments." (Ted Hunt,
Innocent Drinks)
"In the case of our client brands you do get the occasional
negative comment that gets posted up on pages we have
created, but what you will see is that other users will actually
attack that minority of negative users so they protect the brand
like an army of ants." Matt Bamford-Bowes, MediaCom

The user viewpoint
56% would pass on an application or widget to their friends
49% would encourage friends to add a brand to their profile.
Little support for e-commerce functionality and purchase intent on the platforms, which actually serves to irritate rather than stimulate engagement with a brand.
Strong disagreement with the public display of a user’s purchase to their network, which destroys trust and loyalty between brands and users (see FB Beacon example).
Consumer conversation was the most significant contributor to brand value creation - the level of intimacy would increase if the brand listened and responded to opinions
“ Social network marketing, engagement marketing and brands” © Tom Chapman 2008

LinkedIn
30 million members worldwide
How does it work? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzT3JVUGUzM
Recent addition of partner applications such as Slideshare and Wordpress add significant value, see www.linkedin.com/in/lisajaneharris
http://grads.linkedin.com/ (see video)

LinkedIn
Recent timely increase in functionality through partnerships with companies offering Web 2.0 based services:
Work collaboratively by sharing files with your network through private workspaces (Huddle)
Share information and keep up to date – eg what you are reading through the Amazon application and where you are travelling through TripIt.
the Google Docs application allows presentations to be embedded on a profile
SlideShare allows sharing and commenting on presentations within a network
WordPress allows a blog to be showcased.
Company Buzz allows conversations about a prospective employer to be monitored.
By actively updating a LinkedIn profile, the likelihood that people will see that profile displayed when they are searching for someone to hire is increased (Google Juice)
In order to progress job applications to interview stage, a ‘complete’ LinkedIn profile is now a prerequisite for many recruiters, meaning:
a minimum of three testimonials from past employers,
full employment details, affiliations and educational background.

Ellis Pratt – CherryLeaf
Technical communication company based in Brighton, Heathrow and Thame
Expertise in single sourcing (reusing content) and online Help.
www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm
www.twitter.com/ellispratt (150 followers)
Over 500 connections on LinkedIn

Social Media in the Enterprise

Examples of companies that are doing it...
www.microsoft.com (corporate site)
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com (community site)
www.avg.com (corporate site)
http://blogs.avg.com (community site)
www.zappos.com (now owned by Amazon)

Benefits of social media
IBM is using social media (especially Facebook) to connect employees globally and are foster mass collaboration.
The result is improved communication, cross-functional collaboration and creative approaches to problem solving.
It’s not just about implementing a new set of tools — it is embracing a cultural shift to create an open environment where employees are encouraged to share, innovate and collaborate virtually.

Blogging Policies: BBC
‘ Blog Smart’ – Make it clear that the views expressed in the blog are yours alone and do not necessarily represent the views of your employer.
Respect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information.
Ask your manager if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your blog.
Understand when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal compliance reasons.
Ensure that your blogging activity does not interfere with your work commitments.

Do’s and Don’ts
Develop a plan with reasonable timescales and measurable objectives
‘ Lurk’ before you leap
Don’t expect to ‘build it and they will come.’
Cross promote the business website with pages set up on social media sites, and with offline materials
Don’t treat social media as a one-way communication channel – engage!

Exercise 1
Based on what we have discussed so far, summarise the benefits and challenges posed by social networking to large companies

The “uber-connected workplace” (HBR)
Access to social media improves productivity. According to Dr Brent Coker from University of Melbourne, workers "who engage in “workplace internet leisure browsing" are more productive than those who don't
Millennials will seek jobs that encourage the use of social media. Accenture survey of Millennial preferences for various technologies at work found that they prefer to communicate via IM, text, Facebook and RSS feeds. AND they are prepared to bypass corporate IT departments if these tools are blocked.
Companies that provide access to social media create a more engaged workforce. Cerner Corporation , the health IT firm, implemented uCern, a bespoke social network for employees, customers and suppliers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyHNail9xuM
allowing employees to have increased access to experts across the globe
reducing the cycle time from discovery of new products to launch of new products
increasing employee engagement and satisfaction in the workplace
incorporating real time feedback from stakeholders on NPD and customer service quality

Questions to ask (HBR)
What business problems are you trying to solve? How important is it to access knowledge and experts quickly? Will engaged employees reduce your turnover rate and subsequent expenses related to hiring new talent?
Who needs to be involved in the coalition? This is not an HR, IT or Learning initiative. Bring together Human Resources, Corporate Learning, IT, Legal and Corporate Communications. These are the ones who will plan, monitor and agree to a set of social media guidelines to ensure responsible use.
What type of change management plan needs to be put into place? Recognise that the biggest hurdle is your culture and internal processes — not the technology behind the adoption of social media. Focus on finding ambassadors and influencers, then make it easy for them to share and participate in a social media pilot.

Why might businesses resist social media ?
Businesses are often tied into complex and bespoke IT systems and traditional organisational structures.
Management permission is required for IT changes. This may disrupt the existing complex environment
There are concerns about how the data on a social network will be used, and fears that trade secrets might be given away, so creativity is limited by “walled garden” IT policies
Mindset is still about broadcast rather than conversation
Change is regarded as threatening and disruptive. Unwilling to change the status quo, on the basis that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”
Banning access to social networks puts their marketers are at an increasing DISADVANTAGE

Forrester survey of US workforce technology adoption, Autumn 2009
Top 4 applications: email, word processing, web browser, spreadsheets
Collaboration tools are critical for virtual teams, but not widely adopted. Only 25% of iworkers use Web conferencing, leaving email with 87% adoption as the default collaboration tool
33% use laptops, 76% desktops, 25% share a desktop

Summary: applications of social media for business
Engaging with customer fan base
Resolving customer service issues
Effective, real time internal communications across the enterprise and hierarchies
Tracking trends and testing the “zeitgeist”
Crowdsourcing of new product development or market research
Networking to source expertise or business partners
Improves search engine visibility

Challenges
Time consuming activity to respond to comments and keep content fresh and updated
Legal minefield, privacy concerns
Lack of control vs. over-moderation
Sourcing relevant “voice”/blogger
Hard to measure ROI
Need to master a new style of communicating
Creates an expectation that you will post regularly
Puts the company “out there”. The content will be thoroughly scrutinised by the media
Benefits may come from unexpected uses other than what was intended

Early adopter research by McKinsey
Survey of 50 ‘early adopter’ executives
Level of investment in web 2.0 expected to grow by 15% annually for next 5 years
The research identified issues with:
Restrictive organisational structures
Resistance to change
Inappropriate use of social media (eg for one way communications)
Lack of support from senior managers to ‘scale up’ creative ideas from workers

McKinsey’s recommendations to address the challenges…
Senior executives should become role models and lead by example
Don’t dictate exactly how employees can/can’t use the tools
Encourage take up by appealing to participants’ ego and desire for recognition
Incentivise ‘early adopter’ employees with rich personal networks to encourage others to follow their example
Balance the top down and self management of risk (many communities are effective at self-policing)

Exercise 2
What have you learned from these two sessions that is new and different?
What are you going to go away and try for yourselves?

Gartner predicts...
By 2014, social networking services will replace email as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20% of business users. C ompanies will be building internal social networks and/or allowing business use of personal social network accounts. Social networking will prove to be more effective than email for business activities such as status updates and expertise location
By 2012, over 50% of enterprises will use activity streams that include microblogging . “ Standalone” enterprise copycat systems will not catch on , as they cannot replicate the scale of Twitter
In the next 3 years, over 70% of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail, and 50% of business-led social media initiatives will succeed
Within 5 years, 70 % of applications designed on PCs will be modeled after user experience lessons from smartphone collaboration applications. For some parts of the world, these will be the first or the only applications they use
Within 5 years, only 25% of enterprises will routinely utilise social network analysis to improve performance and productivity. Users may resent knowing that software is analysing their behaviour. So social network analysis will remain an untapped source of insight in most organisations.

Impact of social media on business
Web 2.0 and social networks drive down the cost of communication , digital conversations happen faster and less expensively. In 2009, consumer adoption reached critical mass so enterprises are following.
Pervasive Web 2.0 also means re-examination or disruption of most areas of life - society, government and business because social networks alter how many and what kind of relationships people have.
Large organisations will remain in turmoil because they were not built with withstand the volatility these forces are unleashing. Entire industries will consolidate (automotive, airlines, banking, hotels, consumer goods…)
Web communications mean we consume novelty far more quickly , Companies will require unprecedented innovation to even stay in place. New entrants around the world compete for customers and leverage their lower costs and better innovation processes

Background Reading
Bhargava, R. (2008) Personality not included: why companies lose their authenticity and how great brands get it back, McGraw-Hill Professional, New York
Li, C. and Bernhoff, J. (2008) Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies, Harvard Business, Boston.
Tapscott, D. (2008) Grown Up Digital: how the net generation is changing the world, Mcgraw-Hill, New York
Schawbel, D. Personal Branding Blog, http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com
Schawbel, D. (2009) “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success”
Qualmann, E. (2009) “Socialnomics: How social media transforms our lives and the way we do business” Wiley Publishing

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Social Media for Business, MBA March 2010

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Social Media for Business, MBA March 2010 — Presentation Transcript