Social Media strategies for generating business growth and creating opportunities

The past few years have witnessed an increase in the usage of social media amongst organizations. Social media analytics plays an important role in analyzing the large amount of data generated on social media websites, company blogs and other such forums for helping organizations frame and fine tune business strategies. Social media is generally used by organizations to connect with their key stakeholders like the consumers of the company’s products and services, its employees, and its investors. 

Organizations are increasingly looking to social media as an important part of the overall organizational strategy. Social Media – whether it is via internal social media tools of an organization or the external social media tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are gradually gaining in prominence whether it is for the purposes of engaging with consumers, investors or employees. Effective social media strategies, just like other strategies - are those which are customized as per the needs of the particular organization and also by the nature of the industry the organization is operating in while also incorporating the cultural aspects. 

Many organizations, in spite of the apparent benefits of social media strategies find it extremely difficult to set course on their social media adoption journey due to the lack of an appropriate social media governance plan – which is essential for obtaining the maximum benefit out of social media.

A social media governance program essentially comprises both internal and external guidelines that can help an organization to govern the workforce’s use of social media in the first place. From an internal perspective, social media guidelines need to define the social media use both within and outside an organization’s networks. On the other hand, external guidelines, govern how an organization connects with the external stakeholders- that is, how the social media usage by an organization is managed for marketing and communication purposes across all sponsored social media channels like internal company blogs, external Facebook and twitter accounts that an organization uses to connect with its consumers and investors. Social media also plays an important role in talent management, with many organizations using social media for recruitment purposes.

In addition to formulating an appropriate and relevant social media strategy, businesses must also be aware of the potential risks.  Social networks allow digital consumers to be in control as they post information — both factual materials as well as their opinions. Organizations need to take into account these risks in their overall social media strategy for managing the associated risks with increased social media adoption better.

In this context, it is very pertinent for organizations to have social media audits in place, as these audits help the organizations check for compliance with their respective social media policies, which makes it very essential to have social media monitoring tools in place. Social monitoring and analytics, social mining, social network analysis are important tools for the purposes of listening and measuring, that is, monitoring social media.

The key target segment of these social media strategies, according to the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, were people in the age group of 20-29 years as the people in this age group spent more time compared with other age groups using social media marketing, with 43% spending 11+hours weekly, which was an increase from 41% in 2011, followed by 30-39 year olds (35% spending 11+ hours per week, representing a decline from 37% in 2011).  This highlights that the age distribution of social media marketing usage is an important indicator to businesses and product marketers of the success of their social media strategies.

Increasing exposure and increasing traffic are cited as the top two benefits from social media marketing. A significant 85% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses. Increasing traffic was the second major benefit, with 69% reporting positive.

Nearly two-thirds of marketers are using social media to gain marketplace intelligence (65%). Tied for fourth place, 58% of marketers indicated generating leads and developing loyal fans were benefits of social media.

According to Gartner analyst reports, the Social Media Market has grown to $7.25bn as of 2012, and Forrester also estimated that Social media spending is forecast to increase from $ 1.59 billion in 2011 to nearly $5 billion ($ 4.995 billion) in 2016, representing a CAGR of 26% over this period.

In terms of the priorities of the social media marketers with respect to the social media adoption, the top 10 questions that they want answered can best be summarized in the following keywords: measure, target, engage, sell, time, strategy, tactics, tools, use and selection. These are important for them to successfully grow their business by using social media.

With the associated increased spending on social media by organizations for business growth and creating opportunities, the social media analytics by leading firms (Big Four and some of the leading technology companies) reveal that each of the companies analysed for their social media investments had a customized social media strategy in place.

The increased adoption of social media by organizations and aligning the social media strategies to the overall business strategy of an organization is the way forward to effectively harness the growing power of social media. Organizations need to effectively use the customized social media tools- both internal and external for ensuring business growth and creating new opportunities in the future.

Book Review - The New Digital Age

This book discusses how evolving technologies will affect human lives by considering the different ways by which technology is affecting or will affect various aspects of human life in the future. It describes how our information needs are increasing at a rapid pace and continuously evolving time, and how increasingly technology usage in this new digital age is helping us cope with these increased demands placed on us.

This book considers the after effects of technology on human lives from both positive as well as negative aspects in its attempts to provide a holistic viewpoint of the future of technology.

Technologies like 3D printing are increasingly making it easier for product companies to design better products at a faster rate and helping in cut costs in product development. 3D printing has thus enabled complex products to be designed and made within smaller budgets.

The book also highlights that the use of intelligent sensor technology is on the rise and how the use of technology will enable concepts like ‘Smart Cities’ to become a reality which not only boost energy self-sufficiency but also utilize green technologies like solar power for their sustenance.

Different aspects of how technology is affecting governance, infrastructure building, construction, spread of education and monitoring of government welfare programs by helping monitor the progress of government policies in reaching the poor. This book also discusses how technology can help in reconstruction efforts and disaster management. Particular case is provided of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan which robots were made to venture inside the damaged nuclear reactor to assess the scale of the damage caused and help the Japanese government prepare for appropriate measures.

In the new digital age, technology is helping strengthen the defense of the country by strengthening the armed forces and security agencies to deal with external threats (dealing with invading countries, spies and terrorists) and internal threats (hackers, destabilizing forces) which are increasingly utilizing technology themselves to spread panic and terror. This interplay of positive and negative usage of technology is leading to more stringent monitoring at the organization, national and international levels and cases being made for increasing cyber security laws.

Furthermore, this book also highlighted the role of technology and social media in relation to the ‘Arab Spring’ in channelizing pro-democracy movements across the Arab world in 2010-11. It also discusses how certain countries like North Korea and China are using technology to impose censorship on the public while also describing ways by which the public is attempting to escape from censorship policies.

In conclusion, I found this book to be a good and very informative read, however at many places I found the assumptions to be too far-fetched and extremely theoretical in nature considering the realities of the developing world. Often at many places, I found the assumptions and reliance on technology was emphasized by the authors as too simplistic and too removed from the realities of the developing world where let alone technology adoption, even the basic necessities of life are hard to come by for large sections of the population. 

Much as we may like technology and its positive effects on human life, there are still a lot of things that technology won't be able to do, however advanced we may become as societies.

We don't need to become technology slaves, we need to utilize technology like the ancient man utilized fire to evolve further. We need to keep in mind that technology can, like fire, be a loyal servant but a bad master and hence we need to embrace the positive changes that technology brings in our life in the future while guarding against the potential ill effects. It is only then that we would be able to successfully tap the full benefits that new technologies in the new digital age have to offer us.

Social Media Analytics For Business Growth and opportunities

The following is the abstract from my recent whitepaper on social media analytics for business growth and opportunities:

"The past few years have witnessed an increase in the usage of social media amongst organizations. Social media analytics plays an important role in analyzing the large amount of data generated on social media websites, company blogs and other such forums for helping organizations frame and fine tune business strategies.

Social media is generally used by organizations to connect with their key stakeholders like the consumers of the company’s products and services, its employees, and its investors. 

Organizations connect with their consumers on social media to understand and analyze their opinion and feedback related to the company products and services and the various aspects of their pre-purchase and post-purchase buying experiences. Connecting with the consumers actively on social media is a very useful mechanism for understanding the consumer needs and pain points and also for understanding what the company is doing well. It also helps in addressing the gaps in organizational strategy by following and acting upon consumer feedback. Company discussion forums on social media websites and company blogs are very useful indicators of what is driving consumer loyalty and are useful tools for analyzing consumer needs. Social media analytics plays a crucial role in terms of tracking such consumer loyalty drivers. For example, key bloggers with specialized knowledge about a particular industry or company provide either a positive, neutral or a negative view of a particular company on their personal blogs or social networking sites or on company websites. An organization can track the views of these key “influencers” - who play a major role in encouraging consumers to purchase a particular product(s) or services or in dissuading them from doing so. These views – when tracked and analyzed– provide an important tool for helping organizations frame appropriate strategies to help improve the overall consumer experience and increase the business benefits as a result of an effective usage of social media analytics.

Organizations can also tap the various social media tools to streamline the “organizational chatter” from a company’s growth perspective. Having dedicated company blogs or discussion forums on the Internet or the company Intranet can help in this social media connect with the employees. The senior management can share the future vision and growth strategies of the organization for the benefit of the employees and also create a vast and meaningful knowledge repository which the various business units can tap into while formulating their respective strategies. This can be further synchronized with other business units of an organization and can lead to greater cohesion in implementing the organization wide business strategy. This is particularly useful for an organization which has offices spread across the globe. 

Furthermore, an organization can, at an external level connect with its investors by communicating its key policies and growth strategies using the various social media tools.

This research also aims to examine, using case studies as to how social media has been adopted by the “Big Four” companies and leading consulting firms and how the social media strategy of an organization is tied to its overall management strategy for its business growth." 

Are Ultrabooks the saviour of the PC industry?

Are Ultrabooks the saviour of the PC industry? It would seem so. Ultrabooks market segment offers a new ray of light for the PC manufacturers interested in attracting  new consumers. Of late, there is an increasing amount of activity taking place in the ultrabook market segment. An ultrabook is considered to be an evolution of the laptop rather than an entirely new form factor. Product strategists in the PC industry are preparing for 2012 to be the year of the “ultra book”.  Ultra books’ lighter, thinner form will appeal to many consumers.  Amongst the new ultrabooks in the market are the HP Envy 4, Dell XPS 13, Lenovo Ultrabook, as they try to compete with a Macbook Air like device, which is regarding by many consumers as an ideal device given needs for mobility, faster start up times and longer battery lives. However the price point and greater adoption of the ultrabooks remains a key challenge and opportunity for the PC manufacturers as they seek to make a device that appeals particularly the increasingly mobile consumer segment. The PC market has till now been missing a cool, yet functional device that can satisfy the needs of a mobile professional. At a price of around $900, it seems that the Ultrabook may provide the answer. The number of models in this high growth segment is expected to pick up from the 17 odd models at present to 75 by the end of the year, driving down prices to under $700, which should make these machines relatively affordable if the penetration is to be increased. More than one-fifth (21%) of  US online consumers already claim to be interested in owning an ultrabook, which is encouraging news for product strategists in the PC industry.  Ultrabooks represent the fastest growth segment of the global PC market. The global ultrabook shipments are forecast to increase to 29 million units in 2012, up from less than 1 million in their first year of shipments in 2011, justifying the faith the PC makers are increasingly placing in this market segment. By 2015, shipments will further rise to 136 million and will represent 43% of global notebook PC shipments, up from 2% over 2011 and 13% in 2012. Ultrabooks market dynamic is expected to witness transition in 2 years and till that time tablet PCs would continue to hold sway in the market. Tablets have not really been helpful to the PC makers like HP, Dell and Acer, and hence the interest of the PC makers in the Ultrabooks segment. As the data indicates, Ultrabooks are not really a technology fad devoid of any essence –i.e they are not a market gimmick to woo consumers, which is the initial target market for ultrabooks. However, PC makers also are likely to target ultrabooks at the corporate users.  Ultrabooks could lead to a paradigm shift in the computing industry, leading to a convergence of major mobile devices. However, the major challenge facing the adoption and growth of the ultrabooks market is a high starting price in a price sensitive market. Intel, which is driving ultrabook adoption, predicts prices to decline to $699 by end 2012, but recessionary conditions may still deter consumers from buying in volume at that price. Price point is a challenge especially for the US and the European buyers.  Although PC shipments are growing in emerging markets, but buyers in China and India tend to buy low-margin products and could skip ultrabooks. The coming days will determine the state of the ultrabooks market and how well it is adopted by the consumers in reality, the signs are bright given their dramatic adoption within just two years of being launched as an evolved form of the ubiquitous laptop.