Social Media Whitepaper

The numbers present a persuasive argument.

500 million active Facebook users.* 100 million LinkedIn members.* Every day 95 million tweets are posted to Twitter and 2 billion videos are watched on YouTube.* Significant numbers of people are congregating in online social media communities every day, chiselling their thoughts and opinions onto the new stone tablets of the Internet age.

And they are doing so increasingly, shunning the traditional mass media channels pioneered by Guttenberg, Marconi and Bell. People now prefer to look to the Internet for user generated content for (what is perceived to be) “authentic” unbiased opinions on the products and services they have purchased and used. Many of these people are your customers and this is good for your business.

When given the access to voice an opinion, share an idea or directly influence product quality, your customers are going to feel more connected and subsequently become loyal lifelong brand champions. Your organisation in turn has a chance to engage in thought leadership and the priceless opportunity to build authority and reputation, ultimately driving more traffic to your website, resulting in more business.

Organisations then, must rethink the relationships they share with customers and become more than carnival spruikers shouting about their products and services from behind the relative safety of the corporate fortress walls. Smart organisations embrace their customers like long lost friends, embracing the feedback gathered by engaging in social media and pouring it directly into the foundation of product plans. Business leaders must garner an understanding of this feedback and apply the principles of social business and social thinking to their operations to help them compete in this new paradigm.

Teenagers in the 21st century have grown up with computers, the internet and social media as part of their daily lives. They communicate on Facebook etc. and will expect the same from organisations they deal with. You can choose to fight progress, but you are better off getting on the bandwagon and developing an effective social media strategy. However…

Trying to nail down social media is a bit like trying to herd cats. Every day there are new developments in the way social media is being used to open communication channels for people to connect. You can take a snapshot but fairly quickly it will be a completely different picture.

How then, do you stay ahead of the game?

By utilising technology that can grow and adapt to your changing needs. Technology that is based on open standards and a robust development platform that can integrate today’s technologies and adapt for tomorrow’s.

This white paper provides food for thought for developing an effective social media strategy including the different types of social media and ideas on how to integrate social media into a web site.

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