Alright everyone,
Now it is without question that social media is taking over the world. There is Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Soundcloud, blah blah blah... The list goes on and on. With it being such a growing trend, it has now come time for companies to hop on board the bandwagon. Some companies see these social media sites as a problem in the workplace because people waste time snooping around on their page when they should be working, but other companies have began to embrace these sites and use them for their personal benefit. They have began to monitor what their customers are saying about them on their social media site of choice, and making changes to better accommodate the requests. If a company can integrate social media successfully into the workplace, more times than not they are going to gain some success from it. I recently saw a video giving basic, step by step, directions on how a company can benefit from integrating social media. It gave an example of a chair company who began to release defective chairs and ultimately losing business. They began to notice complaints on customers social media sites and soon realized that the best way to fix the problem was to look at these complaints and use the criticism in a more constructive way. Soon after understanding that social media was the way to go, they began to notice better success rates for their company. It goes to show that social media is the new "way to go" when running a successful business. Take a look at the video. Let me know what you think. With so many people our age wanting to be their own boss and open up shop, how detrimental do you think understanding social media is now to running a successful business?http://www.commoncraft.com/video/social-media-and-workplace
Good thoughts and definitely a pressing issue that needs clarity in todays work place. I think that a distinction needs to be made between which people in the office should be allowed and even asked to use social media. I don't necessarily think that everyone should be allowed to use it, i wouldn't want my accountants spending countless hours on facebook, but i do think that if the right people are allowed to use it such as your PR portion of the company then it can take the corp. to the next level.
ReplyDeleteI think the social media that you talked might be a good way to maintain a good customer relationship management. Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook could be a good platform for companies to communicate with consumers. Some companies disagree with it but companies who embrace changes could be the real winner in current business markets cause more and more people are using social networks as their hobbies.
ReplyDeleteTo me it seems as though you would never NEED to use social networking sites while on the job unless your job specifically entails doing just that in order to help the company, as Nick and Gary have stated. These instances would be for employees that actually run the sites themselves or help to regulate traffic within them, by responding to comments/questions, handling PR issues, etc.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question on how important it is to navigate social media for success in business; I think it is imperative that businesses have at LEAST a basic understanding of social media concepts. With the rise of smartphones, social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook, and applications like Foursquare and Twitter, the need for a company to use or at least be aware of social media is extremely important. I stated in my first blog that companies risk being left behind, especially if their competitors choose to follow the social media route in order to connect with customers more. The thing with social media is it engages the customer and helps the customer and business have a 2-way conversation, instead of a business just talking at a customer with no feedback.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting concept. I work at Home Depot, where an employee and a manager can;t be friends on social media sites (hence why i don't have connections with them on linkedin). but i often research some of our products when i cant answe a question for a customer and i run across so many misunderstandings. i often want to create accounts on every page i read so i can explain things to people. (like some people think you are supposed to glue down a floating floor... then they void their warranty and don't know why. so they complain about that and others do the same thing they did and then complain about it.) just a silly example. but when i read things like this i want to take it upon myself to correct their knowledge of the product.
ReplyDeletewith the new facebook upgrades, we can group people into categories, why can't the people in my work category find comments about us and address them? i don't know. interesting to think about, though.