The document discusses opportunities for Northwestern Technologies to use social media for marketing and communication. It provides an overview of the current social media landscape in the IT industry, where social media is widely used by companies for customer service, collaboration, and productivity. The document outlines several benefits for Northwestern Technologies, such as improving customer service, establishing themselves as experts in their industry, and improving search engine optimization. It concludes that social media allows for ongoing engagement with customers and failing to adopt an effective social media strategy would miss a major opportunity.
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1. Created for Northwestern Technologies
Introduction
Social Media in the Corporate World
Current Social Media Landscape In the IT Industry
Opportunities and Benefits for Northwestern Technologies
Conclusion
2. Social media marketing is a developing field, and the standards for success are
still being measured and fine tuned.
Social media thrives because people enjoy talking to each other. The loyalty of
current customers may convince them to market a brand indirectly by telling
friends and family about a product or service.
The “social” component of social media has been part of human interactions since
the dawn of time. People are inherently social creatures to some extent. Initially,
social interactions were limited to in-person meetings, then mail and letters, then
telephones, then email.
What has changed is the media by which people are able to express social
impulses. As technology has advanced, so have the media available for social
behavior.
Created for Northwestern Technologies
Introduction
3. Businesses that engage in the conversation are more likely to gain
recommendations on social sites because they are at the front of people’s minds. In
addition, following the 80-20 rule, it can be assumed that 80% of a company’s
business will come from 20% of its customers.
“social media,”
The underlying premise of social media—that people are social and want to
connect with other people—has been stable over time. The difference is that
people are now able to connect with each other in a more efficient and scalable
way providing new and attractive means for people to interact.
Social networks are becoming diverse, with users spanning all age and income
brackets. This diversity means that businesses willing to take a look, can find
their target consumers on social media sites.
.
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Introduction
4. The impact on business. According to ComScore, there are almost 25 billion
online searches each month. Regardless what industry, people are searching for
information about products and brand reputation to help guide their purchase.
Search is the number one resource used when looking for information about a
product online,
Social media marketing is not really new. It is based on social, behavioral, and
economic concepts that have been around for many years, but new technology
and media are changing the role those concepts play in modern marketing efforts.
The newest aspect of social media is the technology which enables open and
transparent online conversations.
.
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Social Media in the Corporate World
5. Companies around the globe are embracing and adapting social media for many different
intentions: customer service, marketing, internal communications, public relations or
corporate social responsibility, etc.
It is now a reality that social media is changing the way stakeholders and companies
communicate daily, providing opportunities for collaboration and participation, interactivity,
and engagement.
Therefore, social media is conceived today in the corporate world as a strategic
communication partner, driving new and unique possibilities for organizations to engage
stakeholders in conversations.
We are witnesses of a new digital era where consumers are becoming active users rather than
passive individuals, changing dramatically how society operates.
social media is a strategic tool for corporate communication that can enhance stakeholder
participation and engagement. (Vasquez, 2011)
.
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Social Media in the Corporate World
6. The latest end-user data from Frost & Sullivan. In our most recent survey of 200
C-level executives in North America, we asked about their current usage and near-
term plans for enterprise communications, including enterprise social software.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents told us they are aware of social media, placing it
ahead of telepresence, VoIP, shared team spaces, soft phones, and even unified
communications and unified messaging.
Almost half of the respondents say social media is used within the organization,
and 41 percent use the technology personally.
Among executives who report social software in use within their company, 67
percent say it is used extensively at all levels of the organization, and another 26
percent say it is used mainly by senior management.(Turek, 2011)
.
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Current Social Media Landscape In the IT Industry
7. Of those executives who personally use social media tools, 51 percent do so daily.
Respondents were very clear on why social media is valuable. First up: "improving
customer service," which 24 percent of CXOs listed as the top reason for using the
technology.
That's followed by "improving collaboration and productivity across
geographically dispersed teams" (20 percent) and "enhancing employee mobility"
(10 percent).
Of those who intend to expand their use of enterprise social software, the vast
majority expect it to improve customer service; others hope it will accelerate
decision making and support corporate environmental goals.
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Current Social Media Landscape In the IT Industry
8. So what are the key IT trends of the next half decade?
Editor-in-Chief of CIO Magazine, Maryfran Johnson dubbed the "Big Five", the
biggest technology influences of the next half decade.
This includes next-gen mobility, social media (or more specifically social
business), cloud computing, consumerization and big data.
Those five are at top of the list for what organizations need to be planning in their
current strategies and roadmaps as they update and modernize, as well as
(hopefully) out-innovate their competitors.
Social media is now a growing component of enterprise communication and
collaboration, According to the 2009 CMO Survey, currently “marketers spend 3.5
percent of their budget on social media, but that number is expected to grow to 6.1
percent over the next 12 months and 13.7 percent in the next five years.
Created for Northwestern Technologies
Current Social Media Landscape In the IT Industry
9. People increasingly link to a company’s website and social media properties
Search engines tend to favor the sites with the greatest number of inbound links
from well-respected sites by ranking them higher in search results.
Studies show that approximately 90% of traffic to a website comes via search
engines and that search engines handle “more than half of all the E-commerce
transactions. “by providing product information for complex purchases, especially
in the business-to-business (B2B) space, a company can establish itself as a
valuable contributor to a sizeable community. In fact “81 percent of the B2B
companies using social media maintain a presence on social media sites, versus
67 percent of the B2C companies surveyed [by eMarketer].”
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Opportunities and Benefits for Northwestern Technologies
10. Many companies have trouble determining if social media marketing is right
for their specific industry or business.
Although business-to-consumer (B2C) online sales continue to grow rapidly,
business-to-business (B2B) transactions are increasingly moving online; some
CEOs and sales experts think that the majority of B2B transactions may
eventually be done over the Internet.
It is a common misconception that B2B firms can benefit little from social
media marketing. However, B2B firms, like B2C companies, are made up of
people who use social media. Hence, social media marketing is just as
relevant to them as to B2C firms.
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Opportunities and Benefits for Northwestern Technologies
11. There is no conclusion. Social Media does not have an end date. It is an ongoing
conversation between the advertiser and the customer.”
Social media involves “two-way communication to an audience that is interested
in your brand.
There is no deadline with Social Media business. It is an ongoing process of
customer service and relationships and leads to improved customer satisfaction.
Failing to take advantage of the enormous possibilities that social media has for to
offer NW Technologies would be missing a great opportunity to start a one on one
relationship with your customers.
We help companies of all sizes to develop and implement a strategies to become a
company that has adopted social media intelligently and effectively, in a way that
does not compromise the company's primary obligations as a corporation.
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Conclusion
12. While the conversational and engagement values of social media are well
understood, many social media theorists often overlook the realities faced by the
large corporation, like accountability to shareholders and regulators, and how
these factors cannot be overlooked in corporate social media adoption.
Using case studies and analysis of available social media tools, and proven
corporate social media strategies, we can help corporate communicators
understand the new communications landscape, the power of social media, and
how to adopt it intelligently in a corporate environment.
Appropriate strategies can be designed to achieve these goals. As such, the process
of setting goals and determining strategies is crucial for success in the field of
social media marketing.
Thank you for your Time and let BrandBuilders help you with your future social
media campaigns.
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Conclusion
13. Social Media as a strategic tool for Corporate Communication. Lina Margarita
Gomez Vasquez, 2011
http://www.academia.edu/1201760/Social_media_as_a_strategic_tool_for_corpora
te_communication
Justifying the Cost of Social Media in the Enterprise
http://www.nojitter.com/blog/229219010
Melanie Turek February 21, 2011
http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-big-five-it-trends-of-the-next-half-decade-
mobile-social-cloud-consumerization-and-big-data
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References