Social Change: Social Media's role in Business

Editor's Notes

1. How many people use Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter? How many have blogged? How many have a company intranet? How many have participated by posting a blog, commenting on a discussion forum, or contributing content in some way?I’m not a guru, ninja, Lean Six, anything! I’m a believer in the power and potential of social media, but I am not a zealot. I realize that social media is a tool, neither more nor less. It is a tool and it can be used for good or bad, and it can be effective and ineffective.But make no mistake, social media is a revolution in the way we communicate. We are often more familiar with someone across the country than we are with our own neighbor. This new type of communication has massive implications:Improve internal collaborationMarket a productServe customers betterCrowd source solutions to vexing problemsCollaborate across cubicles or the world
2. Social media as an online conversation. The key word is conversation – that means two-way communication. Wikipedia – who has heard of crowdsourcing? Anyone know what it is? Wikipedia is crowd sourcing – if it were a book it would have more than 22 million pages and take you 123 years to read – oh, and studies prove it’s more accurate than the Encyclopedia Britannica!To understand social media better, let’s discuss the differences between social media and traditional media.
3. The conversation is going on with or without you. You can choose to engage, inform and participate, or you can choose to ignore large sections of the American public.In addition, in the public health space there is a LOT of misinformation on the web; you can be part of the solution, providing valuable, factual information and helping people or not – but they’re going to search for the information one way or the other!
4. Social media is an online conversation. It is engagement and it can be between two people within an organization, two people who are passionate about the same thing, or two people who have absolutely nothing in common – except their use of social media.It’s power is in its potential to engage and inspire people.
5. Each of these channels has specific strengths and weaknesses. You have to not only understand how social media could potentially benefit your business – you have to know what channel is right for you, what resources you’ll need and most importantly what channels your target audience is using.We’ll discuss these the components of a successful social media strategy in a little while, but first some numbers to help you understand the size and scope of social media.
6. We are changing the way we interact with each other as well as locating information, developing opinions, making decisions, and ultimately changing behaviors. There are approximately 311 million Americans living in USA.An estimated 232 million of them are Internet users.
7. Here is a recap of some of the most important statistics that you just watched:Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in USAYouTube, which is owned by Google, is the second largest search engine in the world. The #1 search engine is of course Google itself. If Facebook was a country – it would be the 3rd largest country by population with approximately 800+ million users (after China and India who’s population is in the billions) 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations such as Yelp versus 14% who trust advertisement93% of marketers use social media for business purposeshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0EnhXn5boM
8. Smartphone users spend about 18 hours per month using their mobile apps and browsing the mobile web.
9. Google projects that mobile internet usage will exceed desktop in a few short years – possibly as soon as 2014.
10. Men are more likely than women to turn to Facebook and other social networks for healthcare purposes.Overall, nearly a third of respondents, and 50 percent of those under the age of 35, had used social media for healthcare purposes, which can range from registering a complaint to looking up informational videos on YouTube.
11. As you can tell with these statistics, it is becoming more prevalent for adults to research health related information on the Internet. Social networking is especially important because adults are now using these sites to get health information, follow their friends’ personal health experiences via blogs and online groups. Additionally, some of these adults are even raising awareness or money for a health-related issue or cause. Since there is so much misinformation on the web, it is important for you to engage with the public through your website and social media to provide accurate health information. Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2011/PIP_Social_Life_of_Health_Info.pdf
12. YouTube is another social media avenue being used to spread the word about breast cancer awareness. In November 2009, a video called “Pink Glove Dance” was created with more than 200 hospital employees of a local medical center in Portland, Oregon dancing to a fun pop song and spreading breast cancer awareness. They were a YouTube success, with 13.4 million views to date. Since the “Pink Glove Dance” video was such an online sensation, Medline, the company that makes the pink gloves and produced the video, decided to make a sequel. The 2010 sequel video reached 450,000+ viewers. In 2011, Medline decided to host an online nationwide competition to find the best Pink Glove Dance video. Hospitals, nursing homes, schools and everyone who wanted to organize a group of people produced hundreds of videos and submitted them on the website. These incredible videos are meant to raise awareness and inspire others to join the cause. The winning video reached over 61,000 votes! Using these mediums is a great way to gain international attention and get people involved in the fight against breast cancer. As an added bonus for breast cancer organizations in particular, the fact that social networking reaches an overall younger audience is greatly beneficial to getting the message out there to the right people at the right time. By encouraging early detection of breast cancer among the younger generation, those who may have the best chances of detecting breast cancer early on are now given a better chance at survival.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEdVfyt-mLwhttp://pinkglovedance.com/home/ - Winner:http://pinkglovedance.com/competition/entry-39
13. Social Media can drive website trafficDiscuss engagement and empowering your friends, followers, fans, to be brand ambassadors of your messageSusan G. Komen PR Crisis – took away funding for Planned Parenthood, resulting in lower access to free breast screenings for low income women. What happened? Poor communication of a politically charged issue. (People said it was politically motivated since Planned Parenthood provides abortion services.) After the announcement they were all but silent on Facebook, Twitter and in the media. Their slow response, lack of a crisis management plan, and the effective response from Planned Parenthood put Komen on the defensive. They were accused of deleting critical posts on Facebook: Rule #1 perception is reality – rather than engaging and admitting a mistake they let it ride for three days! They didn’t post to Twitter or Facebook for nearly 24 hours!Planned Parenthood immediately began a huge fundraising effort to counteract the funds it lost from SGKAt times the ratio of negative to positive on Twitter was 80-1; 80 negative comments for every 1 positive!By posting other non-related posts SGK just angered and alienated fans who wanted to engage about this decision.Then they released a taped video (not an interview) while Planned Parenthood did live interviews with all the major networksThis began on Tuesday – they apologized on Friday. It took more than 24 hours to respond on social media and when they did respond it was an official statement without follow-on engagement. Why didn’t they say “We hear your anger and frustration. We are discussing the best way to respond to this situation and will get back to you soon.”LESSON? Know how to use social media and always have a crisis communications plan!
14. Mention the book “Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges”By Andrew McAfee
15. Great article on 14 reasons why these types of implementations often fail.
16. A few things to know:This is a revolution and if you treat it lightly it will never occurIt is a revolution in the way we communicate, interact, share information, and engage. We’re often more familiar with someone across the country than we are with our own neighbors!
17. Remember that, it’s not about the tools, it’s about what the tools create: collaboration, engagement, teamwork, etc.The companies that recognized the early implications of social media, embraced the change and sought to lead from the front.
18. Part of knowing whether social media is right for your organization is understanding what social media can and can’t do, and then determining if those capabilities social media has align with a business need your organization has.
19. Junior staff – get the technology, get what it does for them and will be your early champions – use that to your advantage. Get their feedback on the early versions!!!WIIFM!!Junior staff – networkingMiddle managers – staffingSenior leaders – business developmentWe are designing a web portal that through a user authentication process will enable simultaneous global interactions in a safe, behind-the-firewall employee collaboration platform.ORWe’re creating a secure website where our employees can collaborate, share ideas, and inspire one another.BEST PRACTICES:- Change management plan must mature and continues to use first year strategies for middle and late adopter, - Incorporate metrics early as a monitor of progress and measure of accountability - Consistent use and promotion of best practices and celebrate successes as opportunities for promotionCM Team must walk the walk! Transparency; all development ideas, roadmaps, bugs, and feedback are on the site for all to see and comment on. All areas of the team are active, visible and accessible across the tool. Through this approach we’ve gained trust, champions, and incredible support. Since Hello’s August 2008 launch, more than: 90% of the firm has logged in to the platform80% of staff have contributed original content500 online communities have been establishedCharacteristics of each adoption group were considered in messaging and outreach strategiesDetermine what your early adopters want and give it to themFrom early adopters we learned features perceived as efficient - like blogs for team communication saving email traffic; wiki for meeting agendas, action, collaboration & event planning saving hours, version control and email; forums to drive firm wide conversation From mid to late adopters, we learned the importance of linking how Hello could support staff in daily work - the business applications valuedResistors we didn’t even try to design strategies to engage – they either will or won’t
20. Dr. Closed Mind: Engage, persuade, make him part of the team, or marginalize his influence by getting the people around him.The Silo: Involve in the planning; get them onboard EARLY – help them understand that collaboration does mean giving up some control, but it also means better ideas! Talk to them in terms they can relate to!Captain Conservative: Get him involved if possible, otherwise get the right change agents around him to minimalize his delaying tactics.
21. Sr. Management turnover led to this even being possibleNeeded political capital, budget; large initial costs, but ultimately it’s more efficient for a large workforceHad a core management team and a content manager – they were the main POC, they were trained, and they became each office’s championInvolved key staffAt 6 months evaluated the platform and gave out Awards to keep interest and show what was possible on the platformIncorporated feedback – button on landing page, people saw evolution of their feedback implemented; Surveys, team meetings; presentations across departmental meetingsIn person trainings; created initial pages for every department to ensure an initial presenceDid grass roots and senior leadership
22. Choose your guiding coalition carefully – it’s not always the most senior, sometimes it’s the most influential – either positive or negative!Also, the key here is to give employees a sense of ownership – it will also help them see this as a part of a better way to work, and not just some new thing they have to learn to doUnderstanding what the platform is, why it was created, and how collaboration will improve their work will encourage adoption.If you create a ‘black hole’ of technology development it will breed mistrust and apprehensionSet small achievable goals – build momentum!Staff – this won’t solve your every problem. Management – this won’t happen overnight.
23. Strategy – breaking through the cluttera.       Taking best practices and making them relevant and practicalb.      Implications of social media (security, privacy, etc.)
24. The benefits of social media center around connection, collaboration and transparencyBig picture:Social media allows agencies to communicate more effectively with stakeholdersInternally, for example with study centers, social media would allow for exceptional collaborationOne of the biggest risks in NOT doing social media is there’s an online discussion going on all the time and news outlets monitor these channels for stories – so inaccuracies can hurtEXAMPLE: H1N1 virus rumors started on social media and the CDC was able to squash the rumors quickly because they were already using social media