You are hereBlogs / Frank Diana's blog / Social networking for business
Social networking for business
That’s right. Social networking for business. The impact of social networking tools – blogs, wikis, and forums – has had a profound effect on society and media. And now business is getting the message: Social networking is not only good for business; it’s a necessity in our competitive global economy. Businesses that embrace collaboration via social networking today will have a competitive advantage over those that don’t or those that do it later.
The factors driving business demand for social networking are numerous, and include the need to:
- Access, collaborate, and act on growing amounts of information in a shorter timeframe
- Allow customers to receive personalized products and attention
- Meet customer demand for more customization and flexibility
- Create products and services faster, at far lower cost, with far less risk
- Capture corporate knowledge
- Engage employees to improve communication, productivity, and knowledge capture
- Increase loyalty and revenues, while reducing sales and support costs
The benefits that businesses can expect to reap from social networking are also numerous, including the real-time ability to:
- Collaborate via online communities – blogs, wikis, forums, shared calendars, and file cabinets
- Leverage the power of user-generated content
- Create online communities that connect employees, customers, prospects, and partners
- Establish a corporate memory
- Increase employee engagement, communication, productivity, and knowledge capture
- Improve customer connections
- Access, collaborate, and act on growing amounts of information in a shorter timeframe
- Create 24-hour focus groups where company representatives can enter at any time to hear comments on the company or product’s performance
- Extend business-to-business engagement by providing a secure, virtual space to exchange products, services, and information
- Personalize and humanize brands through open, two-way dialogue with target audiences
Just take a look at how several traditional businesses are reaping business rewards from social networking portals.
- The Lego Group uses online communities to identify and rally its most enthusiastic customers to help it design new products and market more effectively.
- Eli Lilly and Hewlett-Packard host online “prediction markets” that extract collective knowledge from online communities, which help them gauge whether the government will approve a drug or how well a product will sell.
These are just a few examples that illustrate those businesses that embrace collaboration via social networking technologies and culture today will have a competitive advantage over those that don’t or those that do so later. I’d like to hear about your company’s experience with social networking.
Tags
Post new comment