Large MNCs like Oracle are already doing it - tapping social media, such as, Facebook to network and engage its partners and customers at the click of the mouse. SMEs should also sit up and explore how this platform can benefit them.
Web 2.0 technology enables enhanced creativity, information sharing and collaboration SOCIAL media or social networking is the use of Internet technologies to share and discuss experiences and information with other people.
It generally consists of three elements: user-generated content, user-generated descriptions and user-generated communities to create online buzz. This is a marked distinction from the traditional media that consists of mainly print and television.
It is also interesting to know that social marketing, a branch of the social media umbrella, is the latest tactical tool for businesses to promote their products and services. This is achieved by popularising the marketing efforts through various vehicles, including Internet forums, weblogs, podcasts, picture and video sharing platforms.
You will notice that these elements - content, descriptions and communities are all created and sustained by users. What makes such user-generated information sharing possible on the Internet is a suite of technologies broadly known as the Web 2.0 platform.
Better known as 'writeable web', the Web 2.0 platform enables enhanced creativity, information sharing and collaboration. Web 2.0 technologies underpin social networking sites like Facebook, photo-sharing sites like Flickr, video-sharing sites like YouTube, wikis, blogs, and a host of other web applications that support user-generated content.
There are many compelling reasons for encouraging the use of social media in business.
One benefit of using social media is to reduce marketing, public relations (PR) and training expenses. Here, small and medium Enterprises (SMEs) can learn a thing or two from large multinational corporations such as Oracle Corporation. Oracle is moving to reduce publicity and marketing costs through the use of podcasts, user forums and social media. One of the tools they use is the 'social news release' which contains shorter, bulleted points and links to online resources such as online videos and blogs. The use of social news releases has halved Oracle's PR budget, enabling it to save about US$4.6 million over the past year, according to Judith Sim, the company's senior vice-president and chief marketing officer.
The reason for encouraging the use of social media goes beyond monetary gains, as it speeds up the rate to reach target audience at the click of a button online. In the physical world, companies that interconnect with partners via trade associations and standards committees innovate better and have better market intelligence. This networking is turbo-powered online. For example, the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), which is an association of infocomm vendors, recently created a group on Facebook. Having individuals from its member companies connected on Facebook gives SiTF another channel for networking and promoting events. Similarly, SiTF uses Google Calendar to keep members updated on upcoming events, which are organised using a usergenerated website or wiki.
However, you may not immediately see results to your company's bottom line by investing your marketing effort in social media alone. While these platforms can help transform the discussions you have with staff, partners and customers, your business can benefit from unleashing creative contributions from new hires.
In addition, the open communications channels can help elicit valuable product feedback, as well as suggestions on improving your approach to customer service. In the virtual world, your stakeholders can be less guarded because their real identity is hidden behind a virtual nickname, like an Avatar. The users behind these online aliases may be more frank to provide you with constructive feedback. With such input, you can kick-start with more relevant training and knowledge management efforts while revitalising your marketing and communications activities. Therefore, it is important for SMEs to be open in adopting social media as one of the core communication channels become more dynamic in their businesses.
There are many Web 2.0 applications that you can tap to explore the values that social media can bring to your business. You can use blogs for sharing viewpoints; wikis for sharing facts and references, calendars for scheduling in-house events and news readers for maintaining subscriptions to authoritative sources of information and opinions.
You can set up blogs, wikis, calendars and news readers using free open-source software or services like Blogger (www.blogger.com/start), EditMe (www.editme.com/FreeTrial), Google Calendar (www.google.com/calendar) and Google Reader (www.google.com/reader). Such social media applications can effectively facilitate knowledge sharing, collaborations, corporate communications, training and the propagation of your corporate culture. In doing so, you can understand your customers better and keep closer tabs with your competition.
All you need to do to get started is to visit these websites, follow the simple instructions to create an account and start accessing these applications. You are now ready to embark on your social marketing journey. As the potential of this platform is enormous, you will want to quickly establish your presence to gain the first-mover advantage ahead of your competition.
- This article is contributed by Iterate Pte Ltd, a member of the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF).
- This article first appeared in The Business Times on 16 September 2008 and information is correct at the time of publication.
Back to SMEs' Spotlight
