There seems to be quite some uncertainty about Social Media: is it really a fad? Should companies really care? Is it absolutely necessary? What should I use Social Media for?
Although most business people might not have a clear answer to many of these questions, most of them tend to agree that Social Media, as a broad concept, is a good marketing tool: it's a direct communication tool, it can positively generate brand awareness through social interactions, it can be used to gather precise and timely information from consumers, its results (at least, many of them) can be measure in real-time, and many other benefits from a marketing perspective.
But what about other applications?
The question I would like to answer today is: is Social Media effective only for Marketing purposes?
Let's look at what some companies are doing…
Why don't we start with the Dell IdeaStorm initiative? It is an internet platform started in 2007 by Dell to gather ideas from the community. Ideas can be added, promoted, demoted and commented on by the community. Apparently a good idea, right? But has it been successful?
After 4 years, more than 15,000 ideas have been submitted, more than 740,000 promotions had been done on these ideas and Dell has implemented 430 of the best ones. 430 ideas coming from the community, from your community of people that believe in your company, in your brand… Dell has been able to use the power of the community to co-create new features and products: clear value has been generated for Dell (obtaining ideas and priorities almost for free) and for their community (who feels listened to, who sees that Dell cares about them, and who has seen better products and features delivered by the company to them). IdeaStormers & Dell, big bravo to you!
Let's move on to Comcast and their twitter initiative: they have almost 52,000 followers and more than 49,000 messages have been exchanged so far. Twitter is a place where Comcast is listening to their customers… and answering to them! They take the process very seriously and try to answer every single tweet that mentions their Customer Service twitter account, 'comcastcares'. This way they have started a new platform to deal with customers… more personally (you can communicate with people, instead of machines on the phone) and more transparently (with an open platform where the discussions are publicly held). Comcast is an excellent example of how companies can enhance their customer service by enabling more transparent and honest ways of dealing with complaints. Good job, Comcast, for 'Making it Right'.
Last but not least, what about if you could offer a better real-time product thanks to your community? That's exactly what Google is doing with their Google Maps application and its real-time traffic feature. Thanks to the phones of many people reporting their position in the same area, Google is able to determine if the traffic is flowing well or if there are traffic jams. This information is shared back with the users in the area for their own benefit. This is a clear example of creating great value for both sides at a little cost and effort. Hooray, Google!
What can we learn from these cases?
Social Media is not only a good tool for Marketing… It can have many other applications. The key point is to find a way where the community can help to create value.
It is also important to understand why these cases were successful. The common pattern in all of them is 3 simple, yet powerful guidelines:
1) Create value for both sides: it is very unlikely that a person is going to help you if you don't have anything to offer her. Think of real benefits that you can offer your stakeholders and build a community around them, promoting win-win exchanges.
2) Establish a dialogue: stop thinking one-way communications, and learn to listen. Do not only learn to listen, but also enable platforms where you can listen, where you can get useful information for your product and/or services.
3) Make it fast and integrated: your customers, your community don't have time and/or don't want to spend it with you, unless they see the value and it's easy and fast to communicate with you. Think of easy applications, make it simple, do it fast.
So... is Social Media effective only for Marketing purposes?
Definitely not, but regardless of which area you use Social Media for, your strategy and its implementation should be designed carefully and follow certain simple yet crucial rules.
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