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As social media has expanded over the past couple of years, it is obvious the affect it has had on our society. We have now become more fast paced and invested in understanding the true definition of communication. According to the Harvard Business Review, the future of social media stands right in front of us.
From Washington, with Obama utilizing Twitter for his campaign, to millions of Facebook users all around the world, it is clear that social media as something spontaneous reflecting how we behave in the real world is coming to an end. We are entering an age of social business, bringing about a purposeful, planned, orchestrated, and integrated way of doing business in a social context. This strategy allows one to complexly make a message feel personal to the outside, while on the inside, the organization is planning and navigating every move. As further evidence to the shift, one can look to technology.
Credit: Masternewmedia.org
Over the past several years, innovative companies who have geared their mindset towards the future have begun to understand the value of monitoring conversations. Therefore, they have purchased software licenses from platforms such as Radian 6. Additionally, the notion of listening to social conversations is only a small portion of understanding social business. The true opportunity lies in scaling and operationalizing “social”. Thus, if the next phase of social media is operating as a scalable social business, then expect to see an increase of activity in the following:
Organizational Design: Social media is focused on parts of an organization or business where communications and marketing encourage social media tactics, while a social business is redesigned to look through a lens that is more holistic for the organization. For further proof, we can look to Facebook, where business and brand pages deal with both customer “likes” and complaints. Corporate Facebook pages are great examples of the need for marketing, PR, customer service, and HR to all figure out how to work together. This is because users on Facebook don’t make the distinction behind which department is running what and to them, a company page represents all departments.
Social Business Intelligence: The rise of social media has led to many technology solutions, allowing organizations to become involved on conversations happening across multiple digital public spaces. Organizations that have become accustomed to listening in on conversations are now positioned to take the next step and convert listening into organization-wide business intelligence. Socially intelligent organizations will be able to adapt to conditions in their environment and eventually predict and plan for future scenarios.
Cultures of Collaboration, Co-Creation & Shared Value: The most significant recent business case, which illustrates the business side of social, comes from creating an ecosystem. This idea operates by having value enter into it and then extracted by multiple stakeholders for mutual gain. An ecosystem, by definition, is sustainable.
The relationship between social media and social business is complicated. On one hand, the public desires authentic interactions in social spheres from real people and expect a real-time response. On the other hand, a business or organization requires a system to be in place that coordinates activities. Therefore, the oncoming shift is moving from a focus on external media consumption to the internal business integration of what it means to become social and connected. Is social media something you have included in your insurance agency marketing plan? If not you should make sure to include it, social media really is becoming the number one way to communicate with your audience.
August 5, 2011 at 5:03 pm
“On one hand, the public desires authentic interactions in social spheres from real people and expect a real-time response. On the other hand, a business or organization requires a system to be in place that coordinates activities.” Agreed. Having a social CRM in place is a key component of a successful social media strategy. Great article, thanks so much for mentioning us!
Best wishes,
Trish
Community Manager | Radian6
August 10, 2011 at 9:21 am
Trish,
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed the post!
-Alicia
PR & Social Media Manager