Use of social media has proliferated at
an exponential rate in last one decade. Where in Feb 2004, Facebook had just
handful of Harvard students using newly launched the facebook.com, today, in
2016, the user base of Facebook has spanned over nearly one third of planet
population. Facebook has not only impacted the way we interact with our friends
but has also impacted how businesses interact with their customers. Businesses
need to take advantage of growing impact of social media on their customer
preferences. In this article, we will analyze some the key issues that need to
be addressed by businesses in order to keep pace with social media impact.
KEY ISSUES:
- · Contemporary Workforce is ill equipped.
- · Lack of social media courses at universities.
- · Employee social media advocacy is underestimated
ANALYSIS
OF ISSUES:
Contemporary
Workforce is ill equipped:
Companies have
widely adopted the use of social media in order to create brand awareness and
to increase their user base. Nearly 90% of the companies are using social media
networks to chase the customer base, which are highly influenced by social
media.
However,
there is one key hurdle in terms of fully unfolding the potential of social
media; the workforce at these companies is not well trained to take advantage
of social media. There is considerable skill gap in the workforce due to lack
of formal training in the companies. Even though the use of social media is
very common among the general public yet only 12%(out of 2100 ) of companies
are using social media effectively, as per the Harvard Business Review survey
in 2010. More recent research by Capgemini confirmed that there is not
significant increment in these numbers. How social media is used within a
company is changing day by day and companies need to keep pace with this
change. Increasing number of jobs on specialized skills pertaining to social
media is evident that businesses need people who are well equipped to drive
their marketing strategies on social media.
The
challenge is not only the availability of formal training programs but also the
right training solutions. Most of the employees at the companies do not have
time for in depth training. Therefore, it is very important to consider this
fact and provide on demand and mobile-friendly training solutions. Nevertheless,
with ever changing use and growing features of social media, companies need to
invest on training programs to train their workforce.
Lack of social
media courses at universities:
Another
important factor in the gap of skill set is the lack of specialized courses at
universities. Effective use of social media in business is essentially a skill,
which needs to be taught as a separate course at universities. Even though, it
is very important to incorporate the adequate training programs to train the
existing work force, it is equally important to train the next generation of
work force right from the university. Strategy of bridging the social gap is
highly effective at university level.
Even
though, such specialized social media courses are available at universities but
most of such programs are limited to marketing and communication degree
programs only. Use of social media at companies is no longer limited to
specialized managers but the use of social media has been highly decentralized
within the company. It is highly important to create the required understanding
and incorporate these courses as core courses in all applicable degree
programs. These programs will not only offer a strong foundation for future
workforce but would also create unprecedented opportunities for businesses to
effectively use social media.
Employee social
media advocacy is underestimated:
Another
important factor that businesses often overlook is the importance of employee
advocacy on social media. As already mentioned the effective use of social
media is no longer limited to specialized managers but has become highly
decentralized. A less known fact in Starbucks successful twitter campaign
“Tweet-a-coffee”, which generated $180,000 in sales is that Starbucks own
employees were also actively involved in tweeting and posting. The employee
advocacy program at Starbucks encouraged employees to participate in the
campaign and create a buzz. There are other companies such as Zappos and
southwest airlines who have harnessed the power of employee advocacy in
execution of social media campaigns.
However,
majority of companies still overlook the importance of employee advocacy. The
fundamental fact behind creating audience or followers on social media network
is through people and employees can help achieve this fact at very fast pace.
By encouraging the employees at company to share the updates on social media
networks, companies can slowly build a substantial user base and it does not
required any special funding or investment. For example: a midsize company with
100 employees, with average 250 followers can create unique 25,000 followers by
just encouraging its employees to participate in these campaigns. The
fundamental driving force in employee advocacy is not just sharing the content
but it is word of mouth, which create huge impact in social media. Apparently, content
shared by employees create 8 times more impact than done otherwise. Very few
companies have truly embraced this fact and have taken advantage of employee
advocacy in social media campaigns. Seeing the benefit of employee advocacy we
cannot undermined its contribution in a successful campaign.
Therefore,
Companies needs to start focusing on employee advocacy. Even though employee
advocacy can help business a lot but it needs to be monitored in some way to
ensure that it does not leave a negative impact on brand image. This is only
possible when there is enough awareness among employees.
CONCLUSION:
The growing use of social media
and the impact of social media on user buying preferences are evident that all
companies (mid-level, small-level and big-level) needs to focus on social media
to sustain. Large user base of social media networks has made these networks
the most important media for advertising. If done properly, companies can
create a buzz about their product in very less time as compare to what is
possible through traditional media such as newspapers, TV etc. At Facebook
alone, over 1.44 billion user spends on average more than 20 minutes each day,
which is 20 % of total online time.
Although many companies have
realized the true potential of social media and have invested heavily yet there
are still large number of companies who have either not embraced the social
media trend or have overlooked it. Social media has not only changed the way
businesses advertise their product but has also changed the overall paradigm of
customer interaction. Now days, it is not sufficient to create a brand
awareness on social media but is also important to address customer concerns
and complaints through these networks. Social networks have changed the
traditional way of customer interaction, where customer used to call the
helpdesk and log a complaint. Customers have become ever more transitory these
days and are highly influenced by the online reviews, product ratings etc.
Therefore, many of these complaints can go unnoticed and have a negative impact
on business, if these interactions are not handled properly.
The ubiquitous use of social
media and its impact on business has proved the fact that business need
specialized skill set to deal with the complexity involved. This is where
things get tricky because companies neither have the required skill set or nor
have required time to fully reaped the potential of social media. It is true
from our discussion so far that a successful social media marketing campaign
must involve employee at all levels but who owns this initiative and who takes
the responsibility of user actions? Employee updates, if not guided properly,
can do more harm than good. Employees’ actions and participation in these
campaigns need to be well aligned with overall objective. Therefore, it is
essential to train the employees how brand image can get impacted by sharing
given type of update. This awareness in employees would not only ensure a
positive impact but would also create ensure that the employee actions are well
aligned with business objectives.
The next question that pops up in
creating employee advocacy is what motivates these employees to participate in
these campaigns. This is essentially not enforcement on employees. Employees
need to be morally and self-motivated to help achieve the business objective
through these campaigns. Companies can help create a positive health culture
within the company that motivates employees to participate in these campaigns.
It only then possible that these campaigns and achieve full success.
Nevertheless, companies need to
start focusing on importance of social media by creating required training
programs; creating employee awareness; encouraging employee participation;
handling customer interaction and by keeping pace with changing features and
new technology in social media world. Only then it is possible that companies
can reap the true potential of social media world.
References:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3055665/the-future-of-work/inside-the-growing-social-media-skills-gap
http://www.fastcompany.com/3053233/hit-the-ground-running/how-to-turn-your-entire-staff-into-a-social-media-army
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