One of the best ideas for a maturing company is to look at using social media platforms to induce more prospects and sales. This social media process has to be done the right way in terms of customer satisfaction through benefits to the customer for becoming involved in their companies social media activities. There can't be a Facebook, LinkedIn, and Blogger page dropped down instantly, but more of a process of tweeking and experimenting in order to please their audience.
Many companies have already become innovators of social media tools such as Starbucks 'myideaswebsite' and Dell's 'ideastorm'. Both of these social media tools they set up take all customer feedback and implement the data through to the customer service department for each of their organizations. This is a key form of social media at it's best, bacause it helps Dell and Starbucks improve products and customer satisfaction daily.
Mr. Steve Rubel advises companies such as Dannon, HewlettPackard, and Microsoft. Mr. Rubel says that he advises these companies that they need a personal presence (which is way different than that of push advertising), and a process of 'shared mutual gain' where the customer benefits and the company benefits. His video discusses the thought process companies must go through to gain customer satisfaction and how much effort he goes through in order to present the value of social media for one's company.
There are companies that are at a dissadvantage with using social media, such as health care companies, because of all of the privacy issues that come along with it. Fortunately, as social media's presence grows there will eventually be a spot for companies facing privacy issues due to opened up communities created.
Link to video: http://www.steverubel.com/video-the-future-of-social-media
Great post. I liked the comparison between "push advertising" and social media. In one of my classes we discussed how the internet is giving people the ability to create their own content and share it with others. The use of social media by Dell and Starbucks is a great example. The companies give the consumer a way to directly connect with the business in order to produce better products or service.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that companies need to have a mutual benefit using social media. After all, companies are in business to make a profit, but they also need to make their customers happy. I'm in personal selling right now, and we continuously talk about how important it is to show customers the benefits of a company or product. The Starbucks and Dell examples were great. I think these are excellent ways to get that conversation started and create a strong customer satisfaction based company.
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