From MySpace to Business Process Improvement
By Melissa Newman
My relationship with Social Media is one that is ever evolving. This relationship is as constant and unpredictable as the platforms can be themselves. As a Millennial, I had the privilege of watching Social Networks launch and gain momentum, but in all honesty, I wasn’t impressed.
While my peers were overjoyed with the novelty of talking to strangers online on Myspace, the primitive User Interface was a turnoff for me, so I focused on maintaining my relationships offline. Fast forward to the Senior year of High School, and with the advent of my group of friends scattering themselves across the states in the pursuit of higher education, Facebook stepped in and helped us stay in touch in-between semester breaks.
It was my first time using a Social Media Platform to solve a problem as well to create a connection. As I have grown older, my use of Social Media has changed and increased. Now on multiple accounts, it is not unnatural for me to absently scroll my feeds in the morning after hitting “off,” on my iPhone alarm clock. Just as my usage patterns have changed, so have the brands that I interact with online. Previously, getting a “like,” or “retweet,” from a legacy brand online was unheard of, but now is ubiquitous. For example, just yesterday I was baking a copycat recipe I had found for the DoubleTree Inn’s famous Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.
I chose to share a tweet with a photo displaying the finished product to my followers. Less than 15min later, the DoubleTree Inn’s main account like my photo, followed my account, and direct messaged me, offering to send me a batch of their famous cookies to my home! And just like that, they have cemented my loyalty to their brand. Brands are seeing the value of incorporating Social Media into their overall Marketing Strategy because it is a direct link to their target audience. And are using it not only for entertainment or engagement but as a tool for improving overall business processes.
For example, I was reading “Social Media to Improve Business Processes,” and they listed three ways that companies are elevating the use of Social Media outside of pure entertainment or to foster social connection. The examples they list “customer service, technical support, and data collection,”are already well known. But after reading the article, it got me thinking about what the next phase of implementation will be for brands using Social Media?
To my classmates, how are your organizations implementing Social Media in your overall business structure? Do you have any predictions about how we can leverage its use to amplify innovation within our companies?
Citation
N. (2013, May 03). Social Media to Improve Business Processes. Retrieved from https://www.eyerys.com/articles/social-media-improve-business-processes.
This is a great post Melissa! Social Media’s evolution in our lifetime is wild to say the least. I remember using my Gateway (are they even still a thing?) laptop to re-arrange my “top 8”. Ha, those were the days! I want to comment on your point regarding leveraging social media in our business structures. I recently have joined the digital team at Lincoln Financial and am building out an overall social strategy on LinkedIn for our wholesalers who sell our retirement plans. The goal is to position them as thought leaders in the business, and therefore gain buy in from their clients so we can solidify their loyalty to Lincoln Financial plans. I think the approach about loyalty to brands that you discussed in your post can be seen across many different types of industries, and is key to the shopping experience of a brand today. Great thoughts!
That’s awesome, Kiersten! I’ll be happy to hear more details as your strategy progresses 🙂 And I agree! I think people tend to look at branding as this frivolous thing but in actuality it aides in securing your sales. Its a really competitive market and you have to continually distinguish why you are the better choice against all these other companies. Creating that brand equity through consistent, high-quality interactions with a customer helps to ensure this. So now that companies have become aware of this and are using social media as an outlet, I’m curious to see what the next leap forward in technology will mean for how it’s utilized?I guess only time will tell!
Great post Melissa! In my experience, directing more than 15 clients on their social media efforts, it really comes down to the type of business and their goals. I have some clients that are brand new to social media who are looking to just build a consistent experience across their digital platforms along with building their following. Then, I have some clients that have one million plus followers who want to take their social media to the next level by engaging and collaborating with their fans for product and service insights. Either way, it’s important that companies understand where their audience resides and their no doubt social media is a channel and vehicle to reaching goals.
I can certainly relate to your experiences on social media as a millennial. I recently discovered a new app called Vero which allows for users to have more control over their posts and bring back that connection we sought out when we were first introduced to Facebook.
I work at a law firm and we’ve been doing extremely well on social media but of course there’s always room for improvement. Usually people don’t put “law firm” and “social media” in the same sentence but amazingly we’re spearheading the change. We strategically use Facebook to target law students and prospective staff. And then we use LinkedIn, and sometimes Twitter, to interact with clients and promote our events and thought leadership pieces.
One of our main focuses has been to educate our attorneys on how to effectively use their accounts to boosts the firm’s profile. Honestly, it’s been tough because our main leaders are older and are not as tech-savvy, but we keep pushing.
Great post Melissa!
I think thats an awesome strategy! I love how platform specific it is and I think overall that is key. And I can toatlly relate, the demograhic that I serve is older and the concept of social media is so abstract for them.
They completely cannot understand the nuances of each patform without guidance, so it has been very eye opening to simplfy things for them and break down subjects like “sharing, likes, etc.”
Great post, Melissa! I definitely see a lot of brands utilizing social media to improve customer experiences and build brand loyalty, and I think that it’s essential in today’s digital age.
Fun example – I’ve always loved Oreos. A few years back, during my senior year of college, Oreo announced that they’d be debuting 2 mystery flavors, to hit shelves at some undisclosed time. I saw this on twitter, and tweeted that I wanted to know what the flavors were. I wasn’t really expecting a response of any sort; however, Oreo ended up sending me a direct message saying that I should try them for myself. They ended up sending me 2 boxes (one of each mystery flavor) for free!
Not only did this get me talking about the brand more, but it cemented my brand loyalty, much like in your case with DoubleTree’s cookies.
I think both cases go to show how social media (and cookies) can improve the process of on-boarding/building loyalty with new and existing customers.
Jacklin,
I love your story! How awesome 🙂 I defintily agree that social media is not only a great way to insert yourself into conversations, but cultivate loyalty. Plus it can be don’t so simply and with minimal cost.
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