The Need for the Social Media Team in Focus - Essay Example

The Need for the Social Media Team in Focus August 17 Introduction 1 Opening part The strategic approach for the employment of social media with measurements of success is very important today. The largest companies worldwide compete for having a larger share in the market. Supply-demand relationship is, perhaps, the paramount drive toward gaining profits and popularity. In this respect customer related management (CRM) is a forte of each company building its global strategy in the post-industrial era where the main product is information, of course. 1.2 Thesis statement Thus, the use of Web 2.0 technologies along with a balanced scorecard is really significant for a Manager of the Social Media Team. Given that, the main points throughout the discussion touch upon different companies. It will give a general look at the strategic media performance of contemporary organizations in the world. 2. General evaluation 2.1 Changeability of the economic prosperity First and foremost, company’s goals are more vital than contemporary state of affairs. In this respect the need for a balanced scorecard has grown once high technologies bubbled over in the most of world countries in the early 1990s. Translating the vision of an organization leads toward seeking the means for finding out the most optimal solutions through linking “current actions with tomorrow’s goals” (Kaplan & Norton, 2007, p. 150). This is why the need for strategic implementations is mostly based on how an organization communicates its strategy with customers and how it complements the very requirements and expectations thereof. It is vital to note that devising the overall strategy regarding the social media team is, perhaps, the most important thing to do nowadays. Taking a glimpse at what current mass media propose to customers, there is plenty to talk about the social awareness of such companies as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald’s, BP, Apple, etc. All these giants seem to expand the most of the market in their concrete fields of activities. Notably, the main weapon for them is not only television, but Web 2.0 technologies including social networking, e-mailing, micro-blogging, and so on. According to the scorecard perspective, there are four main processes to draw up the entire vision of the company, namely: translating the vision, communicating and linking, business planning, and feedback and learning (Kaplan & Norton, 2007). The second one is at the core of current discussion as it is straightly referred to CRM. Thus, internal data of the company should partly be disseminated among the key groups of customers. Wollan, Smith, & Zhou (2011) point out that being serious about social media is a prerequisite for the perpetual development of internal data sets with socially-related perspective. In this respect social networking is one of the main instruments to influence customers all over the world. By the way, a strong push on customers’ minds is definitely associated with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other on-line services where a company may show its performance up. It is a way to communicate with customers for the sake of an overall feedback as a result. Following this perspective, companies gain momentum on what should be improved or changed at the moment. Study reported by Kane, Fichman, Gallaugher, & Glaser (2009) outline the notion of “social outreach” and how it has changed with the advent of real-time social media. Skills, tactics, and strategy have also been changed in accordance with the time demands obvious today (Bell & Patterson, 2011). Moreover, social media engagement should always be customer-related due to the fact that contemporary progressive people seek to keep up with the most progressive companies and firms. 2.2 CRM as a drive for change Admittedly, CRM requires that companies are loyal to the intangible needs through taking part in further development of the company-customer interaction. Sales are likely to take roots from social representations of companies. Such tools as one of the most popular OracleDirect are for savvy developers within the Social Media Team (Curtis & Giamanco, 2010). On the other hand, stepping back from the everyday vortex of metrics perceived earlier through some manual implications is a way toward breakthroughs in each effort by the Social Media Team (Kanter & Fine, 2010). At this point, the vision of how the company should appear before its customers is to have a state-of-the-art manifestation of different things which in sum should add to the overall image of the company itself. In other words, everything related to the company should unintentionally lead toward customers’ associations on this or that company. In its turn, on-line visual representation of an organization bears more significance for companies than commercials on radio or in newspapers. This is why Web 2.0 strategy cannot be underestimated. Strange as it may seem, but taking care of customers on-line is even more important today than keeping up with them in reality. For instance, Lexus is on Facebook and Twitter for a long time highlighting its cars to everyone sharing them. However, what Lexus supports is the most robust ideas and suggestions on the part of the customers through the use of social networking (Carroll, 2011). It is an exciting opportunity to cope with customers on a new, widely shared, level of interaction. Turning back to the balanced scorecard, it is apparent that providing communication with customers and shareholders presupposes the linkage of individual efforts of each senior manager with corporate goals. Thereupon, by imposing company’s strategic insights on customer, the communication should take form of education making customers’ choices aligned with the company’s suggestions (Kaplan & Norton, 2007). The balanced scorecard signifies such interaction through managing different business units (from the lowest to the highest) in their close relation to what the company seeks to achieve. 2.3 Balanced scorecard and Web 2.0 The example of Lexus inspires by its openness to the customers worldwide and in terms of the globalization. No single-minded decisions complement contemporary world driven at a frantic pace. Instead, collective participations between producers and users took place for Lexus and same-thinking companies as well. By coordinating social outreach, the company is to pay close attention to the devoted Social Media Team as a guarantee for managing the “brave new world of online communities” (Kane, Fichman, Gallaugher, & Glaser, 2009, p. 46). Hence, it is no time for any speculations on the topic of social media and its significance. It is high time a company went ahead in keeping warm and collaborative relations with customers as a guarantee of further positive feedback. To say more, social networking sounds like a great opportunity for every company due to a convenient interface of the most valued networking companies like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. The study reported by Griffin (2009) highlights there is no need for a definite company to build up its customized social network. A corporate Web page is quite enough. The rest of the Web tools presuppose maintaining and managing data sets on the basis of already existing Web platforms. Social media tools are a means to mobilize thousands or even millions of people in just few hours (Kane, Fichman, Gallaugher, & Glaser, 2009). That is, companies do not need to devise some other instruments for attracting customers. There is a vortex of opportunities to keep up a good job for each customer separately. Furthermore, as was aforementioned, it is a way to communicate the strategic vision to the customers by setting goals and showing rewards afterwards (Kaplan & Norton, 2007). This procedure within the balanced scorecard would eliminate doubts among customers replacing them by particular lifestyles kept and popularized by the company. 2.4 Social and economic guarantee It goes without saying that the example of already mentioned companies and many others inspires everyone toward immediate actions. In this case CRM should incorporate the need for 24/7/365 communication with customers supported by the dedicated employees from the Social Media Team. The question is that Web 2.0 runs easily into multifaceted relationships among users (Kane, Fichman, Gallaugher, & Glaser, 2009). To avoid the breach of these strong links between the company and customers, the Social Media Team is called to provide a feeling of deep trust in every customer by dint of taking huge efforts in reaching everyone willing to cooperate and use what the company suggests. On the other side, the reason why the balanced scorecard fits into the development of the company’s strategy for the sake of ostensible advancements in CRM is that it “enables a company to link its financial budgets with its strategic goals” (Kaplan & Norton, 2007, p. 157). Notably, financial issues spark more interest of the board of directors. However, one should bear it in mind that without a proper distribution of assets referred to CRM there is no solid breakthrough enabling the company to spread its activity over masses of customers worldwide. 3. Planning 3.1 Four processes in balanced scorecard Thus, the plan of CRM development based on the use of Web 2.0 and assessing the business environment is based on the need for information as a basis for knowledge gained by customers in response to the company’s policy-making prospects. The four main processes in the balanced scorecard are the most vital for conducting cutting-edge CRM perspectives, namely: Translating the vision (clarifying the vision and gaining consensus); Communicating and linking (communicating and educating, setting goals, linking rewards); Business planning (setting targets, aligning strategic initiatives, allocating resources, establishing milestones); Feedback and learning (articulating the shared vision, supplying strategic feedback, facilitating strategy review and learning) (Kaplan & Norton, 2007, p. 155). The four crucial processes dictate whether the ultimate way toward profitability and rewards in customers’ feedbacks and appreciation. Once again, the strategy by Lexus presupposes the major use of the second and the fourth processes. By communicating and ruminating on the feedbacks from customers there is enough ground to cope with dos and donts the company weighs for its strategy. It is a case of global significance that the company embraces social media (Gillin & Schwartzman, 2011). To take advantage of current strategy by the company is to take a look at the comments on Twitter, Facebook, and other Web 2.0 resources. By doing so, there is a huge chance to win the race through friendly and strategically-fruitful cooperation with customers. 3.2 Four mandatory steps Keeping in mind that the Social Media Team is a distributor of lawfulness, accuracy, and accountability within the company’s CRM strategy, a set of mandatory actions should be established, namely: 1) Develop a Formal Social Media Policy; 2) Monitor External and Internal Online Communities; 3) Engage Online Communities 4) Act as first responders (Kane, Fichman, Gallaugher, & Glaser, 2009, p. 48, 49). Starting from the first through the third standpoint, the Social Media Team guarantees its openness toward new implications based on the comments and wish lists by the customers. An active presence on Facebook and Twitter makes the work of the team likeable for every user involved into the discussion on the company’s performance and its fads or weak points (Kerpen, 2011). It is a framework to debate and find out solutions for different users of social networks being current or potential customer to the company. On the other hand, the need for monitoring external and internal online communities gives grounds to keep the company in safety from possible threats. As the Internet landscape is really multifaceted and, therefore, deceitful, the Social Media Team is an officer in tracing the language which customers use, ability to conform to the terms and conditions of the social network, etc. In this vein, social media brand awareness stands out as a tool for omitting fraudulent behaviors on the part of the customers and commencing versatile disputes on the products and services the company has on its own (Macy & Thompson, 2011). That is to say, it is all about effective real-time, all-day-long strategies. 3.3 What is it like to be a compelling Social Media Team? Making customers feel safe and confident about their communication with the company via social networks is what the Social Media Team proposes. The idea is that social media lets the corporate organization sigh with relief whilst business organization becomes transparent to everyone willing to collaborate (Levinson, Gibson, & Kawasaki, 2010). Thus, creating a compelling social media voice is a way to tie in with customers for the sake of that they will be talking to you but not about you (Kane, Fichman, Gallaugher, & Glaser, 2009). It is a groundbreaking prospect toward establishing the overall face of the company well-known to the “army” of users independently of whether they share it or not. The thing is that one of the investigations has shown that the majority of users want to use social media just to communicate but not with the purpose of some purchasing decisions: Knowledge Networks study among a nationally representative panel of 500 users aged 13-54 where 47% participate in online social media on a weekly basis, less than 5% use these sites for guidance and purchase decisions (and only 16% of social media users said they would have increased likelihood to buy from a company that advertises on social media sites) (Lowenstein, 2011, p. 303). This is why the main strategy of the Social Media Team today is to talk into all users slightly on the theme of buying or using the company’s products and services, or even reorganizing it in some detail. By and large, acting as first responders on different issues people want to know will be a triggering burst of popularity of the company throughout the social networking community. It is a quest for what the company can do first to meet the requirements of socially-respondent and socially-aware customers. On the other hand, it is another opportunity to strengthen the position of the company among rivals letting them less chance to be popular with the same community of users. In addition, the example of Dell and Apple is striking as both companies have millions of tweets each day so that the board of directors in each company does not wait for feedbacks longer than 1 day (Gillin & Schwartzman, 2011). Opportunities given by the Social Media Team are huge and quite beneficial. Paying attention to each customer and talking on them warmly throughout the Web is a way to build up a family of followers growing every now and then (Brogan, 2010). Hence, taking all four mandatory steps listed and analyzed above, the need for complementing communication with no credit to the products and services but to simple communication is paramount for the Social Media Team. In turn, it will give rise toward faster development of the company in the pursuit of the corporate values throughout the social media community on the most popular social networks and other Web 2.0 tools. 4. Conclusion 4.1 Restatement of the main points All in all, the concept of the Social Media Team approached to the current company’s need for more space among current and potential customers presupposes 24/7/365 availability on-line serving to users in their claims and propositions on everything linked to the company. In this respect the four processes in the balanced scorecard along with the four actions realized with 2.0 relations contemplate the effectiveness in growth and profitability of the company. 4.2 Finishing strokes At a glance, it is really easy to realize: “Yesterday, when customers had a bad service experience, they told 20 people – today they tell thousands” (Roman, 2010, p. 208). This is why keeping up closely with customers online holds the perspective of the future prosperity of the company in its effort to mobilize customers through the use of social media. Reference Bell, C. R., & Patterson, J. R. (2011). Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do About It. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Brogan, C. (2010). Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Carroll, B. (2011). The Hidden Power of Your Customers: 4 Keys to Growing Your Business Through Existing Customers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Curtis, J. C., & Giamanco, B. (2010). The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media. New York, NY: ABC-CLIO. Gillin, P., & Schwartzman, E. (2011). Social Marketing to the Business Customer: Listen to Your B2B Market, Generate Major Account Leads, and Build Client Relationships. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Griffin, J. (2009). Taming the Search-and-Switch Customer: Earning Customer Loyalty in a Compulsion-to-Compare World. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Kane, G. C., Fichman, R. G., Gallaugher, J., & Glaser, J. (2009, November). Community Relations 2.0. Harvard Business Review , 45-50. Kanter, B., & Fine, A. (2010). The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2007, July–August). Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System. Harvard Business Review , 150-161. Kerpen, D. (2011). Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (& Other Social Networks). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional. Levinson, J. C., Gibson, S., & Kawasaki, G. (2010). Guerrilla Marketing for Social Media: 100+ Weapons to Grow Your Online Influence, Attract Customers, and Drive Profits. Irvine, CA: Entrepreneur Press. Lowenstein, M. W. (2011). The Customer Advocate and the Customer Saboteur Linking Social Word-Of-Mouth, Brand Impression, and Stakeholder Behavior. New York, NY: ASQ Quality Press. Macy, B., & Thompson, T. (2011). The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing: How to Attract and Retain Customers and Grow the Bottom Line in the Globally Connected World. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional. Roman, E. (2010). Voice-of-the-Customer Marketing: A Revolutionary 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional. Wollan, R., Smith, N., & Zhou, C. (2011). The Social Media Management Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Get Social Media Working in Your Business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Read More