Social Media – Be Aware or Beware? – Part 2
by Amrith Rajasekaran
What are companies and corporations doing to enhance their presence on the social sphere? For starters, they create accounts on sites like Twitter, Facebook and mySpace. They use these forms of social media to spread awareness about products and also do a lot of branding and marketing activities through these.
With the advent of Twitter, more and more companies are offering ‘help-desk’ like features. They create accounts and employ people to constantly monitor these accounts and provide assistance. The idea is to leverage these social media platforms in helping reduce call center traffic and thereby cutting costs. In addition to just cost cutting, the aim is also to firmly establish a ‘connect’ with the customers. Increasingly, companies are realizing that however great a product they come out with, in the end, it’s the acceptance that determines how well the product does.
Companies now are developing dedicated ‘social media strategies’. They invest heavily on marketing on the internet and create entire marketing campaigns online. By getting to be ‘one-with-the people’, they essentially try to create a fan base by creating not just fans but ‘influencers’, people who go around and actually build the company’s image by recommending it’s products and services. In this day and age, when trust is not really the most easily obtainable thing in the world, companies try to win the trust of the customers by projecting a friendly image and making themselves inherently more sociable.
While some companies merely have a social presence to advertise and spread awareness about their products, others have entire strategies based on these social media sites; a few that instantly spring to mind are Dell, Zappos, Comcast and Starbucks. Frank Elaison, a senior Director of National Customer Service Operations of Comcast set up a Twitter account, ‘@comcastcares’. This account has become a massive hit in the ‘Twitterverse’ with thousands of queries being posted and people receiving quick solutions to their everyday problems. Not just limited to solving everyday problems, they have been very good at channeling the negative comments they recieve. Anyone who has a complaint against Comcast is sure to be heard and responded to. This truly sets them apart from the competition.
Zappos is a unique site that sells apparel and footwear through a website. Now what makes them unique is that they were probably the pioneers of the use of Twitter to do business. Social media is inbred in the company’s corporate culture. Almost all the employees have an active Twitter account and use these to share interesting information with the clients and thus establish a firm relationship with them. The CEO of the company, Tony Hsieh, also plays a vital role in being accessible and providing a heartwarming personality to the entire company as a whole. Such was the tremendous growth of Zappos that it crossed over $1 billion in sales in 2008 itself and was acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion. The reason for the tremendous business has most certainly been the relationship that it has managed to forge with its customers.
Starbucks managed to capture the imagination of its customers by opening up a site that called out to them to give their ideas for what they would like to see in their favorite coffee shop. Not just limiting the customers to ideas about new beverages, Starbucks also asks people to give ideas about merchandise, involvement and the whole ‘Starbucks experience.’ They then actively participate with the customers and incubate these ideas and implement the most feasible ones. Seeing their ideas getting implemented creates a ‘sense of belonging’ among the people and thus improves business.
Lastly, Dell. If one brand has been able to make the utmost use of the social media platform, it’s Dell. They were one of the pioneers in the initial e-commerce model and have now seamlessly integrated social media into this model. They shifted from the broadcasting to the direct communication with such ease and simplicity that no one actually noticed the change. Through their Twitter account, ‘@DellOutlet’, they have managed to garner more than a million followers, which has translated into a revenue of roughly $3 million. Also, they have platforms like ‘Idea Storm’ through which more than 350 user ideas have been implemented. ‘After three years of experimenting, listening and learning, however, we have concluded that social media is ultimately about connecting and communicating across all aspects of our business. This means that while a core social media team remains, the marketing, sales, service and support, and product groups all need to have their own fingers on the pulse and arms around their customers. While social media started as a way for Dell to distribute news and special offers, it has evolved into a critical relationship builder, integrated into all business units’, says Richard Binhammer, a senior manager in corporate communications at Dell.
Thus, it’s quite safe to conclude that social media is a phenomenon that is indeed taking the world by storm. Companies have shown that it is the way forward and they have shown that with a little bit of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking, customers can be converted into ‘friends’ and ‘well-wishers’ who can further your business by reaching out to the people who actually matter, the customers. Social media is the present, and by the looks of it, will be the future too.
About the Author
Amrith Rajasekaran is part of the Product Incubation and Engineering unit. His areas of interest are social media, its impact and potential.
