Social media has forever changed the way corporations and consumers interact. These “breakthrough” technologies have enabled new collaborations, improved transparency, and rapid information sharing. They have also facilitated direct customer engagement and acted as innovation platforms for corporate marketing. 

The top three reasons Enterprises need to socially enable their business practices are:

1. Productivity Improvement – Studies have shown that, on average, worker efficiency and effectiveness increase 15%.
2. Increased Sales – Social engagement with customers multiplies the SEO effect, increases inbound leads, enables improved customer satisfaction, and drives offline sales.
3. Brand Enhancement – Creativity and relevance is increasingly judged by a company’s social and online capabilities.

The business case is simple: Enterprises’ “go social” initiatives are strategic imperatives with significant ROI.

Unfortunately, the complexity of the Social Media space is increasing rapidly. There are currently multiple social media technologies categories that executive leadership needs to understand, deploy, and leverage. The primary types are:

• Social Marketing Management – Enables companies to manage and maintain content, engage social connections, and report across multiple social media channels.
• Social Publishing – Enables companies to maintain a consistent brand image by scheduling and publishing interactive content like polls, quizzes and puzzles into multiple languages across multiple market segments.
• Social Business Software – These enterprise-wide productivity enhancement tools enable employees to communicate, collaborate and find information more effectively.
• Listening Tools – Monitors multiple social media channels to understand what customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about the companies.
• Social Advertising – Provides the ability to create, execute and track advertising campaigns involving paid and earned media.
• Social Analytics – Enables companies to analyze and interpret social associations and interactions while helping uncover customer sentiment.
• Social CRM – Engages the customer in a collaborative conversation to foster an environment of trust, transparency and information sharing.

All of these social technologies have become critical to the Enterprise. Social media can provide:

• A more effective and efficient workforce.
• A higher probability of sales closing.
• An improved brand image.

Making the transition to a genuinely Social Enterprise requires Executive leadership, an innovation mindset, and significant Organizational Change Management support.

 Common Questions

1. What makes Social Business Software so powerful internally for the Enterprise: Leveraging social technologies to help staff connect and share valuable information, strengthening collaboration, and spend less time searching for information improves the Enterprise’s ability to leverage human capital.

2. What makes this social medium so powerful for Sales and Marketing?  From a Sales and Marketing perspective, time spent on all things digital will surpass TV in 2013. Social media and online video will be a significant component of that sea change. Engaging customers where they “Hang Out” is increasingly important and will help win over new customers and improves the corporate brand.

3. How does the Social Enterprise get campaigns to go viral?  It all starts with original creative content and engaging highly influential people online. Social media is the first platform that enables the widespread ability to engage with key influencers. These are people that have extensive networks and actively promote content via viral word of mouth.

 4. What immediate gains will we get from becoming a Social Enterprise? Having a fragmented online and social presence causes brand confusion and increases the probability that customers will defect. Thoroughly managing the organization’s social footprint allows companies to streamline their presence, decide which social technology to focus on, and ensures proper brand management. Addition benefits include increased inbound leads, engagement with younger audiences, improved relationships with potential buyers, measurable improvements in customer service and satisfaction, and a more efficient sales process.

HBSC Strategic Services helps corporations reinvent themselves in the new era of SMAC – Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud. We work closely with clients to help define their social roadmap and realign organizational goals, business architectures, policies, processes, and structures to transform their businesses into a new Social Enterprise.

For more information please contact us at client-development@hbsconsult.com or visit us at www.hbconsult.com.