Resource 2.19 An Introduction to Social Media for Business Types of social media

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1 Page 1 of 5 An Introduction to Social Media for Business Social media is the general term used to describe the growing number of websites and networks whose users can submit and share content, communicate, make contacts, join online communities, comment, vote, and express themselves. Many businesses have taken advantage of the opportunities provided by social media, but others have found adapting to social media difficult as they cannot always control the direction it takes. This guide describes the most common types of social media and how businesses are using them. It analyses, in general terms, how they work and why they have become popular. It also describes the benefits businesses can draw from understanding and using social media, and focuses on marketing, networking, business processes, project management and product development. Finally, it provides hints and tips and sources of further information. Types of social media The more common types of social media include: Social networking sites such as LinkedIn ( MySpace ( and Facebook ( These centre on the 'personal profile', a public page that users customise with information about themselves. On many sites, members can add to their pages with 'widgets' - additional functions that can be placed on a profile to display content from elsewhere such as video, games, or information about their online contacts and friends. Social networking is immensely popular and the biggest sites claim to have hundreds of millions of users. It is used mainly to communicate with other users all over the world. Blogs and blogging. Blogs are similar to personal news sites or diaries, where each entry is dated and tagged with keywords. They run on free software such as WordPress ( or Movable Type ( or can be hosted by external providers such as Blogger ( which is owned by Google. Blogs tend to be themed - writers comment on their hobbies, jobs, politics or lives. The most popular have hundreds of thousands of regular readers (more than many newspaper websites) and are influential enough to make or break the reputation of businesses and public figures. Microblogging. For many people, blogging is rather time consuming and microblogging is more convenient. Twitter ( is the most popular of the microblogging networks as it makes it easy to follow a number of different users, post short public messages (a maximum of 140 characters), and highlight links to interesting content on the web. Creative sharing websites. Sites such as Flickr ( and YouTube ( enable users to upload and display content they have made themselves or found elsewhere. Content can be rated by visitors, and communities form spontaneously around topics or talented individual contributors. Social bookmarking sites such as delicious ( and Digg ( These enable users to recommend interesting content they have found elsewhere, such as news stories, photographs or websites - in fact, anything that can be linked to. Anybody can comment or try to boost the visibility

2 Page 2 of 5 of the links they like by recommending them, and conversation frequently arises in the comments area. Wikis. These are similar to traditional websites, but are really public content management applications that can be edited by anyone. They are a hybrid of word processing application, project management software and blog. Wikipedia ( is the most well-known wiki, but many others are dedicated to a particular theme, such as travel or open source software projects. The business benefits of social media Many businesses have approached social media with an element of suspicion, having heard about how the public can quickly spread damaging stories, or how advertising agencies have been exposed trying to exploit the system and fabricate public interest in new products. While it may be true that embracing social media can mean giving up control of your brand or message, many forward-thinking businesses have recognised the opportunities it can bring. In broad terms, the business benefits of social media include: Marketing and advertising For many businesses the main reason to use social media is to increase exposure and improve their marketing. They advertise to niche audiences on social networking sites, create a buzz around product launches, listen to what customers say about them and their competitors, and use social media to enter into conversations with customers. Concentrating on social media can help your business reduce its marketing expenditure without losing impact. For example: Social media is beginning to provide opportunities for well-targeted online marketing. Advertising networks such as MessageSpace ( provide a channel for advertisers aiming to get online advertising onto specialist blogs and news sites. Facebook, which claims 500 million active users around the world, now offers advertising space that can be targeted precisely to members' ages, interests, locations or social groups. Go to for more information. Social media can boost traffic to a website and, in turn, improve awareness of a business, increase the number of subscribers to newsletters or newsfeeds and increase sales. Inbound links from profiles on social networking sites are only a starting point; it is also possible to benefit from recommendations made by users of social bookmarking sites, Twitter and blogs. Dialogue with customers Social media has provided an advantage to those businesses willing to talk directly and on equal terms with their customers. For example: A blog can be used to demonstrate expertise in a topic that interests customers, to discuss new products and explain how to get the best out of them. Blogging presents opportunities to engage with individual customers, showing that your business is willing to communicate on a personal level. It also keeps a steady stream of current news and information available to visitors. Reading popular blogs will reveal the expertise of many writers, and help you gain insights into

3 what customers really want and how they make buying decisions. They give you the opportunity to read opinions about your business or industry, detect new trends and spot innovations being introduced by your competitors. Typical examples of expert or niche blogs include Travel Rants Blog ( and My Tiny Plot ( Social media also gives your business the chance to improve your products or services, customer care or branding according to customer feedback. Sophisticated tracking services can be used to read what people are saying about your business or your competitors. Unlike responses from focus groups and traditional market research, the content on social media is unfiltered and some businesses have found it difficult to adapt to this new reality. But those who embrace it will learn what people really think of their industries and can feed that knowledge back into their business. Specialist tracking software can help you capture any online comments about your business. Some of the providers of tracking services include Trackur ( Attentio ( and Brandwatch ( Networking Social networking sites not only help you find individuals and businesses, they also help people and other businesses to find your business, so they are useful if you are looking for new contacts, partnerships, or customers for your business. For example, thousands of businesses have profiles on MySpace, which they use to display news, multimedia and contact information. LinkedIn ( and Xing ( are two widely used business networks that can be used to create personal profiles, advertise jobs, and seek the opinions of others in your industry. Resource planning, documentation, and project management Social media can be used to keep teams and departments up to date, especially those with members in different cities or countries. Although traditional collaborative tools such as Intranets and remain essential, wikis are increasingly valued for their flexibility and ease of use. Wikis can be used as a source of internal news, processes, rules and projects, and one of their advantages is that they can be edited by as few or as many people as required. Some businesses have experimented with public wikis, allowing all users to bring their experience to creating documentation and help pages. These have not always been successful (ebay's wiki closed a year after opening in 2006) but are useful in some contexts. A good example is Oracle's public wiki at Future developments in social media Social media is driven both by trends and developments in technology. For example, blogs remain popular but face competition from microblogging, particularly Twitter, which many users regard as simpler and faster. At the forefront of social media are platforms that are experimental or niche but which may show how the movement will develop in future. Some examples include: Page 3 of 5

4 Page 4 of 5 Innocentive ( which enables businesses and governments to access a worldwide network of volunteer scientific experts to solve complex problems in exchange for a set fee. Local Motors ( which uses 'crowdsourcing' to design and build cars. Users discuss and vote on the most suitable designs, then participate in developing individual parts, and can finally get involved in building the vehicle and driving it home. Virtual worlds such as Habbo Hotel ( and Second Life ( are similar to social networking but use a threedimensional graphical interface allowing participants to create their own characters and interact with other users. Tracking social media 'conversations' As well as the paid tracking services mentioned earlier, there are many free resources for tracking conversational trends on social networks, monitoring brand reputation and checking for news about your industry. Technorati ( and Google Blog Search ( offer frequently updated search engines for blogs. Users can search for keywords, keep an eye on new trends or popular news stories, set up automated searches and receive s when certain words have been mentioned. Tweetdeck ( and Tweetscan ( are two options for tracking what people are talking about on Twitter. Friendfeed ( gathers content that users have chosen to share on other social media sites such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook, and displays it with the opportunity for others to comment. Users can follow 'friends' (their contacts), and the site can be searched with keywords to see what other users are saying about any topic you choose. Hints and tips Unlike traditional software, social media tools should not cost your business much to implement. Branded platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are currently free of charge to use, and there is a great deal of free software available from Sourceforge at Social media is an excellent source of competitive intelligence and may be used to research information provided by competitors, such as new product launches and industry trends. Analysis is crucial when using social media for marketing. Google Analytics ( is essential for discovering where website visitors are coming from and which methods are working best. The Web Analytics Association ( offers a series of audio interviews that discuss the best way to measure the impact of everything from podcasts to blogs. You should devise a policy and set of standards for any staff using social media on behalf of your business. IBM has published a set of guidelines at that are useful as a starting point.

5 Don't forget to link all of your social media profiles back to your business' website. Page 5 of 5