Jetstar and Social Media

After much dilemma and a lot research, I have decided to use Jetstar for my second assignment.   The choice of using Jetstar became more apparent after my recent experience with them.

Jetstar Group

Jetstar has carried more than 2oo million passengers since it was  launched in Australia in 2004.  Jetstar’s mission is to offer low fares to enable more people to fly to more places, more often.  Wholly owned subsidiary of the Qantas Group, Jetstar Airways forms an integral part of the Qantas Group’s two-brand strategy, operating in the leisure and value-based market.

While Jetstar operates from both Australia and New Zealand, for the focus of this assignment, Jetstar New Zealand will be the focus.

Jetstar Airways in Australia

Jetstar Airways Pty Limited launched its Australian low-fare operations in May 2004.  Jetstar offers flights to and from 19 Australian domestic and 17 short and long-haul overseas destinations and is currently the third largest airline (by domestic market share) and a top five international airline by capacity share, serving international routes to and from Australia.

 Jetstar Airways in New Zealand

Jetstar was launched in New Zealand in December 2005 for international flight and in June 2009, domestic flights commenced. Jetstar now operates more than 50 weekly international return services between Australia  New Zealand and over 200 weekly return domestic flights in new Zealand.

A fleet of 9 Airbus A320s and 5 Bombardier Q300s are based in New Zealand supporting Jetstar’s New Zealand domestic and international operations. (Q300s are operated by Eastern Australian Airlines for Jetstar Airways).

David Hall is the Chief Executive of Jetstar’s Australia and New Zealand business  while Grant Kerr is Head of Jetstar in New Zealand.  More information can be found here.

Use of Social Media

Jetstar is an active social media user. In March 2011, Jetstar had announced spending 40 percent of marketing budget into social media and online channels.

  Social media networks for Jetstar includes:

• Facebook – has over 105,393 likes and promises to reply within one day.
• Twitter – has 3,786 followers and has 3,574 tweets.
• LinkedIn –  Jetstar’s professional network has over 24,770 followers
• Pinterest –  has 62 pins and over 100 followers
• Instagram – has more than 160,00 posts.
• Google – has over 5,500 views

Jetstar even has it’s own blog page .

Image retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/JetstarNZ/

This link will take you directly to Jetstar’s social media newsroom.

 

Social media plays a vital role for Jetstar.  Not only it uses it for business purpose,  creating community posts and awareness is also of prime interest.

Return on Investment (ROI): Analytics and Measurement

Intro:

Return on investment (ROI) is the benefit to an investor resulting from an investment of some resource.  A high ROI means the investment gains compare favourably to investment cost. As a performance measure, ROI is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. In purely economic terms, it is one way of considering profits in relation to capital invested.

Maturing from an experiment to a core business strategy, social media is now an impactful marketing channel that needs to compete against other channels—for budget, resources, and respect. This means that social, like other channels, has to prove its return on investment.

Measuring the return on your social media investment is no longer optional. To secure executive buy-in for social marketing strategies—and larger, dedicated budgets—digital and marketing leaders need to confidently demonstrate how social media efforts are contributing to an organization’s broader business goals.

Measuring and tracking social media return on investment (ROI) accurately also lets marketers put more time and resources into what’s working, and improve the tactics that aren’t delivering real value. To help you evaluate your social media ROI, we’ve put together the following guide.

Social media ROI

Social media ROI = (SM return – SM investment) / SM investment percent.

Like any formula, the math is easy if you have all the variables. In his book “Social Media ROI: Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in your Organization,” author Oliver Blanchard explains that the ability to measure financial outcomes by a dollar value is significant because, “The investment, the gain, and the return must be measured in the same currency (the unit of measure of the investment, the gain, and the return must be the same in order for the ROI equation to function), only a financial outcome can qualify as a proper gain or return. In other words, financial outcomes are the culmination of any investment. This is where return is always measured.

Hoffman and Fodor recommended starting with the 4C’s of consumer motivations identifying these principles as:

1. Connect– consumers use social media to build connections with friends & other consumers
2. Create – user created content through blog comments, Facebook posts, tweets etc.
3. Consume – engage with on-line content such as YouTube clips, video and articles
4. Control – consumers taking control by choosing how, when and where they engage – consider this point when contemplating the effects of advertising during movies and sports events

Linking engagement to activity, building loyalty and putting customers in the control seat. To measure ROI organisations can use this approach by linking the probability of future sales activity to specific social media channels.

Measuring Social Media ROI

No business wants to put money and resources into something that doesn’t pay off. Will the results from the channel make the effort, time, and cost worth it? How will you prove this? Is there content that will perform better and show a higher ROI? How is this going to be measured?

There are various barriers to measuring the ROI which include limited resources, such as money and staffing, and increasingly the speed that social media is changing and evolving.  Given how quickly new types of social media are becoming part of our daily lives, it is no surprise that businesses may struggle to keep up with the pace of implementing them.  The following are some of the reasons that businesses gave up trying to measure ROI on social media:

• 56 percent: an inability to tie social media to business outcomes
• 39 percent: a lack of analytics, expertise and/or resources
• 38 percent: poor tools
• 35 percent: inconsistent analytical approaches
• 30 percent: unreliable data

The table above shows how social media ROI may be measured based on likes, follows, pins, email sign ups.

While it may seem difficult at first sight to prove these hesitations wrong, there are numerous tools available to help you. Once you’ve established your social media goals, you’ll need to identify and implement these tools and processes required to measure the ROI on your social media. This may involve adding tracking codes to URLs, building custom landing pages, and more.

There are a variety of social media analytics tools which service to track the diverse metrics you are after. Here are some to consider:

• Google Analytics: Track website traffic, on-site conversions, and sign-ups originating from social media campaigns.
• Salesforce: Add Salesforce tracking codes to the links you share on social networks. When paired with marketing automation software like Marketo, you’ll be able to track sales leads back to specific campaigns or social messages.
• Hootsuite Analytics: Hootsuite offers a variety of analytics tools to help you track your reach, conversions and more. A few noteworthy examples are:
• Hootsuite Insights will help you identify conversations within your industry, your reach, brand sentiment, and much more, with 100 million data sources, real-time results, and an intuitive interface.
• Custom URL parameters allows you to track which social networks and social messaging did or did not drive traffic to your site, blog, or landing page.
• Hootsuite Analytics Reports offer quick snapshots of your reach through metrics like follower growth, total daily URL click-through, and per-post stats for Facebook, Twitter, and more

Jason Falls makes a good observation noting that successful social media programmes are more about people than money therefore the traditional ROI doesn’t apply. This may be true however in my view social media contribution to building relationships and trust are indirect contributors to the traditional ROI measure. The strength lies in their ability to create a customer-centric business through generating customer motivations to engage.

Why is measuring ROI important?

• Proving the value of social media to your organization’s overall goals and business objectives
• Allowing you to clearly see where efforts and resources are being used efficiently
• Enabling you to evaluate where resources are being wasted, or not used as efficiently as possible
• Allowing you to recognize gaps in strategy, key messages, and content
• Showing where your social media budget is being used most effectively, and showing areas where it can be pulled back

Food For Thought?

According to recent industry reports, one of the top five social media marketing questions asked is “How do I measure social media ROI”.  Out of 88% that raised this question, only 37% said they were able to measure it.  A whopping 78% of marketers said they had trouble measuring social media ROI. Based on this, is measuring social media ROI beneficial or is it the Brand value that social media adds and the engagement it creates?

 

 

References

A Comprehensive Guide to Social Media ROI – Source:https://blog.hootsuite.com/measure-social-media-roi-business/

Etlinger, S. & Li, C. (2011). A framework for social analytics including six use cases for social media measurement. Altimeter Group, US. http://www.altimetergroup.com/research/reports/a-framework-for-social-analytics

Hoffman, D. L. & Fodor, M. (2010). Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing? MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), 41-49.

https://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/author/jason-falls/

A Comprehensive Guide to Social Media ROI

https://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-ROI-Measuring-Organization/dp/0789747413/188-3029734-7826561?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

 

Social Media Strategy

After writing 8 blogs, I am struggling to keep this blog fresh and exciting.  Anyway, this week’s learning is focusing on the following aspects of Social Media Strategy:

• How would you define a social media strategy and a social business strategy? How are they different?
• What are the elements of a social business strategy?
• What are the success factors of a social business strategy?

Social Media Strategy Vs Social Business Strategy

How does businesses like Jet Star, Air New Zealand and Rebel Sports NZ gets so many likes and followers in Face Book, Twitter and other social media networks? Has there been any planning involved or are they random updates?  Obviously these are big businesses and they wouldn’t put information or posts on social media without strategic planning, and therefore much planning and resources would have gone into their social media strategy.  Social business strategy goes hand in hand into social media strategy .

 

Social media strategies addresses ‘how social media can be used whereas Social business strategy is ‘the set of visions, goals, plans, and resources that align social media initiatives with business objectives’ (Li and Solis, 2013, p.7).  Weber (2011) describes how effective social media for businesses relies on the strong connection with business goals, so simply being on Instagram or Twitter doesn’t cut it

A successful social-media strategy is all about targeting the right people with the right messages. Social media is one of the most powerful tools in marketing  and if you used correctly, you can create a strong personal connection with your prospective customer.  To benefit from social media, you need to build a clear strategy that takes into account what you’re trying to achieve, who your customers are and what your competitors are doing.

Creating Social Media Strategy

The 2013 Altimeter report by Li and Solis  makes two very important distinctions concerning the success of a social business strategy;  alignment with the business goals and organisational alignment to deliver to those goals.

The Altimeter report also identified six distinct phases of development that can lead to a successful social business, namely:

1. Planning – listening to learn – this involves finding out about their customers social behaviour.  As with any journey, the first step in creating a social-media marketing strategy is to understand where you want to go. What is the purpose of your social media marketing efforts?
2. Presence – staking a claim – using mature channels such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube to cultivate a following with simple measures such as the number of likes, hits, re-tweets, traffic counts etc. that provide a gauge on interest and potential engagement
3. Engagement – deepening relationships though dialogue – connecting a deepening customer care relationship through listening, consulting and advising. For example, an energy company providing simple ideas on power saving methods, or advise on how to adjust your winter bill.
4. Formalised – organising for scale – establishing organisation wide governance. Engagement across the business especially at executive level. Create process and discipline.
5. Strategic – becoming a social business – integrating into all areas of the business – best practice developing metrics framework, such as including within a Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure engagement, activity, loyalty, referral levels & outcomes.
6. Converged – social becomes fully integrated within the business strategy. Social drives transformation– the business is social

Success factors of a social business strategy

There are seven factors of success defined by Altimeter report as outlined below:

1. Business goal definition – align your business goals in line with your overall business strategy.
2. Staffing – having adequate resources within your company to specialise in this area by utilising outsourced specialist capability to develop standards whilst building internal capabilities.
3. Long term vision to become a social business – inform everyone involved exactly why and what you are trying to achieve. Communicating the long term vision to stakeholders and initiating organisational change aligned to delivering the strategy.
4. Key executive support –developing the social business culture using a top down approach.  Top level executive cascading support to lower level staffs.
5. Initiate road map – have a plan in place that is much longer than the initial set up phase or even first few years. How are you going to review and evaluate if your social business strategy is working? This is a process to re-evaluate, assess and monitor performance against your objectives.
6. Process discipline and ongoing education – this is about planning and staff training across the business. The continual and relentless drive to  excel.
7. Technology selection only after strategy is set – Rushing into technology selection before setting your strategy can be an unwise decision.  Only once your strategy is aligned, then technology should be chosen to help implement your goals.

‘social media only succeeds if a solid strategy is in place to make the brand internally social as well as externally social. Many brands have jumped on to the new shiny, enticing tools only to realize that the tools selected are not appropriate for the job.’

 

References:

Li, C. & Solis, B. (2013). The evolution of social business: Six stages of social business transformation. Altimeter Group. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/Altimeter/the-evolution-of-social-business-six-stages-of-social-media-transformation

Frank Media.  (2013).  Social Business Strategy.  Retrieved from http:://frankmedia.com.au/frank-social-business-strategy/

KPMG (2011). Social media: The voyage of discovery for business. KPMG Research Report, July, Sydney

The Social Media Voyage for business.  Source: file:///C:/Users/saleshni/AppData/Local/Temp/social-media-the-voyage-of-discovery-for-business.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

Online Communities & Communities of Practice

Week 8 of Social Media for business introduces COP – Communities of Practice. In this blog I will try to analyze what are the characteristics of COP and their relevance to business strategy, and their benefits and limitations of online communities.

Today’s economy runs on knowledge,  and use of cross-functional teams, customer- or product-focused business units, and work groups to capture and spread ideas. In many cases, these ways of organizing are very effective, and no one would argue for their demise. But a new organizational form is emerging that promises to complement existing structures and radically galvanize knowledge sharing, learning, and change. It’s called the community of practice.

Etienne Wenger summarizes Communities of Practice (COP) as “groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

The author (Etienne Wenger) noted three important elements:

1. Domain – an identity formed through a domain of shared interest. Being a part of the domain implies commitment & therefore a shared competence distinguishing members from non-members.
2. The Community – has shared interest in its domain and engage in building relationships that enable them to learn from one another. Commitment to the community can run deeply within its members.
3. The practice – members of a community of practice are practitioners. Over time they develop tools and a practice that is enduring an beneficial to its members

 

Characteristics of COP

Communities of practice have different names in all organizations. They are known under various names, such as learning networks, thematic groups, or tech clubs. Communities of practice have been around for as long as human beings have learned together. At home, at work, at school, in our hobbies, we all belong to communities of practice, a number of them usually. In some we are core members. In many we are merely peripheral. And we travel through numerous communities over the course of our lives.

The concept has been adopted most readily by people in business because of the recognition that knowledge is a critical asset that needs to be managed strategically.  COP is used for:

• Sharing and co-learning about related practices across projects.
• Learning while doing.
• Support for practitioners spread across the globe.
• Professional development.

Communities of practice are as diverse as the situations that give rise to them. People in companies form them for a variety of reasons. For example, when a company re-organizes into a team-based structure, employees with functional expertise may create communities of practice as a way of maintaining connections with peers. Sometimes people may form communities in response to changes originating outside the organization, such as the rise of e-commerce, or inside, such as new company strategies—think of auto manufacturers going into the financing business or computer makers offering consulting services.

COP and Business Strategy

The COP raises the capability and facilitates innovation through the cross-domain exchange. As a business strategy a COP offers a lot of value. The informality and passion that drive COP’s if harnessed effectively can be a very effective business tool.

The infrastructure to support COP’s doesn’t need to be complex. It needs to be simple and easy to use  social media tools, like blogs, wikis, discussion forums, on-demand video/teleconferences etc. are highly effective.

An example from Hewlett-Packard, where a community of practice consisting of product-delivery consultants from around North America holds monthly teleconferences. The community focuses on an HP software product called High Availability, which minimizes computer downtime for customers. The core group of consultants, who had been somewhat isolated, came together a few years ago with the help of facilitators from a knowledge management support team. The members discovered that they had many problems in common and that they could learn a great deal from one another. The community has succeeded in standardizing the software’s sales and installation processes and establishing a consistent pricing scheme for HP salespeople.

Online Communities

An online community is a virtual community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. For many, online communities may feel like home, consisting of a “family of invisible friends.  An online community can act as an information system where members can post, comment on discussions, give advice or collaborate. Commonly, people communicate through social networking sites, chat rooms, forums, e-mail lists and discussion boards. People may also join online communities through social media like blogs and virtual worlds.

What is an online community of practice?

The evolution of Internet and Web technologies has:

• Impacted on the way individuals communicate;
• Greatly enhanced the development of communities online; and
• Provided the opportunity for online communities of practice to facilitate the creation, refinement, sharing and use of knowledge effectively between individuals.

Benefits And Limitations

An online community of practice requires more than simply transferring a community of practice to an online environment.

Technology infrastructures have to be created to support the functioning of online communities of practice to overcome barriers that do not occur in co-located communities of practice. These barriers include:

– Time: to meet and communicate;

– Size: membership may be large and involve many locations;

– Affiliation: members spread across organisations; and

– Culture: members experience different organisational cultures.

Can communities of practice be totally supported and operated online? An ongoing debate is whether or not communities of practice can be virtual. Two key issues raised in this debate concern:

• Whether relationship and trust can be built online
• Whether tacit knowledge and practice can be shared online.

Limitations:

• Very little information is available regarding bilingual online communities of practice.
• Conducting online discussions in multiple languages is complicated.
• Designing a bilingual website requires more than translating the words.
• Providing bilingual websites makes an important statement regarding the value of that culture to society.
• More research is required into the provision of bilingual online communities of practice.

Benefits of online communities of practice include:

 

• Membership is diverse;
• Leadership is strong;
• Technology is used appropriately;
• There is an emphasis on participation and community building; and
• They are long-term

 

It should be noted that communities of practice can be very effective in a digital world, where the working context is volatile, complex, uncertain and ambiguous.  A large part of the lifelong learning market will become occupied by communities of practice and self-learning, through collaborative learning, sharing of knowledge and experience, and crowd-sourcing new ideas and development.

Reference:

Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of practice: A brief introduction.   Retrieved from  http://wenger-trayner.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/07-Brief-introduction-to-communities-of-practice.pdf

Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier. Source: https://hbr.org/2000/01/communities-of-practice-the-organizational-frontier

Online Community.  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community

 

 

The 4Cs of Social Media

Social networking is when a person uses already existing contacts to meet new people; creating potential social or business links. Such links, in turn, will help expand future connections. Small and local businesses may already do this offline simply by attending community events or participating in trade shows, etc.

Anything that gets your company name out there, or connects you to helpful resources, is considered networking. Technology has brought this essential activity online, giving businesses the opportunity to further develop network relationships in new ways.

Social networking can be compared to the concept of the six degrees of separation, based on the idea that any two people can be connected through a chain of five or less intermediaries. Through social media sites, people join, and then invite their established contacts to do the same. Those contacts will likewise invite other individuals.

After reading this weeks notes and doing some research, I will try analyzing the following:

• What are the Four C’s and why are they important to Social media and social networking
• What is Cisco’s S.O.C.I.A.L approach
• What are personal knowledge networks and how they be developed for personal and organizational advantage

The concept of the 4Cs  was introduced in a  social media article “How Social Software Will Change the World” (Cook, N. 2008) .

The 4Cs are defined below:

1. Connection
2. Collaboration
3. Communication
4. Co-operation

Connection + Collaboration + Communication + Co-operation = Social Media Marketing

Connection

Not everyone you are trying to reach via social media is a customer. Some of the most important connections within a connection base are influential people in various social circles.

Connection refers to the networking technologies making it possible to connect with other known or unknown people.

An organization will benefit if they allow it’s employees to come together, share and use each others information by making the workplace more knowledgeable.  By allowing connections between employees to happen, the business may allow people to work more time efficiently and finish projects to a much higher standard.

Collaboration

Collaboration is the most integrated form of group work, and is therefore potentially the most difficult and the most rewarding. In the case of collaboration, the group members work toward a common goal, one that carries a mutual investment. For example, in a project, employees or contractors may each work on different areas, consulting each other.

Collaboration refers to encouraging employees to come together on issues and ideas and collaborate with each other, directly or indirectly.   With indirect collaboration people come together and wait for the moment when a solution magically appears before them. On the opposite end of the spectrum direct collaboration requires leadership and is a better option if you want a solution now.  If businesses allow for both kinds of collaboration they are covering all bases. The main concept here is to allow employee to collaborate: two brains is better than one!

Communication

In today’s world, news travels faster then ever before, people demand and expect information when they want it and how they want it.  People need to communicate to express their views, opinions and thoughts. Communication needs to be clear, consistent, convenient and compelling.

 

Three motivators behind informal communication (Festinger, 1950):
– Need for people to share … to feel that they belong together in the group.
– People need to share hopes, ambitions … achievement, affiliation and power.
– People need to express emotions

Co-operation

Cooperation is important in networks where individuals exchange relevant information and resources in support of each others goals, rather than a shared goal. Something new may be achieved as a result, but it arises from the individual, not from a collective team effort.

 
Large quantities of relevant, education-based, and perhaps user-generated content is filtered, aggregated, and delivered in a context that makes it useful for people who are starving to make connections with people, products, and brands they can build a community around.

In order to fully leverage your social media networking opportunities, you need to:

• Use appropriate networking strategies to establish and maintain relationships that promote the development of business opportunities.
• Identify and pursue network opportunities to maximize a range of contacts.
• Communicate information regarding new networks to inform individuals, colleagues and clients of potential benefits.
• Participate in professional networks and associations to obtain and maintain personal knowledge and skills.

Modern organizations understand they need to react to a rapidly changing business environment quickly. The need to address customer demands, react to competitive threats, and improve profitability, is largely dependent on the way employees interact and engage, collaborate and communicate – not only with each other, but also with business partners and customers.

What is Cisco’s S.O.C.I.A.L approach?

Cisco is a company that learnt early on that savvy buyers now use social media to gather information, connect with their peers and share their experiences. This gives companies the opportunity to grow and nurture online relationships.  So they created the bewlo social approach:

• S – Scalable – to train and empower employees and SME’s to scale your soil efforts globally.
• O – Open – to lead from the top by encouraging executives to participle in an open and transparent manner.
• C – Consistent – to adopt an “always on” mindset to show commitment to ongoing conversations with your audience.
• I – Intuitive – to make it easy to connect with your brand and SME by providing easy to navigate web and social experiences.
• A – Active – to create and share informative and interesting content to trigger and sustain conversations.
• L – Limitless – to be flexible and tailor your plan based on the executives comfort level and consideration to the target market.

 

What is Personal Knowledge Management

Personal knowledge management (PKM),  is a collection of processes that a person uses to gather, classify, store, search, retrieve, and share knowledge in his or her daily activities and the way in which these processes support work activities . It is a response to the idea that knowledge workers increasingly need to be responsible for their own growth and learning.

PKM is a set of processes, individually constructed, to help each of us make sense of our world, work more effectively, and contribute to society.

References

Chapter 3  Cook, N.  (2008).  Enterprise 2.0:  How social software will change the future of work.  Hampshire:  Gower Publishing Ltd.

Personal Knowledge Management: source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_knowledge_management

Social Media In The Work Place

It’s my tea break.  Let me check how many people have liked my new profile picture….
Busy writing this business case and twitter notification pops up on the phone.  oh I need to check it out quickly.  It will just be a minute maximum…..
I am stuck and need more information to solve this issue.  OK let’s use google….
I don’t like the products of that company…let me write a bad review on their Facebook page….

While most organizations understand that social media use in the workplace is a reality, their approach to managing it varies.  There are some organizations who either want to simply block altogether all social media applications for use at work and there are some who want to allow all or some social media applications like Facebook and Twitter . But most work places are keen on striking a balance of acceptable use.

Even organizations who have a general understanding about why social media should be allowed in a corporate setting, they are still in one of two camps: those who embrace social applications willingly for its ability to enable business agility and those who embrace it grudgingly, worrying in the back of their minds about how these applications may be impacting worker productivity.  Let’s explore some of these hesitations and issue, and how they can be managed for a healthy work-life balance.

 Business Use of Social Media

With a number of social networks offering a slightly different approach to sharing, interaction and communication, there’s a platform available for all strategies and business types.

With an expected 2.44 billion people to be using social media by 2018, can you afford to ignore it as a resource of marketing, recruitment and engagement?

Let’s look at some advantages of using social media at work:

• Social media’s great for company culture – people know how to use social media and are comfortable with it. Allowing employees to interact with each other through a social medium is a great way to enable a cohesive culture and encourage individuals to communicate with each other from disparate locations.
• Social media improves collaboration – although many assume that social media is only for non-work related interaction, the functionality included is often extremely useful for business collaboration. The ability to share data in any form, quickly and easily (and often for free), with a large number of people or specific teams, makes social media an invaluable tool for collaboration.
• Social media provides a channel for advocacy – allowing the use of social media by employees can provide a brand with an advertising channel that is not only free, but very influential.
• Social media’s a great way to network – any productive employee will need to network with other people. Sales is all about networking, whether this is with an existing lead or sourcing new ones. Business leaders can nurture opportunities for business partnerships and relationships.
• Marketing can build and manage the company’s brand online – free form of advertising and engaging people. Creates brand awareness and distinction.  Enables people to like or familiarize with brands.
• Recruiting teams can search for and engage with talent. To grow a business, everyone needs to have the trust, ability and tools necessary to do so. If a company is completely insular, then it will be quickly surpassed by its competitors that are embracing new technologies and strategies using social media.
  

Use Of social Media During Work Hours

Research shows that a majority of employees who access Facebook during their workday act as “social voyeurs,” meaning the application is running in the background as they continue their normal tasks.Most employees keep Facebook or Twitter open in the background while they’re at work, like email.

 

The addition of new features such as the “Like” button, a more interactive Timeline and greater integration with other websites (and apps) is likely driving the increase in more interactive use of Facebook. Like the growth of social applications alongside IM, more widespread access to better tools leads to more time spent being interactive online. This is a trend that is likely to continue, and one that smart businesses can leverage to their advantage. This closely matches the way that most people use their email at work – .  an always-on communication tool, albeit one with a much more business-critical focus.

Employers’ Concern

The biggest concern from an employers’ perspective is that employees who use social applications are less productive than employees that do not. It is deemed that staff spend a lot of time checking their social media pages instead of working their full shifts.  Perception is that at times employees start interactions including chatting which takes up time and concentration away from daily work. However, research has shown that employees who are always connected (thanks to personal devices like smart phones) take shorter work breaks than ever before (down an average of 35 minutes per day).

These same devices and remote access to enterprise applications also means employees regularly work during “off hours,” increasing overall productivity. After all, how often do you check your smartphone for work-related email, tweets, etc. during ‘off hours’? In addition to productivity as it ties to time worked, there are also the productivity bonuses associated with the ability to safely use social networks like Facebook and Twitter to meet corporate business objectives in areas like marketing, customer service and sales.

Enterprise executives are not just enduring this evolution in communication, but many are embracing and proactively seeking ways to use these social applications to form connections with their customers and their employees. Finally, more and more forward-thinking organizations are leveraging the trend towards more digital interaction and are turning towards advanced collaboration tools to improve company’s efficiency, overall.

Cultural Differences

We all know that social media can be very effective for promoting and marketing brands, but what about it’s effect on your company’s productivity?

I’m sure there are many managers out there who have or are struggling with the question of allowing employees to use social media in the office.

I know that I’ve seen some that do allow their staff to use it and some that lock it all down. I have to wonder though, is productivity any more of a problem since social media came along?

Has social media really created the problem or is it simply drinking coffee in the kitchen where staff may gather to while away a little time?

Of course Twitter and Facebook etc can be distracting. However, is it whether you should be blaming the technology or your own hiring and management practices is the dilemma here. It’s just too easy to point the finger at something such as social and rationalize that blocking it will increase productivity.

Arguably it is wrong to adopt policies which affect those who are productive and put in the extra effort both in the office and outside normal hours.  Some employers out there think that they own the employees between 8am to 5pm and show little or no real appreciation for the extra work taken home or stayed and worked late in the office or come early to work.

People Need A Break Now And Then

Perhaps employees are distracted because moral is low due to a bad environment. A recent Canadian study found that 35% of HR people said their organization would tolerate just about anything from a manager so long as they got results – leaving HR to clean up the mess, if possible. 73% of HR people reported they spend a significant amount of time dealing with problems caused by bad managers.

Some people like to stare out the window on sunny days and daydream – does this mean they should be bricked up? If  employees are distracted by social media then it’s a staffing/culture issue and taking the easy way out by blaming the web or social media is simply glazing over a deeper problem. If  company supervisors are pointing the finger at social media as the issue then perhaps  taking a good hard look at how they manage their people is more important.

It’s really a human nature problem and that’s pretty much always the case. Technology is an avenue and not the driver. Those folks who seem to be distracted so much by social would probably be waylaid if a penny rolled by their feet. They’d find other things to waste time with, be it chatting by the water cooler or wandering the halls chatting up coworkers. Social media didn’t create a problem with productivity in the workplace, it just happens to be the latest and greatest way for those individuals to while away time at jobs they are not engaged by.

People do need a brain break every so often.  Research shows that we work best if we take a little break every 25 minutes or so. In other words, heavy focus on the task for 25 minutes then take five or ten minutes to reset the brain for the next task. So, having that little distraction via Twitter or Facebook might actually enhance performance for some. At least one recent university study reported in the New Yorker backs that up and suggests companies offer staff “internet breaks” to increase productivity.

A smart workplace policy on social applications is one that supports employees’ natural inclination to use these apps intelligently while still ensuring the company is safeguarded from security risks. It also puts into context the reality of how these technologies are really used at work and points towards opportunities for businesses to leverage their employees’ desire to collaborate with each other online. Finally, it’s important to realize that effective social media use policies are often linked to enterprise-specific collaboration tools as well, which are often delivered online via Web applications.

As a parting thought, I’d recommend that when it comes to determining access to social applications in the workplace, keep the lines of communication open – and yet secure – within the company as well as externally with your partners and vendors. Understanding what Web applications employees are using in your company allows safely enable not only company-sanctioned applications, but also the ones used by your company’s most effective and efficient workers. By ultimately creating a balance that allows the effective use of technology while hedging against some failings in human behavior, you can make sure that your employees are always able to benefit from the best social and collaboration tools that the web has to offer.  Of course employees work ethics plays a vital role as well.

References

• Does Social Media Actually Cripple Productivity in the Office? Source: http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/07/social-media-actually-cripple-productivity-office/
• In Praise of Distraction. Source: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/04/11/in-praise-of-distractionKennedy, M. & Sakaguchi, T.  (2009).  Chapter XII Trust in social networking: Definitions from a global, culture viewpoint.  In C. Romm-Livermore & K. Setzekorn.  Social networking communities and e-dating services:  Concepts and implications (pp. 225-238).  Hershey, NY: Information Science Reference.
• Mello, J. A. (2012). Social media, employee privacy and concerted activity: Brave new world or big brother? Labor Law Journal, 63 (3), 165-173, Retrieved from Business Source Complete Database

• The Next Generation of Social Media in the Office. Source: http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/The-Next-Generation-of-Social-Media-in-the-Office?gko=bb000

Social Media And The State

A very interesting topic to write about.  I recall the days when the first we would hear anything about the government used to be via the 6pm news on the telly.   Now I log into Facebook and see feeds and posts on parliament updates from various sources.  How has this changed? What changes has the state made so that the public can know more about things that matters? What is the benefit of using social media by the government?

The Turning Point

Rapidly growing interest in the upper house affairs and the recognition of the citizen’s rights has brought many positive changes in how information has become readily available to the public via the use of social media and internet based sources.

The government holds data on behalf of the New Zealand public and they release it to enable the private and community sectors to use it to grow the economy, strengthen social and cultural fabric, and sustain the environment. The release of this information helps the public, local communities and the business sector to make informed decisions in regards to government related matters.

Through this commitment New Zealand citizens and businesses can expect a more efficient and accountable public sector, more services tailored to their needs, and a greater level of participation in shaping government decisions.

A programme of work called “Open Government Information and Data” was initiated in 2008 and, is currently hosted by Land Information New Zealand, and led by the Open Government Data Chief Executives Governance Group, and the Open Government Data Steering Group.   The Declaration on Open and Transparent Government was approved by Cabinet on 8 August 2011.

Benefits Of Open Government data

There are four key benefits of releasing government data:

• Improving government – Open data is improving government, primarily by tackling corruption and increasing transparency, and enhancing public services and resource allocation.
• Empowering citizens – Open data is empowering citizens to take control of their lives and demand change by enabling more informed decision making and new forms of social mobilization, both in turn facilitated by new ways of communicating and accessing information.
• Creating opportunity – Open data is creating new opportunities for citizens and organizations, by fostering innovation and promoting economic growth and job creation.
• Solving public problems – Open data is playing an increasingly important role in solving big public problems, primarily by allowing citizens and policymakers access to new forms of data-driven assessment of the problems at hand. It also enables data-driven engagement producing more targeted interventions and enhanced collaboration.
• Building trust – Open government enables transparency and help to build and maintain trust of the public and to seek and engage the public along the way.

Government Initiative To Use Social Media

In 2011 (November), the ICT Strategy Group (external site link) approved the “Social media in government” guidance and the aim was to encourage best practice of social media use by government agencies, provide useful templates and tools for planning, and give an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, benefits and risks of this very important and rapidly growing toolset.

 “Government agencies are beginning to view data and information as key public assets – the release of which can play a significant role in driving innovation through better decision making and the creation of new services, tools, and knowledge.” – Minister Louise Upston

soruce of extract: https://www.ict.govt.nz/programmes-and-initiatives/open-and-transparent-government/open-government-information-and-data-work-programm/

 

Social Media In Action

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=921013891326500&set=p.921013891326500&type=3&theater

 

Social media include but are not limited to blogs, wikis (e.g. Wikipedia), social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), micro-blogging services (e.g. Twitter),and multimedia sharing  services (e.g. Flickr, YouTube). Social media are often associated such concepts as user-generated content, crowdsourcing, and Web 2.0.

Social Media opens up communication channels for the Government and the people to engage in various matters.  It makes the Government accountable for its decisions on a daily basis and overall approachable. A recent example is the flag referendum here in New Zealand. By expressing your opinion on Facebook, Twitter or your social media platform of choice the potential is there to reach an unprecedented amount of people to join in with their own opinions and have their voices heard.

 

image source: https://www.facebook.com/nzflag/

In terms of anti-corruption, social media has four major potential strengths: collaboration, participation, empowerment, and time. Social media is collaborative and is defined by social interaction. It provides the ability for users to connect with each other and form communities to socialize, share information, or to achieve a common goal or interest.

Social media can be empowering to its users as it gives them a platform to speak. It allows anyone with access to the internet the ability to inexpensively publish or broadcast information, effectively democratizing media. In terms of time, social media

Technologies allow users to immediately publish information in near real time.

While the push is to have more digital / internet based communication between the government and the public, it certainly pays to bear in mind that not everyone is computer savvy and that are technology glitches.  Also with access to any information, the responsibility to use (not abuse) lies with everyone.  Be good digital citizens.

 

References:

• Anderson, T. B. (2009). E-government as an anti-corruption strategy.
  Information Economics and Policy,21, 201−210.
• Bellamy, C.  & Busby, P.   (2011).  New Zealand Parliamentarians and Online Social Media.  (Parliamentary Library Research Paper 2011/01).  Wellington.

• ICT.govt.nz: https://www.ict.govt.nz/guidance-and-resources/open-government/declaration-open-and-transparent-government/

• https://www.ict.govt.nz/programmes-and-initiatives/open-and-transparent-government/open-government-information-and-data-work-programm/
• https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiTru3YgPnMAhUFn5QKHdtoB4gQFghIMAc&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdata.govt.nz%2F&usg=AFQjCNG47MEmSC6rmDwc-TOAKddf4b0VjQ&sig2=ENeLIyA0imBkXNN8iEeSYg&bvm=bv.122676328,d.dGo
• https://twitter.com/opendatanz

 

 

 

Small Businesses & Social Media

The aim of this blog is to understand the following:

• How can small businesses and non-profits use social media?
• How might the use of social media differ for small and large businesses and in B2C and B2B contexts?
• When used by businesses, in what ways does mobile social media differ from ‘traditional’ social media?
• What are the risks of using social media to small businesses?

Intro

In this competitive world, small businesses are finding it harder to maintain their competitive edge.   Then technology evolved and social media was born.  Social media helps businesses to reach new and different audiences. It allows businesses to interact directly with their customers or potential customers . The reality is that social networks can bring a whole new dimension to your business.

 

How can small businesses and non-profits use social media

Small businesses and non-profit organizations can use social media in a number of beneficial ways.   Whether it is promoting your brand, new idea, products or just creating engagement, social media can be easily archive that and much more . Below are some of the major benefits of using social media for small businesses and non-profit organizations.

• gain more customers. Ask your customers for suggestions and improvements. Ask them what they like and dislike. They will be happy to tell you.
• maintain relationship with existing customers and establish with potential customers. Create trust with customers and prospects
• connect with similar organizations or businesses  with common interest
• promote their brand,  generate awareness regarding a product or service. Differentiate your brand
• free form of advertising. Your business might be small and you may lack the advertising budget of larger businesses. But social media can be a great leveler. It allows you to compete on equal footing with much larger companies. You can even use it to make a virtue of your size.
• gives visibility on your customers / interested parties information such as gender, activities, information. By following other organizations in your area of business, you can keep up to date with trends, news and key information.
• Build your reputation

Of course not all small businesses and non-profit organizations are presently using social media as some of these may have their own websites or are hesitant to use social media.  The hesitancy stems from using a new methodology, not having the required expertise to update or interact in social media.

B2B Small Businesses Use Social Differently Than B2C

Social media sites have been successfully adopted and used in the B2C (Business to consumers) context, they are perceived to be irrelevant in B2B (business to business) marketing. This is due to marketers’ perception of poor usability of these sites in the B2B sector. B2C companies, on the other hand, go to Facebook first and in larger numbers. This makes sense because B2B businesses are looking for the marketing people, facilities managers, buyers and others who rely on LinkedIn for industry connections and news. B2B companies are more interested in promoting their brand.

Research evidence indicates that social media is important for B2B companies. B2B companies can use social media and specifically such as Facebook and LinkedIn to communicate with their customers and suppliers, build relationships and trust, as well as to identify prospective partners in terms ofB2B selling.  It is

notable that while B2B e-commerce is valued at more than three and half times that

of B2C e-commerce the interest in,and subsequent adoption of, social media by B2B organizations has been slow compared to their B2C counterparts. Facebook is comprised of nearly every consumer on the planet.

 

 Mobile Social Media Vs Traditional Social Media

News paper, magazines and promotional pamphlets are fast fading away and getting more and more replaced by mobile social media. With the introduction of smart phones, social media networks are just a click away.  Almost everyone with a smart phone has connection to some form of social media network, whether it is Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest.  This means that mobile social media is accessible almost anytime, anywhere.

 

Risks Of Using Social Media To Small Businesses

Information on social media is visible to more than one user.  This means a response to a customer’s compliant is visible to almost everyone who has linked to that page or post.  Whether you’re a small, medium, or large-sized business, your brand’s health and reputation is often defined by the way you engage in public environments.

Below are some of the risks associated with using social media:

 

• Human Error – mistakes are bound to happen. Employees may also be hacked because they trust fellow members of their “tribe” of social media users and may be tricked by fraudsters.
• Reputation –  Content is being created in real time, outside of the firewall, with resultant reputational risks. Mistakes and hacks can have a negative impact on the brand and loss of employee, customer, or investor confidence.
• Processes –  Firms need to define and approve the right permissions, approvals, access, data classifications and collaboration processes before they get started.
• Legal –  Potential issues range from adherence with privacy laws, to content ownership, to intellectual property infringement, to human resources issues such as unauthorized activities such as harassment, discrimination and defamation.
• Data (collection, protection, security): Firms need meet the regulatory requirements of collecting, processing, handling and storing data. The corporate network should be secured to prevent confidential client and other information from leaking out, or even across, the organization. The firm should be protected from incoming threats when social media users inadvertently introduce malware into the organization or employees are targeted by cyber criminals.

In light of these risks,  users can get the most out of social media “through good governance and risk management. Governance is really all about how you operate social media, your policies and procedures, and being aware of the risks and how to manage those.

 

 

References

• Lacka, E., & Chong, A. (2016). Usability perspective on social media sites’ adoption in the B2B context. Industrial Marketing Management, 5480-91. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.01.001

 

Technology Revolution

Technology has gone through a dramatic change.  This has been brought about relatively quickly by the introduction of some new technology when one technology (or better a set of technologies) is replaced by another technology (or by the set of technologies). Since the introduction of technology, development have been occurring at an accelerated  pace, sometimes due to competition and at time to get something better.   Let’s look at some of the changes to technology.

 

Watch this small video on evolution of web 1.0 to web 3.0

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 – user generated content and social media and is the second stage of the internet, moving from content that was created by business to content that is being created by the user. Web 2.0 has characteristics of being flexible, simple and lightweight.   This means it’s simple to use, adopt, create and deliver using a variety of technology. Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the Web.

Web 3.0

Web 3.0 can be seen as the third decade of the web . It uses Web 2.0 technology to create higher quality content but Web 3.0 is more intelligent and takes a step towards artificial intelligence (terminology is explained further down). Web 3.0 allows connection being people, data, applications and concepts.  Web 3.0 as “a different way of building applications. Applications are pieced together and are relatively small, the data is in a cloud and can run on any device, very fast and very customizable and distributed through social networks, email, etc.” These applications will make the user generated content that Web 2.0.created able to be personalized and managed more efficiently.  It is still evolving.

Web 4.0 and Web 5.0

These are both stages of the web that are yet to come. Web 4.0 is believed to be ultra-intelligent with fully developed  capabilities. Computers may have inbuilt personalities and the ability to recognize users by facial recognition. Everything will be linked. Web 5.0 is an unknown entity – it will be the 5^th generation of the web.

Semantic Web

This is an extension of the web which allows computers to make their own decisions. The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries.   The semantic web is known as “web of data”.    Semantic Web makes it possible for the web to “understand” and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content.

Internet of Things

Internet of things is the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to inter-operate within the existing internet infrastructure

This is connecting everyday objects to network capabilities which is seen in Web 3.0. Anything from buildings, vehicles, and fridges will be able to send and receive data.  It is expected to offer advanced connectivity of devices, systems, and services that goes beyond machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and covers a variety of protocols, domains, and applications.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is computers displaying intelligent behavior. The term “artificial intelligence” is likely to be applied when a machine uses cutting-edge techniques to competently perform  functions that we intuitively associate with human minds, such as “learning” and “problem solving. With AI, computers will have the intelligence to perform more human roles, with the ability to make decisions, have visual perceptions, speech recognition etc.

Information Architecture

Web sites share similar architectural roots to buildings.  In other words this term means:

• The structural design of shared information environments.
• The combination of organization, labeling, search, and navigation systems within web sites and intranets.
• The art and science of shaping information products and experiences to support usability and find-ability.
• An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape