Social Networking for Businesses and Associations

8/3/2019 Social Networking for Businesses and Associations

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socialnetworking

for businesses

& associationsinside:What is social networking?

Why does this matter? Isnt social networkingjust for high school kids?

How can my organization get closer to customers/members using social networking?

Examples of how financial services firms, associations,and other organizations, large-and-small, are usingsocial networking today.


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Why should our organization

care about social networking?

Customers have lost trust in traditional sales, marketing andservice (the three areas commonly reerred to as CRM,

or Customer Relationship Management). According to the

Edelman rust Barometer, the most credible source o in-

ormation about a company is now a person like me, which

has risen dramatically to surpass doctors and academic experts or the

frst time. Te survey relates that in the U.S., trust in a person like me

increased rom 20% in 2003 to 68% today.

Te connections enabled by social networks are the glue that put the humanityback into business to solve the trust problem. In other words, the organizations

that will win are the ones that most easily enable individuals to build relation-

ships and communities with people they trust.

Isnt social networking just for

high school and college kids?

Dont be thrown by the word social. Although social networks such as

MySpace (known or being an online hangout or the high schoolers) andFaceBook (which targets the college crowd) have garnered much press in

the social networking space, other proessionally-ocused online networks

are being used in many ways in the business and association realm.

Te initial use o online social networking or businesses and organizations

has been primarily along one dimension, recruiting. Tat is, a recruiter

or an organization navigates a network o known individuals (e.g. current

members o the organization) in order to fnd potential applicants (either

contacts o those individuals, or contacts-o-contacts) who have the skills

and experience needed to fll a job opening within the organization.

While this application o social networking is benefcial (especially to pro-

essional recruiters), there are many other areas where social networking

can be used that are more broadly applicable.


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for businesses& associations

The Top 10 ways businesses, associations and

organizations can use social networking

Customer and Member Relationship DevelopmentCustomer satisaction is at an all-time low, perhaps as a result o reduced

business ocus on actual relationships, and an increased ocus on cus-

tomer relationship management systems emphasizing management o

data rather than personal connections. Online social networks allow a

prospective customer or prospective member to easily acilitate a real,

human level connection with individuals within an organization. Tis

enables genuine business relationships to orm and puts an authentic

human ace on the interaction, changing the external perception oan organization rom a sterile, aceless behemoth into a collection o

individuals who are ready to help.


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Customer support (connecting the

customer with the right resource)

Successul customer support achieves a number o goals. Basic customerservice includes, o course, assisting customers when they have problems

or questions about an organizations products. However, online networks

enable exceptional customer support that goes beyond the basics, allow-

ing customers to connect with experts in an organization who have deep

knowledge in a particular area. Similarly, a strong online network enables

experts within an organization to be alerted when a problem that requires

their knowledge comes into the customer support queue, and acilitates

the creation o strong communities in the orm o valuable user groupsand member networks.

Use the network to nd an expert

or locate implicit knowledge

Only a raction o an organizations knowledge exists in databases.

Another raction exists in the orm o explicit documents and reports

that may be ound on an organizational intranet. Te vast majority o

organizational knowledge, however, exists only in the heads o its mem-bers. Inside an organization, online networks with even basic profles o

its individuals experience, location and interests can greatly reduce the

time required or organizational problem-solving, through enabling aster

connection between a questioner and the person who has solved similar

problems in the past.

Real-life example:

Te Consortium orService Innovation usessocial networking tobetter understand thecomposition o world-class customer serviceorganizations.

Real-life example:Beore one private organi-zation meets or its annualretreat, its members use asocial networking systemto allow both rst-timersand veterans to connect uparound what they need

and what they can oferto the group, to jump startthe conversations that willbe held at the retreat itsel.


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Ease post-acquisition integration

Even though acquisitions are on the upswing, a majority o mergers and

acquisitions ail within three years o inception. Te most common causeo ailure is lack o alignment and understanding between individuals

in the acquiring and acquired organizations. Online social networks,

giving a view to the real individuals within the organizations, aid in the

creation o understanding between both parties by allowing members o

both organizations to view each other as a collection o individuals, rather

than an amorphous them.

Provide the whole productIt is rare that a single organization can provide all the pieces needed to

meet a customers entire need. For example, even though a real estate

agent aids in the process o buying a home, an entire network o other

service providers (including title companies, banks, insurance agents,

contractors, and others) is required in order to ully meet the customers

need. By creating a strong network o complementary providers with

similar philosophies and business practices, a single service provider can

provide a much greater value proposition to a prospective customer thanan individual working without the beneft o the network.

Understand and visualize the actual communication

paths within the organization

While an organizational chart may show the reporting or budgeting

hierarchy o an organization, the connections in an online social network

create the actual fow o inormation or an organization. Explicitly creating

a social network within the organization can help all members better

understand how inormation gets shared and highlights the areas within

the organization that are truly responsible or eecting change, turning

the company directory into a living, breathing knowledge network.

Real-life example:

PaidContent.org created a500-person social network

for their ContentNextmixer in New York City,

enabling attendees tovirtually meet each other

prior to the event itself.

Real-life example:

UNICOM uses socialnetworking to provide an

ongoing connection betweenthe delegates who attend

its conferences.


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Supercharge meeting facilitation and preparation

Te unortunate part o meetings and conerences is that it always seems

that you dont connect with the people you really want to meet untilthe fnal day o the event, when you meet them randomly in the buet

line. A dedicated online social network created beore the event enables

attendees to use their time at the event more eciently, by determining

with whom they want to connect beore leaving home.

Increasing the value and extend

the shelf life of conferences

Similar to the above point, creating an online social network o event

attendees extends the shel lie o a conerence, enabling the attendees to

remain connected and take action on the items discussed at the event. Tis

can evolve a meeting, event or conerence rom a one time occurrence

into the catalyst o a community that more eectively achieves its goals.

Share knowledge

By connecting an social network with basic subscription technologies

(such as RSS, or Really Simple Syndication), an individual can easily

subscribe to updates rom customers and colleagues. Tis enables a

straightorward way to stay abreast o the goings-on in projects o interest,

as well as a way to share knowledge within an organization without

additional eort. It also addresses the issue o email overload, as knowl-

edge is pulled by those who have a need or interest or updates, rather the

updates being pushed to those who may have only tangential interest in

an issue.


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Pull together the All-Star Team

thats right for this customer

Having the right skills and culture are bothkey to creating a connection with a prospective

customer, especially in service organizations.

An internal social networking system enables

the individuals responsible to creating relationships with prospects to pull

together the right team to meet both the prospective customers needs

and, at the same time, pull together the unique group o individuals who

will resonate with the prospect at a personal level as well.

Differentiate your service with brand you

In a number o industries, the ft between customer and service provider

is the dierentiator. I a customer can easily identiy his or her areas

o commonality with a prospective service provider such as a fnancial

planner, real estate agent or insurance provider, that customer can have

some assurance that the service provider will understand the customers

point-o-view, and provide the type o service that the customer expects

and supports.


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Prepare for coming demographic

changes in business

Although online social networks are relativelynew to business, the MySpace and Facebook

generation has grown up with them. For these

individuals entering the workorce, online social

networking is simply be a part o the abric o

business. Accordingly, the organizations that have

determined how to best integrate social network-

ing into their operations will be the ones that are

most successul.


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AboutIncendia Media

Incendia Media is a next generation online media and publishing

company that specializes in building targeted audiences throughniche specific social networking site. We develop social networking

system that allows businesses and organizations to easilyimplement

proessionally-oriented social networks customized for their needs.

Tese networks canenable anorganization to immediately begin to

connect customers, membersand employees together into mutually

benefcial business relationships.Networks can be set up to connect

prospective customers and membersto others in an organization, orcan be set up with an eye toward connecting existing members in

improved ways.

The technology behind the business

(for the tech-inquisitive)

Incendia Media builds it core platform and architecture to include a

robust Content Mangement System (CMS) or ease additions of

content, the key to any social networks success. Our technologiesscalabilityallowing us to add fucntionality and features as your

needs grow and is highly SEO optimized resulting in high page

ranking and lower marketing costs. In addition,we also provides an

Application ProgrammingInterace (API). Tis meansthat the additional

unctions, technologies, widgets and other applications can be added to

you site and spread out to the internet to integrate into other sytems or

social networks.

Contact us to discuss your needsPhone: 1-877-824-6514 or 1-805-277-4710

Email: [email protected]

MSN: [email protected]

Yahoo & AOL: incendiamedia

prepared by cerado inc

Documents

Social Networking for Businesses and Associations