Information management: the key to successfully implementing social media in business strategies

Faculty of ScienceMaster thesis of Stefania DangilaCoordinator : Drs. A.W. Abcouwer

OverviewIntroduction

Research goalWhy LinkedIn and Twitter?

Creating business value from social mediaMetrics

The role of information managementFrameworkInterview

Research methodInterview findings

ConclusionsDiscussion

What can information management do to improve the use of twitter and LinkedIn, as major forms of Social media in terms of business value and profitability

Research goal

Number Sub-question (chapter)1 What are the current definitions of social media?2 How are the social media divided into categories?3 How do social media transform business?4 How are the firms using social media today?5 Which social media networks or tools are most commonly exploited in business? On

which do we focus?6 In which business areas/departments can these prominent technologies be applied?7 Which are the SM functions that are exploited in business?8 How do you measure the profitable or unprofitable results connected with the

adoption of social media by specific metrics? (measure impact of Twitter and LinkedIn)

9 Why information management and generally management of SM are important?10 How does information management contribute in SM strategy and business value

delivery?

They are in the 3 most popular SM exploited for business purposes

Gordon (2009)

Why Twitter and LinkedIn?

They are in the 3 most popular SM exploited for business purposes

Two forms of social media that operate differently from each other (Weinberg & Pehlivan, 2011)

Not investigated in-depth

Why Twitter and LinkedIn?

Creating business value from SMDevelop a SM strategy aligned with business goalsSelect the appropriate SM toolsExploit SM functionsFocus on developing relationship with customers

(groundswell)Measure SM successProvide feedback to managers

Social applications Department\Business unit

Examples of SM functions Success Metrics Targeted Business Value

Social networking sites, Internal social

networks(e.g. LinkedIn support groups)

Operations Sharing documents Create “intranet-like”

internal communications

Coordinating schedules and events

Number of members participating

Increased operational efficiency

Decreased volume of email

Increased collaboration

Greater productivity

adopted and altered from (Bernoff & Li, Harnessing the Power of the Oh-So-Social Web, 2008)

The role of information managementCollecting, storing and managing web informationAssuring that “the right information is delivered to the

right people at the right time” (AIIM's research and publications)*

Everyone’s responsibilityEnd-responsibility with one person: Information Manager

Responsible for SM strategyEnsures business value is delivered through SM exploitationAdjusts strategy based on feedback

*AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management) is the global community of information professionals - See more at: http://www.aiim.org/about#sthash.c0PAyOCn.dpuf

Framework conceptual framework in chapter 3.3

Research method: InterviewInterview’s main objective

To provide a further insight on SM usage in organizations and investigate whether my conceptual framework it is applicable or not in practice.

Advantages gained through interviewingFurther insight on the business applications of social media tools

and technologiesRealization of who holds the responsibility to manage, monitor,

control them in order to satisfy the business goals and deliver business value

Observation how this process takes places within different organizations.

Interview findingsThe interview investigation stages I followed:Interviewing TranscribingAnalyzingVerifyingReporting

Seidman (2006)

Interview structure Interview questionnaire: General and Framework questions Conceptual framework used as a guideline Interviews with three managers

Company’s name Company’s operation Products/services Participant’s role in the company

AirPlus Business travel management

Corporate cards and lodged accounts

Communication manager

AM Real estate development company

Building complexes, offices and shopping centers

Information manager

Quint Wellington Redwood

Consultancy Consultancy services Marketing manager

Results grouped as coded answers Answers relevant with my conceptual frameworkE.g. coding theme number [31] and participant’s answers

8. SM performance measurement

[31] Participant 1 Participant 2 Participant 3

Monetary [A] No No NoNon-monetary [B] Yes (Run monthly

review)Yes (Google analytics)

No (however they can see they grow in followers)

Reasons they do not perform any monetary measurement at the moment

[D] Feeling of uncertainty for measurement usefulness

Measurement is difficult

Reasons they do not perform any measurement at the moment

[C] Feeling of uncertainty for measurement usefulness

Question examples for the coding [31] [D] and [31] [B]

Stefania: do you recognize the importance of measurement? […] What if in the future you could actually measure the impact, the exact you know, business value that is added to your company […] The profit you make through that. How much cost you save. Do you think this would be relevant with your company or it’s not so relevant?Participant 1: Not so relevant at the moment I would say. Eh at the moment I think we use social networks additionally to our marketing activities [31] [D]. So it’s not that we say OK [Slight pause] or that we think about should we start with like a campaign with [Pause] For example an internet campaign or should we not start a campaign and do it only via social media. We use social media additionally to our campaign or to our marketing activities and so [Slight pause] It’s nice to have it to [Slight pause] to give your message to [Slight pause] eh for free.Stefania: […] do you take into account generally the non-monetary terms about social media for example the followers, the tweets, the mentions about your brand name? Participant 1: yeah, yeah. So we do a review every month where we compare the social networks and how we perform in the networks [31] [B]. And there is an overview which we create every month. So we take how our followers increase or how many likes we get from a post and then we can see: “OK these topics are running good, these topics don’t run so good in the networks”. We do this.

5 high level themes

Themes Sub-themes

Organization orientation and culture towards SM

SM Strategy SM platforms Business functions of SM SM functions that generate business value Strategy attributes Strategy implementation and SM staff occupation SM performance measurement and business

value Business goals concerning use of SM Responsibilities

Customer interaction on SM Frequency Comments and feedback awareness Intuitive monitoring Level of business strategy adjustment based on

feedback Participate in co-creation

Future planning

Suggestions and comments of participants

Interview transcripts presented in appendix A Descriptive transcripts “Transferability” “Confirmability” Follow-up questions Clarifying comments Take personal opinions into account

Interview findingsResultsSome elements of the proposed framework are present in

organizationsSome are not found in organizationsSome need further analysis and investigation to be

applied in practice

Framework relevant in practice

Elements found in none

Perform ROI analysis and monetary measurement

Framework aspects found in all the organizations

Aspect found in two out of three organizations

Guidelines Some set of guidelines:1. Specified strategy with a list of guidelines2. Few guidelines and more intuitive strategy

Operationalize a set of success metrics

Number of tweets, followers, posts, and observe an enhancement of their business value in terms of customer satisfaction, customer interaction, improved value of work and saved time

Chose appropriate social media tools

All the companies have chosen some social media tools to exploit business functions such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ (table 5, page 35)

Exploit SM functions External and internal business Functions of LinkedIn and Twitter; marketing, sales branding, HR, PR, customer relations, news sharing, maintaining communications with teams, sharing documents, and create ‘intranet-like’ communications

Customer interaction All the companies more or less communicate with their customers online and value their opinions

Aspects’ parts found in some or all organizations

Measurable business goals 1. All organizations do not set specific financial goals but they set some measurable business goals which are only non-monetary2. The responsibility does not lie with the executives, but with the managers that have the end responsibility for SM.

Information manager Parts of this aspect were tracked in all the participating organizations in context of the functionality of the role. All the companies revealed that there is at least someone responsible for controlling, monitoring, distributing and generally managing online information of SM.

ConclusionsInterview findings confirm that companies

Value social media business applications and strive to exploit them in the most effective way.

Have a SM strategy. They are already in the process of developing one. Initiate constant improvements towards a more organized use of SMRecognize the importance of SM performance measurementAuthorize a stakeholder in charge of SM

ConclusionsAdvices: Important to communicate to companies how to

incorporate SM into the business strategyapply essential missing elements to improve SM

utilizationEstablish SM measurement

“you establish both qualitative and quantitative metrics measurements for your goals, because both matter in providing a holistic view of the progress of your social media program”

Salesforce (2010)

Leverage more functions of SM in more departments

DiscussionHow does information management contribute in SM

strategy and business value delivery?

Managing online information is among others important for: Effective listening, engaging, monitoring, and controlling web information

and discussions to achieve customer satisfaction. Co-creation of products/services with customers.

Information management guides the complex information streams and continuously updates social media strategy to maximize profitability

Discussion• What issues I have encountered that I am not sure of their

outcomes?• Who would be more appropriate to be accountable for SM in an

organization? ( new role of 2014: “social business officer” )• Unlike my framework, none of the companies perform return of

investment (ROI) analysis on social media or any kind of monetary performance measurement

• Two B2B companies do not sell through SM

• Did I expect different answers if I had e.g. 10 interviews?• Probably yes. Two out of three companies were B2B and one was 80%

B2B and only 20% B2C• SM strategy might be more important for companies like big

international companies with a great amount of employees and consumers and competitors

Discussion• What is the strength and the scientific relevance of

my thesis?• I compile information from different scientific sources into

one readily understandable concept • I present this concept as a working system for incorporating

SM into business based on literature and research• What was the most difficult part of my thesis?

• To construct my framework• To limit the extend of my thesis• To find interview participants

Thanks for your attention!