Saturday, February 27, 2010

Social media is more than public relations and marketing efforts

When companies are considering adopting social media, they often turn toward their Public Relations and Marketing departments to investigate, develop a social media strategy, and implement social media within their companies.

If organizations think of social media as another outlet for the company and involve only those who market the company, then these companies are missing out on many benefits of social online environments, such as:

  • Integration of functions.
  • Elimination of organization silos.
  • Personal and organizational learning from outside the organization and from within the organization.
  • Driving innovations through internal and external collaborations.
  • Educating clients, potential clients, and communities about products, processes, services, and technical knowledge.
  • Having staff (not in PR and Marketing) who are passionate about what they do and what they love about the organization tell their story.
  • Utilizing small circles of influence to spread knowledge of the organization, its products, its services, its goodwill, its values, and its purpose.
  • Learning of problems that the organization may have solutions for.
  • Learning of problems that the organization may develop solutions for.
  • Connecting problem solvers with those people in and out of the organization who are having problems relating to the organization’s services, products, and processes.
  • Connecting with potential clients who are unaware that the organization may have solutions for their problems.
  • Maintaining and building credibility and understanding among staff who don’t see each other often, but work in similar work areas or serve in different places in the work flow. 
  • Building a collective organizational reputation based on the online professional reputation of employees throughout the organization.
  • Maximizing the benefits of workstreamining and freeranging.
  • Having fun within the routine of daily work.

No comments: