Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Enterprise Social Media

Today social media has penetrated into every aspect of our day-to-day lives. The use of social media is no longer inhibited to just making friends and keeping in touch with them, it’s much more than that. It sparked the revolution in Egypt. It acts as a knowledge sharing platform. Companies are today leveraging social media for market research, promotions, building online reputation, providing customer service, getting customer feedback, brand monitoring, academic collaboration etc. According to a Nielsen survey, time spent on social networks is up by 82%.
Enterprise Social Media (ESM) is also one of the many applications of Social Media. It is a relatively new concept but it is slowly gathering speed. The idea of ESM is to bring the power of social media within your company - a free, private and secure social network just for your business. It allows your coworkers to work together and be more productive. Organizations now agree that the question is no longer whether to adopt social media or not but to leverage it to remain competitive. Enterprise social networks enable organizations to reap the benefits and improve innovation, decrease costs and also drive top-line growth. Organizations have increased their spend on social media as suggested by the below chart:
Change in Social Marketing Budget from 2009 to 2010, by Industry Sector


A very good example of an enterprise social media tool that I came across was “Chatter” developed by SalesForce. They claim that it reduces the number of meetings in your organization and thus saves your time, reduces the number of emails sent, improves customer responsiveness, collaboration and helps manage customer information. To learn more about chatter please visit: https://www.chatter.com/why/

IBM has also entered the world of ESM through its Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections technology. In a survey conducted by CompTIA (Computer Technology Industry Association), respondents were asked to identify the top benefits of social media tools.  The top five benefits identified were:
  •          Better communication with customers
  •          Cost Savings
  •          Brand positioning
  •          Real-time customer satisfaction
  •        Potential lead generation
To just give you a glimpse on how ESM can be leveraged watch the video posted below:
However, organizations have to guard against being reactive. Firms trying to catch up on the social media buzz without having a clear idea of their identity or goals are fraught with risks. Deloitte has come up with an Enterprise Social Media Framework which provides a good starting point for organizations before they launch their social media initiative. A firm typically starts by asking questions clubbed under 6 areas:
      1.       Strategy
a.       What is your vision and strategy regarding social media?
b.      What value creation opportunities exist?
      2.       Program Management
a.       How do you execute your social media strategy?
b.      What is the project roadmap?
      3.       Communications
a.       What are the communication best practices for social media?
      4.       Change Readiness
a.       What are the special cultural factors to consider in your organization?
b.      What type of learning programs should be prepared?
      5.       Technology
a.       Which tools should be used?
      6.       Governance and Support
a.       What risks are associated with the use of social media, and what are the policies needed to govern the use of social media within the organization?

According to a Gartner article (“When Social and Business Processes Collide”) by 2015, 40% of large organizations will have a corporate “Facebook” to enable greater collaboration and circulation of both business and personal data. With the increased globalization and internet savvy workforce, an Enterprise Social Network is a “must have” for organizations. It will not only lower infrastructure costs but also improve employee effectiveness and efficiency.


To learn more about the use of ESM please go through:
http://www.infosys.com/FINsights/Documents/pdf/issue9/social-media-financial-services-risk-reward.pdf


References:

Enterprise Social Media: Exposed and down to earth – Deloitte

Redefining the Social Enterprise Network – Enterasys Secure Networks

Social Networking in the Enterprise – Forrester Consulting




-Rahul Mukherjee
MDI 2011-13