Effective Social Media Strategies for Business Growth

1. Exploring Media and e-Business

2. Learning Objectives 14-1 Examine why it is important for a business to use social media. 14-2 Discuss how businesses use social media tools. 14-3 Explain the business objectives for using social media. 14-4 Describe how businesses develop a social media plan. 14-5 Explain the meaning of e-business. 14-6 Understand the fundamental models of e-business. 14-7 Identify the factors that will affect the future of the Internet, social media, and e-business.

3. Why Is Social Media Important? Social media represents online interactions that allow people and businesses to communicate and share • Ideas • Personal information • Information about products and services

4. Timeline for the Development of Social Media

5. Why Businesses Use Social Media The six most important benefits for a business that uses social media

6. Social Media Tools For Business Use • Social content sites allow companies to create and share information about their: • Products • Services • They use: • Blogs • Videos • Photos • Podcasts • Webinars • Commercials

7. Business Use of Blogs • A blog is a website that allows a company to: • Increase customer’s knowledge about products and services • Build trust • Developing better relationships with customers • Attracting new customers • Telling stories about the company’s products or services • Providing an active forum for testing new ideas

8. Photos, Videos, and Podcasts • Media sharing sites allow users to upload media content: • Photos • Videos • Podcasts • Podcastsare digitalaudio or video files that people listen to or watch online on: • Tablets • Computers • MP3 players • Smartphones

9. Social Media Ratings • Social media enables shoppers to access: • Opinions • Recommendations • Referrals

10. Social Games • A social game is: • Multiplayer • Competitive • Goal-oriented activity • Defined rules of engagement • Online connectivity among a community of players

11. Social Media Communities • Social media communities are social networks based on the relationships among people • A forum: • Is an interactive version of a community bulletin board • Focuses on threaded discussions • A wiki: • Is a collaborative online working space • Enables members to contribute content • Contains sharable with other people

12. Top Seven Social Media Networking Sites Used by Businesses

13. Crisis and Reputation Management Important reasons for listening to stakeholders: • Determine whether there is a crisis brewing • Companies are less than a year away from some potential crisis • Monitoring social media for conversations may predict a crisis

14. Listening to Stakeholders • Listening to conversations on: • Facebook • Twitter • Other social media sites • Helpful in understanding what people think about a company’s products and services

15. Targeting Customers • Millennials are tech-savvy digital natives born after 1980 • Companies use tech-savvy target marketing on social media to increase awareness and build brand among customers

16. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing is the utilization of: • Social media technologies • Channels • Software to: • Create • Communicate • Deliver • Exchange … offerings that have value for an organization

17. Inbound Marketing Inbound marketingdescribes new ways of gaining attention and customers by creating content on a Web site that pulls customers in

18. Generating New Product Ideas Crowdsourcinginvolves outsourcing tasks to a group of people in order to tap into the ideas of the crowd

19. Recruiting Employees • Current employees’ friends and family often prove to be good job candidates • LinkedIn: • Largest social network for professionals • Saves time • Lowers recruiting costs • Allows employers to see more information about candidates

20. Developing a Social Media Plan • Step 1: Listen to determine opportunities • Step 2: Establish social media objectives • Step 3: Segment and target the social customer • Step 4: Select social media tools • Step 5 Implement and integrate the plan

21. Types of Information That Can Help Target Different Social Media Customers

22. Measuring and Adapting a Social Media Plan: Quantitative • Quantitative social media measurement consists of using numerical measurements such as: • Counting the number of Web site visitors • Number of fans and followers • Number of leads generated • Number of new customers • Key performance indicators (KPIs) are measurements that define and measure the progress of an organization toward achieving its objectives

23. Quantitative Measurements for Selected Social Media Websites

24. Measuring and Adapting a Social Media Plan: Qualitative • Qualitative social media measurement is the process of accessing the opinions and beliefs about a brand • Uses sentiment analysis to categorize what is being said about a company • Other measurements include: • Customer satisfaction score • Issue resolution rate • Resolution time

25. The Cost of Maintaining a Social Media Plan • Social media costs both time and money • Important to measure the success of a social media plan and make adjustments if needed • Use quantitative and qualitative measurements to determine if getting a positive return on investment in social media • Social media is particularly important to businesses that use e-business

26. Defining e-Business • e-businessis the organized effort of individuals to produce and sell the products and services that satisfy society’s needs through the facilities available on the Internet • Mobile marketing is communicating with and selling to customers through mobile devices • Outsourcing is the process of finding outside vendors and suppliers that provide: • Professional help • Parts • Materials at a lower cost

27. Combining e-Business Resources

28. Satisfying Needs Online • Two basic assumptions: • Internet has created new customer needs • e-business can satisfy those needs, as well as traditional ones • The Internet can be used by both individuals and business firms to obtain information

29. Creating e-Business Profit • Business firms can increase profits either by: • Increasing sales revenue • Reducing expenses • Each source of revenue flowing into a firm is a revenue stream • Providing online access to information that customers want can reduce costs

30. Fundamental Models of e-Business • A business model represents agroup of common characteristics and methods of doing business to: • Generate sales revenues • Reduce expenses • Two primary e-business models: • Business-to-business (B2B) • Business-to-consumer (B2C)

31. Planning for a New Internet Business or Building an Online Presence

32. Business Models • B2B is the model used by firms that conduct business with other businesses • B2C is the model used by firms that focus on conducting business with individual consumers

33. Internet Growth Potential • About 3 billion people in the world use the Web • 279 million Americans use the Internet • Americans comprise 10 percent of all Internet users • Number of Internet users in developing countries is expected to increase

34. Ethical and Legal Concerns • The Internet is a new “frontier” without borders and with little control by governments or other organizations • Socially responsible and ethical behavior by individuals and businesses on the Internet are major concerns • Cookies are small piece of software sent by a Web site that tracks an individual’s Internet use • Data mining refers to the practice of searching through data records looking for useful information

35. Internet Crime • Malware is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the user’s consent • Computer viruses • Spyware • Deceptive adware • Other software capable of criminal activities

36. Future Challenge for Computer Technology, Social Media, and e-Business • Both business users and individuals must consider the cost of obtaining information and computer technology • Cloud computing is a type of computer usage in which services stored on the Internet is provided to users on a temporary basis • In addition to cost, there are a number of external and internal factors that a business must consider

37. Internal and External Forces That Affect an e-Business

38. Green IT • In addition to the obvious internal factors that affect how a company operates, a growing number of firms are concerned about how their use of technology affects the environment • Green IT describes allof a firm’s activities to support a healthy environment and sustain the planet • Many offices are reducing the amount of paper they use by storing data and information on computers