Social Networking: A new take on family dinner
Well, another Thanksgiving has come and gone. Most of us are fortunate to have been given the gift of a pre-determined social network with our families. In today’s mobile society, families tend to be scattered across the country and beyond. In these instances, a close relationship is challenging by early methods of phone call, letter or even email.
Sitting at the dinner table and listening to conversation gave a great perspective on how generations from teens to adults become more engaged with each other through social media. Tools such as Facebook and Twitter can bring individuals together by further creating an emotional bond between family members. How else would Aunt Francis know about niece Sarah’s adventures, experiences and stories at college, 4 hours away?
The beauty of social networking is that it can also bring the same closeness to consumers to brands as it has to family members. Effective branding helps create an emotional clarity about the product, service or company. Companies such as Ford, Coca-Cola and Southwest Airlines have built active social networking sites which allow a channel of direct communication to thousands daily. By doing so, these organizations have successfully accomplished three very critical items: brand familiarity, customer engagement and ultimately, brand loyalty.
Social networking tools allows marketers to develop innovative ways to make target consumers feel like they belong, making the possibility to form a tightly-knit community that bonds a group around an issue or product.
With an effective campaign, we can use social media to create a large Thanksgiving dinner table with outreach to thousands. The pumpkin pie is optional.
New media: an internal business communication tool
Well folks, it’s been too long since my kickoff launch of my blog. No excuses, but with a couple of large projects, a 40-50 hour work week doubled in hours, thankfully only for the short term.
As a part of my first post, what better option to consider than methods for effective time management with social media. By looking internally first, an organization can build an internal structure to allow for increased dialog and information sharing within a business.
Time is a precious commodity, and how organizations manage it has a great impact on their bottom line. Effective and efficient communications become even more critical in today’s down economy, as organizations are doing more with less.
The diagram below points to how social media can be used for targeting consumers, and it is my suggestion that this model may have value on internal use within a business first. If engagement is an objective of Social media, why not look at it as a tactic for engaging employees? For example, a blog can be a resource to quickly share information. By creating an online forum for frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) and methods for internal posts and updates by staff, resources can be posted to allow for efficient distribution of information.
Source: Awareness Networks, 2009
It’s a reality. Social media is here to stay. As marketers, we are expected to be familiar with the content and tools available and analyze them for their value in which to spend resources. By looking internally first, we may be able to re-energize employees during the downturn.
p.s. Expect more posts daily. Again, my apologies for being MIA. Also, better things ahead: I got engaged this weekend. Who knew that was coming?!
