Social Business and Social Media

Social business is very much on the rise. Being good at social media doesn’t necessarily make a business social. Social business has a broad thrust. It is much more than social media and doesn’t necessarily need to start with social media.

When someone uses social media platforms for personal use, the focus is simply about updating your followers about what is happening in your life or sharing cool content. For businesses, social media is a much trickier nut to crack. This is why businesses need to change their focus on how they use social media, by adopting the idea of “social business“. One of the biggest hurdles businesses are facing in trying to grow their brand is they have to rely on the fickle, and strong reactions of the users. Nearly 70 percent of information on the internet is created by individuals, and the population of the digital universe is growing at a heightened rate.

Relying on individuals and customers creates a dichotomy for businesses. It allows consumers to become advocates for a business, but it also provides them an avenue to become a detractor. Having this split has changed the focus of a lot of businesses, increasing the importance of trust and transparency. Instead of simply relying on a quality product or service.

Community management has become a staple for businesses due to the need of staying in constant contact with consumers. Community managers are seen as ambassadors for an organization. They need to learn the Five C’s of Community:

  • Content: start with content. This is where people will see how and what you are.
  • Context: understand how your community wants to engage, where, why.
  • Connectivity: people know how their community works, and see a need, and know how others can help and connect accordingly.
  • Continuity: look at social as a continous thing. Keeping doing it and keep improving.
  • Collaboration: whether it’s internal or not, if you have people collaborating over your business.

A strategy many businesses are starting to adopt, is using social media as an internal as much as an external platform. This creates an organic transition, and keeps social media in the minds of everyone in the company.

Below is a list of what you can do in social business:

  • Use networks like LinkedIn and Twitter to start having meaningful conversations.
  • Create qualified online communities that represent your target audience, build relationships here that will create fans and loyal supporters.
  • Find the best candidates for your staffing and succession planning strategy.
  • Coordinate your PR strategy with blog posts and social engagement.
  • Develop an internal social business communication strategy.
  • Publish great thought leadership content on your site or blog.
  • Create an organized channel of all your competitors social activity.
  • Create a social media promotion campaign and live event strategy.
  • Facilitate a second to none customer service experience through real-time communication using social media.
  • and so on.

All of these various factors, and outlooks represent how social media is in a complete transition period for businesses. Their focus needs to change, and become more transparent for consumers. Their most important platform for increasing brand image.