How to use Social Media and web 2.0

At its most basic the internet was created to disseminate information, using text and then images, but it was still very static even with the addition of audio and video. Now the various platforms used to spread information are more dynamic allowing users to create their own content and enhance what is already available.

Social media incorporates current technologies to allow people to share content online. This can include personal opinions or different perspectives and insights into world issues. The difficulty for business is how to create an effective social media profile without alienating your customer base.

“Consumers are flocking to blogs, social-networking sites and virtual worlds. And they are leaving a lot of marketers behind.”
'The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2 World’ by Parise, Weinberg and Guinan; Wall Street Journal; December 2008

Social media platforms and how they work

Social networking
As the most obvious format social networking sites allow you to create a personal profiles which act as a springboard to then discuss and share information with others, such as friends and family. A few examples of social networking sites which fall into very different demographic groups are:

• Facebook – probably the most well known of the social network sites “giving people power to share and make the world more open and connected”.
• Bebo – for a younger audience it claims to be a fun environment that “empowers a new generation to discover, connect and express themselves”.
• LinkedIn – a professional network which claims to help you focus “on staying informed about your contacts and industry and controlling your professional identity”.

Blogs
An informal medium, normally written from the point of view of an individual, blogs are easy to use websites for people with little technical knowledge and while there are many individuals blogging, often within genre specific communities, corporate entities also make use of the medium, for example the IoD now has its own business blog while Facebook uses a ‘blog’ for new product announcements and stories. This allows other people to ‘like’ ‘comment’ or ‘share’ any single blog entry and helps to organically disseminate the information. Another example is Google’s Blogspot (http://www.blogspot.com/).

Forums
Primarily used to enable people to communicate by posted messages – although social network sites like Facebook and LinkedIn do allow members to post messages and reply, forums are usually dedicated to a single type or genre. One good example that caters to a specifically business audience are the UK Business forums. They are aimed at small business owners and managers and the site claims that forum members help each other “solve business problems, find new suppliers, win new customers, share experiences and practical advice”.
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/

Wikis
Wiki, the Hawaiian word for "fast", can also refer to a collection of interlinked websites that allows its users to collectively create and edit content using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor and powered by wiki software. The most well known and popular wiki is Wikipedia.

“a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopaedia project … Its 17 million articles (over 3.4 million in English) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Video and photo sharing
Video-sharing sites allow you to upload and share your personal or corporate videos with the rest of the web community. Simply upload your video to a video-sharing site like, YouTube or Vimeo and then link from your own site. YouTube claims that it is “a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original-content creators and advertisers, large and small.” Photo sharing websites also allow users to upload pictures and images to a personal account which can then be viewed by web users the world over.

• Video sharing sites: http://www.vimeo.com/; http://www.youtube.com/t/about
• Photograph/image sharing sites: http://www.flickr.com/about/; http://photobucket.com/about

These examples are just a few of the sites which allow this type of content sharing. To make the sites more searchable they have made the process of organising photos or videos a collaborative one by simply allowing users to give permission for other members of the community to add their own meta-data to your content.

News aggregation and social book marking
A news aggregator is a website that collects news headlines from other sites, either automatically in an RSS feed aggregator and you simply have to subscribe to the news feeds you are interested, or as with the Huffington Post, the news articles are manually selected by owners of the site and comments are moderated.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Social book marking is different in that although it still provides a list of the latest news stories and web resources published range of different websites, they are manually selected by a very large community of users. Also the articles themselves are not shared, rather the bookmarks to the articles. Digg for instance, is one of the web's largest social bookmarkers with one of the most dedicated communities.
http://www.digg.com/

Presence applications
A presence application is a website that allows you to post micro blog-like posts and to announce what you are currently doing and the most popular version is Twitter – with small bursts of information called Tweets, each a maximum of 140 characters in length. Twitter claims that it is “a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting”. You can now even check tweets from the IoD.
http://twitter.com/about

One factor that unites all the above is that they all utilise user generated content.

How your business can use social media

Many small-business owners now use social networking to market their firm online for minimal costs. But, largely due to lack of time, few make the most of all the opportunities it can offer.

A lot of small firms use social media to network and get referrals. However, they could also use it to monitor their brand, maximise website visits, generate sales or set themselves up as experts in a particular industry.

You might not realise it, but your employees may already have many of the skills you need to use social networking effectively. Nevertheless, it is important you provide them with the right direction; otherwise the time they spend using social media won’t be effective and may even damage your reputation. Ask staff to set up new profiles or nominate a social media champion from your existing staff to set up and manage a business profile.

However, there is no need to train staff specifically. Instead you should include basic guidelines on social networking within their broader training on communicating with customers. Depending on your objective, you should regularly review the speed of the firm’s response to customers, or use analytics to monitor how many people click through to your website.

For your use of social media to be successful you will need to create an effective social media profile:

Do:

• Look at other people's profiles for research
• Adapt your tone to suit different social networking sites
• Update your profile regularly

Don't:

• Embarrass yourself with too much personal information
• Try to force your products down people's throats
• Be boring

For more information on creating an effective social media profile, listen to Ecademy founder Penny Power's video on YouTube.

Useful organisations

Business Link
Social media technology is constantly moving forward and Business link have provided some guidance on the various current Web 2.0 technologies within their Web 2.0: a guide for business. Some useful sections are:

• What is Web 2.0
• Legal implications and best practice when using social media
• Community building and social media

Web 2.0 technologies are basically the blogs, RSS feeds and photo/video sharing technologies which allow social networking sites to share their user generated content. They are the tools which can also be used to engage more directly with your customer. Business Link says that Web 2.0 does not refer to a particular technology but to a general trend.

Business link have also created a guide for online networking, which they hope will give you a “better understanding of how online networking has evolved and how your business can use online networking to gain a commercial advantage”.
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?r.lc=en&type=RESOURCES&itemId=1081921240

Marketing donut
In a section devoted to 'online networking and PR' the Marketing Donut provides small businesses with the tools and resources that can help them with their social media. They link to a variety of articles and blog entries from how to get started using a specific type of social media like twitter, blogs or Facebook to more general strategic guides on using social media to attract customers.
http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/internet-marketing/online-networking-and-pr.

Internet Advertising Bureau
In 2008 the IAB launched their Social Media Council – a group comprising the UK’s major players, to help advertisers fully understand the new formats available, and how to use them. It includes a ‘social media handbook’, some useful case studies and their own ongoing blog about social media.
http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/socialmedialanding.html.

How the IoD can help

Directors' Advisory Service
Members of the IoD can speak to one of our advisors up to 4 times a year. You may find it useful to make an appointment to speak to either Andrew Harfoot or Thomas Fuller can help you with both the marketing and IT aspects of Social Media respectively. Please contact the advisory coordinator, to check availability and make an appointment, on 020 7451 3188.
https://www.iod.com/advisory

Social Media Workshops run by local IoD Branches
Check with your local branch organiser to see when these are being arranged.

IoD Group on LinkedIn
The IoD has joined forces with LinkedIn, the world's leading online networking group for business users. It is an exclusive networking group for director level professionals where you can meet, network and share ideas with your fellow members from across the globe.
www.iod.com/networking

Hot Topics
The IoD have recently published a number of hot topics on various aspects of social media and business:

• Use video to promote your business online
• Getting staff using social media to your benefit
• How to create an effective social media profile

IoD publications
Director Magazine has published a number of articles on the issues surrounding social media and its exploitation by business, including a beginner’s guide on how to use twitter back in February 2009.
http://www.director.co.uk/

• Research claims social media costs millions in lost productivity (Director Magazine May 2011)
• Six reasons why HR owns social media (Director Magazine March 2011)
• 10 tips for fighting a digital crisis (Director Magazine September 2010)
• Jesse Engle, chief executive of Co-Tweet, profile (Director Magazine July 2010)
• Reputations at risk (Director Magazine June 2010)
• Thirteen golden rules of twitter (Director Magazine October 2009)
• A beginner’s guide to twitter (Director Magazine February 2009)

Social Media Marketing - Keynote market assessment report

“This report looks at the social media landscape, the way in which social media technologies are being employed at an enterprise level, the extent to which marketers are using social media and which social media they are using. It includes interviews with practitioners from a range of business sectors who are already using social media for marketing in the UK. Key Note has also compiled a list of `top ten tips' for small businesses wishing to engage in this activity, which seems certain to increase in importance in the future.”
Social Media Marketing – executive summary.

IoD members can request up to 10 pages from the Keynote Market Assessment on Social Media Marketing for free or receive a 30% discount if they wish to purchase the entire report through the IoD Business Information Service. Please call us on 020 7451 3100 for further details.
http://www.keynote.co.uk/

Books on this subject

We also have a number of books on this subject in the IoD Information Centre.
http://www.iod.com/informationcentre/

This is social media; how to tweet, link and blog your way to business success:
Dealing with the practicalities of Social Media, ‘This is social media’ will get you familiar with You Tube and show you how to upload an embedded video on your own site; what to put on your Facebook profile and how to set yourself up on Twitter and MySpace and the rest. Also helps you to assess which, if any, networks can best help your business.
Publisher: Capstone Author: Guy Clapperton

Marketing to the Social Web:
Trys to help marketers and their companies understand how to engage customers, build customer communities, and maximize profits. Author Larry Weber describes many of the newly available tools and platforms, showing how to tap into this new media and apply it to your business.
Publisher: Wiley Author: Larry Weber

_{Published: March 2011
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