UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS T/505/5399 LEVEL 3 LO3 - Know benefits of social media for business to an organisation AIM AND PURPOSE OF THE UNIT Social media for business is a widely expanding opportunity for organisations to embrace social media and apply the social technologies to their business to improve and promote business value. From marketing and sales to product and service innovation, social media for business is changing the way people in business connect and the way organisations compete. The aim of the unit is to give learners the understanding of what social media is, the scope and impact it has, how it is evolving and the opportunities these platforms provide to businesses when promoting themselves or utilising consumer information. By reviewing business practice the learners will be able to identify how to improve service and customer delivery, raise awareness of business and products/services and improve market intelligence to develop a competitive advantage. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Learning Outcome (LO) The learner will: Pass The assessment criteria are the pass requirements for this unit. The learner can: Merit For merit the evidence must show that, in addition to the pass criteria, the learner is able to: Distinction For distinction the evidence must show that, in addition to the pass and merit criteria, the learner is able to: 1 Understand the concept of social media P1 Explain the range of social media services M1 Explain opportunities provided by social media to individuals D1 Evaluate risks to individuals when using social media 2 Know social media for the business environment P2 Describe the concept of social media for business M2 Describe where social media has been successful in promoting businesses D2 Compare and contrast social media and social media for business 3 Know benefits of social media for business to an organisation P3 Describe benefits to an organisation of using social media for business M3 Explain how social media for business could be used to improve business functions D3 Propose success criteria for an identified business when introducing social media for business Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment The tutor should encourage learners to look at how business could grow using social media. Example companies and business types could be given by the tutor to focus the learners on services that could be used. A group review of these ideas would enable the learners to critically evaluate each other’s ideas and identify which services are most appropriate for different types of business. The tutor should then discuss the business functions/ departments common to most organisations and then encourage the learners to identify which business functions may use social media to promote their products, services etc. The learners could be given case studies or fictional organisations by the tutor and preparing and presenting suggested social business solutions to this organisation. They should identify how they think the business could grow and the success criteria that the organisation could use as a measure. Learners should also be encouraged by the tutor to research well-known and larger organisations and their social media activity, focus and scope. They should then discuss in the group what impact they feel this has had on the identified business and where this activity could be grown. They may also identify business benefits to these businesses. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment For P3 learners must describe the benefits to an organisation of using social media for business. This could be in the form of a report or leaflet where a range of potential benefits to an organisation are described for identified social media for business activities as suggested in the teaching content. For merit assessment criterion M3 learners must explain how social media for business could be used to improve business functions. This could be an extension of P3 where the learner explains how identified benefits to an organisation could be applied to improve identified business functions in line with the teaching content. For distinction assessment criterion D3 learners must propose success criteria for an identified business when introducing social business. This could be in the form of a project plan but would need to include milestones and supporting documentation over short, medium and long term. The learner should make proposals to an identified business detailing the aspects of social media they could introduce how the benefits of these can be measured and the timescales that these would involve. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment For this section of the project you need to choose a new or a current business with a weak or no online presence to base your findings on. You will need to state the benefits to this company of creating and using Social Media in order to create a Social business environment that can be compared to others. This business can be fictional but needs to be able to be represented on a larger scale than a local shop. The range of social media that will be requires includes a wiki, forum, blog, Twitter and Facebook account as well as a web presence for online sales or services. The company you select needs to be the focus for discussion either in its products or services and the target audience and subsidiary audiences need to be considered. Suggested businesses could include: ◦ A local sporting club ◦ A shop or restaurant that is planning on expanding into a franchise ◦ A sponsored local charity or appeal ◦ A website dedicated to support ◦ A review site for a range of goods and products, ◦ A magazine online supplement for promotional purposes. ◦ Any others will need to be agreed with by your Tutor and meet the criteria. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment For any company potentially wishing to take the leap into promotions and processes through social media the benefits to an organisation of using social media for business. Better customer and product awareness - Getting your products discovered online goes beyond search engine results. Social media allows you to interact and associate with the customers and having a website with well thought out key words, proper encoding, and appropriate classification aids in having your business information indexed on GPS devices, social media, and other websites that index your business’s. Having a web presence and more importantly, putting a company’s name out there, gets a company noticed. Social media tells people who you are and what you sell. Improves Sales – Few websites set out to just show the user who you are, sales is always at the heart of any online presence. And social media is the place to do this. There are tools, Data Mining, CRM, SEO and SEM, there are sites to advertise, Comparethemarket and banner ads, there are promotional methods, Google Ads and paying companies to push you up the ranks. But nothing beats having and activating a social presence on the internet. Put a YouTube video of your product on so the user can see it, push it up the list, make it eye catching. Similarly start a forum for your own customers and regulate it, contribute favourable mentions to blogs and wikis. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Better and more accurate information - This comes as a surprise to many small business owners, but there’s a significant chance that your business already has a web presence. With websites like Yelp, Google, Facebook, Twitter and other websites that allow user feedback, you can bet that someone has already reviewed you. It’s an unfortunate truth, but a customer who has had a bad experience with your business is considerably more likely to take to the internet to write a review than someone who had a pleasant experience. In this instance not having a website can be particularly damaging to your reputation. If your business is on a reviewing platform with just a couple negative reviews your business instantly loses credibility. The image is made worse by that website being the first thing that comes up in a quick Google search for your company’s name. Bearing this in mind, having a website and utilising search engine optimisation techniques allows you to push this kind of website further down the page of results. Even with positive reviews, if the first thing that pops up when users search for your business name is a user review site like Yelp your credibility takes a steep slide into non-existence, even if you have more good reviews than bad. Having a website gives you the opportunity to guide the conversation, demonstrate the true information, talk and show the customer. While simply having a web presence won’t stop people from writing negative reviews about you, it does give you your own voice in the game that would otherwise be lost. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Improved feedback – Read one review and no other and we limit ourselves down. Read a 100 reviews and 10% are bad then we have 90% of happy customers. Social media allow us to have as many reviews as it takes. Companies scan blogs, Google themselves, read the reviews on LinkedIn and find out what customers are saying even when not asked. Create your own media feedback form, create a wiki and a blog, make the company twitter account visible on posters and ads, ask for feedback and encourage a buzz. Wider market place - Having a website opens up your business and your products to a global audience, which is especially important if you utilise your website as an e-store. Selling your products online is a great way to supplement your offline business, and even if you’re not selling a product even the simplest of websites offers exposure to a free market otherwise left untapped. We live in a culture where “Google It” is a phrase and not having a website is a bit of an oversight for any business in existence. Task 1 – P3.1 – Describe the potential Market benefits to a company without a presence, and state how each would improve business functions. Improves Sales Improved feedback Better customer and product awareness Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wider market place Better and more accurate information 8 9 Assessment Human Resources (HR) is affected quite strongly with the rise in media technologies used by businesses for functions like recruitment and motivation. Right staff attracted – For a teaching position it costs £2000 to advertise for a post on the TES website but for this service the site promotes the job, allows teachers to apply directly online, to store their CV’s for schools to look through and to filter jobs applications specifically for that position. Similarly Monster, Reed and other job sites have a similar policy. The right staff can be attracted through these sites, Human Resources can use these sites to headhunt, to scour for staff, and for a site like TES the applicants can be emailed directly when a position that meets their criterion comes up. Motivation for staff and job engagement – Would you rather sit in an office and type on word of be more engaged in content and promotion, on recruitments and preparing materials. The Social Media is more exciting, more motivational, it is new, it is shiny, Web 2.0 is here and is a lot more engaging and active than the old less interactive pressures of the job. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Addressing issues – One of the biggest benefits of Social Media is that it can answer customers without you being there, 24/7. Automated responses, guided results, Phones that redirect calls to the right number, emails scanned and directed to the right user. And they are always there, always with a response, never too busy to answer. Click here to see how Paypal addressed their problems. How does a company know when customers are not happy. Read the blogs, read the comments on Facebook. How does a company respond and apologise publically, Tweet it. Similarly see how a company fails when not using the medium properly here. The Internet is impersonal, anonymous, people prefer not to face their accused, they will tweet and post and blog rather than ring or complain. That is modern society. Task 2 – P3.2 – Describe the potential Functional Staffing benefits to a company without a presence, and state how each would improve business effectiveness. Right staff attracted Scenario Criteria 1 2 Motivation for staff and job engagement 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Addressing issues The second biggest advantage of having a web presence is Marketing, specifically because marketing online is almost free and potentially more accurate. We have dealt with SEO, SEM, Banner Ads, Pop-Ups and emails but this is just a part of the marketing array companies use to target their audience. Ability to target customers – Amazon have mastered this with their recommends. CRM along with direct marketing means getting the right message to the customer at the right time. Facebook use ads to pay for their services and these ads know who you are, where you are, when your birthday is, whether you are single or not. They read your status and your page and customise to your needs. This is the ideal marketing tool, self directed marketing. Social Media does this well, sometimes too well. Click here to see how Macy’s personalise their shopping to direct target audience purchases. Receive feedback to new concepts – Gone are the days when a feedback form was in the box of goods when you bought it. Now it is online, or Tweeted or scanned with a Smartphone. The Internet is full of sites where customers review products, companies look at these and learn from them, they sign up to newsfeeds and receive each review directly, they have tags on pages that monitor activity, how long a customer stays, what they click on, where they go. They data mine to find out what else the customer is looking at. Look at the links on Amazon and eBay that track what you last looked at, add this to a cookie and a data mine and the company will know all there is to know about why you bought or who you bought from instead.. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Improve customer retention/loyalty - There are any numbers of ways to compete for one-time customer purchase, but the science of customer retention and repeat business the lifeblood of business. The method commonly uses is to produce marketing materials that accurately describe your product or service, and deliver a product or service that is everything your marketing materials say it is. This is about putting the customer first, developing trust, developing a niche and getting word of mouth to sell your goods. One thing Social Media is good at is answering back, responsive emails, weekly updates, customised recommends, databases that ask why you have not shopped for a while, it is almost as if they care. Improved Brand awareness/loyalty – Search in a shop like Argos for a product and yet get that one product, the page in the catalogue does not shout it out, it does not show you what would look good with it. Shop online and you get similar products, same brands, things that go well. The customised shopping experience, quicker than the press of a button. And the website is branded, Mercedes silver, McDonalds green, Ballymena aquamarine. And the colours remind us of the brand and all the products are linked to the brand. Loyalty once there is drummed in, makes you welcome, keeps you on the site, makes it interesting, drop down menus, 5 seconds, rollover images, 3 seconds, interactive banner, 10 seconds. And you are still there, looking at it. Task 3 – P3.3 – Describe the potential Marketing benefits to a company without a presence, and state how Social Media Marketing Tools would improve business visibility and awareness. Ability to target customers Scenario Criteria Receive feedback to new concepts 1 2 3 4 5 6 Improve customer retention/loyalty 7 8 9 Assessment Improved Brand awareness/loyalty Better market/customer awareness – Facebook, Twitter and other social media are still little more than big databases, data that can be analysed and predicted. Analytics is the art of looking at this data, seeing trends, predicting increases and decreases. IBM and its Smart Planet project (Unit 42) pushes this. Giving the customer more choice, more information and analysing the results of this and other trends allows companies to understand their customer base better. Knowing that your customer likes coming in to buy cheap burgers is one thing but understanding what it is about the taste they like, which milk shakes sell more with certain burgers etc. allows a company to customise their marketing. For instance there is more shortbread, toffee and Turrocks sold in Corby than anywhere else in England, knowing why allows Tesco's and Morrisons to customise promotions. Understanding the tides and flows of distribution, of logistics, of when the market is good and slow allows a company to taper their product during slow periods, especially useful when the stock is frozen or degrades. Customer engagement through social data – Social media allows companies to personalise their engagement with the customer. Customers on your Twitter feed looking for offers are customers with your name in their mind, customers who are seeing your brand and the longer you are on line with them, on Twitter, having them friended on Facebook, looking at your YouTube videos etc. the more likely they are to be brand loyal. More importantly social contact through more personal media makes them feel more cherished, part of the team, a member of a club. It is the difference between a letter saying “Dear Sir” than a letter saying “Dear Christina.” This may seem more time consuming but again, big data, it knows your name, your status, your likes and dislikes, it has seen your images on Facebook and what you bought on Amazon. Companies who engage with this information can personalise their contact, now how cherished do you feel. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Customer communities and support – Social Media is hard to control, if a customer wants to complain they will go on a forum and complain. They will put it on their Facebook, they will Tweet it, the Internet is too large to contain but to provide a forum for them to complain or compliment means to build a cage for them. Gateway used to have a room in Dublin where customers who were put on hold had the option of speaking to other customers instead for support, you could be heard right away, by non technical people, it became like an AA meeting, “Hi, I’m Dave and I have not been able to access my USB ports for two weeks now.” Online forums and support pages on websites are free, they are easy to moderate, they give support to any customer, they allow for reviews and feedback, they allow customers to fix and support other customers. And a customer with a repaired problem is a customer still using your product. There are two ways this can be done successfully, provide the forum or support other forums. Large Companies often hire staff to scour the Internet to support their customers in forums, to update pages, to moderate forum content, to direct the customers back to the companies site. This is standard business practice, support the customer, increase brand loyalty. We do not buy the new Apple because the old one is broken, we buy it because we want something better. Task 4 – P3.4 – Describe the potential Sales benefits to a company without a presence, and state how Social Media Sales tools would improve business relations with customers. Better market/customer awareness Scenario Criteria 1 2 Customer engagement through social data 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Customer communities and support Ease of access to customer data/history – Without access to big data, without the presence of the Internet and stored information, companies relied on managing information in files, folders and cabinets. Even with computers the information was limited to prior purchases and customer registration details. With more information gathering services from analytics, dig data, MySql and other forms, the information stored on customers is more accessible. Amazon use this with their recommends, Facebook with their adverts and Sainsbury’s with their Reward Card. Companies like a school have linked databases with everything needed for a student, contact details is linked to progression, to special needs, to prior attainment, to timetables, to behaviour in lessons, to history of behaviour, to policies that have been put in place to reports that have been written. Drop down the menu, click on a button and there is more information. Effective companies are those who know how to manage this information. Speed of response – Having information at their fingertips is good but having an instant response to a query is better. Automated response systems linked to prior enquiries is becoming more popular as a service, specifically for technical queries like product support. The linear pathway of “did you try this, then do this” response works for certain things like installing hardware or software, online support and online support forums means the information from the company and other users is available immediately. The second form is deliberate response systems, base don prior enquiries systems generate previous responses into a data column that automatically generate when the customer types certain key words into a report form. These are not always accurate and can sometimes annoy customers but the response is automatic. Customers still appreciate this especially when there is a “Still did not work” option. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Improved customer service – At the end of the day the more customer service options there are, the more the customer will be satisfied. Choice is everything, online and offline, telephone and email, prior support and current customer help, whatever it takes to get the job done. Social media means more contact time, more lines of support, more methods of communication. The customer can choose and they would prefer to choose, if they prefer face to face there is a service desk, if they prefer anonymous there is email and forums, if they prefer to vent there is the phone. And every method is formal, written down, stored, kept, analysed, improved, service is made better, more efficient and for online support, every comment made adds to the database of solutions for the next customer. Customer care value – Customers like to feel valued, if a customer feels they have changed a company policy, they will feel valued, they will know they have made a change, been taken seriously. Ryanair has publically apologised for their quality of service and promised to change and be better. This value added comment made by the chairman of the company to customers added 3% to the value of the company and 8% ticket sales in the first month since. Customer care means a lot to companies and social media is a good tool to use to generate that good feeling. When Sony rewarded their loyal customers with credits or Rockstar with ½ million online points, this was the level of customer care expected. The twitter feeds for each were huge, the forums good and bad but mostly good, this is the generated buzz companies like from Social Media. Task 5 – P3.5 – Describe the potential Customer Service benefits to a company without a current presence, and state how Social Media Service tools would improve business relations with customers. Ease of access to customer data/history Scenario Criteria 1 2 Speed of response 3 4 5 6 Improved customer service 7 8 9 Assessment Customer care value Wider resources for development - Once a company has generated a social media presence and an online presence, the added technologies that are adapted or new to the market are easy bolt-ons. With the increased income generated by having an online presence the company can expand online and offline, open more shops, widen the product range, hire more staff, this is the reason most companies go online for. Online can reduce down overheads providing more revenue. If it was not for i-Tunes Apple would not be as large as it is, accounting for 18% of its annual revenue without needing to post a single thing. Similarly for Sony, the revenue generated without products accounts for a high percentage of income. With this they can spend it on R&D, on licencing, on product promotion, on expansion. Faster Time to market – When Argos want to change a product price, remove a product or add a product in their shops they usually add a supplement to their books and when the product becomes popular or more permanent it gets published in the book. Everything moves accordingly, more room set aside for that range, pages change etc. A lot of time and effort. For an on-line presence this is just a matter of adding a new product, move something on the page, add in the details, the meta tags and suddenly the product is there. Same for removing it, take it off the database, remove it from the list and it is gone. This is the nature of online content, it is instant, it is available, it can be updated and be live within minutes, real time product management and product control. It just takes longer to arrive at the customers address. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Wider marketplace (global) - Companies who go online and push their Social Media, suddenly have access to a world market which is a good thing, usually, increased competition is only true if the company remained local and expanded its product range. Having a global presence opens up all new avenues of problems and solutions. Potentially more money, better sales, increased demand, more visibility, untapped markets in other countries who might have been crying out for what you have. Both the BBC and Channel 4 make as much money franchising their programmes because there is a market abroad for British goods. Finding missing Doctor Who episodes in Nigeria came as a surprise. Think of the demand for other goods in countries where this might be a novelty or necessity. First there is the ex-Pat community, and then there are Cars, JCB’s industrial machinery etc. especially to BRIC countries. Click here and here and here to see what Britain goods are good for abroad. Sharing wider data – Having a presence overseas can also mean sharing data with other branches and with overseas outlets. All digital data can be shared and shared easily, either through the use of a WAN or through Cloud or SSL. Internally data gathered can be disseminated through the departments, logistics, sales, marketing, Human Resources but it can also be used for additional purposes, projecting promotions, ads, generating revenue through sponsorships etc. Having all this data and using it for all it is worth is the mark of a company with ambition. Task 6 – P3.6 – Describe the potential Product Innovation benefits to a company without a current presence, and state how Social Media Service sharing would improve business relations with customers. Wider resources for development Scenario Criteria 1 Faster Time to market 2 3 4 5 6 Wider marketplace (global 7 8 9 Assessment Sharing wider data Your company is ready now for to have a web presence and a Social Media presence to boost it Social Business contracts. In order to make policies clear to staff they will need to draw up a Social Media Contract for staff to read and understand before allowing Media sites to host business information. In this Social media Contract they will need to state the effective need and use for all Social Mediums they plan on using and the reasons why the use of Social media and a web presence needs to be done, how this will benefit the company and what social business functions it is likely to address. Use this template to prepare this. Effective terms of good and bad practice need to be made clear but this policy also has to meet the criteria set for successes to be achieved. Successes means prospective business advances, therefor the company wants to state openly what they hope to achieve in terms of Customer Care, Online presence, Sales and marketing purposes so new staff can be made aware of the Social media contract they need to abide by. Task 7 – M3.1 – Create a Social Media Guideline Document that outlines the companies Social media plans, it’s hope of successes and how it will deal with Sales and Marketing online. Purpose and Aim Twitter Guidelines LinkedIn Guidelines Media Sharing Guidelines Facebook Guidelines Blogs Guidelines Wiki Guidelines Business Functions Guidelines Marketing Guidelines Sales Guidelines Customer Service Guidelines Product Innovation Guidelines Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Further to this proposal the company would like you to plan the proposal to take into account the timeframe of putting their Social Business Plan into place, starting from the moment the Website goes live to the moment the company takes into account feedback from the customers on whether the Social media presence is effective. This timeline should be produced as a Gantt chart showing times beginning and times ending for set up and construction. The following stages should be considered: ◦ Website site going live. ◦ Creating Social Media Documentation ◦ Setting up a LinkedIn Account ◦ Setting up a Facebook Account ◦ Setting up a Wiki Internal Account ◦ Setting up a Blog Account ◦ Setting up a Twitter Account ◦ Setting up a YouTube Account ◦ Setting up a Image Sharing Account ◦ Getting feedback from customers from each of the above. ◦ Producing e-marketing materials ◦ Adapting web presence ◦ Adapting Data management and data analytics ◦ Setting an e-commerce presence Milestones and supporting documentation over short, medium and long term will also have to be set on the timeline. Task 8 – D3.1 – Create a Social Media Guideline Document that outlines the Timeline and Milestone Social media plans that takes into consideration all the development stages. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Further to the production of the Social Media Contract the company would like you to plan the proposal to take into account the following Success Criterion and the benefits that come with them: Improved perception of product service Improved awareness of business Increased sales Broader customer base Improved customer data/response Improved communications Increased trust Improved targeting for marketing Return on investment With each of these the company would like to know how the success criterion is likely to be measured and the timescales involved in each of these. Each will have a different measuring tool, some may be made through the measurement of increased sales, some through a change in ethos and awareness via the blogs and comparison sites, and some may be through company accounts when the Net and Gross company values are measures at the end of the tax year. Everything needs to be measured for a company to succeed, every aspect of business needs to be transparent in order to see what is working, what isn’t and what part of the policy needs to be adapted. Task 9 – D3.2 – Create a Social Media Guideline Document that outlines the Success Criterion and Benefits that come with them. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment Task 1 – P3.1 – Describe the potential Market benefits to a company without a presence, and state how each would improve business functions. Task 2 – P3.2 – Describe the potential Functional Staffing benefits to a company without a presence, and state how each would improve business effectiveness. Task 3 – P3.3 – Describe the potential Marketing benefits to a company without a presence, and state how Social Media Marketing Tools would improve business visibility and awareness. Task 4 – P3.4 – Describe the potential Sales benefits to a company without a presence, and state how Social Media Sales tools would improve business relations with customers. Task 5 – P3.5 – Describe the potential Customer Service benefits to a company without a current presence, and state how Social Media Service tools would improve business relations with customers. Task 6 – P3.6 – Describe the potential Product Innovation benefits to a company without a current presence, and state how Social Media Service sharing would improve business relations with customers. Task 7 – M3.1 – Create a Social Media Guideline Document that outlines the companies Social media plans, its hope of successes and how it will deal with Sales and Marketing online. Task 8 – D3.1 – Create a Social Media Guideline Document that outlines the Timeline and Milestone Social media plans that takes into consideration all the development stages. Task 9 – D3.2 – Create a Social Media Guideline Document that outlines the Success Criterion and Benefits that come with them. Scenario Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assessment