Social Media Adoption by the Australian Co-op sector
Co-operative Research Group
The University of Sydney Business School & Macquarie University
Presentation Outline:
› Research context: the Australian Co-op sector: Current challenges
› Foundations: Organisational adoption of social media
› Research aims and objectives
› Research method
› Pilot project: Qualitative analysis of selected Co-op organisations
› Preliminary Research findings
› Using Social media to address the current challenges of the Australian Coop sector
› New challenges created by social media
› Future research
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Research context: The current state of play of the
Australian Co-op sector
The co-operative sector (Australia)
- 1,600 co-operatives
- 103 financial mutuals ($83 Billion combined total assets)
- 13.5 million members (estimated, overlapping memberships)
- $17 billion for top turnover 100 in 2011
- Sizeable examples of co-ops/mutuals
- Credit Union Australia (Credit Union, $9 Billion assets)
- Co-operative Bulk Handling Ltd. (Grain, $2.9 Billion revenue)
- Murray Goulburn Co-operative (Dairy, $2.3 Billion revenue)
- Capricorn Society Ltd. (Purchasing Co-op, $1 Billion revenue)
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Research context: The current challenges of the
Australian Co-op sector
Challenges
- Decline of Rochdale Co-operative Movement
- Demutualisation of Producers Co-operatives
- Problems with establishing a national umbrella organisation
- Broad shift away from collective solutions since the 1990s
- Emphasis on individualism
- Focus of business education on non-co-op sector
- Low public profile despite IYC 2012 (Australian Institute survey)
- 79% of Australians members of co-op
- 30% can name co-op/mutually owned enterprise
- Only 16% believe they are members of one
- Highlights ‘an opportunity or need for the sector to build a stronger public
awareness of its prominence and importance’ (Australian Institute Survey, 12)
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From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0
› Web 1.0 – static web pages, hyperlinks, customer feedback
› Web 2.0 – new forms of engagement with customers and within
organisations
Categories of
social networking
applications
Turban et al., 2011
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Foundations: Social-media platforms
- Facebook
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Blogs
- Wikis
- Online forums
- Google +
Enterprise social networks
- Yammer
Number of Facebook users grew
2010-12 from 431 to 901 million
jeffbullas.com
More than 1 million websites have
integrated with Facebook in various ways
The Huffington Post
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Current research landscape
Commercial
companies
NFPs
Co-op
organisations
Government
agencies
Current research on
Social media
applications
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Social media in the commercial sector
A survey of Fortune 500 companies (Case and King, 2011)
› Areas: business, marketing, brand promotion, communication, monitoring
user collaboration and knowledge sharing.
›
› Applications:
- Creation of communities (Goodwin-Hones, 2003),
- creation of virtual customer environments (Culnan et al, 2010),
- spreading customer news, getting customer reviews, monitoring customer
opinions (Gallaugher and Ransbotham, 2010)
- Marketing, brand promotion, HR services (Case and King, 2011)
- Knowledge Management (Grace 2009, Kang et al. 2010)
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Social Media Application in the Australian NFP
organisations
Web 1.0
Web 2.0
Based on the 2012 analysis of 595 Australian
non profit organizations from a range of
industries.
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Social Media Application in the Australian NFP
organisations
The 2012 analysis of 595 Australian non profit organizations from a range of
industries shows:
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Foundations: Organisational adoption of Socialmedia
Source: Gallaugher and Ransbotham, 2010
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Foundations: Organisational adoption of Socialmedia
› The Megaphone: Firm-Initiated Social Media Dialog used for:
- Promotions, competitions, campaign management, distribution of time-sensitive information,
brand positioning, recruitment of new customers & employees
› The Magnet: Customer-initiated Social Media Dialog used to:
- Capture customer feedback, enhance market research, augment customer service and foster
innovation, display/share the interaction of a first with other customers.
› The Monitor: Customer-to-customer Social Media Dialog
- Social media provide opportunities for customers to interact with each other (independently). The
Monitor activities enable the company to monitor, participate and even shift some customer-tocustomer dialog.
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An illustrative example: Starbucks
Source: Gallaugher and Ransbotham, 2010
13
The “Megaphone” examples at Starbucks
Source: Gallaugher and Ransbotham, 2010
14
The “Magnet” examples at Starbucks
Source: Gallaugher and Ransbotham, 2010
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The “Monitor” examples at Starbucks
Source: Gallaugher and Ransbotham, 2010
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Social media in the Australian Co-op sector:
Research questions
› What is the current level of use of social media in the Australian Co-op sector?
› What are the factors that impede the uptake of social media within this sector?
› What are the future opportunities for social media adoption?
› What can we, applied researchers, do to enable propagation of good practices
across the Australian and international Co-op sectors, in a systematic,
research-informed manner?
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Research method
› A pilot project (Australian Co-op survey) with a social media component (currently
in progress)
› Selection of a sample of Co-op organisations from Australia with social-media
presence
› Qualitative analysis of:
- Identification and analysis of current social media application from the customer
(outside) perspective
- Analysis of social media applications using the Megaphone/Magnet/Monitor
model to establish the current level of social media maturity among the selected
Co-ops
Next steps:
- A more comprehensive qualitative analysis of the Australian Co-ops
- Research case-studies of the selected Australian co-ops/
- Presentation of results at the Co-op Research Group Symposium in November
2013.
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Qualitative Analysis of the Australian Co-ops
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Co
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Social Media Use – Outline
Agri-A
Retail-A
Retail-B
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Health
Insurance
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Motoring &
Insurance
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Approx
340 social
media
sites
No
approx
340 social
media
sites
Banking &
Insure - A
Banking &
Insure - B
Agri-B
Retail-C
Retail-D
Finance
Housing
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No Social Media
Use
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Approx
340 social
media
sites
Qualitative Analysis of the Australian Co-ops
Social Media Use – Modes of Engagement
Co-operative Megaphone
Magnet
Agri-A
Yes
Yes
Retail-A
Yes
Yes
Retail-B
Yes
No
Health
Insurance
Yes
Yes
Motoring &
Insurance
Yes
Yes
Banking &
Insure - A
Yes
Yes
Banking &
Insure - B
Yes
Yes
Agri-B
No
No
Retail-C
No
No
Retail-D
No
No
Finance
No
No
Housing
No
No
Monitor
Using Social media to address the current
challenges of the Australian Co-op sector
Role of social media:
 Communicating the ‘Co-op Difference’ to members and potential
members.
 Building and maintaining a regional, state and/or national co-op
network.
 Enhancing member voice.
 Building a sense of community.
 Online purchasing.
 Promotion of sales, events etc.
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New challenges created by Social Media
Some things we need to be aware of:
› Privacy and security concerns
› Data ownership
› Management of different channels
› Better integration between an organisation’s front-end (Social media) and
back-end (operations)
› Resources (including HR)
› Strategy-driven applications
› Continuous learning and innovation
› The need to become more agile in customer interactions
› Current research and practice focus on Social media in the
Corporate/Government and NFP sectors – the Co-op sector is yet to be
considered.
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THANK YOU!