Is Social Media a Right Place to Promote Your Business?

Even though social networking has  grown tremendously in the consumer and personal market place, there has not been  much  interest  from the world of business  thus far.    The new social networking phenomenon has created a real  dilemma for some business managers. By definition, social networking has been described as the bundling of most all of the components of communication: wikis, blogs, podcasts, video, content development tools (document and presentation development, and spreadsheets), instant text messaging and email.   What to do with it and how to treat it in the workplace are just some of the questions puzzling managers today.

Consumer Networking

The value of social networking in the consumer arena is becoming clearer every day.  There are already literally hundreds of groups representing a wide variety of interests all busily  Twittering away. The networks are really just narrowly focused communities of interest.

I recently read a press release announcing a social network whose topic was  ”Greening the Planet”. Going green is a hot topic for many consumers.   After all, we all want to do our part to save the world. The latest products and developments in the “Green” realm should be widely broadcast to the masses  so as to allow us all  the chance to improve our lives.   As you can imagine, consumer-based social networks like this one  can be  very narrowly focused.

Personal Networking

As I’m sure you’ve discovered, there is some value in personal social networks as well.   Most of you have probably already  signed up for Plaxo or LinkedIn or possibly both.   Each of these personal networks also provide smaller divisions that are  more narrowly focused on topics such as “Harvard Business School Grads” or  ”IT Teckies”.   Individuals see value in their professional relationships.   Personal networks are not much different than the old fashioned business card file or folder, it just keeps the  information  electronicly.    We once picked up the phone to talk with our  contacts,  now we send personal emails or even  email distributions for most communications.    The concept of personal social networking hasn’t changed much,  it’s just gone electronic.

 

 

Business Networking

The value of social networking, if any, for business isn’t quite as clear.   Most of the  identifiable and quantifiable benefits such as improved collaboration and document iteration management is already in place; the same goes for customer feedback and customer forums.  There are also forums and message boards for most  products and services out there that potential customers can readily access.   With regard to the concept  of all the components of social networking being on a single platform, we already have that as well, in the form of unified communications (UC).   Also, mobility and mobile access is widely available for most applications. The downsides to social networking in the business environment are no different than those of UC.  All of the issues of security are in play, including access control and document sharing.   One could argue that social networking outside of the corporate firewall would pose a substantial security threat and potential for intellectual property leakage at a minimum and substantial loss of productivity from office workers to boot.

via: At Home Sense

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