Social Media in Business. IS 460 –Fall 2012

Presented by Jesse Burns, Jordan Meyers, and Michael Siakpere

Agenda.

• Introduction – what is social media?

• Internal/external communications

• Infrastructure

• Pros/Cons

• Live demonstration

What is social media?

• Relatively new (first known use in 2004)

• Fluid

• Based on interpretation

• Much variation, some overlap

• May be broken down into sub-categories:

• Photo Sharing• Blogging• Video Sharing• And much, much more!

Social Media - Defined.

Constant Contact

• Tools that allow the sharing of information and creation of communities through online networks of people.

Cardinal Business Group

• This is a marketing practice that emphasizes the ability of social websites and services to attract visitors to your website and build a positive reputation.

Social Media – Defined.

Merriam-Webster

• forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content

Step Forth

• This is comprised primarily of internet based tools for discussing and sharing information on both personal and business levels.

Important Terminology.

• Platform

• Influence

• #hashtag

• Like

• Friend

• Follow

• Tweet

• Trend or Trending

• Viral

• Engage

• Tag

• UGC

• Web 2.0

• SEO

History of social media.

CompuServe (1969)

• First major US commercial internet provider

Usenet (1979)

• Early bulletin that connected Duke University and the University of North Carolina

America Online (1985)

• Infamously known for “you’ve got mail”

• Instant Messaging, chat rooms

• Message Boards

History of social media.

TriPod (1992)

• Community online for college students

Friends Reunited (1999)

• First online social network to achieve prominence, was founded in Great Britain to relocate past school pals

Friendster (2002)

• First social networking website open to U.S. public

• Grew to three million users in three months

Social Media – Today.

Why is it important?

“Embracing social media isn’t just a bit of fun, it is a vital way to communicate, keep your ear

to the ground and improve your business.”

- Richard Branson

Why is it important?

• One of the fastest growing free benefits of technology today

• No longer thought of as a fad or trend

• Social media has become a must have for any business seeking to secure a place in both the traditional and digital marketplace

• Becoming a large part of how businesses do business

• Recruiting • Hiring • Background checks • Marketing • Communicating

Why is it important?

• E-mail communication becoming mute• Websites are now considered “dinosaurs” • Competitive intelligence analysis• Analytics and mobile computing • Knowledge of social media becoming a desired hiring trait• Standard competency for IT/IS students

Business are continuing to look for low-cost solutions to their growing communication problems!• How to we engage our employees?• How do we engage our clients/customers?

I’m tired of hearing

“Hopper” commercials

from Dish

I like pizza!

Mr. Roger’s neighborhood

rocks!

Social Media.

Two type of social media platforms:

- External

- Internal

Social Media – external communication

• Normally thought of as “social media”

• Generally used to communicate outside of a business

• Peer-to-peer communication

• People transform from content readers to content publishers

Social Media – external communication

• Communities• Fan Pages• Immediate assistance• Promote products and services• Reviews• Customer Feedback• Communication forum

Stock prices are up 3% this

quarter!

R&D shows that…

How can we help others in

the community?

• Used to share entertainment media

• Viral videos

• Channels

• Embedded Video

Images are copyright of their respective companies.

External Social Media.

• F2F Conferencing for Friends

• Say “Hello” to Grandma

Images are copyright of their respective companies.

External Social Media.

External social media.

Images are copyright of their respective companies.

External social media.

• Forms of media used within business

• Used to collaborate

• Can be used in large and small organizations

Images are copyright of their respective companies.

Internal Social Media.

• Real-time video collaboration

• Conference bridge

• Screen sharing

• Mobile Platforms

• Phones• Tablets

Images are copyright of their respective companies.

Internal Social Media.

• Professional video conferencing

• Collaborate across widespread organization

• Screen sharing

Images are copyright of their respective companies.

Internal Social Media.

• Facebook for employees

• Company specific

• Allows for team collaboration

Images are copyright of their respective companies.

Internal Social Media.

• Business IM

• Collaboration

Microsoft Lync.

How do they all relate?

• All can be used to make business better

• Doesn’t need paid form of social media

Take advantage of free!

Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube

• Used to spread information about company• Updates about new products and Services

via Twitter• “How to” videos via Youtube channel• Advertising via Facebook

Examples

• UWEC Blugold Minute• Engadget (product tours)

Social Media - Need for investing?

Real Time Collaboration (Screen Sharing)

• GoToMeeting - $500/year• Yammer – Free - $15/user/month

Video Conferencing (Hardware Based)

• Polycom System - $5000+• Monitor• Console • Additional hardware/software

Social Media - Infrastructure.

High Speed Internet Connection

• Video Conferencing• 2.3 Mbps Average (Polycom) per link + 20%

• Facebook• 28% of Total Bandwidth

• Youtube• 5 MB/minute/video

Social Media - Infrastructure.

Desktop

• Youtube • 500 MHz or faster processor• 128 MB of memory• 64 MB video memory

• Skype• 1 GHz or faster processor• 256 MB of memory• DirectX v9 or above

Social Media - Infrastructure.

Server

• Microsoft Lync• Quad-core 2.0 GHz or higher• 16 GB of memory• 10,000 RPM disk drive (72 GB Free)• 1 Gbps network link

Social Media - Facts & Trends.

1 of every 6 minutes spent online is on a social media platform

56% of Americans have a profile on at least one social networking site

Fortune 100 company names are mentioned more than 10 million times/month

Social Media - Facts & Trends.

87% of the Fortune 100 now use social media – with twitter being the most popular

75 of the Fortune 100 companies use LinkedIn in their corporate hiring process

Social Media - Facts & Trends.

Social Media - Statistics.

54% of U.S. companies say they’ve banned workers from using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace

19% of companies allow social networking use only for business purposes

16% allow only limited personal use

Social Media - Pros.

Boosts employee morale

Help in solving problems or questions

Increased recruitment efforts

Employees build social media knowledge Everyone wants to belong to something

Social Media - Pros.

Significant cost savings Many free social media platforms Facebook, Google+, Linked In

Accessibility Many are accessible via the internet No need to have software downloaded

Integration Video, document sharing, chat all-in-one

Social Media - Cons.

Productivity loss

Security and privacy concerns

Recruitment decision risks

Inappropriate online behavior

Social Media - Cons.

Ownership of information Concerns over who owns the content uploaded to cloud services

Retrieving information Accessibility concerns

Connectivity issues Bandwidth, flash player, wireless connection, etc.

Example/Demo.

Questions?