How Social Networking sites are used by business

27/04/2010 AnamariaR 24 comments

Data collected by The Nielsen Company found that in December 2009, global consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter (Nielsen, 2010). This is an increase of 82%, from the same time in 2008 (Nielsen, 2010). With this increase of consumer use of social networking sites, business has seen this as an opportunity to use sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube for their needs. Some of these opportunities include “sales, marketing, recruitment, research, and technical support” (Wilson, 2009). This paper will look at how social networking sites are used by business.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are examples of social networking sites that are used by business. These sites allow users to create profiles and add people as friends. It brings people with similar interests together (Weber, 2009) and allows them to create connections to build a social network. “A social network consists of all the people – friends, family and others – with whom one shares a social relationship” (Golder et al., 2007). On a greater scale, social networks display how large groups of people are connected to one another (Golder et al., 2007).

What makes these sites appealing to business is that they are “inexpensive, easy” (Jacobs, 2009) and offer “real-time communication” (Jacobs, 2009). A business can use one or a number of these sites based on what the companies individual needs are (Gold, 2010). Each site caters for different needs. There are no set rules or structured plan to follow when choosing which social networking site should or shouldn’t be used by a business.

To gain a better understanding of social networking site discussed in this paper, a short explanation follows about each site.

Facebook is a social networking site that has over 400 million active users (Facebook, 2010). It allows users to connect with friends and family, share status updates, a place for discussions and allows the users to post pictures. Facebook currently has over 1.5 million local businesses that have active pages. The average Facebook user has 130 friends and is a member of, on average 13 groups (Facebook, 2010).

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text based posts with a limit of 140 characters and are read by the author’s subscribers also known as followers (“Twitter”, 2010). These tweets can be about what someone is doing at that point in time, for example “Just left the gym”, or can include “links to websites” (Gorham, 2009). In the first quarter of 2010, four billion tweets had been posted on Twitter (Chainey, 2010).

LinkedIn is a “professional networking” (Bretz, 2010) website that allows registered members to create profiles which are displayed similar to a resume. With over 65 million members (LinkedIn, 2008) this site allows people to find and connect with other registered members forming professional networks.

YouTube is a website which allows users to upload and share original videos. “Every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded” to the website (YouTube, n.d.-b). YouTube is the “leader in online video” (YouTube, n.d.-a), creating a network of people who can watch, share and comment on videos.

We begin to look at examples of ways social networking sites are used by business. The following businesses show a range of ways that these sites can be used for their needs.

Gyms are using Facebook pages to promote events, build a community, drive web traffic and generate leads of new members. Barry Klein, owner of Elevations Health Club, looks at Facebook as the same as going to a cocktail party. You meet potential customers and get to know them, over time building some level of trust. By doing this you form relationships with your customers, they then trust the business and what it is selling.

Instead of sending out expensive printed advertisements, Klein prefers using Facebook, a free service to promote his business to new clients and existing clients. He believes his leads of new business are up five times over that of last year, due to his Facebook page. He says companies are making a mistake if they don’t see Facebook as a way of networking with members (Bloyd, 2010).

Another example of a business using social networking sites is Lenovo. Lenovo’s web-marketing vice president uses “Twitter to monitor tweets about our brand-looking for people having a tough time with our products. I also see a lot of opportunity to sell through Twitter, and I expect we’ll open a ‘deal’ channel there soon” (Weber, 2009). By making connections with their customers, business can solve problems and find out what customers thoughts are of the company. They can turn an issue that a customer has about the business into a positive, by listening to the customer and trying to solve it.

UBank Australia’s newest online bank uses a combination of social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube (Boyd, 2010). Facebook promotes who the company is by publishing news update, allowing people to participate in polls and contribute to saving tips (UBank, 2010-a). Twitter is used for customer service needs by answering customer questions, tweeting the latest news and sharing links of interest such as rate increases (UBank, 2010-b).

UBank uses YouTube to communicate with it customers by uploading videos explaining what UBank is, how its accounts work, and explaining topics such as ‘How to pay less tax’ and ‘Investing in property vs Stock’ through its video series MoneyBox (UBank, 2009). The MoneyBox Video series encourages people to return to its site, as it is regularly updated with new videos giving finance tips that customers may find helpful.

Recruitment companies such as executive search firm BINC also use social networking sites. Tawny Labrum office manager uses Facebook and Twitter to assist with recruitment and research for its company blog. On Facebook, Labrum has created a company profile which she mainly uses for recruitment purposes. She searches Facebook for possible candidates for current positions she needs to fill. She also uses Twitter to “get ideas for blog posts and find out what’s hot in the marketplace” (Hawkins, 2009). By using Twitter as a research tool, she is able to regularly update the BINC’s company blog keeping subscribers informed with the latest news on employment and what is happening in the market. Labrum makes use of these sites to find possible candidates for employment and to “let people know that we’re experts in our field” (Hawkins, 2009).

Scott Parker owner of landscaping business Parker Homescape’s uses Facebook to market the business and create an online presence. Parker has created a Facebook page for his landscaping business where members of his group can view photos of work his company has completed and read about awards they have recently received. Parker says, “It allows you to have a forum where you gather all your friends, and you can let all your friends know what you do for a living” (Jacobs, 2009). By Parker informing his friends of his business through Facebook, Parker believes that Facebook’s “friendly nature of social networking” (Jacobs, 2009) is similar to word-of-mouth advertising.

While landscaping companies use Facebook to market their business, airlines such as Southwest Airlines use Twitter to tweet airline specials and links to media relating to the company. For example tweets were made with a link to an interview with the companies CEO Gary Kelly, where he discusses with CNN the issues of aircraft safety (Stewart, 2008).

Clarke Mulder Purdie a corporate and B2B communication consultancy advises and sets up social networking tools for businesses. Graham Hayday head of CMP believes that social networks provide opportunities for its clients to market their business. One of its clients organises events for IT professionals and for an upcoming event CMP created Facebook groups and a Twitter account (Hemsley, 2008). Facebook groups were used mainly to inform delegates and potential delegates of news about the event and exhibitors also used it to arrange meetings with delegates for the day of the event. Twitter was used during the event to keep people updated about products and services that they may have seen at the show. This allowed people to view their tweeter feed at a later date and follow up on products that interested them.

Cerini and Associates an accounting firm in New York makes use of a number of social networking sites for its needs. The business opened a LinkedIn and Twitter account and created a Facebook group and fan page. The business has found that Twitter has brought double the amount of traffic to their company website. Twitter is also used for recruitment purposes, where people are making contact with the company to enquire about any available positions. Twitter has allowed professionals to get in contact with the business asking to “collaborate on seminars” (Gold, 2010).

Product manager Jason Williams from WhatsUpGold a network management tool, uses Twitter to connect with potential and existing customers. Williams uses Twitter to set up searches using keywords relating to network management tools and monitors them through an RSS feed. If any relevant tweets match his keywords, Williams will reply to the tweet making contact and start a conversation with the person. These tweets bring opportunities that allow William to connect with existing customers and possibly create new ones. From some of the connections Williams has made through Twitter, he has been able to contact them asking to trial the company’s software (Meserve, 2009) prior to its official release. This has allowed testing and possible modifications to be made to the software prior to its release.

H&R Block tax accountants, use Twitter as a customer service tool to answer questions about peoples tax issues. They also use the site to listen to customer’s complaints due to bad service, which they may have received when using the business (Stewart, 2008).

Jim Webb of Webb Design food service design consultants, creates individual LinkedIn accounts for each staff member. These accounts are used for networking and making contacts with people on LinkedIn in “foodservice-oriented group chat rooms” (Levin, 2010). This networking may lead to sales or making professional connections. Twitter and Facebook is used by Webb Design to inform their followers of “emerging trends and cool designs they’ve spotted, and to share other discoveries” (Levin, 2010). This brings attention to the company’s web page and creates ‘fun’ conversations with their followers, which helps solidify the relationships. They also use the social networking sites to upload photos to create interest from followers, for example a “neat chair” (Levin, 2010). They ask their followers to view the photo, from this creating ‘fun’ conversations where they can gain valuable feedback. Webb makes his followers more aware of his business through these social networking sites, which has helped build the Webb Design brand and create connections with followers through conversation.

Bargreen-Ellingson a Foodservice Supply and Design business uses social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for marketing and bringing traffic to their business website. Facebook is used instead of email to keep followers informed on the latest news, information and events. Facebook has an “e-vite feature” (Levin, 2010), which allows the business to advertise events and details, show interactive maps and display RSVP’s.

Director of marketing Irey Welborn tweets or posts updates on what their “Corporate Chef Bob Mauer is working on in the kitchen or on the road through the ‘Chef Bob’s Road Show’ series of posts” (Levin, 2010). These posts are informative to customers and also Mauer’s fans who are culinary students. Through Facebook and Twitter, he has formed strong connections with these students. While the company does not have a LinkedIn account, some of the staff have created personal accounts for networking purposes and have joined industry related groups where they can chat to others in their field of work.

Foodservice Equipment company Loubat, have created a Facebook page that allows customers to communicate with employees. The page allows Loubat to post photos of products or business events, inform followers of new products and events, write about industry news, store hours and directions (Levin, 2010). Sales have come about from the Facebook page where clients have sent inquiries about products, then employees at Loubat have linked them back to the company website where they have ordered the products.

Status updates on their Twitter and Facebook pages inform followers of product launches, sales, specials and other important information on their website. Posts have links that navigate followers back to the company website and promote the company e-newsletter.

Restaurant chain Firehouse Subs use Facebook to communicate with its customers. Facebook has been used to collect feedback about new items the business was considering to add to the menu. In one instance, within 2 hours of posting the question on whether to add a new menu item or not, over 100 comments were made by its Facebook fans (Levin, 2010). Feedback received was both negative and positive.

Previously only press releases were used to announce the opening of new stores (Levin, 2010), now Firehouse Subs uses its Facebook page as well as press releases to make major announcements.

The company also has a Twitter page where new information is tweeted a number of times a day. These tweets can be about marketing promotions such as “scratch-off games in stores, and when new stores open” (Levin, 2010). Firehouse Subs also asked Shaquille O’Neal to be a celebrity tweeter for the chain, after finding out that he “tweeted about how he loved Firehouse Subs’ sandwiches” (Levin, 2010). This creates brand awareness through the company Twitter page as well as adds the celebrity endorsement through Shaquille O’Neal’s tweets.

The Red Cross uses Twitter to provide company information to people and for marketing purposes. During disasters such as tornadoes, the American Red Cross would tweet locations of emergency shelters and link to photos in Flickr that showed images of the damage the tornado had caused (Stewart, 2008).

The Red Cross also uses Twitter to advertise fund-raisers and make public announcements on what to do during disasters such as floods. It also tweeted a link to a Google map showing areas where volunteers were needed (Stewart, 2008).

To conclude, this paper looks at how social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are used by business. With global consumers spending more time on these sites, business see this as an opportunity to use these sites for customer service, sales, marketing, networking, recruitment and research. This paper looks at different businesses and explains how they use these social networking sites, showing that one business may just use one site while others use a combination to cater for their business needs. In the end it depends on what works for the business.

Reference List

Bloyd, S. (2010). Social Networking Boosts Brand Awareness, Member Leads. Club Industry, 26, 36-40. Retrieved March 26, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

Boyd, T. (2010, March 27-28). Banking for generation YouTube. The Weekend Australian Financial Review, p. 24.

Bretz, C. (2010). How to Use Social Media to Acquire Staff. Baseline, (102), 14. Retrieved April 20, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

Chainey, R. (2010). Taking Twitter’s political temperature. Retrieved April 20, 2010, from http://blogs.reuters.com/uknews/2010/04/06/taking-twitters-political-temperature/

Facebook. (2010). Statistics. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Gold, L. (2010). Meet now, measure later. Accounting Today, 24, 21-22. Retrieved April 21, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

Golder, S., Wilkinson, D., & Huberman, B.(2007). Rhythms of Social Interaction: Messaging within a Massive Online Network. 3rd International Conference on Communities and Technologies, June, 1-15. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from Information Dynamics Laboratory database.

Gorham, J. (2009). Why only twits would ignore the potential (and pitfalls) of Twitter. People Management, 15, 36. Retrieved from April 20, 2010 from Business Source Premier database.

Hawkins, K. (2009). Twitter, Facebook And Beyond: How To Manage Your Company’s Online Presence. OfficePro, 69, 20-23. Retrieved April 23, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

Hemsley, S. (2008). Networking for business. Precision Marketing, 20, 19-20. Retrieved March 28, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

Jacobs, D. (2009). Surviving The Social Explosion. Landscape Management, 48, 10-13. Retrieved April 20, 2010 from Business Source Premier database.

Levin, A. (2010). Social Media Madness. Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 63, 12-15. Retrieved April 22, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

LinkedIn. (2008). About Us. Retrieved April 21, 2010 from http://press.linkedin.com/

Meserve, J. (2009). Tweet to compete. Network World, 26, 25-28. Retrieved April 22, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

Nielsen. (2010). Led by Facebook, Twitter, Global Time Spent on Social Media Sites up 82% Year over Year. Retrieved April 2, 2010, from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/led-by-facebook-twitter-global-time-spent-on-social-media-sites-up-82-year-over-year/

Stewart, J. (2008). Twitter time: How companies are using and responding through the social networking tool. Public Relations Tactics, 15, 17. Retrieved March 28, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

Twitter. (2010). Retrieved March 30, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

UBank. (2010-a). Facebook: UBank – Backed by NAB. Retrieved April 21, 2010, from http://www.facebook.com/ubank

UBank. (2010-b). Twitter: UBank. Retrieved April 21, 2010, from http://twitter.com/ubank

UBank. (2009). UBank Money Box. Retrieved April 21, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/user/UBankMoneyBox

Weber, L. (2009). Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business. New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons.

Wilson, J. (2009). Social networking: the business case. Engineering & Technology, 4, 54-56. Retrieved April 20, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

YouTube. (n.d.-a). Company History. Retrieved April 21, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/t/company_history

YouTube. (n.d.-b). YouTube Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 22, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet

How Social Networking sites are used by business is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

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Comments

Written by pozycjonowanie about 1 month ago. Reply

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Written by Meridith Aylward about 2 months ago. Reply

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Written by Anthony about 9 months ago. Reply

Hey Anamaria,

I find that there are huge amounts of businesses advertising on these social networking sites. A lot of my favourite businesses have used the likes of Youtube, Facebook, etc to advertise upcoming products or simply business news. I recall one situation when a bank was separating from others and using practical jokes on them. They posted these practical jokes onto Youtube and got thousands of hits to help increase their business. Im not sure which bank it was, but the publicity stunt was sure to attract new customers.
Written by hardik gondha about 2 years ago. Reply

Hey Anamaria,

Your paper was a interesting read for me as it challenged my paper where i argue Social networking websites are slowly into social marketing websites.

I am sure would agree to the fact that SNS are getting commercial. The problem is they are getting too commercial for a social network online. The core purpose of social networking websites is for social interaction, which is being intruded by small/large scale companies or individuals who sign up to these websites just to market or promote their product (emarketer 2010) which is poisoning the social networking environment commercially. I reviewed the largest social networking website online as my case study in my paper, Facebook (Saleem 2010). The paper also shine’s a light on particular marketing practices on Facebook which are exploiting the privacy of individuals and also exploiting the Terms and conditions of Social networking website.

Reference:

emarketer. (2010). The State of Social Marketing Integration. Retrieved 03 28, 2010, from http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007579

Saleem, M. (2010). Visualizing 6 Years of Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC]. Retrieved 03 29, 2010, from http://mashable.com/2010/02/10/facebook-growth-infographic/
Written by JasonK about 2 years ago. Reply

Businesses and SNS’s seem to go together really well when they use these services to enhance their presence and form a point of contact.

Businesses use whatever medium they have access to and promote their products. As you point out in the case of SNS’s, they also provide a portal for customer contact. Providing a point of contact using SNS’s is a good idea and I approve of this because contacting companies can be really difficult if you have to call, write or email. By using SNS’s contact is made more accessible and is a benefit not only to customers but also the company as awareness is increased.

The only issue I am wary of and have written about before is when businesses use SNS’s as a marketing database just to sell their products.

Before reading your paper I had a pretty negative view on businesses using SNS’s as this always seemed to relate to advertising in some manner, but I acknowledge now that businesses can use SNS’s in a more benign and positive manner than just advertising.

Thanks for the informative read.
- Written by AnamariaR about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thank you JasonK for your comments.
  
  I have to agree with you with your comment “Providing a point of contact using SNS’s is a good idea and I approve of this because contacting companies can be really difficult if you have to call, write or email.” Its great that businesses are allowing its customers to contact them in more ways then just calling or writing in. It offers people the opportunity to contact them using SNS’s rather then the phone, with some people feeling more comfortable to write on SNS’s then speaking to a telephone operator.
  
  I am happy that my paper has been able to show you a positive perspective of ways businesses can use SNS’s for their needs.
Written by murrayw about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi and thanks for the interesting read.

I believe facebook to be a valuable business tool as you have illustrated in the quote “On a greater scale, social networks display how large groups of people are connected to one another (Golder et al., 2007)”. It allows a business to view mutual friends and potentially open business arrangements that would have otherwise never happened.

You presented a point that I also believe to be the next step for business online relating to Twitter in stating that “Lenovo’s web-marketing vice president uses “Twitter to monitor tweets about our brand-looking for people having a tough time with our products. I also see a lot of opportunity to sell through Twitter, and I expect we’ll open a ‘deal’ channel there soon” (Weber, 2009)” Twitter could prove to be a valuable marketing tool and also one for analyzing consumer demand and feedback.

You mention the word “friends” in terms of a facebook friend but I think friend is subjective to the individual, however Facebook and other sites have changed the meaning of the term, and is applied differently to the real world. A study by Huberman found that “Twitter users have a very small number of friends compared to the number of followers and followees they declare” (Huberman, 2009).

Huberman, B. A., Romero, D. M., & Wu, F. Social Networks that Matter: Twitter Under the Microscope. First Monday, 14(1).
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2317/2063
- Written by AnamariaR about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thank you murrayw for your comments.
  
  Yes I do agree with you that “Twitter could prove to be a valuable marketing tool and also one for analyzing consumer demand and feedback”. I believe Twitter is still a newer tool compared to Facebook and don’t believe that some businesses have used it to its full potential. It will be interesting to see how Twitter will be used in the future by businesses and if it will be used more as a business tool over Facebook.
Written by PeterP about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi
Interesting paper. Given the popularity of Facebook I would have thought there would be more businesses setting up pages to keep potential customers up to date with their products and offers. Some of your examples of how companies are using Facebook to promote their products – in particular the gym and banks – and it’s easy to see how Facebook can benefit these companies.

I would also imagine companies like real estate agents (maybe a tweet or facebook post for each new house) or travel companies with flight and accommodations deals would also benefit. After all it is free advertising,

Given all this activity (and potential activity) by companies on Facebook in particular, do you think there might come a time when Facebook starts charging these companies for using its service.
- Written by AnamariaR about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thank you for your comments PeterP.
  
  I agree that sites like Twitter can be used for real estate agents for new homes that are on sale. They are a great way to quickly and easily inform people of information, they could be used also to inform potential buyers of auction dates. I am surprised that more businesses have not adopted SNS’s since they are easy to use and are cost effective for businesses with limited budget.
  
  It does make me question how these sites allow businesses to use their site for free for business use, when they can be profiting from them using the site. I believe eventually when more businesses adopt SNS’s for their business needs and it is the norm for every business to have a Facebook and Twitter account, that these sites will bring some sort of subscription plans or contracts where business must sign up for a number of months and purchase online ads. It just seems to good to be true that businesses are profiting from these SNS’s without the need to give them anything in return.
Written by Andrew Pettigrew about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi AnamariaR,
Having recently sat through an advertising presentation from Facebook, I can see corporations flocking to this site to advertise and market their goods and services. Facebook now has the personal information, including ages, sex, hobbies, location, interests etc of 400+ million members. Hence they can put together a campaign that accurately targets the customer demographic that’s most suitable to your profile for an attractive price (Facebook, 2010). I can see this quickly becoming the next big mass marketing medium; you have newspapers, magazines, radio, television and now Facebook.

Cheers
Andrew

Facebook. (2010). Facebook Advertising. Retrieved May 7, 2010, from http://www.facebook.com/advertising/
- Written by AnamariaR about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thank you for your comments Andrew,
  
  Yes I do agree that SNS’s are quickly becoming the next big mass marketing medium.
  
  With technology changing, it has been found that with television “90 percent of the people who can avoid TV ads through TiVo, DVD recording, or the skip button on the VCR remote do so” (Weber, 2009). With only 18 per cent of television advertisements leading to “positive return on the investment” (Weber, 2009), businesses are realising that the type of media that they have used in the past “is not working (or not working well)” and different forms of media need to be utilised (Weber, 2009). As Internet use is increasing, managers have to understand that the Web is rapidly becoming the most important marketing medium (Weber, 2009).
  
  Reference:
  Weber, L. (2009). Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business. New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons.
Written by Michael N about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi, good use of cases in your arguement. I was glad to hear some companies are using it for research purposes. I think many of the firms and businesses you quoted would be highly controlling their text so it always bring the company into a good light. I would have liked to have seen maybe an exchange between a disgruntled customer and a Facebook or Twitter example to suppliment the cases. However, you certainly do described what is happening in business and in some ways it is good to hear some positive examples of social media use.
- Written by AnamariaR about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thank you for your comments Michael N.
  
  I understand and agree with your point that the “firms and businesses you quoted would be highly controlling their text so it always bring the company into a good light.”
  
  I did come across an example while researching for my paper where a business dealt with a disgruntled customer. This snippet of the article shows it from the customers point of view.
  
  “Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, a group-edited blog that profiles and reviews new Internet products and companies, was without Internet service for three days when
  Comcast, his service provider, had an outage in California. After getting nowhere with Comcast’s customer service department, Arrington ranted about it on Twitter, and bloggers immediately picked up the story.
  
  Others on Twitter chimed in with their Comcast experiences. Within 20 minutes, a Comcast executive in Philadelphia called Arrington offering help.The executive monitors what people are saying about Comcast on Twitter and blogs, and he saw bloggers discussing Arrington’s problem.
  
  In a follow-up post after the problem was solved, Arrington wrote:
  
  “Twitter is the place where conversations are exploding well before they even make it to mainstream blogs. With the information just sitting there, it’s surprising that more brands aren’t watching the tweetosphere.”"(Stewart, 2008)
  
  The example shows how some businesses monitor these SNS’s to try to solve problems that their customers may be having with their products.
  
  It also shows how quickly someones complaints on a SNS can cause others to vent about the same business. This can create a bad image for the business. This is why businesses need to monitor these sites to see what others are saying and contacting them directly to try and solve the problem. This can avoid the person making more damaging comments in the future.
  
  Stewart, J. (2008). Twitter time: How companies are using and responding through the social networking tool. Public Relations Tactics, 15, 17. Retrieved March 28, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.
Written by ebony_wheeldon about 2 years ago. Reply

“By doing this you form relationships with your customers, they then trust the business and what it is selling.”

“By making connections with their customers, business can solve problems and find out what customers thoughts are of the company.”

“[…] similar to word-of-mouth advertising.”

“Twitter has allowed professionals to get in contact with the business asking to “collaborate on seminars” (Gold, 2010).”

Marketing, customer feedback, advertising and collaboration are all essentially ways of communication, which aid in the promotion and magnitude of a business. Social networking sites are a platform for businesses to communicate with peers and public on a much grander scale than would possibly occur in the ‘real world.’ It is a way of effectively utilizing new (convergence) technologies and communication channels to benefit a business in this digital age.

Excellent examples in this paper. I have a greater understanding of how different businesses make use of social networking sites.
- Written by AnamariaR about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thanks ebony_wheeldon for your comments.
  
  I do agree with your comment “Social networking sites are a platform for businesses to communicate with peers and public on a much grander scale than would possibly occur in the ‘real world.’”
  
  SNS’s have brought more opportunities for businesses at little or no costs at all, which is why its so appealing for businesses to adopt them.
  
  Also for businesses to receive feedback from customer in “real-time”. This can be a time saver, instead of waiting for results to be collected from focus group sessions. Within hours a businesses can receive feedback from a poll that can be set up in Facebook.
Written by AnamariaR about 2 years ago. Reply

Thank you for your comments.

alio: I apologise that the Nielsen findings were unclear. Yes, it is five and a half hours per person in December 2009.

Since these social networking sites are cost effective and easy to use some businesses see lost opportunities if they don’t adopt social media into their marketing strategy.

There is also reason for business to adopt social media if they want to attract and connect with Generation Y. SNS’s is Gen Y’s domain, this is where “they prefer to communicate” (Rothaar, 2009). If businesses ignore these tools they may loose a generation of consumers. (Weber, 2009, p 17).

S_ward: I believe people make their own choice to become fans or support a business through fan page’s on these SNS’s. No one forces them, some join to be updated on the latest news or current specials from a company or just to show support to the company.

I understand your point on how a business ‘has a world of marketing data available to them for very little effort’ and people should be warned that data is being collected for marketing purposes from them. But these fans choose to give input on their opinions to these companies.

A good example is Firehouse Subs where it shows how people choose to give data and are happy to support a company. It asked its followers whether a new item should be added to the menu or not. Within 2 hours over 100 comments were made. This data was collected by Firehouse Subs and was used to help them make a decision on whether a new item was to be added or not. Follower who gave their options would know that this information would be used and collected for marketing purposes by the company.

Reference:

Reid, C. (2009). SHOULD BUSINESS EMBRACE SOCIAL NETWORKING?. EContent, 32, 34-39. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

Rothaar, M. (2009). Reaching Gen Y. Community Banker, 18, 22-23. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

Weber, L. (2009). Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business. New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons.
Written by janette about 2 years ago. Reply

You quote the Neilson report that consumers spend +five and half hours on social networking site – in how much time? Surely not in one day? Maybe in one week?

Interesting way people are using SNS in business. I am surprised how much Twitter is utilised and obviously very successfully. Interesting that Twitter is used as a research tool.

I also wonder about people who do not use SNS. Are they missing out on customer service?
- Written by AnamariaR about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thank you for your comments Janette.
  
  To answer your question on “people who do not use SNS. Are they missing out on customer service?” I believe it depends if a business offers customer service on SNS’s.
  Some businesses may only use it to promote products or make connections with suppliers. So their customers would not miss out on customer service. But businesses who do use it for customer service purposes, yes I believe their customers may miss out.
  
  But then there is an issue of whether the customer feels comfortable using these SNS’s to connect with businesses. Some may confidently use these tools, while other may still be unsure how to use them.
  
  Janette what are your thoughts? Do you believe people who don’t use SNS’s are missing out on customer service?
  - Written by janette about 2 years ago. Reply
    
    I am not sure if people who don’t have access to the internet are missing out. Sometimes I think they are, but sometimes I think that they are the fortunate ones. They appear happy and at peace and are surely getting what service they need as they conduct their business offline.
Written by S_ward about 2 years ago. Reply

I have to wonder if it is fair for companies to use SNS’s to promote themselves or a product? Once you accept their friend request or join a group or fan page, that company has a world of marketing data available to them for very little effort. I feel these companies are exploiting the nature of SNS’s and should disclose their full intentions of running a page so you can make an informed decision on whether you wish to be part of it or not. I find it interesting that people are comparing “being at a cocktail party” and networking, to, interacting on the likes of facebook. Once again bring the two worlds acceptably closer.
Written by Zohara Ibrahim about 2 years ago. Reply

According to your topic, How Social Networking sites are used by business. As we know, there two different types where you can access the internet the first one is called Broadboarn is can deliver large amount of data at once, marketing even faster and easier than it was a few years ago. According to Snow, Kurtz & David, 2005, p.38) consumers can acess web pages, and websites can process creadit card purchase much more quickly via broadband. Another way, where the people can accesss the internet without plug and connection by phine line is via wiresless, according to same reading, there are more consumers now have internet internet connection via wireless technology for their lap top, pc, apple, mobile phones which is challenge and as opportunity for marketers. as your two point as above, acebook is a social networking site that has over 400 million active users (Facebook, 2010). It allows users to connect with friends and family, share status updates, a place for discussions and allows the users to post pictures. Facebook currently has over 1.5 million local businesses that have active pages. I agree, Facebook is NO. 1 and are very popular social networking for those whose are promote their business by putting the advertisment website through facebook page where the fan can find them through the website that given, this on example where is BOOST JUICE has 16, 098 fan where is huge number for BOOST JUICE promote their business in the FREE way without cost anything. I agree, now days a lot of marketing who are promote their business through website and share what they have done recently so the follower can read and follow what they have done recently as their favourite website, it is one of example, e-bay used twitter what is new and cheapers or so the people can buy straigbh way by clic the link that ebau give on twitter page. I agree, a lot of busines and people looking the stuff from internet where social networks does work.
Written by alio about 2 years ago. Reply

Very interesting, you’ve covered a wide range of social networking sites and have lots of samples of the types of organisations that use them and how they use them.

One question, at the start of your paper where you say “that in December 2009, global consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter (Nielsen, 2010)” I’m a little unclear on what this figure actually represents. Do you mean, more than five and a half hours per person for that month?

I find this whole area (internet marketing) quite interesting, but have generally suspected it’s not a good thing, what with all the data mining and privacy concerns. Your paper has managed to shine a light on some of the more positive aspects.

For businesses it is a cost effective way to create a good brand experience (Rutledge 2008. p.20), and thus good will, which could ultimately result in increased sales as you note in your paper. For the customer, making enquiries and supplying feedback are easy and convenient.

I enjoyed reading this, thanks.

REF:
Rutledge, Patrice-Anne 2008, The Truth about Profiting from Social Networking; Use social networks to supercharge your career, business, life, FT Press New Jersey, United States

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