Taking a more refined view of social media

As social media continues to grow, businesses are taking a more sophisticated view of how to use these new channels to market – both with customers and internally within their organisations.

The term social media covers a wide range of public and private systems for sharing information, communicating with others and forming networks. The biggest include Facebook with almost 700 million users and China’s Qzone with 480 million users, as well as LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. There are social commerce services such as Groupon and tools such as Yammer that are making it easier for companies to promote internal social media style communications.

These trends are seeing social media change from a business-to-consumer marketing channel to a new way for businesses to communicate – internally and externally. Businesses are also using different social media for different purposes. For instance, a travel business might target Flickr for photos, Yahoo! Travel for planning and Tripadvisor for reviews and Facebook for discounts.

At Accenture, we believe it’s vital for companies to have a focused strategy for social media based on clear objectives for each social media channel or internal tool. For instance, are they seeking to acquire customers, generate innovation or improve service? We also see that successful social media practice now involves three levels of maturity: being seen, being heard and being respected.

A great example of a business that has traversed all these of these levels is the Marriott hotel chain. In 2007, Chairman and CEO Bill Marriott started a blog. Within a year, it was drawing about 6,000 visitors per week and the company had received over US$5 million in sales from people who booked rooms after visiting the site. It is still going strong today and with each passing year and blog post, the now 79-year-old Marriott deepens his respected position with his audience.

Social media is here to stay but constantly evolving. Every business should explore what it means for them and how to make the most of it, both outside with customers and inside with staff.