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Information management: the key to successfully implementing social media in business strategies
Faculty of ScienceMaster thesis of Stefania DangilaCoordinator : Drs. A.W. Abcouwer
OverviewIntroduction
Research goalWhy LinkedIn and Twitter?
Creating business value from social mediaMetrics
The role of information managementFrameworkInterview
Research methodInterview findings
ConclusionsDiscussion
What can information management do to improve the use of twitter and LinkedIn, as major forms of Social media in terms of business value and profitability
Research goal
Number Sub-question (chapter)1 What are the current definitions of social media?2 How are the social media divided into categories?3 How do social media transform business?4 How are the firms using social media today?5 Which social media networks or tools are most commonly exploited in business? On
which do we focus?6 In which business areas/departments can these prominent technologies be applied?7 Which are the SM functions that are exploited in business?8 How do you measure the profitable or unprofitable results connected with the
adoption of social media by specific metrics? (measure impact of Twitter and LinkedIn)
9 Why information management and generally management of SM are important?10 How does information management contribute in SM strategy and business value
delivery?
They are in the 3 most popular SM exploited for business purposes
Gordon (2009)
Why Twitter and LinkedIn?
They are in the 3 most popular SM exploited for business purposes
Two forms of social media that operate differently from each other (Weinberg & Pehlivan, 2011)
Not investigated in-depth
Why Twitter and LinkedIn?
Creating business value from SMDevelop a SM strategy aligned with business goalsSelect the appropriate SM toolsExploit SM functionsFocus on developing relationship with customers
(groundswell)Measure SM successProvide feedback to managers
Social applications Department\Business unit
Examples of SM functions Success Metrics Targeted Business Value
Social networking sites, Internal social
networks(e.g. LinkedIn support groups)
Operations Sharing documents Create “intranet-like”
internal communications
Coordinating schedules and events
Number of members participating
Increased operational efficiency
Decreased volume of email
Increased collaboration
Greater productivity
adopted and altered from (Bernoff & Li, Harnessing the Power of the Oh-So-Social Web, 2008)
The role of information managementCollecting, storing and managing web informationAssuring that “the right information is delivered to the
right people at the right time” (AIIM's research and publications)*
Everyone’s responsibilityEnd-responsibility with one person: Information Manager
Responsible for SM strategyEnsures business value is delivered through SM exploitationAdjusts strategy based on feedback
*AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management) is the global community of information professionals - See more at: http://www.aiim.org/about#sthash.c0PAyOCn.dpuf
Research method: InterviewInterview’s main objective
To provide a further insight on SM usage in organizations and investigate whether my conceptual framework it is applicable or not in practice.
Advantages gained through interviewingFurther insight on the business applications of social media tools
and technologiesRealization of who holds the responsibility to manage, monitor,
control them in order to satisfy the business goals and deliver business value
Observation how this process takes places within different organizations.
Interview findingsThe interview investigation stages I followed:Interviewing TranscribingAnalyzingVerifyingReporting
Seidman (2006)
Interview structure Interview questionnaire: General and Framework questions Conceptual framework used as a guideline Interviews with three managers
Company’s name Company’s operation Products/services Participant’s role in the company
AirPlus Business travel management
Corporate cards and lodged accounts
Communication manager
AM Real estate development company
Building complexes, offices and shopping centers
Information manager
Quint Wellington Redwood
Consultancy Consultancy services Marketing manager
Results grouped as coded answers Answers relevant with my conceptual frameworkE.g. coding theme number [31] and participant’s answers
8. SM performance measurement
[31] Participant 1 Participant 2 Participant 3
Monetary [A] No No NoNon-monetary [B] Yes (Run monthly
review)Yes (Google analytics)
No (however they can see they grow in followers)
Reasons they do not perform any monetary measurement at the moment
[D] Feeling of uncertainty for measurement usefulness
Measurement is difficult
Reasons they do not perform any measurement at the moment
[C] Feeling of uncertainty for measurement usefulness
Question examples for the coding [31] [D] and [31] [B]
Stefania: do you recognize the importance of measurement? […] What if in the future you could actually measure the impact, the exact you know, business value that is added to your company […] The profit you make through that. How much cost you save. Do you think this would be relevant with your company or it’s not so relevant?Participant 1: Not so relevant at the moment I would say. Eh at the moment I think we use social networks additionally to our marketing activities [31] [D]. So it’s not that we say OK [Slight pause] or that we think about should we start with like a campaign with [Pause] For example an internet campaign or should we not start a campaign and do it only via social media. We use social media additionally to our campaign or to our marketing activities and so [Slight pause] It’s nice to have it to [Slight pause] to give your message to [Slight pause] eh for free.Stefania: […] do you take into account generally the non-monetary terms about social media for example the followers, the tweets, the mentions about your brand name? Participant 1: yeah, yeah. So we do a review every month where we compare the social networks and how we perform in the networks [31] [B]. And there is an overview which we create every month. So we take how our followers increase or how many likes we get from a post and then we can see: “OK these topics are running good, these topics don’t run so good in the networks”. We do this.
5 high level themes
Themes Sub-themes
Organization orientation and culture towards SM
SM Strategy SM platforms Business functions of SM SM functions that generate business value Strategy attributes Strategy implementation and SM staff occupation SM performance measurement and business
value Business goals concerning use of SM Responsibilities
Customer interaction on SM Frequency Comments and feedback awareness Intuitive monitoring Level of business strategy adjustment based on
feedback Participate in co-creation
Future planning
Suggestions and comments of participants
Interview transcripts presented in appendix A Descriptive transcripts “Transferability” “Confirmability” Follow-up questions Clarifying comments Take personal opinions into account
Interview findingsResultsSome elements of the proposed framework are present in
organizationsSome are not found in organizationsSome need further analysis and investigation to be
applied in practice
Framework relevant in practice
Elements found in none
Perform ROI analysis and monetary measurement
Framework aspects found in all the organizations
Aspect found in two out of three organizations
Guidelines Some set of guidelines:1. Specified strategy with a list of guidelines2. Few guidelines and more intuitive strategy
Operationalize a set of success metrics
Number of tweets, followers, posts, and observe an enhancement of their business value in terms of customer satisfaction, customer interaction, improved value of work and saved time
Chose appropriate social media tools
All the companies have chosen some social media tools to exploit business functions such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ (table 5, page 35)
Exploit SM functions External and internal business Functions of LinkedIn and Twitter; marketing, sales branding, HR, PR, customer relations, news sharing, maintaining communications with teams, sharing documents, and create ‘intranet-like’ communications
Customer interaction All the companies more or less communicate with their customers online and value their opinions
Aspects’ parts found in some or all organizations
Measurable business goals 1. All organizations do not set specific financial goals but they set some measurable business goals which are only non-monetary2. The responsibility does not lie with the executives, but with the managers that have the end responsibility for SM.
Information manager Parts of this aspect were tracked in all the participating organizations in context of the functionality of the role. All the companies revealed that there is at least someone responsible for controlling, monitoring, distributing and generally managing online information of SM.
ConclusionsInterview findings confirm that companies
Value social media business applications and strive to exploit them in the most effective way.
Have a SM strategy. They are already in the process of developing one. Initiate constant improvements towards a more organized use of SMRecognize the importance of SM performance measurementAuthorize a stakeholder in charge of SM
ConclusionsAdvices: Important to communicate to companies how to
incorporate SM into the business strategyapply essential missing elements to improve SM
utilizationEstablish SM measurement
“you establish both qualitative and quantitative metrics measurements for your goals, because both matter in providing a holistic view of the progress of your social media program”
Salesforce (2010)
Leverage more functions of SM in more departments
DiscussionHow does information management contribute in SM
strategy and business value delivery?
Managing online information is among others important for: Effective listening, engaging, monitoring, and controlling web information
and discussions to achieve customer satisfaction. Co-creation of products/services with customers.
Information management guides the complex information streams and continuously updates social media strategy to maximize profitability
Discussion• What issues I have encountered that I am not sure of their
outcomes?• Who would be more appropriate to be accountable for SM in an
organization? ( new role of 2014: “social business officer” )• Unlike my framework, none of the companies perform return of
investment (ROI) analysis on social media or any kind of monetary performance measurement
• Two B2B companies do not sell through SM
• Did I expect different answers if I had e.g. 10 interviews?• Probably yes. Two out of three companies were B2B and one was 80%
B2B and only 20% B2C• SM strategy might be more important for companies like big
international companies with a great amount of employees and consumers and competitors
Discussion• What is the strength and the scientific relevance of
my thesis?• I compile information from different scientific sources into
one readily understandable concept • I present this concept as a working system for incorporating
SM into business based on literature and research• What was the most difficult part of my thesis?
• To construct my framework• To limit the extend of my thesis• To find interview participants