Social media are changing the rules for business
By Paul Henri Ferrand, vice president for SMB Marketing at Dell
Published: July 24 2009 12:40 | Last updated: July 24 2009 12:40
Does it seem like the world has gone Twitter-crazy? But crazy or inspired, one thing is for sure – social media have changed the way we do business forever.
For a start, the way reputations are built has changed. Not that long ago, the sum total of how an organisation portrayed itself in public set its reputation over time. Customer opinion was important but conversation was much more one-way. Reaching millions of customers with a message was expensive and time consuming.
Those days are gone. An organisation’s reputation is being altered and formed constantly. Around the globe people are searching for information, buying online, formulating opinions and sharing them. A company may win or lose potential customers based on an online conversation.
With the click of a button, a business can connect with customers in real time, hold conversions and build raving fans. In short – social media is one more thing breaking down the barriers between SMEs and large enterprises.
This means that companies:
• need to adapt or risk losing business;
• cannot overlay traditional marketing on to social media platforms and expect it to work;
• have a tremendous opportunity. SMEs in particular can use social media to leapfrog large competitors.
Get in the game
It can feel risky to open the gates and be so direct with the public. But a company is going to be discussed anyway, and it might as well be part of the conversation. The ease and speed with which customers now share information goes far beyond what we could have imagined even a few years ago.
At Dell, we’ve significantly turned around our approach to social media, from a cautious start years ago. Our Direct2Dell forums allow customers to express freely their experiences of using Dell products and we take the good and the bad into account at a senior level.
These forums, that we do not edit or censor, feed into our future product design and give our company invaluable feedback on what truly matters for consumers, small businesses and large enterprises.
We’ve also launched blogs, Facebook groups and pages, a crowd-sourcing platform called IdeaStorm, and we were one of the first big enterprises to be active in Twitter. Through all this we’re having over 5m conversations per day with potential customers, over 2bn interactions a year!
There are a few different ways businesses can “jump in”:
• Closer Conversations
Blogs are a great sounding board, engaging key audiences in fast and honest conversation. Leave any business-talk offline and make sure to get across personality and opinion. They can attract negative comments – but open and transparent answers can counter that.
Microblogging (ie Twitter) allows companies large or small to send out regular chunks of news or insight easily. Even when expanding a small business and hiring new recruits – Twitter and Facebook can be great ways of putting the word out. I know of SMEs who have got back in touch with old colleagues and head-hunted them.
• Building relationships
Know where customers are talking. Use Google Alerts, Netvibes, Yahoo Pipes and Technorati to adapt campaigns accordingly.
Online dialogue is direct and personal, and requires the highest levels of transparency. Fans know a company’s products and brand, and can be ambassadors for them.
So it is important to have an open exchange. Listening to customers and influencers has always been fundamental to good business, and this is integral to any social-media marketing campaign, and provides real-time insight.
Crowdsourcing lets customers be actively involved in creating new products and services, or solving a business challenge for your company. No one knows better than customers what they want and need. Two heads (or 200,000) are better than one.
Multi-way, Not One-Way
As companies jump in, it’s important to remember that traditional marketing unaltered will rarely work in the social media world, because it is built around one-way conversation.
The message needs to be adapted to prepare for dialogue – which can involve some fun, with the building of a company’s online “personality” in real time as it starts sharing with the world.
SME Leadership
Where is all this heading? Just three years ago we may have struggled to understand the importance of social networking sites. Today, there are hundreds of millions of potential customers engaged in these networks and virtually no barrier or cost to an SME joining and connecting with them.
I would argue that because SMEs are so agile and efficient, they might dominate the social media business landscape before the majority of large enterprises.
While Dell is proud to be a leader in social media, only 12 per cent of the Fortune 500 even have a company blog.
I also think we’ll see far more diversification of social networks aimed at specific interests – for example www.webjam.com allows anyone to set up a social network on their personal hobbies. This will allow SMEs even more chance to target or network with specific customers.
Like most things, the only way to “get” digital media is to jump right in. Start building a brand on social networks now – that’s the key to hiring staff and finding customers that will allow an SME to thrive, whatever the economic climate.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Friday, August 07, 2009
Monday, November 24, 2008
Facebook targeted Web 2.0 start-up Twitter (FT.com)
Facebook targeted Web 2.0 start-up Twitter
By Richard Waters in San Francisco and Tim Bradshaw in Oxford
Published: November 24 2008 21:41 | Last updated: November 24 2008 21:41
Twitter, the micro-blogging company that has become one of Silicon Valley’s most closely watched start-ups, recently held talks about an acquisition by social networking company Facebook.
The negotiations, which put a valuation of as much as $500m on the 2½-year-old private company, could throw a fresh spotlight on its rapid growth and prompt other big internet companies to consider bids.
Twitter has become a leading light of the Web 2.0 generation of consumer internet companies, whose services rely more heavily on communication and social interaction than the original dotcoms. Users of Twitter post short messages of up to 140 characters about what they are doing, and the “tweets” are broadcast to anyone who wants to sign up to follow them.
However, its name has also become synonymous with the lack of revenue in the Web 2.0 world. Despite its passionate following among Silicon Valley’s digerati, and an audience that is now growing rapidly, Twitter has yet to make any money.
The talks were first reported by the AllThingsD blog and confirmed on Monday by two people familiar with the situation.
Facebook’s approach to Twitter is set to raise as many questions about the bidder’s value as it does about the target. The social networking site offered to pay for the acquisition in stock, according to one person close to the situation, but putting a value on its shares proved controversial.
Had it used the $15bn valuation at which Microsoft bought a stake in Facebook last year, it would have valued the Twitter purchase at $500m, though that investment was seen as a high-water mark for Web 2.0.
Speaking on Monday at a gathering of internet entrepreneurs at Oxford University, Chris Sacca, a Twitter investor, questioned the valuation. “If Facebook brings $500m of stock to the table to buy Twitter, the first thing you talk about is whether that stock is worth $500m or not,” he said.
However, one person close to the situation suggested that the $15bn valuation for Facebook was the top end of a range of values the two companies talked about, implying that a deal might have valued both Facebook and Twitter at a much lower level.
Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder, would not comment on the talks, but suggested that the company wanted to remain independent to build on its messaging service.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
By Richard Waters in San Francisco and Tim Bradshaw in Oxford
Published: November 24 2008 21:41 | Last updated: November 24 2008 21:41
Twitter, the micro-blogging company that has become one of Silicon Valley’s most closely watched start-ups, recently held talks about an acquisition by social networking company Facebook.
The negotiations, which put a valuation of as much as $500m on the 2½-year-old private company, could throw a fresh spotlight on its rapid growth and prompt other big internet companies to consider bids.
Twitter has become a leading light of the Web 2.0 generation of consumer internet companies, whose services rely more heavily on communication and social interaction than the original dotcoms. Users of Twitter post short messages of up to 140 characters about what they are doing, and the “tweets” are broadcast to anyone who wants to sign up to follow them.
However, its name has also become synonymous with the lack of revenue in the Web 2.0 world. Despite its passionate following among Silicon Valley’s digerati, and an audience that is now growing rapidly, Twitter has yet to make any money.
The talks were first reported by the AllThingsD blog and confirmed on Monday by two people familiar with the situation.
Facebook’s approach to Twitter is set to raise as many questions about the bidder’s value as it does about the target. The social networking site offered to pay for the acquisition in stock, according to one person close to the situation, but putting a value on its shares proved controversial.
Had it used the $15bn valuation at which Microsoft bought a stake in Facebook last year, it would have valued the Twitter purchase at $500m, though that investment was seen as a high-water mark for Web 2.0.
Speaking on Monday at a gathering of internet entrepreneurs at Oxford University, Chris Sacca, a Twitter investor, questioned the valuation. “If Facebook brings $500m of stock to the table to buy Twitter, the first thing you talk about is whether that stock is worth $500m or not,” he said.
However, one person close to the situation suggested that the $15bn valuation for Facebook was the top end of a range of values the two companies talked about, implying that a deal might have valued both Facebook and Twitter at a much lower level.
Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder, would not comment on the talks, but suggested that the company wanted to remain independent to build on its messaging service.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Monday, April 09, 2007
FT.com / Business Life - Micro-bloggers of the world keep it short
FT.com / Business Life - Micro-bloggers of the world keep it short
Micro-bloggers of the world keep it short
By Chris Nuttall
Published: April 9 2007 17:04 | Last updated: April 9 2007 17:04
At Twittervision.com the beginnings of what could be a fresh trend in internet self-expression are being spelt out on a map of the world.
Users of this addictive new website can see a text bubble flash up over the state of Arizona with a picture icon of the sender “Chilblane” inside. “Resetting all of my album art,” it says. The world map spins over to Sydney, Australia: “Waiting on my girlfriend to come,” says CJH2. Then to Tokyo: “Keep snoozing, can’t start my day yet,” says Nobi. “Twitter – the reality TV of the blogosphere,” comments LoveHouseRadio back in Richmond, Virginia.
Twittervision’s pop-up bubbles of instant texted thoughts from around the world are a “mash-up” of Google Maps combined with a live feed of the short messages sent out by users of Twitter.com’s service.
Its popularity has forced its creator, David Troy, to create a periodic warning to people who have been glued to their computer monitors for long periods: “You have been watching Twittervision for 12 hours. Do you want to continue?”
Mr Troy pays homage to Twitter – the original service that created the online ecosystem of which Twittervision.com is part – for helping create the phenomenon of text messages that turn into web television.
The service was launched last year to let people post brief messages to groups of friends and the public at large, letting them know their current actions and thoughts.
It has rapidly become the poster child of a new trend of micro-blogging, where the social networking tool is reduced to single sentences, pictures and the most everyday emotions and events.
Besides Twitter, another internet tool called Tumblr is enabling scrapbook-style blogs of pasted quotes, pictures and thoughts. Radar.net creates social connections through the posting of camera phone images. And services such as Jaiku, Mozes and Moodgeist have their own take on this new form of web shorthand.
Twitter was invented by Jack Dorsey, a developer at Obvious Corp, a San Francisco start-up. He thought of mashing up existing concepts such as groups of friends and instant messaging (for example: “I’m away from my desk”) and MySpace-style “I’m listening to ColdPlay” status messages. The resulting service allows users to let each other know what they are doing, wherever they are, through mobile phone SMS text messages.
Twitter users tend to update their status from their computers during the day and their phones at night. In each case they are restricted to 140-character messages.
“I really like that constraint. I’m a person of few words. I really like conciseness and making every word count,” Mr Dorsey says.
He feels that Twitter messages avoid the abstraction and commitment of composed blog posts and free people from the obligations of technologies such as the phone and e-mail, where responses are expected in a timely manner.
“Twitter is more ambient,” he says. “You are basically writing on a wall and if someone chooses to read it they can do.”
Hitwise, the web research firm, says visits to Twitter.com in March were up 135 per cent on the previous month and 500 per cent on January, but they have yet to reach critical mass.
Lee Ann Prescott, research director of Hitwise, says Twitter is entertaining but users are still trying to find useful applications for it.
“This is still really niche. It takes a lot of time for a network like this to build,” she says.
Tumblr has attracted 50,000 users so far and 10,000 posts an hour are coming into its micro-blogs. Users can press a Tumblr button in their browser to attach to their blogs a video, photo, quote or link they find while surfing or to post a random thought.
“This is going to be the year of short form,” says David Karp, Tumblr’s founder. “Blogs are great if you want to hammer out commentary, but what if you’re not particularly comfortable as a writer? There are a lot of people who just want to share stuff and we wanted to make a simple, shallow funnel for them.”
With Radar.net’s postings of camera phone pictures, users don’t even have to write. “Pictures have an entirely different feeling,” says John Poisson, the service’s founder. “They can have an immediacy that is compelling.”
Given the underlying appetite for concision, he notes: “A photo can be worth a thousand words.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Micro-bloggers of the world keep it short
By Chris Nuttall
Published: April 9 2007 17:04 | Last updated: April 9 2007 17:04
At Twittervision.com the beginnings of what could be a fresh trend in internet self-expression are being spelt out on a map of the world.
Users of this addictive new website can see a text bubble flash up over the state of Arizona with a picture icon of the sender “Chilblane” inside. “Resetting all of my album art,” it says. The world map spins over to Sydney, Australia: “Waiting on my girlfriend to come,” says CJH2. Then to Tokyo: “Keep snoozing, can’t start my day yet,” says Nobi. “Twitter – the reality TV of the blogosphere,” comments LoveHouseRadio back in Richmond, Virginia.
Twittervision’s pop-up bubbles of instant texted thoughts from around the world are a “mash-up” of Google Maps combined with a live feed of the short messages sent out by users of Twitter.com’s service.
Its popularity has forced its creator, David Troy, to create a periodic warning to people who have been glued to their computer monitors for long periods: “You have been watching Twittervision for 12 hours. Do you want to continue?”
Mr Troy pays homage to Twitter – the original service that created the online ecosystem of which Twittervision.com is part – for helping create the phenomenon of text messages that turn into web television.
The service was launched last year to let people post brief messages to groups of friends and the public at large, letting them know their current actions and thoughts.
It has rapidly become the poster child of a new trend of micro-blogging, where the social networking tool is reduced to single sentences, pictures and the most everyday emotions and events.
Besides Twitter, another internet tool called Tumblr is enabling scrapbook-style blogs of pasted quotes, pictures and thoughts. Radar.net creates social connections through the posting of camera phone images. And services such as Jaiku, Mozes and Moodgeist have their own take on this new form of web shorthand.
Twitter was invented by Jack Dorsey, a developer at Obvious Corp, a San Francisco start-up. He thought of mashing up existing concepts such as groups of friends and instant messaging (for example: “I’m away from my desk”) and MySpace-style “I’m listening to ColdPlay” status messages. The resulting service allows users to let each other know what they are doing, wherever they are, through mobile phone SMS text messages.
Twitter users tend to update their status from their computers during the day and their phones at night. In each case they are restricted to 140-character messages.
“I really like that constraint. I’m a person of few words. I really like conciseness and making every word count,” Mr Dorsey says.
He feels that Twitter messages avoid the abstraction and commitment of composed blog posts and free people from the obligations of technologies such as the phone and e-mail, where responses are expected in a timely manner.
“Twitter is more ambient,” he says. “You are basically writing on a wall and if someone chooses to read it they can do.”
Hitwise, the web research firm, says visits to Twitter.com in March were up 135 per cent on the previous month and 500 per cent on January, but they have yet to reach critical mass.
Lee Ann Prescott, research director of Hitwise, says Twitter is entertaining but users are still trying to find useful applications for it.
“This is still really niche. It takes a lot of time for a network like this to build,” she says.
Tumblr has attracted 50,000 users so far and 10,000 posts an hour are coming into its micro-blogs. Users can press a Tumblr button in their browser to attach to their blogs a video, photo, quote or link they find while surfing or to post a random thought.
“This is going to be the year of short form,” says David Karp, Tumblr’s founder. “Blogs are great if you want to hammer out commentary, but what if you’re not particularly comfortable as a writer? There are a lot of people who just want to share stuff and we wanted to make a simple, shallow funnel for them.”
With Radar.net’s postings of camera phone pictures, users don’t even have to write. “Pictures have an entirely different feeling,” says John Poisson, the service’s founder. “They can have an immediacy that is compelling.”
Given the underlying appetite for concision, he notes: “A photo can be worth a thousand words.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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