Businesses and any other commercially geared organization need to understand that Social Media is more than “new media” – it is a set of new tools which might be crucial to succeed – nationally as well as internationally.

Knowledge is king

Social media is defined by Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein as “a group of Internet-based applications that […] allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.”  Social media are social software which mediates human communication. In an article written by Ole Petter Ottersen and Torger Reve in Dagens Næringsliv, they claimed that “Norwegian businesses suffer because of a high cost base. More knowledge needs to be added to be able to compete internationally”.

Sharing is winning

At projectiondesign, we share knowledge. Through our training academy (of which I am responsible for) we offer a wide range of educational topics for channel partners, ranging from service and repair, basic and advanced product use and sales training. We see directly from sales statistics and learn from our partner’s feedback that their increased knowledge helps. It helps them sell with confidence. It helps them sell correct solutions to an increasingly larger group of satisfied customers. It helps them service and perform planned maintenance on their install base of products – globally.

The unused potential

Most businesses do not embrace or utilize the potential of social media. Neither the mechanisms behind, the tools nor the services are used – at an organizational, financial or judiciousness level. Technology needs to be introduced and organized to increase knowledge and business strength. The answer is not social networks like Facebook, but social tools which enable collaboration and communication between relevant internal and external target groups. The answer is social mechanisms and social media. But this is also the problem and challenge – the term social media stigmatizes and reduces the value of its potential.

Additional challenges

Even if businesses see the potential, there are a number of (very valid) reasons why they are not capable of embracing the full potential of social media. One of the reasons is a lacking strategy another reason is priority and allocation of resources – both management level issues. Often businesses are pushed towards the use of social media purely because they have an enthusiast on board, who manages to move the social media strategy from nothing, through good to great.

Building a successful social media strategy will be covered in future topics!

References & Sources of inspiration;
Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media )
HansPetter.info (http://hanspetter.info/2012/09/sosiale-medier-er-et-belastende-begrep/ )
Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein ( http://www.slideshare.net/guestef2b2f/social-media-definition-and-classification )