When will businesses harness the power of “social media”?
I barely remember life before e-mail. It must have been about 15 years ago, yet seems like we’ve had it forever. That was when I went almost completely paperless, using my PDA for meeting notes that I could retrieve quickly and easily. Not long after, was the switch to internet banking and online shopping, followed by text messaging and then instant messaging.
Last week I attended the Institute of Fundraising National Convention in London for the Not For Profit (“NFP”) Sector, at which IRIS was the joint lead sponsor. It is an educational forum for the sector where they promised “1,000 fundraising ideas” in three days – powerful stuff. Social media, until only very recently something my kids connected up to, is without doubt one of the new waves sweeping the NFP sector and once it builds momentum, others will undoubtedly follow.
In an article in this month’s Charity Times, they refer to a survey by UK Online Measurement which shows that the amount of time we spend online has increased by 65% over the last three years to an average of over 22 hours per month. Of course, some of us are way above the average!
As we know, social networks offer an unbelievably powerful way of staying in touch with a large group of people in a very personal and flexible way. It is real-time and with just one click we can plan an event, post an invitation, have newsfeeds sent direct to our social network site, follow people on Twitter feeds and much more. Mobile technology will accelerate the uptake even further – apparently 50% of internet traffic from mobile phones now goes to Facebook.
What’s far newer is the business impact. In the NFP sector, Charity Times reports that after the Haiti disaster, Twitter was after the BBC the biggest referrer of donors to the Disaster Emergency Committee (“DEC”)’s website , while Facebook was third, helping the charity raise £21 million online.
We are seeing revolutionary changes in the way businesses connect, starting in the B2C sector but undoubtedly spreading to the B2B sector too.
It would be great if we could use this blog to share some of the innovative approaches where social media is being used out there. What changes are you seeing happen?
Posted: July 13th, 2010 under Martin Leuw.
Comments
Comment from Mark Littlewood
Time July 14, 2010 at 11:35 am
Timely conversation. Businesses are increasingly looking for answers from social media but they need to answer the right questions. Perhaps we should make some of the content from tomorrow’s BLN Growth Forum, in particular the panel led by Ted Shelton, available to you afterwards to share?
Comment from Dan Dickinson
Time July 14, 2010 at 11:16 am
Dell have had a lot of success with social media, Dell outlets post special Twitter discounts, and they also use other social media to grow their brand.
Quote from Stephen Felice of Dell SMB Group,
“We interact with 3.5 million people through Twitter, Facebook, blogs and Flickr, and we generated $9 million in direct sales through Twitter and Facebook. These are powerful tools,”
Tweeting special offers is a great way to get people involved with your business and is clearly working out very well for Dell.