Social media has become an increasingly important tool in our daily lives – helping people connect, communicate and share information. This has forever changed the way people interact. Today, more than 2 billion people use the internet. By the end of this year, Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….and 96% of them have joined a social network. The second largest search engine in the world is YouTube 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content. And this adoption has happened at an incredible pace. Consider this: to reach 50 million users, it took radio 38 years...it took television 13....it took the internet only 4. Meanwhile, Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion downloads in 9 months. It's clear we are now in the midst of a revolution. People are using these connections as a primary means of communication, in many cases, replacing other more traditional interactions .
Social tools have made it significantly easier to raise the visibility of new ideas, regardless of their source. Those who have the most experience with a product or service – a customer, a business partner or even an employee – now have the opportunity to share insights and obtain feedback from others. Our sub-sample of individuals with experience in working with social approaches to innovation shows companies are looking to increase their capability to monitor customer comments for new ideas, obtain customers’ feedback, enable customers to submit plans/solutions and foster more effective collaboration with partners/suppliers Some organizations, such as toy company LEGO Group have developed innovation platforms that enable customers to submit ideas for new products and even share in the potential revenue derived from these ideas. [i] Similarly, Beiersdorf, a personal-care products company, has developed “Pearlfinder,” a website that allows potential vendors to submit ideas for new products and services. The website also facilitates contracting and intellectual property transfer. In both situations, the organization found ways of expanding its reach to develop valued new products, services and capabilities.
Leading companies are seizing on these opportunities to create real business value - moving from using social technologies for basic communication to driving disruptive change in their industries.
Leading companies are seizing on these opportunities to create real business value - moving from using social technologies for basic communication to driving disruptive change in their industries.
Social business beyond basic promotional activities is expanding to encompass the entire customer lifecycle, including lead generation, sales and post-sales service. Our data reveals that, while the percentage of companies expecting to use social business for promotional activities will rise slightly, from 71 percent today to 83 percent in the next two years, the number of companies expecting to use social approaches to generate sales leads and revenue will increase dramatically. Today, 51 percent use social approaches for leads and revenue, while 74 percent plan to get on board in the next two years. Post-sales support is also expected to increase, from 46 today to 69 percent over the next two years. As the scope of activity broadens, providing a consistent set of experiences for customers will be crucial. Social business practices will need to be more closely embedded into traditional marketing and sales processes, with loosely coupled marketing and advertising campaigns giving way to tightly linked lead generation and sales efforts. Further, providing customer support through social channels will become a more prominent focus, with organizations incorporating social platforms into their larger customer relationship management strategies.
Leading companies are seizing on these opportunities to create real business value - moving from using social technologies for basic communication to driving disruptive change in their industries.
A recent study by McKinsey and company looked at the potential opportunities for improvement based on the adoption of social business capabilities across a number of industries. They highlighted that across a range of industries, product and service oriented, as well as B2B and B2C, there exist opportunities to improve both margins as well as productivity. Further, they also looked at many of the key activities of interaction workers – workers who are engaging with others on a frequent basis to accomplish their tasks – and found that effective social business practices could have a significant impact on their jobs as well.