Emerging Technologies: Organizational Uses of Social Media

Companies and other organizations are increasingly using social media for business purposes, including recruiting, attracting new customers, building brand image, developing stronger relationships with existing customers, engaging citizens, and building closer relationships among employees. This group will focus on organizational (corporate, nonprofit, government, etc.) uses of social media (such as organizational Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Second Life, Tencent QQ) from a managerial perspective.

Many companies like Old Spice, Purina, IKEA, and Starbucks are famous for exploiting social media for business advantage. IBM uses social networks to connect its 380,000 employees working in 170 counties. Even non-profits and governments are using social media. For example, the State of Missouri built a site in Second Life to recruit IT employees. The CIO at the time wanted to show that the State’s IT department uses current technologies and is an interesting place for young people to build a career. The site won national attention as well as attracting good IT applicants. Despite all these possibilities for effective organizational uses of social media, there are risks to be mitigated. Some companies fear that employees waste valuable work-time on social networking sites for no legitimate business purposes. Companies worry that employees will share sensitive information. Some fear customers will post disparaging comments about the company or its products. Potential coverage of this topic could include concrete examples, risks, and risk mitigation practices of organizational uses of social media.

Your group might start off by summarizing the most popular social media sites. (US and worldwide)

Your group might highlight some top organizational uses of social media based on secondary sources.

Your primary data should be collected by conducting interviews with knowledgeable individuals about how their organization uses social media. A key part of the presentation is showing the class these social media sites. Do not merely take screen shots and paste in power point. International students are encouraged to bring in examples from non-US companies.

Your group may want to design and administer a survey on how customers use and perceive organizational social media.

What are some best practices or key takeaways for organizational uses of social media?

I am keen to hear your ideas!