Datasouth

Twitter bores and the risk to your I.T.

Monday, 20 July 2009

Beware of the Twitter bore - those people that use the micro-blogging service to tell you what they’re having for breakfast, what they are watching on TV or what their cat is doing.

Don’t let that divert you from the fact that social media is being used in business-to-business marketing to reach out to audiences in fresh ways. That makes it a relevant issue to managing information technology for large enterprises.

What is this social media ‘thing’? It’s a phrase that is thrown around a lot these days, but in general terms it means an online community of people with common interests who interact with each other; sharing ideas, opinions, photos and videos via their computers, mobile phones and the internet.

Blogs, social networking websites, podcasts, image and video sharing applications, viral media, wikis and even online gaming are all forms of social media. You have probably heard of or used one of these already. Brands like Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and Wikipedia have become globally recognised and are synonymous with the term social media.

As a marketing channel it is going through a classic ‘hype cycle’. There is huge interest and discussion in it as a way of marketing products and services, but the vast majority of companies aren’t starting to seriously commit marketing budgets on social media channels.

So should you rush into social media? Start blogging, tweeting or podcasting?

The answer is it depends. The social media experts might like to say the world has changed but for business-to-business marketing particularly, the fundamentals are no different.

If you were selling to another business before the internet, they wanted to answer some fundamental questions about you before seriously evaluating your product: who you were, how long you had been in business, who else you did business with and your financial viability.

Theses answers were traditionally found by reading your annual report, reviewing newspaper articles, talking to the local banker or chamber of commerce.

Today the customer has the same aim. It is still about that level of trust, but the internet has changed the way that information is gathered. Now by using search engines, checking websites such as linkedIn and Facebook, reading blogs and following Twitter, information about your company is accessible and freely available over the internet.

As it becomes a mainstream marketing activity, it can have real implications for your information technology — something many enterprises we talk to are grappling with. Social media has real power but also real risks. Four key issues have emerged in our discussions with CIO's and other business leaders.

Security is the obvious one. Access to social media tools heightens the risk of security threats to your network. It also opens up the possibility of important company information being shared accidentally or maliciously by an employee.

Lost productivity is something people have been battling with since the internet became mainstream in large organisations. It is even harder if employees are legitimately using large amounts of time to update key social media channels. But are those 10 hours on Facebook really justified? Policies and procedures need to be structured carefully.

Scalability is a potential risk. As social media channels can be very viral i.e. something can be shared around a large organisation almost instantly, certain events may trigger large scale pressure on your network. It is important these don’t compromise service levels to customers.

Lastly is the potential for brand damage. With something like blogs, companies have to truly communicate i.e. try to achieve a shared understanding between them and their audience. That’s because everything is two-way, instead of simply sending messages out to your audience, social media allows people to see your message, comment on it and send it to other potential customers with criticism or endorsement. That makes it a very powerful method of communication - cheap, instant and persuasive, which can either boost or blast your brand.

Even accepting these risks, most enterprises will either already be using or evaluating social media as a key marketing tactic in the next 18 months. Our recommendation to clients is to think about this carefully and strategically to avoid negative impacts on the business. If you’d like to discuss the implications of social media for your information technology, contact Datasouth to talk to a consultant.

Datasouth specialises in the provision of technology solutions that assists organisations in enhancing their business by improved information flow and productivity. As an organisation that has been providing advice to government and corporate clients for over fifteen years, we can advise, design and implement solutions that truly provide a competitive edge and reduced cost structures.

To better understand how we may help you to drive your business forward, please contact Datasouth to discuss your specific requirements.