MBA Creator Module

Social Media: Contemporary Business Applications

#sotonmba

Lisa Harris, Chris Phethean and Ian BrownMarch 2014

Today’s Plan

9am: Lisa Harris - brief history of technological change and current ‘big picture’ trends

11am: Chris Phethean – what can businesses learn from evaluating social media?

1.30pm: Ian Brown – what can businesses learn from “big data”?

3pm: Lisa Harris – closing exercise

Lisa HarrisLisa (@lisaharris) is a Director of the Web Science Institute, a Chair of the Digital Economy Research Group and an Associate Director of the Centre for Innovation in Technologies and Education (CITE). She runs the MSc programme in Digital Marketing and is also an accredited tutor for the University of Liverpool online MBA programme. www.about.me/lisa.harris

Chris Phethean (@cpheth) and Ian Brown (@_ianbrown) are Web Science PhD students

Chris’s blog: http://chris-phethean.blogspot.co.uk/Ian’s blog: http://webscience.me

My projects

• Director, Web Science Institute• Educator, Web Science MOOC• Curriculum Innovation:

– Living and Working on the Web– Online Social Networks

• “Students as Partners and Change Agents”• Digital Marketing MSc and MOOC

A BIT OF HISTORY

Exercise 1What technologies are being discussed here?

• “The modern world overwhelms people with data and this is confusing and harmful to the mind” (Conrad Gessner, 1565)

• “It will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories.“ (Socrates, 469-399BC)

• “It socially isolates readers and detracts from the spiritually uplifting group practice of getting news from the pulpit” (Malesherbes, 1787)

• “It might hurt radio, conversation, reading, and the patterns of family living and result in the further vulgarisation of American culture“ (Ellen Wartella, 1962)

• “It’s making us stupid” (Nicholas Carr, 2008)

Technological change examples

• Gutenberg's printing press• Radio and early TV outside broadcasting:

Phar Lap• The secret history of social networking (Rory

Cellan Jones, 30 mins, audio)

Internet technology has changed the world

■ Years it took to reach an audience of 50 million:

Radio 50 years TV 13 years

Internet 4 years iPod 3 years

2 years 2 years

1 in 5 marriages in US now as a result of online dating.

US Dept Commerce

10

Web advertising grows from smallest to largest in 6 years

source: IAB (2010) PricewaterhouseCoopers / Internet Advertising Bureau / Advertising Association / Radio Advertising Bureau / WARC , March. N.B. WARC Recruitment data included from 2003

TV Advertising

Web Advertising

Press Display

Direct Mail

Press Classified

Outdoor

Radio

£ millions

“BIG PICTURE” TRENDS

Exercise 2

Using the googledoc quickly brainstorm a list of the various opportunities/challenges of social media for business.

This exercise is deliberately placed to get your first thoughts, before we consider any recent developments in detail.

We will return to this list later on…

Social media for business: an introduction

• How big data is changing lives (5 mins)• Technology Will Kill…(2 mins)• Socialnomics by Erik Qualman (4mins)• Parody of the Socialnomics videos (3mins)• BBC Internet Growth Report• Satire by The Onion (2 mins)• The power of video (2 mins)• The virtual choir (Kickstarter video 5 mins) & the end result

• Background reading

Christensen: The Innovator’s Dilemma/Solution

• Business innovation that uses a disruptive strategy rather than a sustaining strategy to overturn dominant /incumbent players

• “Sustaining strategy” relies on incremental improvements in performance of an established product

• “Disruptive strategy” provides a radical “good enough” alternative – starts at bottom of market but progresses because it is ignored by complacent incumbents– Microsoft, Dell, Toyota, online publishing

• Clayton Christensen video (9 mins)• Clayton Christensen Video 2 (2 mins)

http://www.socialnomics.net/2011/12/28/infographic-every-60-seconds-on-the-web/

Source: Internet Trends 2013 by Mary Meeker

Source: Internet Trends 2013 by Mary Meeker

Source: Internet Trends 2013 by Mary Meeker

Pew Internet

• Photos and videos now key social currencies – 46% of adult internet users post their own photos

or videos online = creators. – 41% take photos or videos they have found online

and repost them on sites designed for sharing images = curators.

– Pinterest, Instagram, ScoopIt and Tumblr have made curating easier because they are organised for easy image and video-sharing.

Oxford Internet Survey 2013• The Internet is now used by 78% of the British population, up

from 73% in 2011.• The biggest increases in Internet use are seen in low-income

households (58% of households earning less than £12,000 / year use the Internet, up from 43% in 2011).

• The challenge of getting the last fifth of the population is growing every year. This persistent core of non-users will present a problem for Government ‘digital by default’ services

• Social media use has plateaued at 61% (up from 60% two years ago) – but new social tools eg WhatsApp not included in the survey

Communications Report (Ofcom 2013)

• Increasing range of devices: 3G dongles, smartphones, iPads, netbooks and eReaders are driving “always-on” connectivity

• 51% have smart phones (up from 27% two years ago)• 24% have tablets (up from 11% last year)• 49% “media stack” while watching TV• 25% “media mesh” while watching TV• “Huge growth in take-up of smartphones and tablets is

creating a nation of media multi-taskers, transforming the traditional living room of our parents and grandparents into a digital media hub”

Digital Trends 2014 by Smart Insights• Complete the poll and view the results. See also link to free

webinar– Mobile (think smartphones and tablets)– Content (engagement through SMM drives SEO)

The changing media landscape

http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy-alerts/new-media-options/

Applications of social media for business

• Engaging with customer fan base to build relationships, recommendations and hence sales

• Resolving customer service issues• Effective, real time internal communications across the

enterprise and hierarchies• Tracking trends and testing the “zeitgeist”• Crowdsourcing of new product development or market

research • Networking to source expertise or business partners• Improves search engine visibility

How we buy stuff

1.How is shopper behaviour changing in a digitally powered world?

2.What roles do new media like social and mobile play in the shopping experience?

3.How are shoppers expectations of the physical retail store changing? Think “showrooming”…

4.How does pre-shopping change actual purchasing?

Showrooming

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The Scope of Twitter

• Customer service Become known as a reliable and informative source of help @comcastcares @albionsoven

• Special offers @delloutlet • Get Feedback. Ask for advice and you’ll receive ‘collective intelligence’ from

your community @ibmresearch• Direct traffic. Include links in a tweet to direct traffic to your blog or to the

recommended posts of others. • Read News. subscribe to feeds for specific websites/conferences, or from

content providers such as the BBC. • Network for business benefits. Interact with other like-minded people, or

experts in your field. Develop relationships for future mutual benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.

• Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online.

• Provide Live coverage. For example to provide real time coverage of conference keynotes, or travel information @tubeupdates

• Set Up Meetings. An informal and casual way of arranging adhoc meetings. • Satire @fakesamcam• Fundraising @bletchleypark

Business Challenges

Social media can make or break your brand

• United Breaks Guitars: the original video• What happened next, including interview with

Dave Carroll • http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/

www.briansolis.com

Resistance to change• Businesses are often tied into complex and bespoke

IT systems and traditional organisational structures. • Management permission is required for IT changes. • Fear that trade secrets might be given away, so

creativity is limited by “walled garden” IT policies • Mindset is still about broadcast rather than

conversation• Change is regarded as threatening and disruptive.

Unwilling to change the status quo, on the basis that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”

• Banning access to social networks puts their staff at an increasing DISADVANTAGE

Early adopter research by McKinsey

• Survey of 50 ‘early adopter’ executives• Level of investment in web 2.0 expected to grow by

15% annually for next 5 years• The research identified issues with:

– Restrictive organisational structures– Resistance to change– Inappropriate use of social media (eg for one way

communications)– Lack of support from senior managers to ‘scale up’ creative

ideas from workers

What’s next? - Google Glass

• Here is a taster (with detailed analysis and video demo )

• And another (sceptical) argument by Andrew Keen (@ajkeen)

• Check out #ifihadglass on twitter• Is this a game changer?• What are the privacy implications?

Exercise 3

Look back to the points you noted at the start about opportunities/challenges of social media for business. In what ways has your thinking developed during the day?

Check out Best FTSE100 use of social media

Summary

• Businesses cannot avoid social media...conversations about the brand will be taking place online regardless

• Social media is moving beyond an experimental marketing strategy to impact upon all areas of the business

• Structural and cultural change may be required to realise the benefits

• Disruptive potential of value chain ‘unbundling’ and new business models

Exercise 4

• Look up these examples of business use of twitter:– www.twitter.com/ronandunneo2– www.twitter.com/albionsoven– www.twitter.com/delloutlet– www.twitter.com/smartinsights– www.twitter.com/unisouthampton

• What do you consider to be the strategy behind each of these cases? How effective is it?

Exercise 5

• Look up these examples of business use of Facebook:– www.facebook.com/avgfree– www.facebook.com/dogstrust– http://www.facebook.com/groups/wigglywigglers– www.facebook.com/asos

• What do you consider to be the strategy behind each of these cases? How effective is it?