Theory:
Before I start talking about social media strategies, I will summarize the theory in 3 phrases.
Social media is online community where people create personal profiles and share information with their friends and contacts. (Extracted from a INN346 QUT lecture)
My personal definition: online tools where people create their digital presence providing as much detail as they want to. Those tools allow people to connect other people and it’s not only people to content.
Within social networks, as in any other social circle, some people can be more influent than others. Gladwell suggests that there are three important types of people in social networks: Connectors (“social glue” they know and want to introduce you to everyone), Mavens (“information brokers” can’t wait to tell you about the best deal and give advice) and Salesmen (“evangelists” get you to act and convince you to buy)
Now it’s time to explore how Social Media fits in the Enterprise.
Processes:
In my view the majority of outcomes from social media come from external sources. Contacting the customers/users, and in my opinion 3 process can easily benefit from social media:
1 – Recruiting: Don’t wait for CVs, go to market and offer the job to the right person. Also the company can check the qualification and previous experience of candidates.
2 – Marketing (sales): Helping sales, offering a new product, getting feedback about the product’s quality and usability.
3 – Supporting (post sales): post sale support, don’t only sell but keep the support active. Companies can use facebook groups or google+ groups. For example groups of users that owns a Sansung Galaxy III Android 3.2. And then users can support users. Stanley Milgram’s Small World Experiment would take place here.
Tools x Process
Tool | Highlights | Processes supported |
|
Easy to identify groups with similar interests. Companies looking for product’s feedback usually try contacting facebook groups. Also, people tend to participate in groups that share information about specific subjects. Ideal for product supporting strategy | Supporting (post sales), Marketing (sales) |
Google+ |
Google strategy to compete with facebook. Actually, google has a previous product called orkut (in India and Brazil orkut is more famous then facebook). | Supporting (post sales), Marketing (sales) |
Youtube |
If a picture is worth a thousand words. A video is worth a thousand pictures. Make a nice presentation of your product and share it online. | Marketing (sales) |
Linkedin (This tool will be explored in our case study – Suncorp HR) |
Don’t wait for CVs, select good people that fit in the role and contact them offering an opportunity. That’s the market new trend. | Recruiting |
Pintrest | Is Pinterest worth bothering with? Is it going to be as big as Facebook? Here’s a newsflash: it already beats Facebook for the number of purchasing customers it sends to retail sites, according to a recent Social Shopping 2012 survey. | Marketing (sales) |
Strategy:
1) Verify where your target is (map the online social network structure of your business)
2) Keep someone dedicated to the social media. At least check and answer questions in a daily basis. If the company does not interact the credibility is down. This person should also moderate the discussion and filter inappropriate comments (based on internal policy)
3) Identify people having high influence and reward than (that can guarantee the viral propagation)
Recruitment process improvement for Suncorp HR:
Currently, Suncorp HR is not exploring all the potential of linkedin, facebook and google+ in their recruitment process. Therefore we are proposing some strategies to improve that:
How to map out the social media structure to the target market (in that case the target market are future Suncorp employees)?
- Select one employee within HR department to dedicate 2 hours per day filtering people in 3 major backgrounds using LinkedIn search engine (e.g. IT, car insurance and investments). Contact that people and add them as part of Suncorp HR department network.
- If a new role is available, Suncorp HR already has a pre filtered list of possible candidates. So, they can contact them and offer the opportunity. That should reduce the time to get good people selected for interview.
- In addition. Suncorp can use facebook and google+ to check more information about the candidates previously selected (e.g. hobbies, interests, etc)
- All that mapping can be done automatically using online tools such as wildfire and trackur
How to identify, help activate and reward online connectors?
- Filter current Suncorp employees in linkedIn and add them to Suncorp HR netword. Then check the connectivity between current employees and previous selected list. Ask the employees to recommend or not the people in the selected list. That can help Suncorp to prioritize interviews.
- Suncorp already has an internal skills database. That contains information about all employees’ background. Our suggestion is a new information in that database to add the LinkedIn url (if applicable)
- Maintain a counter for indication per employee and provide gifts for indication (e.g. cinema tickets, amazon.com gift card, etc). The most active contributor (usually 1-3%) can even receive a bonus package (money reward)
- To identify online connector they can use online tools such as keotag
How to systematically identify ways to propagate the viral contribution and referral factor?
- The same HR employee responsible to dedicated 2 hour per day contacting people via linkedIn will be responsible to identity employees’ contribution and indications. Therefore the most active contributors will be identified. Those most active contributors will be asked to dedicate part time of their job to help HR and the working hours will be accounted to the HR project in parallel to their normal working hours.
Do you believe this strategy can help Suncorp HR to improve their current recruitment process?
Related posts from my team:
Edie – http://oopsedie.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/hr-in-social-network-building-up-companys-reputation/
Abdul – http://arifiabdul.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/social-media-training-strategy-corporate-new-hires/
Amanda – http://amandab.me/2012/10/06/social-networks-can-build-a-pipeline-of-candidates-for-recruitment/
Karen – http://e2karen.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/social-networking-strategies-for-recruitment/
References:
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-steps-to-an-effective-social-media-strategy/
http://www.marketpath.com/blog/which-social-network-is-right-for-my-business
http://www.bluebaysolutions.com.au/Article/how-can-social-networking-help-my-business.aspx
http://www.guardian.co.uk/small-business-network/2012/jul/10/pinterest-drive-traffic-small-business
http://lkrsocialmedia.com/social-media-marketing/
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/10/connectors-bridge-social-networks/13663.html