Air New Zealand’s use of social media

Air New Zealand

This post is for our second assignment, which we have been instructed to write about as a blog post here.  I will be talking about Air New Zealand and how they as an organisation use social media to develop their business and connect with customers worldwide. I have chosen Air New Zealand as I find them to be such an inspiring company, and really like how much effort they put into promoting their organisation through our beautiful country and their active social media presence. Air New Zealand are highly renowned for their strong and powerful presence across many social media sites, a company well known for their international success in capturing online audiences. I have chosen to talk about them as I am always inspired by their online activity and innovative ways of promoting their company.

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Looking at the 4 C’s approach to social media through communicating, cooperating, collaborating and connecting, Air New Zealand uses its various forms of social media presence as platforms to promote their company and build their reputation from the inside out.

Communicating

 Air New Zealand communicate to their current customers and potential future customers through various social media sites, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube being three of the main ones we see frequently in our news feeds. They use Facebook to share information, photos, videos, customer feedback and relationships that they have with the public and other companies. Facebook provides a means of communication, and connection through the sharing of events on their timeline, which appears on the news feeds of anyone who has “liked” their page. Along with this, friends of those who have liked their page can be invited to “like” Air New Zealand’s Facebook page, and are exposed to posts that people “like” or “Share”. They’ve recently hosted the annual Air New Zealand marathon in Hawkes Bay, sporting their active wear and the company’s logo throughout the video’s and photos. Facebook provided a means of sharing snapshots of the event, and allowing the organizer’s to communicate with their large fan base.

Cooperation

By using social media, Air New Zealand can work with their employees in a more mobile manner, no longer needing to be in the same room to communicate, tools like Skype allow them to work around busy schedules and long distances. With improved communication, social media allows the company to cooperate more effectively with not only staff but also customer requirements, which helps to improve their reputation due to a higher number of happy customers and staff.

Collaboration

Air New Zealand are the leading company for social media use, which is not surprising when they work collaboratively with their agencies, joining their knowledge with that of their internal innovation team. They believe the key aspect of approaching social media in this way is by bringing the internal and external stakeholders in to the company, giving them initial ownership over upcoming projects, and always striving for improvement.

Connecting

Air New Zealand differentiate themselves by creating an active, engaging and personal presence on social media, in what they call the “big three”; Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. “We know if we can engage people at each level of the purchase funnel, from awareness right through to after their travel and encourage people to share that experience along the way, we know that we’re going to have a much better chance of succeeding.” – Helen Steemson (for Social Media NZ, on the article about Air New Zealand’s presence in social media).

Active marketing and point of difference

A large factor of Air New Zealand’s success can be put down to their active marketing strategies both locally and internationally, with a company wide focus on customer satisfaction and creating a point of difference through innovative service and the power of marketing. They follow the principles of ROI, with active marketing strategies used to promote the business, and all their success gained from the videos which add that point of difference for them as an airline, I mean how many other airlines have such entertaining and creatively made in-flight videos? Their focus is primarily on customers rather than their business, directing material towards customer interaction and interest to promote themselves. In order to succeed in a vastly competitive market, a small company like Air New Zealand must strive to hold that competitive difference through creating demand awareness in bigger, international markets.  This is where the use of social and digital media comes into hand; along with having their own Flying Social Network, the creation of demand was a strategy build to integrate customer service, product innovation and marketing initiatives across the company, which created their hugely successful business. They have earned global recognition through their comical in-flight videos, and body-painted staff, and their spokespuppet Rico, which has between all three, has built up millions of views on their YouTube channel.

 

Policies and code of conduct

In order to keep up their gold class reputation, Air New Zealand have to have a strict code of conduct, setting out standards which they expect anyone who works for the company to follow, no matter where in the world they may be. They aim to integrate their brand values and leadership behaviours through out the whole company in every aspect of its culture, so that the company can strive to be at its best, and demonstrate what a great New Zealand organisation should look like to the rest of the world. “I’m proud to work for a global organisation that is committed to doing what’s right and building a culture based on honesty, integrity, transparency, mutual respect and the freedom to speak up.” – Christopher Luxon, Chief Executive officer at Air New Zealand. Their presence in social media is so well known around the world that they must ensure to keep up high standards, which is where the code of conduct comes in as a crucial factor.

 

And to finish off, here is one of Air New Zealand’s most recent projects they have worked on, with kiwi traveller, Logan Dodds; aimed at targeting a younger audience promoting their homeland as an OE travel destination. The video was created by Logan and his fellow travel buddy as they travelled with Air New Zealand around New Zealand documenting their adventures.

Source

 

If anyone has any comments around Air New Zealand and their social media presence, it would be awesome to have some feedback and generate discussion!

 

References

http://stoppress.co.nz/news/marketing-excellence-air-new-zealand-and-rob-fyfe

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/assets/PDFs/J004092-Code-of-Conduct-Online-2-external-website.pdf

Hoffman, D. L. & Fodor, M. (2010). Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing? MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), 41-49.

http://theflyingsocialnetwork.com/about-us/ 

https://www.youtube.com/user/airnewzealand

Return on Investment (ROI), analytics and measurement

With the inclusion of social media applications, managers and CEO’s must become more aware of the successes and failures of this activity; one particular aspect of this is referred to as Return on Investment (ROI) of social media. ROI on social media can be defined as the measure of efficiency of a social media marketing campaign. There are constant pressures generated to push for facts and figures regarding the return generated from social media input. However, according to Hoffman & Fodor (2010) managers are approaching this the wrong way, suggesting that instead of focusing on what the organization gets from the ROI, they should be focusing on what the customer’s ROI is; considering the customers’ motivations to use social media and the investments they put into engagement with that company and its brand.

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The formula for calculating your social media ROI is as follows: (SM return – SM investment)/ SM investment percent.

 

It is also possible to consider a company’s social media ROI by measuring the ratio between cost and gain. Costs are defined as anything that can be invested in through the company’s social media efforts. For example: Labour, training, development, social media technology, paid media and business overhead.

A social business is constructed of three sections or tenets Connected, Engaged, Adaptive, which create a transparent relationship between the business and its customers, opening the door to adaptive success internally and externally. Understanding the relationship between the business objectives and tactics of social media will create a series of connections and links that will develop opportunities for measurement of a company’s ROI.

There is not one individual way to measure ROI on social media. When discovering the “return” it is important to not only look at the “investment” that comes with it, but also the intentions, circumstances and potential outcomes of business leaders need to be aware of in order to gain understanding of future opportunities. Social media must be an enabler of the business not something that is attached to it as a side note. The business must connect the links between the value of new media, the expectations of customers and the business roadmap, which the company is following.

 

Why is it important to measure Social Media ROI?

– Ensuring your efforts are taken seriously, something that measuring ROI can ensure, as you need to prove the worth of social media investments.

– Measuring ROI provides value to your organization’s overall business goals and objectives.

– It also ensures that you can clearly view your efforts and where resources are being used.

 

SETTING GOALS

Once you have your measurements in place it is important to set some goals for your social media ROI. To demonstrate social media’s value, you need to measure how social media ROI relates to the broader goals in business.

The S.M.A.R.T goal framework is a good guide to setting goals:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time-bound

 

References

https://blog.hootsuite.com/measure-social-media-roi-business/

Hoffman, D. L. & Fodor, M. (2010). Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing? MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), 41-49.

Fisher, T. (2009). ROI in social media: A look at the arguments. Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, 16(3), 189-195.

 

Strategies, Policies and guidelines for Engagement

This week we are looking at the Social Business strategy and how it is possible to use social media to grow a business. Now as you may all be aware, social media has strongly rooted itself in our society and daily lives, it is something that is around for good, and doesn’t look as though it will be leaving us any time soon. I’m sure there are many people who are happy with this as with the smaller percentage who may not approve of social media at all, however it is here to stay, and in a business perspective this is a positive thing. Social media is a tool used to aid business growth.

According to the Altimeter Group (Li & Solis, 2013), social business strategy can be defined as –“ A set of visions, goals, plans, and resources that align social media initiatives with business objectives”.

They also established a set of six elements that they believe are crucial in promoting a fully functional and successful social business strategy. Altimeter suggest that without these six elements it is not possible to have a successful business strategy, and without a strategy then the business itself cannot be a success.

Lets have a look at these elements:

Six stages of business transformation

1. Planning – “listen to learn”. Creating a strong foundation allows a means for effective strategy development, organisational alignment, resource development and execution. A business with effective planning will be prepared for any short falls in future.
2. Presence – evolution from planning to action. You establish a formal and informal presence in social media as you grow as a business, this could involve setting up a YouTube account, a Facebook page or a blog, to promote the business online. The goal is to primarily establish a presence in the online community and get your name out there.
3. Engagement – creating relationships where social media transforms from a want to a need, or in other words, from something that is nice to have to a critical element of the business’ relationship building. There is always the concern for negative comments on social media giving the business a negative image, businesses must ensure to target their presence within social media with the hope of engagement. “Dialog deepens Relationships” – Altimeter.
4. Formalised – “organising for scale”, connecting the business as a whole and establishing engagement at a higher level, thus to avoid the separation of business connections over social media.
5. Strategic – “becoming a social business”. Form a strategy in which the business must integrate outcomes through organization, traditional metrics of business and move into social media measurement frameworks. Monitor engagement, activity and loyalty to the business.
6. Converged – “business is social”. Becoming a social business is functional and is a way of business. However embracing social media does not create a social business. Social media is a contributor to the migration of a business becoming social. Social media aids the movement of a social business, improving relationships and experiences with customers

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Success factors

The following seven success factors are elements that spread across all social business stages, organizations that succeed in applying these factors will be able to fully maximize business value potential, no matter which stage they are in.

1. Business goal definition – define which business goals take priority; align objectives, social media strategies and internal challenges and opportunities to create communication and dialogue.
2. Long-term vision for becoming a social business – long-term vision gives you a path for your goals, it allows a business to communicate to all stakeholders why the journey is taking place. It articulates the future customer, employee and stakeholder relationships and experiences that will be the result of a future strategy.
3. Key executive support – Executives are an important stakeholder in the development of a social business strategy, and they are the ones who grant additional budgets and resources for these strategies.
4. Initiative roadmap – similar to long-term planning, having an idea of what you will do is just as important as knowing what you won’t do.
5. Process discipline and ongoing education – discipline and training are ongoing important aspects of a business strategy, as the business matures having clear processes of installing discipline become necessary for success. Training must be continuous to ensure the ongoing development of employees for the business.
6. Staffing – develop internal capabilities, leading to strategy to create internal alignment.
7. Technology selection only after strategy is set – technology innovation is so fast moving it is tempting to jump into selection and implementation early, it is important to ensure a strategy is set to avoid getting stuck without a plan or platform to move onto.

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“We mean thinking about your business as putting people at the centre, as opposed to the model where you used to publish messages to your consumers. This is hard to get your arms around because so many times your business has been built around your product or your message; now you have to think about building your business around people – what people are interested in and what they want to share with their friends.” – Carolyn Everson  

POLICIES

In any business arrangement it is important to have set out policies and discipline in order to protect the brand name and its reputation. Coca-Cola are a good example of a company heavily invested in social media and advertising, they have a set of policies in place to prevent any issues occurring. They have a set of five “company commitments”, which concern how they interact with customers and each other and any activity on social media also. Anyone involved with representing the brand in any way is expected to follow these five commitments:

1. Transparency in any social media presentation
2. Protect privacy for consumers
3. Respect copyright, trademark, rights of publicity
4. Be responsible in their use of social media, and ensure not to align themselves with any organisations or websites with excessive tracking data
5. Monitor behaviour on social media

As such a well known company they have a strict set of policies which anyone involved with them must follow, and they would ensure this by informing new connections, or employees before singing any contracts. Policies are incredibly impotent for businesses, especially those in the lime light of social media, as information spreads fast, both the truth and rumours, no business wants to create a negative image of itself because of a simple act on social media.

 

 

References:

Li, C. & Solis, B. (2013). The evolution of social business: Six stages of social business transformation. Altimeter Group.
[online] http://www.slideshare.net/Altimeter/the-evolution-of-social-business-six-stages-of-social-media-transformation

The Coca Cola Company (2012). Online social media principles. http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/online-social-media-principles

http://frankmedia.com.au/frank-social-business-strategy/

 

 

 

Communities of Practice and Online communities

First off, what is an Community of Practice, and how does it differ from an online community?

An online community is a group of people who communicate amongst each other online, using email, social media, social network sites. They too share a common interest, however their mode of communication is primarily internet based, where as CoP’s are mostly internet based but also occur in face-to-face environments with members collaborating in social settings and in the same space rather than online.

Communities of practice (CoP’s) are generally defined as groups of people who share a common interest or practice for something they do. It provides a community within which members can share knowledge and information and learn from each other. CoP’s are abundant within organisations nowadays, and have become a crucial part of integrating and sharing knowledge and connection within a workplace. CoP’s allow organisations to see past the formal structures of communication, and allow us to understand communication in a more open and sharing way. They vary in size depending on each individual CoP, some are local and others are internationally based, some CoP’s are all from one organisation where as others are made up of various organisations.

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It is said that Cop’s have three crucial characteristics which define them and make them stand out from other communities, these are:

1. The Domain – The domain defines a CoP by their specific shared interest. CoP’s are not just groups of people or a network of connections, they have their own identity, which can be defined by that shared interest. It individualises them from others, making them their own unique community. Membership within a CoP requires a certain amount of commitment to the passion, which creates a competence that identifies them from any other CoP.
2. The community  – In following their passion as a community members participate in shared activities and communication, helping each other learn, grow and share knowledge. They form relationships with the community that allow members to care for one another and become more united as a community.
3. Practice – Members of a CoP come together to talk about, share and participate in their interest, they develop stories and experiences which they can look back on and share amongst themselves to preserve the relationships within their group.

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Where can a Community of Practice be applied?

CoP’s can be applied to many different communities or collaborations of people, they have become very popular in today’s business sector, and are really helping the internal communications and shared learning.

• Organisations
• Government
• Education
• Associations
• Social sector
• International development
• The web

CHALLENGES

Although there are many positives to CoP’s and I have mentioned lots of good advantages of using or being in a community of practice, it is important to note that with everything there are some challenges. With CoP’s being structures around a more informal style of communication, organisations that are strongly hierarchically based may resist using them as a result of the lack of formalities. This does bring a potential threat to issues around hierarchy, with the potential risk of employees reaching above their status in the company.  However these are only minor challenges, and with good structural management and leadership these problems can easily be avoided.

HISTORY

The concept of a Community of Practice came from the learning theory, coined by anthropologist Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. They established this term while studying an apprenticeship as learning models, the term Community of Practice was created as a means of describing the relationship between an apprentice and their master. This relationship relied on the sharing of knowledge and learning, with the master primarily sharing their knowledge and the apprentice learning. Once the concept was developed it became prominent everywhere, being used by many people with or without the presence of formality.

“Knowledge management will never work until corporations realise its not about how you capture it, but how you create and leverage it”. – Etienne Wenger.

Here is a video I came across while looking for imagery to make my post more exciting, I found this video nice and simple in explaining this topic so thought I would share it here for anyone interested.

I hope this post was interesting and shared some interesting knowledge with you all. I particularly liked writing this post, I found the content interesting and not too heavy to read and process. I think that Communities of Practice are such an important aspect, I am so much more aware of all the CoP’s that I either encounter on a daily basis or could point out now I know what they are!

References:

Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

Gelin, P. & Milusheva, M. (2011). The secrets of successful communities of practice: Real benefits from collaboration within social networks at Schneider Electric, Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 30(5), 6-18.

The foundations of social media application

So for this week’s post we are looking at the theoretical underpinnings of social media in the workplace. What are the structures of social media implementation that allow us to apply it to business?

THE 4 C’s APPROACH

The 4 C’s approach is one main approach used to introduce social media into businesses, which focuses on the action involved rather than the components and characteristics of implementing social media in the workplace.

1. Communication: Communication refers to processes or devices that allow users to connect and converse with others through forms of media that does not involve being face to face. For example; text, message, email, video, letters, phone calling, audio or images. Communication is massively important in social media, as it is what makes it such a desirable part of our lives, we are able to communicate with others from all over the planet with out having to leave the comfort of our own homes.
2. Cooperation: Software that allows us to share content means we can share things with others in many different forms, whether it be structured or unstructured, it provides a means of working together across many different spaces.
3. Collaboration: By communicating and cooperating through the use of social media we are able to combine knowledge gained from these processes, and create something greater than would have been possible single handedly. Social media provides a means of working together and sharing knowledge and experiences with others to create bigger and better things.
4. Connection: Social media allows us to connect with people across the world, with instant messaging, photo and video sharing and online access meaning we can communicate and connect with people at all times of the day. Technology allows us the opportunity to make connections with and between people and content.

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Cisco’s S.O.C.I.A.L approach 

The way we interact online has changed dramatically since the early days of social media, with new forms and platforms for communication and connection emerging rapidly. The way customers engage with brands has become increasingly dependant on social media, and online technologies to process purchases and connect with these companies. Buyers use social media to collect information about future purchases, connect with peers and share information. These activities give rise to the opportunities that build and nurture such online relationships between the brands and their customers, partners, influencers and supporters, which inevitably under covers their brand loyalty.

So what does S.O.C.I.A.L actually stand for?

S -scalable
O – Open
C – Consistent
I – Intuitive
A – Active
L – Limitless

Cisco created the S.O.C.I.A.L approach as a way of educating employees in how to apply social media usage in the most beneficial way to support the business, aiming to encourage online participation and engagement. They designed an online media playbook with training that is aimed at advancing online and social capabilities of employees.

Photo source: Access the Cisco Corporation’s Cisco social media playbook here.

 

References:

Cook, N.  (2008).  Enterprise 2.0:  How social software will change the future of work.  Hampshire:  Gower Publishing Ltd.

 

Issues and challenges of social media in the workplace

So as we have talked about earlier on, social media is becoming a very important aspect of many businesses and organisations. We have looked at how implementing the use of social media into businesses can be very beneficial to the company, however what about the issues involved with using social media in the workplace?

Although social media can help enhance a company’s status and identity, the use of social media within a workplace can also cause disruption to other tasks.

Employers have begun monitoring the use of electronic communication of employees through social media usage for several reasons:

1. As a protection method to prevent the employer or company from any legal liabilities which could arise from employee communications over social media that are not work related. An example of this could be if any form of misconduct occurred the employer can be held responsible for any form of unethical behaviour in the workplace, especially if it was something that they were aware of but did not act upon.
2. Having access to social media while at work can be rather distracting – as most of us can probably relate to this when we are finding ways to distract ourselves from assignments or readings that aren’t particularly entertaining. Employers may want to monitor the amounts of online communication taking place during work hours to asses how much of it is related to work or whether it is more on a personal level. Excessive use of the business’ social media accessibility can cost the company money and also a loss in productivity.
3. Electronic media can also become a place for employees to share confidential information in a protest of anger or disgruntled feelings toward the workplace. Employees will most likely have access to private information as a requirement of their position, and in any unfortunate case of argumentation they are able to freely access such information which could be transmitted over the web. Thus we see the importance for management and employers to be monitoring such activity for the security of confidential information (Mello, 2012).

 

TRUST
Trust is an important part of any relationship, however in relation to a workplace, trust is important in order to have successful interactions between employers and employees, and also with customers.

On the topic of electronic monitoring, employees can often feel as though employers are breaching a violation of trust or an invasion of their privacy when monitoring online activity within the workplace. Any negative feelings towards this can erode the trust between an employer and employee, putting strain on the relationship.

It has become more common for employers to use social media to track online activity of employees to ensure they are not acting in a way that may reflect negatively on the company. One general survey found that 95% of employers use social networking sites to look up job applicants to see whether they are suitable for the job, and to gain insight into their online activity as a “preventative” method of protecting the company longer term if they decide to hire that applicant (Mello, 2012). From an ethical perspective, privacy advocates would argue that such actions become a violation of the applicant’s privacy, and any material found may not actually have any relevance to the job position or how they behave in a professional environment.

Another concern comes down to the question of what the employer would do with any information that they may find online; if they were to get exposed how it could effect their relationships with that person and future applicants. 29% of employees have reported awareness of such activity and are consciously becoming more conservative of what they post on social media sites in the event of employer discovers or retribution (Mello, 2012). I myself can say that when I became aware of this I also was more vigilant about what made it onto my social media profiles and the content that I posted. I also made sure that I set my privacy settings to how I wanted them to ensure that only specific information was available to non-facebook friends.

The fact that online activity can create quick and easy responses makes using it even more desirable, not to mention the fact that it is so accessible in our every day lives. As a result of this posts made can reach the public eye within seconds, yet once they are exposed they cannot be undone so easily…

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Cultural implementation in the workplace

Most of our communication technologies have been developed with business usage in mind before it became a part of our social lives. Social media is now effectively an extension our one’s personal life, many of us cannot handle being separated from the internet and our smart phones for too long. We use them for many form of communication whether it be work, personal, educational. This reversal in how we use online technologies has meant many organisations are now questioning the effectiveness of social media implementation through business, with fears of it causing disruption to the productivity of workers and exposing the company to certain security risks. As explained before, all of these worries are challenges that come with the use of social media, but the question is, how much benefit has it provided to business communications? As we have established, it has enabled international communication, increased productivity on a larger scale, and shared knowledge between countries.

What are the cultural barriers that we face when embracing social media as a part of business?

• There is the issue of maintaining a separation between personal and professional lives.
• Introducing social media could reduce productivity during work hours.
• There are security risks when sharing information within a company and between employees on a large scale and over social media.
• The introduction of social media as a communication tool has the potential to diminish organisational hierarchies within the workplace and between employees and management, effectively bringing them down to the same level.
• There is also the possibility of a loss of competitive advantage for the company when sharing information (Miller, 2011).

The current cultural barriers that are holding organisations back are not too dissimilar to those that were experienced in earlier technological advancements, ones that have now been overcome (Miller, 2011). Successful implementation of social media is only possible if organisations are able and willing to identify potential cultural changes upfront and prepare for any possible barriers as a result.

Organisations must ensure to create concrete cultural foundations between their employees, social media followers and themselves by being open and willing to share information. They must have a decent understanding of transparency when it comes to online interaction and be open and willing to understand and learn how social media works. By doing this they are able to embrace the cultural advancements in technology and apply this into their business strategies to create growth in the company.

 

 

References:

Mello, J. A. (2012). Social media, employee privacy and concerted activity: Brave new world or big brother? Labor Law Journal, 63 (3), 165-173, Retrieved from Business Source Complete Database

Miller, A. (2011). Cultural barriers to organizational social media adoption. In J. Girard & J. Girard (Eds.), social knowledge: Using social media to know what you know (pp. 96-114). Hershey, PA: doi: 10.4018/978-1-60960203-1.ch006

 

The Government and Social media

This week’s theme for me is of slightly unknown territory, I am aware of the amount that social media is now used within the Government sector, however I guess I have never thought much into this area until now.

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The traditional way of Governments communication to the public sector was a very time consuming process, with many restrictions due to ‘need to know’ policies, where by only certain people with a particular hierarchical standing were allowed access to such information, thus leading to slow information transfer between sectors. The implementation of social media has challenged these traditional ‘need to know’ paradigms of information sharing, increasing the sharing of stakeholders and in a process of maintaining and sourcing knowledge through the public sector. The influence of social media is creating an influx of transparency, participation and collaboration within governments, as well as speeding up the transfer of information. However, although the introduction of social media has its positive drivers it also inhibits some areas of knowledge sharing and can be potentially quite disruptive to such areas.

What are the benefits for the Government to be using Social media?

As I have already talked about, social media allows information sharing and connections across different cities and countries all over the world. The use of social media allows for the integration of shared knowledge across Governments, the breakup of knowledge silos, and improved decision-making through the use of many social media sites; wikis are particularly common for these tasks. Examples of wikis used by governments include; diplopedia in the State Department and Techpedia in the department of defense, another example of wiki use is by the U.S Army soldiers who use wikis to increase the speed of peer-to-peer communication out on the battlefield (Mergel, I. 2010). Social media promotes information sharing and communication, it helps to connect people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to interact easily. Video calling is enabled through social media, online conferencing and meetings can be held to save travel time and costs. With this comes the shared knowledge through improved connection, and new information acquiring abilities. The new forms of information sharing opens up possibilities for further research into understanding the behaviours of government employees, and also citizens, enabling them to become more willing to share their knowledge.

Transparency is an important aspect of Government information sharing today, something that has been enabled through the use of social media. It has become part of the idea of having an ‘open’ Government, allowing the public access to government information and promoting knowledge sharing between Governments and the citizens. The introduction of social media can lead to uncontrolled information sharing, however it also allows a higher level of connection between the Government and the public.

What about the inhibitors of social media implementation in Governments?

The whole idea of today’s Government is working on a more open and transparent connection between the government and the public. In order to achieve an open government system it requires investing time and commitment into training employees, purchasing the right technologies and upgrading the network infrastructure (Lee, & Kwak, 2012). However there is the issue of time consumption that comes with social media; maintaining social sites and blogs require large amounts of time and energy to ensure they are kept up to date. Maintaining a social media presence can at times become difficult for Government officials as they already have busy schedules, adding extra time consumption can result in discontinuation of social media presence. A result of this can be damaged reputations, and a reduction in public trust.

There are advantages and disadvantages to social media for everyone, when it is used by powerful people who are constantly in the public eye it is bound to have both positive and negative impacts. People have high expectations of those in power, through social media implementation Governments are able to connect on a more personal level with the public, and have the opportunity to share information and create more of a free-flow of knowledge between the government and its citizens.

I am not really one to follow what goes on with our political trends, or Government activity, but I have to say after having to read up on this subject I realise how little I really do know about the New Zealand Government. I have to admit, the most I hear about political upcoming are through Facebook posts that people have shared, or advertisements that come up on my news feed. This was quite a challenging post for me, and I’m sure it will need some more work as I learn more about this area, which is something I would like to invest more time into learning about as I believe it is important to know what is going on in our country.

Feel free to share your own opinions on this subject, would love to hear about other people’s thoughts!

 

 

References:
Mergel, I. (2010). The use of social media to dissolve knowledge silos in government. Accepted for publication in Public Administration

Lee, G. & Kwak, Y. H. (2012). An open government maturity model for social media-based public engagement. Government Information Quarterly, 29, 492-503.

Social media on the smaller side of business

As we now know, social media is widely used through out the world of business today. Large companies are actively engaging in the use of social media to enhance their businesses, small businesses are slightly behind this, with more small businesses joining in on the trend now days. Studies have shown that the use of social media in small business has declined over the last few years, this comes partly down to the time consumption required to keep the business up to date in the social media environment.

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Large companies have the resources accessible to help drive their social media activity, with specific resources used to integrate marketing through social media. They have more ability to allow time to work on these sites, where as small business are having to do all the work themselves, with less access to ideal resources, and having a smaller employee base means there are less people to work on these sites. Social media activity is a very time consuming process, anyone who uses social media sites would know this – we can spend hours on Facebook, scrolling through recent posts, updating our own news feed with photos, statues and communicating with friends or clients.

Small businesses can use social media to promote their business, interact with clients on a more personal basis with fast communication through the ‘chat’ facilities and comment sections on posts. Having their business up on social networking sites means it is accessible to a large population all using the same interface. The introduction of Web 3.0 allows businesses to target advertising to those who show interest in such products, through the use of cookies in search engines – as discussed earlier. You often see adverts on Facebook promoting products and services, usually ones that you are interested in, enticing you as a consumer to go onto their pages and look at the products. This yeps to spread awareness of the business’ products and get a name out for itself. This is just one example of how small businesses can apply social media to their company.

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Non-profit organisations such as, charities like Red Cross, SPCA,  starship children’s foundation, Unicef and many more. Non-profits use social media to promote their causes and spread the word about their organisation and how it is helping the community. The use of social media is a cheap and fast way to advertise their business, it still requires careful planning and research to ensure the time invested into social media is going to be worth while. Good planning and research will allow non-profit organisations to develop good relationships with their stakeholders and greatly benefit the organisation.

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Risks of using social media in business

For all the positive benefits of social media on businesses, as with anything we do in life there are also risks involved. The question is, do the risks out weigh the benefits? I would say for most businesses, no, the benefits out weigh the risks, bringing the company more positivity than negativity. However that is not to say that some companies may face higher risks and failures than benefits, which could also be a result of bad advertisement or planning. Lets have a look at a few risks involved with using social media for your business…

• Negative comments or feedback
• Negative publicity
• Bad word of mouth
• Waste of time and money in unsuccessful adverts

These are just a couple of examples that owners should be aware of when approaching social media for their business.

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Modern social media vs. ‘Traditional’ social media

Traditional media was a one-way communication system based on the company presenting brand ideas and promotions but not allowing the feedback and communication from consumers. Traditional media did not allow for engagement in sales and products, and had no emphasis on creating word of mouth – a hallmark of social media today.

Engagement and word of mouth are key aspects in business success, consumers don’t believe brands they believe what they hear from word of mouth.

Modern social media is based on a two-way communication system, defined by a word of mouth system allowing engagement between the company and its consumers. It encourages the re-sharing of positive brand claims that are more realistic, and believable than those such as the toothpaste adverts that whiten your teeth, when we all know they don’t work.

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References

Bakeman, M. M. & Hanson, L. (2012). Bringing social media to small business: A role for employees and students in technology diffusion, Business Education Innovation Journal, 4(2), 106-111.

Casserly, M. (2013). Why small businesses are losing on social media. [Article] Forbes.com, 31-33 Forbes.com 4/17/2013 Page 31

Witzig, L., Spencer, J. & Galvin, M. (2012). Organizations’ use of LinkedIn: An analysis of nonprofits, large corporations and small businesses. Marketing Management Journal, 22(1), 113-121.

 

 

 

Web 2.0 and its evolution leading to Web 3.0

This is all a learning curve for me, several weeks ago I wouldn’t have even known that a thing called Web 2.0 even existed. Actually, if you ask ten people what they think is meant by Web 2.0 I can bet at least half of them won’t know what you are talking about. I just did this with my Dad, who works for IBM, and is someone who I would expect to have some idea about what Web 2.0 is, but he didn’t! So there goes to show, many people use Web 2.0 on a daily basis and have no idea what it is or what it means. To be honest I was one of them, and still am as I venture my way through this blog thing, trying to learn more about social media and the processes behind it.

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Web 2.0 refers to a set of enabling technologies that allow us to create and provide services  to users in exciting new ways, created by a man called Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Web 2.0 actually existed well before it became popular with the media and within the social technological industry.  The term Web 2.0 has never been officially defined, however if you talk to most of the people in this industry, they would tell you similar things, and could all agree that it covers several major themes, including AJAX, social networking, folksonomies, lightweight collaboration, social bookmarking and media sharing (Source: lifeboat.com/ex/web3.0). The main focus of Web 2.0 is on customer interaction; to draw in or collaborate more effectively with customers through blogs, forums, Facebook and Myspace. It aims to improve the user interface and enable users to view data faster and in more dynamic ways with the use of rich interfaces such as AJAX and other such technologies.

 

Web 3.0 is the most recent evolution of the web, most commonly defined as a connective intelligence; connecting data, concepts, applications and people. Web 3.0 is effectively an extension of Web 2.0, designed to help people in their day-to-day tasks.  While web 2.0 focused on the user’s interaction with others, web 3.0 focuses more on the users themselves. It is often referred to as the semantic web; semantic meaning data driven. Such data is sourced from the users and the web effectively will adjust to meet the needs of the user. One good example would be the use of cookies to track your activity, allowing web pages like amazon to suggest products you might like based on your previous online activity. Say you often search for running clothes, you will as a result receive more advertisements related to running. Also when you are searching for other things, like textbooks for class, the web will remember that you frequently search for running clothes and may pull up advertisements and links to sites selling running clothing.

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Check out this video I found on YouTube, it really helped me grasp the concept of the evolution of the web.

 

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References

McHaney, R. W. (2012). Web 2.0 and social media for business, Ventus Publishing Aps, http://bookboon.com/en/textbooks/it-programming/web-2-0-and-social-media-for-business

Kaplan, A.M. & Haenlein, M.  (2010). Users of the world unite!  The challenges and opportunities of social media.  Business Horizons, 53(1), 59-68.

What Is Web 3.0? A Brief Introduction and It’s Benefits

 

Blogging for everyone

Blogging is one of the earliest forms of social media. In the early days blogs were most commonly used as online journals which soon became known as weblogs, eventually shortened to ‘blog’ by Jorn Barger.

“[a] collection of posts…short, informal, sometimes controversial, and sometimes deeply personal…with the freshest information at the top.”–Meg Hourihan

What is blogging? Well this is actually something I am learning about while writing this blog. Blogging is a whole new thing to me, and I’m sure there are a lot of you in the same situation. From the work I have done so far on this blog, I can conclude that blogging is actually a rather fun and interesting thing to do!

A blog is a frequently updated online journal or diary which is personal to you, it is your space to express your thoughts and ideas to the world. Blogs generally have themes to them, with posts all following the theme of the blog, updated as often as the author feels is necessary. Blogs can be used in many ways, for personal use, school, university, work, business and for fun!

Here is a fun little video I found when I first started my blog, and I too asked myself, “What is a blog?”

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References

McHaney, R. W. (2012). Web 2.0 and social media for business, Ventus Publishing Aps, http://bookboon.com/en/textbooks/it-programming/web-2-0-and-social-media-for-business

Kaplan, A.M. & Haenlein, M.  (2010). Users of the world unite!  The challenges and opportunities of social media.  Business Horizons, 53(1), 59-68.