How do corporations use social networking?
Posted on 30 August 2008 by Russ
By now all the big corporations have realized the huge potential in social networking, and advertising on various social networks. A while ago, I wrote about why businesses large and small should utilize social media and especially blogs. However, I was recently asked why small businesses should devote time and energy to social networking, if corporations do not fully utilize the marketing opportunity. Honestly I had to stall a bit and say, “Uh sure big companies use social networking.” It led me to the ultimate question of How do corporations use social networking?
There is a difference between using FaceBook or MySpace to connect with people and simply purchasing advertisements on these networks. A lot of major corporations do purchase the advertisements, but I was curious to see how well certain corporations were actually using various social media outlets to connect with customers. I decided to sample the top dogs from several different industries. I chose GM, Dell, and Nordstrom for the first sample. I first checked on several key indicators to see if they had blogs and how frequently they were updating them, if they were on Digg, and Del.icio.us and Twitter. I also checked to see if they had MySpace or FaceBook profiles. Although there are only the “top” social media sites, they were a good indicator of who was using what, and how. Here is what I found:
GM uses several blogs, primarily at GM Blogs and GM Next. They also have several Facebook groups supporting individual vehicles and vehicle classes. They also got major points for using Twitter frequently as 38 Del.icio.us bookmarks. I had to dock them a point or two though because they did not seem to have any Digg’s. Overall, GM is utilizing social networking quite well.
Dell also utilizes blogs, far and above the rest. At Direct 2 Dell they actually encourage people to start their own technology blogs. Of course this helps dell generate a ton of good content and free press. Overall I am quite impressed with Dells grasp of the power of blogging. Another key indicator that Dell is actively using social sites it doing a Twitter search for Dell, may of the dell employees have twitter accounts ending with “atdell” which is pretty cool. Dell also seemed to be using Facebook and MySpace, however not to the level I expected them to. They seem to be simply maintaining the status quo in this area. They had no del.icio.us bookmarks and about 22 Digg’s. Lower than I expected.
Last I chose Nordstorm. I was not expecting much, since they are not Tech related, nor do they seem to do a lot of heavy advertising (at least here in the south). They do have a blog called From the Floor which I must say is quite well done and seems to be getting a ton of traffic, its in the top 1,500 of Alexa traffic. They seem to have a lot of Inbound links, which is not too surprising considering how well their pages are written and the awesome photography they use. I was surprised to find nothing for them on FaceBook or MySpace, and was very surprised that they have a Twitter page, however it has no tweets.
So, how can you beat these giants at the Social marketing game? It may be tough unless you yourself are a large corporation with a lot of weight to throw around. However, you can appear to by consistently utilizing these services. If you do not know what to do here is the list. Get a blog first of all, and not at blogspot or wordpress, get your own URL! Then get a Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook and MySpace account. Start blogging regularly. Integrate your Twitter feed, FaceBook Updates and links to your Myspace and LinkedIn profiles on your blog. Invite all your colleagues, customers and associates to connect on LinkedIn, FaceBook and MySpace, create groups on all of these accounts for your customers. Then make sure that your contact info is accessible on all of the above. By the way, I can help you with any of this if you have any questions.
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Tags | Dell, FaceBook, GM, LinkedIn, MySpace, Nordstorm, Social Media, social networking, Twitter
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Thanks for the mention of GM. I should point out, however, that GM has not created any groups on Facebook. We’d rather join the conversation there. I think it adds more credibility than something we’d create.
Adam Denison
GM Social Media Communications
December 29th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Good post.
All of this withstanding the biggest problem I’m having these days is to get my clients to understand the important of social media in terms of brand building. They still think it’s some kind of novelty that teens are into. I’ve been trying to get people to understand that social media sites are having a huge influence not only in the conversations people are having about a brand, but also on the search results that are coming up.
I recently wrote a post about the tools that people are using to monitor the online space and that clients are still hung up in web analaytics to judge their brands health in the online space, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on it. E-mail me some time!
-Freddie
Digital Strategist / TakeMeToYourLeader.com
January 15th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Invite to all.. Come join our free networking community. Business, dating, friendship and just getting your information out to the largest community. Come have fun at the best online community.
http://tinyurl.com/7p5lug
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Social network marketing is one of our firms specialties and educating businesses who really want to grow their online presence is a priority. The more you you teach and the client understands, the higher their rankings will be…simply because at that point they will be fully engaged in their own social network marketing strategy.
Great post. Really enjoy your conversations.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Indeed, if you are a start- up in business or a small business, social networking will definitely be of great help to you. Not only does it help you in terms of marketing, it is one cheap way of advertising too.
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:09 am
Interesting article indeed. Social networking and marketing are really on the up nowadays. Especially using Twitter and Facebook. and corporations really could use this method to market there products. Which is happening in a really good way at the moment.
August 31st, 2009 at 8:46 pm
It’s the only way to go nowadays! Even particular individuals in companies can achieve great exposure and credibility.
October 5th, 2009 at 9:05 am
The demand for Social networking will never get ends. Great info. Thanks
October 6th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
More and more consumers, especially younger ones, just expect interaction with companies big or small like this. I think it is easy to see this is now a requirement for any company.
November 17th, 2009 at 3:36 am
These social networking website can be useful, but they are responsible for damaging many intimate relationships. Businesses can use these tools successfully to make consumers more aware of their products and brands.
January 16th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
I’ve been hearing so much about social networks for business but I’ve found it all to be a bit over my head. It’s certainly interesting though.
February 9th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
Not only are business creating profiles and groups on the established social networking giants but there has been a huge increase in companies creating their own custom social networks as a place for their target market to gather and connect.
March 12th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Hi – It’s great to find such topical writing on the Internet as I have been able to discover here. I agree with much of what is written here and I’ll be returning to this website again. Thanks again for posting such great reading material!!
March 14th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Very good post quite helpful blog. We may get back to this site later on to check some of other content. With thanks!
April 23rd, 2010 at 6:27 am
Thanks for sharing.
I see a lot of companies that think they have to participate in the social web and actually copy their corporate language 1:1 into their Twitter/whatever stream.
Please, talk to me as if I was a human being and not another company!
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:00 am
“I decided to sample the top dogs from several different industries.”
Can more?
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:43 am
hah… only in small business
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:18 am
Well companies dont really have much choice these days do they? they have to tap in to this latest technology where everyone is otherwise they’ll just be out of touch. anyway thanks for sharing.
July 29th, 2010 at 11:20 am
yeah i agree with some of the comments, you just have to go with the latest vibe of social technology in order to get in touch with the world.
August 18th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Good information, but I’m surprised you didn’t touch on how many of the larger corporations (like Pepsi for example) are moving away from the mainstream networks are creating their own custom social networks.