According to a survey conducted by Nielsen Media Research, the largest online stores in the United States registered visitor records in January 2013. At Amazon, nearly 23 million visitors came to the offer, on eBay it was 20 million, with Otto six million and with Tchibo more than four million. Even at number nine and ten of the hit list, Conrad and Ikea, almost three million visitors were still passing by.
Technical requirements
With such gigantic click rates and sales opportunities, it is now also worthwhile for middle and small vendors to lift the sales treasure that sleeps for them on the Internet. But waiting for the visitors' clicks alone is far from sufficient for the providers in the digital space.
Organizational requirements
Through their presence in social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Wiki & Co., they can directly contact potential customers, convince them of the benefits of their products, maintain their customer relationships, and strengthen customer loyalty over time >
Convincing cost advantages
Especially for companies in the consumer goods industry, the commitment to social media platforms is worthwhile as a communication and interaction medium. But before the first employees visibly expand the company's social media offer to the public, some preparatory work is in progress. They are both technical, organizational and human.
Themes on bizzwire
The portal appearance of the company as well as the workplaces of the employees involved - PCs and mobile devices - must be aligned with the new communication and interaction paradigm. Collaborative applications should provide rapid access to these employees so they can share information and documents with potential and existing customers.
This exchange should also analyze the data and content that employees need on their PCs or mobile devices. If necessary, employees on PCs and smartphones must have access to other internal applications and databases in order to serve the information requirements of social media participants ad hoc.
The cost for the technical realization depends on which channels the company's social media offer is to be expanded. Finished online services such as Facebook & Co. bring their technical infrastructure, while the integration of blogs or chats into their own company portal is associated with more effort. As individual as the company would like to meet its customers, the cost of technical implementation is as individual as is the case.
The Web 2.0 elements must be matched to the target groups to be reached and the channels to be used. Not to forget the precautions for IT security and IT compliance. Despite open online communication and interaction, the security and compliance requirements must always be verifiable and demonstrable, as well as the data protection regulations.
Specialized service providers such as Materna close the gaps between the product cases and the requirement to form a company-specific solution with special consulting packages. In the case of Materna, this is a modular concept and is a cyclic approach. This allows companies to gradually expand their presence in social media platforms using the "Think Big - Start Small" principle.
Because the communication in social media is informal, unpredictable and network-like, the companies involved have to prepare themselves well in terms of organization and personnel. This means that those employees who participate on behalf of the company need comprehensive market- and company-related information as well as the freedom to act in order to be able to act quickly and competently in the media.
Long-lasting release processes over the hierarchical levels of the hierarchy can impair the company's perception of the company, possibly even damage it. Typically, the company should prepare for possible shit storms, including by setting up a crisis team and the necessary crisis processes.
With the increasing importance of social media for the external representation of a company, the number of employees entrusted with it will also increase, for example in the PR department or in support. In addition, it might be necessary to involve employees from other departments directly or indirectly in order to be able to appear quickly, competently and credibly in social networks. All this requires careful planning and preparation.
As the "integration of social media platforms" project is ultimately unsuccessful in terms of consulting and investment, it is also dependent on the company's current implementation status and the company's online business strategy. A 10-point checklist helps companies to identify and retain both to successfully complete the project in the right places and with the right, realistic goals and step-by-step.
Social Media Integration: Checklist
Through the establishment of a social media presence, companies are opening up many perspectives to reduce personnel expenses. There is considerable potential for savings in the context of crowdsourcing, the use of knowledge and the processing of Internet resources.
For example, J & P Cycles, a company specializing in the distribution of spare parts for motorcycles, has been able to drastically reduce the amount of e-mail requests to be answered by publishing frequent customer requests in the company blog. In the meantime, the company has achieved that many questions, which are placed on its Facebook page, are answered by competent other customers.
Measures for customer acquisition and customer loyalty can be implemented in online contact with social media platforms much more cost-effectively than before. Through the intensive online dialogue, the product and service quality can be increased without having to invest in expensive marketing measures.
Direct online contact with potential and existing customers also enables the company to participate actively in its image formation. This prevents a bad reputation, associated business disruption and costly measures to improve the company image.
The following questions should be answered by companies before they fall into the social media adventure
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