Future of social media

Social media is an easy way to keep in touch with the world. We are being entertained there and we use it for multiple purposes. It has become a meeting place where we keep in touch and contact other people, chat, phone, message, update, share content… The importance of social media, and the time we spend there, will probably just keep growing.

Photo source: thetechjournal.com

According to Hubspot blog there are a few important factors concerning the future of social media (the article concentrates on social media marketing, but I think these points are valid in social media evolution as well).  They are: mobile, video and new channels, social advertising and AI (artificial intelligence).  Below I’ll write a few thoughts concerning the article.

MOBILE

Mobile phones have changed the way people use internet and social media. Smart phones have made it possible to connect all the time and from everywhere. Wifi and 4G network enable the access to internet and consuming content on social media so much easier. The article in marketingland.com suggests, that nearly 80% of social media time is now spent on mobile devices. That is huge! Development of mobile apps and their fluent use will be very important also hereafter.

VIDEO AND NEW CHANNELS

Video is already filling my feed in Facebook and Instagram. Visual things matter, easy feed matters, and I believe that the significance of video in social media will only grow bigger. My young children (7 & 10 years) are already big fans of Youtube. They order different channels and consume the videos. They don’t even care if they don’t understand every word. The images say it all. The amount of produced content in videos will increase since it is an easy media and the audience is almost unlimited.

Some new social media channels are rising to replace the old ways of communicating. For example in customer service the chats are becoming more and more important. Clients like the idea of easy reach through chatting channels. Probably chatting ability in web pages will come more popular and it can be even the factor that defines will the customer stay or go.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media will be in a big role in marketing business. Social media marketing has many benefits compared to old marketing channels: for example the audience can be targeted and it is also a very cost-efficient way to promote your products or services. Through social media the advertiser can interact with the audience, attract attention and gain website traffic. Digital word-of-mouth reference can be very effective, if you get people to share your marketing content.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial intelligence will have a great influence in our social media feed. Machine learning and intelligent algorithms will observe our clicking data and define what content we will see and which ads are shown etc. While the artificial intelligence evolves, our social media feed will become even more personalised and specified in the future .

MY OWN SOCIAL MEDIA FUTURE

In my personal life I’m very engaged to using social media, and I don’t see it changing in the future. Probably all these factors above will affect that my use of social media will only increase. Personally I feel that social life is resettling to the digital side more and more, and keeping up with many friends would be a lot harder without social media. In professional field  I feel that it is very important to stay in touch what’s happening in social media. If you drop out of it, you drop out of many professional opportunities as well.

FUTURE OF OUR FICTIONAL COMPANY

As I wrote in my previous blog post, as a part of my studies we made group assignment and made a social media plan for a fictional event design company. We built a full social media and online presence for our company.  I created the website and our Instagram profile, and my team members created Facebook, Twitter and Slack channels (Slack for internal use only). If we assume that this would be a real company and their social media would be in actual use, there are a few things that could be improved in the future. First of all, the actual functioning online chat to our website should be added (in this version it is just suggested/referred to). I would also pay more attention to similar visual appearance and communication in all of our channels. And since this is an event design company, the actual fabulous event photos would be added to build our credibility and spread our reputation.

A social media plan for a fictional company

This blog post is concerning a group assignment related to my studies. We were addressed to make a plan for an online community how they could use social media for their needs. In the following text I will explain our group’s plan and choices.

First we decided that we wanted to make our plan for a working community (a hobby- or study-related topics were also possible). In our group chats we came up with this idea of an event planning company and how they could use social media and online services to benefit and profit their business. Focus on the customer was the most important point in creating our plan: there would be no business without the customers.

THE AIM OF THE PLAN

Social media is an important channel for businesses these days. Some companies think of it as a way to promote and sell the products or services, but in our plan we wanted social media channels to be more than that. We wanted to plan a virtual meeting space, that offers a platform for interacting, brainstorming, discussing and solving the possible problems. We wanted to think how this business could use social media channels to achieve visibility &credibility, strengthen their brand image and be available to their customers.

We defined our imaginary company this way: “We want to help our clients to design their events professionally and in a way that supports their brand and goals. We plan the concept and with the help of our business partners we can also offer help in execution: project management, coordinating, marketing & launching etc.  Social media is an important channel for us and we are using it to maximize our business activity from inside to outside. The main idea in our social media plan is Focus on the customer – they expect to reach you through social media & online channels. The plan consists of reaching 2 different target groups: our internal and external customers.”

DEFINING THE CUSTOMERS

The company’s internal customers would be their employees, consultants and business partners. They would use social media to share information and ideas, enhance working efficiency and create a work space to store data. External customers would be their direct customers that are buying their event design services. Through social media the company would want to inspire them, be available and open for their questions and inquiries. They would also promote their services and provide information and ideas about professional event planning.

THE TOOLS

Next we needed to decide on what social media platforms of  we would use in our plan. We choose that our fictional company would appear on a WordPress-based website and in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Slack and Google Cloud services would be the tools they would also use. These all were chosen for differing reasons, which I’ll explain below.

WordPress-based website is the company’s interactive and inspirational meeting place and it also provides information about the business; what they do, how to contact them etc. The site gives an insight to their brand and services and it includes links to their other social media accounts. They also promote the site through their other social media channels and attract their followers to visit the homepage.

Facebook is the main channel for their communication with the external customers. Having an active and responsive chat there is important to us, just as the possibility for customers to post on the wall, and get a response fast.

In addition to creating a stronger image of the brand through social media engagement, a goal is to also to boost the company’s Search Engine Optimization. This is not the main focus, but it is an important addition when trying to increase the visibility of the company in Google and other search engines. Social media actions that can help SEO are generating more traffic to the website, gaining social mentions from customers and other companies, as well as promoting the possible link building projects the company chooses to create.

Instagram is more “supportive channel” for creating a certain image of the company. The updates are casual and promotional (behind-the-scenes material, images of the events they arrange). The company always creates a special hashtag for every event they design, and the customers and people attending the event are encouraged to use it in their own postings. Through this the company gets free advertising and genuine opinions from the guests. They will also regram the coolest pictures that the event attenders publish in their personal accounts.

Twitter is a place for short discussions with their external customers. It’s also a channel to promote and inform about current events and for subjects that need quick reaction or response (like breaking news for the target group or if there would be trouble in website/servers etc).

Slack is the tool for company’s internal use: it’s an easy and fluent platform for chatting, sharing files/pictures and instant messages. Google Cloud services are used to store and share the company’s important data. Using the cloud ensures that the files are easily available and editable to all who are concerned. All you need is a permission to open the files and an online connection.

ARGUMENTS PRO OUR PLAN

Our plan supports the aim of focusing on the customer and increases the engagement between the target groups. The plan offers a way for internal and external clients to contact and interact with the company easy and quickly, give open feedback and discuss. Through these all different social medias the company will achieve a strong online presence and supports its brand.

POTENTIAL ISSUES

Online presence also means potential privacy and security issues that need to be identified and solved. There absolutely needs to be a recognised social media policy, that gives instructions for the employees how to use company’s social media sites for communicating and customer engagement. Every employee must know their role and act according to the policy. Within the staff there must be defined people who can publish & update the social media accounts. Confidential data and important files can be stored and shared only through secured channels and designated cloud services.

Also maintaining is important part of the plan. In our plan site maintenance is done by freelance IT professionals/specialists. Social media presence is planned for a longer period of time to ensure that the company’s online channels will continue to stay interesting and up-to-date.

The company needs to have open platforms in their website, Facebook and chat so that external customers can easily reach and contact them. Closed media platforms are needed for internal customer use in chats between the staff, storing the confidential customer files in cloud services etc. To grant professional online appearance the web site needs to be purchased to avoid ads/commercials that appear on free sites.

SUMMARY

We wanted to maximize the benefit of this assignment (like it could be a real working life situation) and therefore we decided to do our plan for a working community.  I think this formed into an actual plan that could be executed. We thought of the needs of our imaginary company and their target groups. We also thought of the possible problems that our implementation should solve, and in our plan we offered a solution to all these issues and scenarios. If our plan was actually put into practice, there probably would be some points that we would notice that could be solved in a different way. Making this plan was anyhow very educational and also fun! Next step will be building this implementation that we designed, so I’ll get back on this subject in the future!

 

 

About social media policies

A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the social norms and and responsibilities of an individual, party or organization. Nowadays it is an important aspect for companies to create rules for social media use too. People check their social media also while working and this habit won’t go away. Social media has security risks and according to Jylian Russel at Hootsuite blog to avoid them the companies should have guidelines to online behaviour, give social media training to their employees, put someone in charge and invest in secure technology.  An article by Techrepublic states that legal problems for businesses can appear if employees reveal confidential information online, say something negative about the company – or if they use the sites to view or distribute illicit or offensive material.

A research of Bambu by Sprout Social shows that 7 in 10 workers in the United States regularly check their social media while at work. Picture: Bambu by Sprout Social

 

Aliah Wright is a social media expert at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and she recommends that social media policy should define who are allowed to speak on the company’s behalf, have guidelines how to respond to inappropriate postings and inform employees what information they can share about the company. Company should also ensure strong cyber protection to secure their data.

Building a social media strategy… a strip by Sean R. Nicholson (www.socmedsean.com)

Adidas is a giant in sports apparel business and they have a detailed social media policy: “At the Adidas Group we believe in open communication and you are encouraged to tell the world and your colleagues about your work and share your passion.”  Some key points of their policy are:

• identify yourself  with your name and your role in Adidas Group
• if you’re not an official spokesperson, you must make clear that you’re speaking for yourself and not for the group
• you are personally responsible for the content you publish online
• use common sense – everything you publish will be visible to the world for a very, very long time. If you have doubts, talk to your manager
• don’t publish internal information
• you must follow your confidentiality agreement
• don’t be offensive, respect the audience and your employer
• with all the blogging and interacting, don’t forget your daily job

Another example of digital guidelines by Ford Motor Company. The highlights of their policy are:

• be honest about who you are
• be clear and be respectful in your communication
• inform that your opinions are your own
• share only public information
• be aware that what you say is permanent – the internet remembers
• if there’s a potential controversial issue that may develop to crisis situation, bring it to attention of your superiors

I believe these both are good examples of clear and supportive social media strategies. Especially Adidas encourages their employees to spread the positive word about the company, but they also give good guidelines what to avoid and what you can’t do. I think that an open dialogue with the employer and the employees should be the starting point when creating the code of conduct for the social media, but finally the policy should be considered and confirmed by the management. Then employees would really know what kind of online communication is approved and supported, and what isn’t.

 

 

 

Digital identity

What does digital identity mean? Techopedia explains that “a digital identity is an online or networked identity adopted or claimed in cyberspace by an individual, organization or electronic device. These users may also project more than one digital identity through multiple communities. In terms of digital identity management, key areas of concern are security and privacy.”

Picture: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-digital-identity-application-economy-walter-bioch

I wanted to have a look at my digital identity. When was the last time you googled yourself? It has been about a year since my last time – until today. My first hit was my LinkedIn-profile, followed by my Instagram account. Then a couple of work-related hits and a chance to find my contact information from an online number service – and that’s it, mostly. Image search brought up my profile pictures from Facebook and some other social media services, but there were also many images that had nothing to do with me. I have no idea, why they came up, but however 9 out of 10 first images were actually about me or posted by myself. There’s a lot more information about me online, but that’s all private (including for example my Youtube channel and personal photos), and I like to keep it that way. I don’t want to share everything in public, just something.

Google your name! Picture: http://www.seosmarty.com/

All the information about me was correct. My profile in LinkedIn is open and everyone who’s interested can find me there. It hopefully tells of my experience and professional interests. My Instagram account probably tells a story of a nature lover and an enthusiastic jogger, since I always snap my pictures while jogging outside. If this is my digital image, I’m quite OK with it (and it is also truthful).

What if you google yourself and you find something unwanted? What if someone else would manipulate your digital identity and tag your name into something that would be hurtful or damaging? First you need to know if this content is controlled by you or someone else. If the answer is you, the solution is easy – just delete all you want. If that’s not the case, it gets harder. You can contact Google Support and ask them to remove your personal information. But even if they delete the site or image from the search results, they can’t control the existence of the webpage with that unwanted information.  Nothing ever goes away once it is posted online. Google Support lists 2 important rules you should remember: restrict sharing settings for content you post online & only post to sites that let you control your privacy. 

I think everyone should be able to control what you can find about them online. There are some occupations like politicians, executives and actors who are expected to expose themselves to the public eye and their success might rely on how they put their persona on display. But they are also individuals who have a right to draw the line in between their public and private lives and I think we all should respect that.

Picture: Scott Adams, dilbert.com

In business life digital privacy precautions should be considered for every employee these days. Now that our personal lives and business lives go increasingly online, it also gives a good chance for hackers to target executives or other professionals. They can collect personal information from several sources and combine the facts to make a spear phishing attack -meaning that the attacker uses this data to approach the person with tailor-made email; when they open the malicious message, the attacker gets an access to the company’s computer system and can for example steal information or blackmail the company. Research by Wombat security shows that even 33% of Fortune 500 CEOs are vulnerable to spear phishing attempts, and targeted hacker attacks are increasing. This article I referred to was about risks towards CEOs and executives, but the same risk is concerning also regular people like you and me. So it is quite justifiable to note, that  oversharing personal information in social media should really be avoided. Keep your privacy and keep safe.