4 Reasons why Social Media Strategy should be part of our Enterprise Resource Process (ERP)

Every organisation has got different operating systems. For a manufacturing business you have the planning, purchasing, inventory, production, warehousing, delivery, sales, accounting, human resources, public relations etc.  With the aid of information technology it became possible to streamline processes and integrate them whilst automating some activities. Technology world has termed this the Enterprise Resource Process. An automated environment aids organisations to be effective and efficient. The quest for better effectiveness and more efficiency, which are driven by a better bottom line without compromising quality; are the reasons we keep developing improved software. This has also led to Mobile Applications that have popularized Social Media and can be integrated with our main stream business processes. Below are four reasons why a Social Media Strategy should be incorporated into any Enterprise Resource Process.

1. A Social Media Strategy can be aimed at both internal and external communities. Whilst content marketing targets external followers, internal communications can also be enhanced through Social Media Forums. Almost everyone in the working class has some form of visibility in the Social Media Forums. A loyal internal community is an attractive environment for positive communication. Above that when our internal stake holders rave about us, they become part of the whirlpool that draws followers into our Social Media Forums including positioning us positively on Search Engine Optimization.

2. Back office and front office communication can be automated so that delivery, confirmation of receipt and response can all be in real time.  Most ERP software include automated communication. But having internal and external communication embedded in Social Media activities will improve the communication process. Information is relevant when it is delivered and acted upon on timely. Some of our clients do not pay on agreed time intervals and claim not to have received invoices on time. If we are able to twit and share pictures in real time, so can we share business information and records on time - of cause with a little innovation.

3. Content Marketing is all about telling our story. In ERP processes is embedded our story that needs to be heard by both internal and external stakeholders. How we perform our various functions defines who we are and shapes our values. This uniqueness in our operations is the content that we want to share with our followers in order to gain their loyalty.

4. In order for our ERP process to remain relevant in this ever changing environment, it has to be continuously reviewed. There is no better way to improve what we are doing than to be given ideas by our stakeholders. All our processes are meant to impress our stakeholders. Our shareholders want us to have better profits, our employees want better care whilst our customers want a better service. A Social Media Strategy that meets its obligations, can provide the best platform to gather recommendations.

If you are planning on a Social Media Strategy, we can help you with its formulation all the way up to implementation. We can also review your current activities and help you to make them meet your organisational goals. Don't forget to share the article so that others may have this valuable information.

Content Marketing for a Large Corporation

Content marketing is easier for a small enterprise especial if its a one man band. For a consultant or a  life coach operating as an individual or with a small staff complement, it is quite easy to articulate the product offering as the first person, and appeal engagement with your targeted audience. However for a large corporation that has got many departments, this might be a little challenging. Challenging but not impossible. Some corporations hire Social Media Managers who play the role similar to that of Public Relations though with a bias towards marketing. Others completely outsource the Social Media activities. Both on these instances, the communication is diluted as it is not coming out of the first person and diluted content does not attract dialogue, although campaigns in the form of competitions would still make an impact.

Content marketing is premised on consistent communicating with a view to educate rather than make a sale. A sale is achieved after the prospective client has had enough information about the offer and even engaged for clarification. This has been stimulated by online commerce, which is being promoted by mobility. An informed client is able to also recommend to their peers or those that they influence. It is critical to follow anyone on Social Media Forums who yields influence over your potential market. Your promotional material can be shared in other forums where you may not have a presence as an organisation. This is the other advantage with content marketing.

The marketing department may not have the capacity to disseminate enough content about activities of a large cooperation. An effective Content Marketing Strategy would not be effective if it solely relies on the marketing department for its implementation. This is where Enterprise Resource System comes to the picture. An ERP system brings together back office and front office activities with a purpose to streamline activities and synergize resources. Information shared within the organisation, through the ERP System, can be edited to form part of our Content Marketing offering. Our clients would love to know how we operate differently from competitors. An insight into what differentiates us, can win us more customers. With Content Marketing, an organisation, can not involve its clients in deliberations that may jeopardize trade secrets or other sensitive information. But through the ERP System, an organisation can share relevant information with clients and the information would be best shared directly from  the various departments as it will be practical, attractive and on real time. For our targeted audience to follow us and rave about us, this information must be shared consistently and where there is engagement, we should be able to respond timeously.

A Campaign on Social Media Gone Viral.........

Social Media Marketing is given value by Content Marketing. Your audience have to feel the need to be part of your product through understanding and identifying with it. Content marketing can therefore be referred to also as Target Marketing. It is not everyone who will be tickled by your content. That you will only appeal to a specific group goes without telling. Clearly it will not be possible for your content to tickle everyone.  An attempt to please everyone might dilute the results of your efforts to the extent of them being labelled as spam. Therefore, your strategic intent in a Social Media campaign is to appeal to a specific target audience. The main aim is appeal for engagement. If they only view your work; that is good. If they view and comment, that is excellent; it is actually your aim. If they view and share, that is a bonus, your potential reach might end up imeasurable. At the end of the day, brand loyalty is forged with those that rave about your products.

In Social Media Marketing, you have to put a personality to your campaigns so that your audience can identify with this particular personality. A personality has unique characteristics and not everyone will identify with a particular personality. There will always be different strokes that tickle different folks. Know your target audience. Plan and execute to appeal to your target. Conventional marketing campaigns in both print and electronic media, are like a shot in the dark aimed at everyone. With Content Marketing, the target is specific and the results are not only real but are measured on real time. Analytics in Social Media are an accurate reflection and will show you even where your audience was not happy with your efforts. We might know the viewership of a particular TV program but we may never know how many liked or actually viewed our advert slotted during prime time.

Most posts that have gone viral are associated with negativity. In blogging it is possible to ride on current events and align your campaigns on such activities. But again even with current affairs, it is the bad and the ugly that always have the viral effect. For instance the current Xenophobic attacks tacking place in South Africa. Shameful and inhuman as they are, one can choose to ride their marketing campaign on them. With a well thought out campaign, your work can go viral like the gory images and videos emanating from this incidence. But again you would not want your brand to be remembered through such kind of activities or associated with such.

I do not believe that a Social Media campaign ought to go viral. I believe that our campaigns must target specific audiences with a mission to compel engagement. If we are able to have such an effect on our audiences that they feel obliged to share our content, then we might as well have expanded our market potential as further sharing can go on for a while. This however is different from the viral effect of maybe an indecent image about maybe a prominent public figure caught in a compromising position. But again, like noted earlier, somebody whose campaign has no need for morals, can ride on such an event. The different strokes is also relevant in this scenario, as there maybe some that love gossip.

3 Options to fit Social Media Strategy in your Organizational Structure

One of the challenges that discourage some to pursue a Social Media Strategy in their organizations is that it is not clear where it is supposed to fit within the Organizational Structure. Social Media activities go beyond your normal Public Relations activities. Content marketing which is actually the backbone of Social Media Marketing, detects that we share more information with our stakeholders and invoke them to engage. Whatever feed back we get, we aught to respond. At the end of the day, we want our followers to become our brand ambassadors and share the information they know about us with their own followers who are a potential market for our products. So, who ever is assigned the responsibility of managing our Social Media activities, must have enough information about us and must also have enough time to respond to any comments on our forums. As we decide who will be in charge of this activity, let us be careful not to fall into the trap of automated responses, because these can repel the engagement that we seek.

Option 1
The first option that we recommend is to have a senior member or the owner run the Social Media pages. This will work well where we are introducing our Social Media activities into our mainstream Marketing and Advertising Campaigns. At the senior level, it will be easier to attract other senior individuals who are influencers in their own spheres. Their audiences are part of our target markets. The knowledge that a senior person has about the projects and activities, empowers them to have clear communication with stakeholders. As a responsible person, they also will know what information to share. This option will however work very well for a small to medium enterprise. Otherwise for a large organization, it might only be used at introduction but as the communication increases and we get more followers and engaging activity, we may want to consider a different option.

Option 2
The second option will be to create a department and designate personnel to be in charge of this department. For starters personnel can be drawn from either the Marketing, Public Relations or ICT departments to boost this new department. But as the strategy stabilizes, it is cardinal that this department be manned by personnel with appropriate skills. In line with this option, different departments can be empowered to run their own Social Media activities whilst controlled and monitored by a central department. For large organizations, the Social Media strategy should also include both internal and external communication. An astute Social Media Strategy will make all stake holders brand ambassadors that rave about us. Those that rave about our brand will share the raving with their audiences who will in turn share with their own audiences and the ripple effect creates an endless potential reach.

Option 3
The third option will be to outsource Social Media Activities to a third party. This option needs to be adopted bearing in mind that it might not be long term. The advantage with a third party is that they are already experienced in dealing with marketing activities in these channels. Consultants are also aware of most of the latest trends and the appropriate tools and applications available. If one were to go with the outsourcing route, they need to be aware that the third party needs to have all the information timeously. Remember one of the attractions of Social Media channels is that information is shared in real time. If we were to decide to run a campaign based on a current event, a third party might not be able to come up with a campaign timeously. The time consuming activities involved in keeping Social Media forums relevant, might end up overwhelming to the contracted third parties. But also the other side of the coin is that a third party might have more time to manage Social Media accounts than a full time employee who might also be having other duties to perform in the organization.

If you are contemplating on implementing a Social Media Strategy, we are here to serve you.

Social Media, the only media for some....

The advent of broadband with affordable internet, home wi-fi and smartphones, has left the average person with more options for media and entertainment. There are some who no longer own television sets whilst other long stopped buying newspapers and magazines.  Connectivity options, have made it possible for many to be online most of the time. Both formal and informal communication has migrated to online channels which are available as long as one is connected to the internet. Social and professional groups also keep us online all the time.

Online media has more advantages over conventional media because information is shared in real time. It is a fact that time is money and any peace of news received at the earliest possible time, will always carry with it potential for either outperforming competition or introduction of a new innovation. It is therefore cardinal for any entrepreneur to have a presence in the Social Media corridors. Timely information can also be cardinal for personal reasons, which could be safety, economic or even academic. Some institutions, private or public are also using Social Media forums for communication.

On the entertainment front, music is easily downloadable online and cost far much less than what is on the conventional music stores. Some music houses are only producing online versions of their work. There are also a number of online television and radio stations. Watching one's favorite movie, is now easier with so many movie channels and stores that are online. A number of Tv series and even some sopies are also now available online. All these online activities, make it not so necessary to own a radio or television set.

Clearly this has left the traditional advertising agencies under survival threat. Whilst other have migrated to the Social Media channels, there are some that still do not see the need for it. For anybody planning to run a marketing campaign, it is a fact that if they ignore Social Media, there will miss out reaching a sizable potential market.  It is therefore cardinal for any business to have a Social Media Marketing strategy.  An indisputable fact though, is that there are some traditional individuals, who are still loyal to the conventional media channels. It makes it important therefore to run the campaigns on both channels. Whilst adverts on the conventional channels, can cost an arm and a leg, with the right assistance, the cost for a campaign on Social Media will never break the bank account. An understanding of your audience will then help to know how much effort to spend on which channel. How have you migrated your marketing campaigns from conventional to Social Media? We would like to hear from you and don't forget to share this article so that others may be informed.

Hobbies turned into formal business projects through Social Media

Social Media platforms have a lot of business opportunities. Most of them are embedded in our hobbies. Take for instance someone who loves photography and they always take photos and share them on Social Media platforms. Some photos may end up being used on promotions and can earn the armature photographer extra income. There are some who attend various functions and after sharing interesting moments they captured during the event, end up receiving offers to use their work on formal advertisements. The joy with Social Media is that there are Tools and Applications for almost anything. Some of the armature work can be edited to look really professional. For videos, one can get free background music or other video streams to add on one's recording. A hobby in writing(blogging) can also be polished through a number of free Applications and Tools. Some people are naturally gifted at engaging debates on various topics. These debates can be sponsored with promoters of products related to the topic under discussion offering prices. Big projects shared through Social Media, which were success stories, began as pass time activities.

Social Media has also saved entrepreneurs the inhibiting cost of R&D especially in market survey. In Social Media, there is instant communication and observation of customer needs. For instance, the Selfie Stick. Its invention did not require a market survey since it was a fact that most if not all travelers shoot selfies and at times end up risking requesting strangers to do this for them. With the stick, one is able to do it all by themselves. I recently read about friends who have designed another version of a selfie stick but this one is for recording motion pictures. There is a ready market for this product both in the formal and informal sectors of Social Media activities.

Most Social Media commentators, warn us of the hazard of reducing our productivity by spending too much time on Social Media platforms. The best form of business one can ever run is where they enjoy what they are doing. Turning a hobby into a business, will assure one of success, because a critical ingredient for any project; being motivated - is assured. However other project management components remain cardinal, as motivation alone, cannot assure success. Social Media is about engagement, if you enjoy photography, Videography, writing (blogging) - there are business opportunities for you in the Social Media corridors. It is estimated that individuals have about 200-300 friends per Social Media platform. Each one of these friends have almost the same number of followers. Imagine you post an interesting story and just about 10% of your friends share it with their friends who in turn share it with their own friends. The potential total reach is enormous. That is the potential each individual has to send a message; recommend a product; or run a campaign. Remember to share a post will not need more than 30 minutes of your time including editing, despite the media of your choice. Applications and Tools will help speed up the process.

Each one of us is a potential marketer and most of the informal communication we share on a daily basis, can be turned into business opportunities that could earn us extra income whilst our other professional lives proceed undisturbed. Our activities on Social Media, can be co-opted into marketing strategies of whatever projects that we are running.  Are you running any formal activity on Social Media that  began as a hobby? Share with us your experiences and observations through your valued comments. Dont forget to also share this post so that we can empower others. For your training and strategy implementation on Social Media, contact us on alson@alefinnovations.com

Alef Innovations - Video speaks louder than text......

Facts about videos on Social Media:-

• The brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text - 3m Corporation and Zabisco
• On the top shared content 48% is video..... - Moz
• Videos are shared 13 times more than links and text combined - Orion21
• One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words - Forrester Research
• 100 million people watch video online each day - Britefire

The popular videos are actually not those that are professionally captured and edited but armature productions that depict originality and tell an undiluted story.......

If you have recorded interesting videos, we will help you put them together and make them part of your digital marketing strategy #socialmediastrategies

Social Media as your life coach

The status updates that we make on a daily basis in our various platforms are reflections of our experiences. We tell various stories. Depending on the platform of our choice, we may be restricted from sharing certain things or presenting our selves in certain ways. In some platforms as soon as we click the send or share button, that information ceases to be ours or under our control. Social Media platforms have become places where we learn to play by the rules and practice self discipline. Failure to do this has consequences that may be dire.

A status update is never enough to articulate and attract loyal followers that can be convinced to do business with you. This is where blogging becomes an important part of your Social Media strategy. In a blog you will be able to explain and express yourself in detail. However, the blog is also another master teacher of discipline and commitment. You are restricted to a topic and a style of writing that will be appealing to your targeted audience. You will have to be consistent on producing in the times that are expected, otherwise your followers will loose interest and follow someone else. A good article will allow readers to contribute by adding their views or asking questions. There are also encouraged to share the article with their friends on other platforms, who in turn will share with their other friends. But once your article is published, you have to be available to respond to any questions and comments so that your audience feels part of your conversation. Remember Social Media is about engagement.

May business projects have well articulated business plans, but at times lack of discipline on the part of the promoters lead to the failure of projects that are otherwise pregnant with potential. Social Media, because of the personal commitment one has to put on it, can be a be a strategic performance measure. For your Social Media strategy to be successful, it cannot be outsourced. For a small enterprise, the owner has to manage all Social Media accounts. For big corporations, various strategies can be implemented. Some opt for departments to run their own campaigns whilst others have a center coordinating Social Media activities. Some do sub contract the Social Media activity to third parties, but to be frank, a third party can only help you set up but the may not know every detail about your organisation as would be inquired by your clients. Social Media is not just a Public Relations exercise, use it to engage with your clients, whilst you provide them with relevant content about your business. We would love to hear your views on how Social Media is aiding your personal, social and professional life.

Social Media: An Antidote for Social Confinement

Social Media: An Antidote for Social Confinement

We have come a long way since 1999 when the Blogger and Napster was born, social media has brought a flurry of innovation and advancement personal interaction, shrinking the world into a “global village” which contains the hustle and bustle of a suburban city yet providing enhanced opportunities. Social media   as according to Jandle (1973) is a “reciprocal of time-space convergence”, that allows its users to interact amongst individuals, communities and organizations (Wikipedia).

As a generalization Social Media is largely known as a social site a medium where people can be social, get to know what is happening in the lives of friends, family, get in touch with old mates, or make new mates, enlarging the social interactions and circles of people. However according to CNET there is a growing interest in Companies in utilizing Social Media for marketing purposes, In 2013, 77 percent of the Fortune 2000 companies are using Social Media  a 8%  jump from 69% in 2012. The major apps in use being Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Blog, Pineinterest, Foursquare and Instagram.  This is estimated to increase as most have expressed interest in utilizing Social Media more, as it facilitates international advertising in three major ways (1) Networking Capacitating , cutting across geographic boundaries, and cultures.;(2) Enabling Image Transferability, a crucial key to attracting consumer markets ;(3) Enabling Personal Extensibility , overcoming the “friction of distance through communication” ( Okazake et al ,2013).  Companies like Tripadvisor, Virtual Tenant have revolutionalized the travel perspectives of holiday seekers, Advergames have brought a marketing concept that entices the gamer to desire a real life experience with products, increasing brand loyalty and sales. Twitter and Facebook the largest marketing company’s having 8,5 million and 95 million followers as per twitter records.   There is a new found ability to engage customers, partners, and vendors in ways that are beyond the imagination that were never present before.

In the academic space, several articles have been written about social media both on a positivist and interprativist ontology.  Conceptual Frameworks from the theories of Social Capital and Technology Acceptance Models to name a few have been utilized in the researches done to understand the phenomena that Social Media presents. The ability of Social Media to reach a wide community of practices brings into question the potential that it presents in” tools, platforms, processes, and scholarly voices working in the field of Digital Humanities” (Morris and Stommel, 2014). Of interest is a research done by Coleman (2013) regarding Social Media as Primary source of this age. In it Academic s are found to be quite active in the Social Media Space and according to his sample of participants there are five main reasons why they use Social Media: (1) Keeping up to date with topics; (2) Following other Researchers works ;( 3) Discovering new ideas or publications;(4) Promoting current work or research; and (5) Making new research contacts.  A growing number of articles and journals are utilizing the Social Media space as a repository.  Collaboration between connoisseurs is facilitated, on all levels, theoretical, practical, and technical ensuring sustainable teamwork.   

Where ever its being used, Social Media is providing a platform of communicating that ensures powerful networks between individuals, communities and organizations. These networks used wisely have the power to accomplish not only a lot of good but great emancipation of the users and their associates. 

Sophie Bhebe Msc Comp Scie. (NUST); D Tech (Candidate) (CPUT)

email - sophiebhebe@gmail.com; twiter - @sophiebhebe