Social Media Strategy Book

CHAPTER 1 A Sustainable Approach to Social Media for Businesses 12 )) How can the advantages of social media be utilised to a company’s best advantage? )) How can a company create measurable added value by using social media? )) What are the effects of such measures on the long-term strategy of a company, and what cultural and structural changes need to be taken into consideration? )) How can a company effectively manage reputational risks and po- tential opportunities arising from independent content produced by users of social media (e. g., loss of influence over the dissemina- tion of information, users advocating brands and products)? )) What future developments must be taken into account today and integrated into a company’s corporate strategy for tomorrow? A number of books have been published on the topic of social media over the last few years. Most of them either focus on strategic guidelines for the use of social media in marketing or distribution activities or they serve as instructions for creating social media communities. Only a few of them take into consideration a holistic business approach. In order for a company to grasp and utilise the potential of new developments in the social web, the various approaches available must be thoroughly understood and dissected. They can be categorised in two ways: )) According to field of application, as ‘Business 2.0’ or ‘Enterprise col- laboration’ )) According to type of interaction, as ‘transactional’ or ‘cooperative’ models Business 2.0 describes the activities of companies aiming to interact with social media groups outside their own organisation. In addition to market- ing and branding activities, such approaches are becoming popular in many other corporate areas, such as CRM, innovation development, competi- tive intelligence, revenue creation and operational excellence |SOLIS, 2011, BERNOFF & SCHADLER, 2010, BRUHN, SCHOENMUELLER & SCHAEFER, 2012|. Companies generally like to use well-known, well-established tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Google+ and YouTube. However, there are also numerous smaller social media channels and aggregator sites that companies could utilise. Enterprise collaboration comprises activities based on internal collaboration in companies and includes knowledge sharing, innovating,

Social Media Strategy Book

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