Social Media and Business Performance

The best performance of the Super Bowl might not have been Eli Manning’s.

Many of the companies advertising during the Super Bowl proved themselves adept at using social media to extend their ad messages, build their customer communities and generally add value beyond the $3.5 million spent for 30 seconds of the world’s time.

In fact, we see executives in organizations large and small running up the maturity curve to gain more from the opportunities afforded by social media. The goals executives seek these days are less about “joining the conversation” and more about “engaging with customers” and especially “using social media to improve my business performance.”

How can social media help move the right needles for you? If you sell stuff online, then certainly you can drive a strictly financial ROI. But even that formula might understate the practical returns available from social media research and investment, including:

• More traffic to your website.

• Higher customer satisfaction scores. Social media is now an important component of the overall experience customers have with you (or expect from you).

• More efficient call-center performance. Many companies are using social media to keep less-relevant conversations away from the call center, so people and their time are better deployed.

• Better face-to-face customer interactions. Hospitals, clinics and physician groups are able to engage their patients through social media, meaning patients show up for appointments at higher rates, ask better questions and often report better outcomes.

• A healthier sales pipeline. Many B2B companies are using social media to position themselves as experts, problem solvers and thought leaders, which feeds better lead generation.

• More effective research and development. This includes the ability to both generate and evaluate more ideas for new products, features and designs among consumers already engaged with what you do.

The R&D benefit is one that nearly any company can leverage. A book by Jason Falls and Erik Deckers points out the example of Fiskars Corp., the scissors maker.

Fiskars built a worldwide community of 8,000 users they now draw upon for ideas, testing of prototypes and overall brand evangelizing. This group is powered by social media, and serves as an important competitive advantage for Fiskars.

If a Finnish scissors brand can engage its customers via social media for better business performance, isn’t there an opportunity for your organization?

To take advantage of opportunities, your team will face tough decisions, including those around design, management and measurement. The landscape is cluttered with experts, solution providers and research firms.

The good news is if you can identify your key drivers for near-term business improvement, then it’s very likely you can employ social media to accelerate the process. 

Jim Karrh is the founder of Karrh & Associates and director of MarketSearch, both of Little Rock. Email him at [email protected].