How can Social Media such as LickedIn, Facebook and twitter be used to improve knowledge sharing, build social capital, support innovation and aid problem solving in a multinational corporation. ?
Discuss the associated risks and benefits for this context.?
The essay provides a deep insight into the concept of social media and its usage by almost all multinational companies in the current century. It reflects upon the facts how some of the social media like Facebook, Linkdin, and Twitter may be used to enhance knowledge sharing , building social capital, supporting innovation, and also solving key challenging issues within the environment of multinational organizations. Communication has been the buzzword in the today’s world of business (Beier and Wagner). It is considered to be the most essential and important requisite for any organization that aims to sustainably flourish in the competitive environment. However, this concept of communication depends greatly upon the shared language which is a prerequisite and may not be existent within several international business or political situations. This is in fact realized when various conflicts or issues initiate. Nowadays, several multinational companies push themselves in the arena of social media.
Blogging, tweeting and that of connecting through Facebook or Linkedin have become the most widely used terms within the social media world. These have become an important part of business strategies even. Firms like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and YouTube have enabled the writing of new set of rules regarding how corporations must conduct business at the present century (Fang and Su). The concept of social media has been changing our traditional working lives, thereby providing employers as well as employees with increased flexibilities and also the capability of responding quickly and often in real time. However, the very question that comes to our mind is whether this concept of social networking is all good for multinational corporations and business firms. Several companies have even started to take a closer look at the benefits as well as risks associated with social networking in business environment. Both benefits and risks are studied and analyzed to have a proper understanding of the role of social networking in multinational corporations.
Several multinational companies like that of Nike, British Petroleum, Walmart, and IBM are significant actors upon the landscape of global business. These firms have been increasingly contributing towards the trend of production as well as consumption on a global platform. These firms have been on an attempt to create an effective as well as systematic channel whereby they may personalize their brands as well as operations towards global customers. The utilization of different social networking sites like that of Facebook, Twitter or Myspace have become the very usual practice norm (Gaff). All sites of social networking have become an extremely powerful force to shape up public opinion virtually upon every commercial aspect. This approach amplifies word-of-mouth marketing and getting increasingly essential in making purchasing decisions by consumers. This may prove to be more effective than the approach of advertising and considered to be a highly reliable information source. Marketers have least control over positioning as well as messaging since customers provide most of the content by themselves. Social networking medium happens to be a viable region for firms for conducting market campaigns, management of customer relationship, and also to impact own branding efforts through eWOM. Accounts of social network impact upon brand awareness as well as brand image. To manage brand perception within the social network environment must be a part of an entire market strategy as well as to maintain a steady presence upon the channels must be a part of organizational branding campaign (‘ISACA Identifies Top Five Social Media Risks For Business’). Such accounts of social networking support monitoring brand communal discussions as well as feeding customers with information. People tend to express better through social networks. Portions of positive review can act as an important part of commercial marketing by multinational corporations. This reflects that such reviews may be used up by corporations as customer feedback regarding products as well as features which are received well by customers. Product quality impacted positively upon generating positive eWOM. Thus, multinational companies can generate brand awareness without big displays of marketing or advertising. Online customers tend to review information and this may be highly useful to identify customer preferences, identifying product defects, and also rectifying mistakes of marketers. Social networking sites may be utilized for providing information as well as attracting potential customers to several online media. Multinational companies may receive real-time customer feedback by creating online corporate accounts (Jennex).
Knowledge Sharing
Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc have excessive contribution in the field of knowledge sharing, creating social capital, supporting innovation and also solving key problems within multinational corporations. The concept of knowledge sharing has received a new outlook and form with the emergence of social networking media. Previously, organizational management had to put on really great efforts in sharing essential information about their brands to the desired customers and target segments. However, with the emergence of social media like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, the task has become much easier. Knowledge sharing has become easier than ever before. Corporate accounts, websites, and social sites in various social media have allowed companies to provide as much information possible to be deliverd to the customers so as to gain their trust and reliability (Kohlbacher). This would earn the corporations several loyal customers to enable enhancement of productiveness and effectiveness on the part of the organizations. Thus, social media has been greatly contributing towards knowledge sharing among customers and other shareholders within the competitive business environment.
Social Capital
Social capital refers to the increased number of customers who feel attracted towards online customer relation management. It means the approach that is used by multinational corporations to draw more and more customers towards their personal brands to increase their sales, revenues and overall profitability of the firms (Cyr). Social capital is considered to be the most essential asset for an organization as this is related to organizational brand awareness as well as recognition. Social capital is important for developing effective customer relationship management to attract the largest possible customers towards multinational corporation brands (Kärreman). These firms have been on an attempt to create an effective as well as systematic channel whereby they may personalize their brands as well as operations towards global customers. Social networking medium happens to be a viable region for firms for conducting market campaigns, management of customer relationship, and also to impact own branding efforts through eWOM. Accounts of social networking impact upon brand awareness as well as brand image (Ligeti et al.). The concept of social media has undoubtedly contributed towards multinational market strategies of the current century along with unique approaches in acquiring increased information regarding organizational products as well as enhancing sales as well as revenues. Thus, it may be observed further that social media plays important role in building of relationship management with customers.
Supporting Innovation
To mention about benefits of social networking media, it is important to focus upon the emphasis upon innovation of multinational corporations. The age old techniques of advertising, branding and marketing of products or services by organizations have been replaced by the modern tools of social media. Earlier, organizations used to implement manual techniques and approaches to create brand awareness and popularity of their products. This happened to be really tedious method on the part of those organizations. However, recently the techniques of marketing and branding have been replaced by latest approaches like that of social media. Organizations make effort in creating social accounts and websites whereby their corporate profile plays the major role in delivering essential information about the company to their customers and attract more and more customers towards their brands (McBride). Hence, it is justified that social media has been increasingly contributing towards innovation of marketing and branding approaches. The concept of social media has been changing our traditional working lives, thereby providing employers as well as employees with increased flexibilities and also the capability of responding quickly and often in real time. Marketers have least control over positioning as well as messaging since customers provide most of the content by themselves. Social networking medium happens to be a viable region for firms for conducting market campaigns, management of customer relationship, and also to impact own branding efforts through eWOM (Mubarak).
Problem Resolution
Another benefit of social media is that of solving of various problems and issues within organizational environment. Lot of tasks became easier to be delivered by these multinational organizations. Information about products or services was previously delivered to customers with lot of effort and troubles. But recently with the evolution of social media, things and activities have become much more convenient and favorable for multinational corporations. All relevant information about brands, products, and services are readily available on the social sites and websites of these corporations (Oluikpe, Sohail and Odhiambo). This provides the feasibility of access of such information in the most effective form. Besides, social media solves several problems that were previously faced by customers in acquiring of company products or services. It is considered to be the most essential and important requisite for any organization that aims to sustainably flourish in the competitive environment. However, this concept of communication depends greatly upon the shared language which is a prerequisite and may not be existent within several international business or political situations (Beier and Wagner).
In the business environment, we can witness the benefits of social networking from businesses such as IKEA, Starbucks, etc. IKEA had launched the social catalogue that is used for raising awareness with almost null media budget. It focused upon the human being desire to receive free stuff as well as achieve enormous amount of customer relations. Besides, Starbucks possesses Starbucks Mayor Offer upon the Foursquare application. With the help of this, the corporation has successfully achieved popularity with increased revenue. This reflects the fact that creativity pays off within campaigns of social media marketing. The concept of social media has undoubtedly contributed towards multinational market strategies of the current century along with unique approaches in acquiring increased information regarding organizational products as well as enhancing sales as well as revenues (Phene and Tallman). Thus, it may be observed further that social media plays important role in building of relationship management with customers. It has actually changed the traditional customer relationship management to a more holistic nature. The social network sites have led the corporations in promoting as well as growing brand by means of social media techniques such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkdin.
As social media networking proves to be a boon for multinational corporations, the associated risks of such an approach cannot be overlooked either. As per research, several senior executives believe the existence of potential risks related to the utilization of social media. Several risks may be identified in considering use of social media. The exposures of social media are varied. A significant risk within media exposures is that of loss of effective control. Information of one corporation is transmitted towards social media website of a different company. The privacy or confidentiality of information can be breached unintentionally by posting on the wall of a company’s website or social account (Picazo-Vela, Gutiérrez-Martínez and Luna-Reyes). As the use of such social networking continues to develop, so also has the need to have effective anti-fraud training. It has become critically important for organizational management as well as employees to know the correct usage of social media, the ways to identify as well as respond towards fraud activities, and ways to address related legal issues about social media (Fang and Su). In the recent times, there has been emergence of another risk issue within the use of social media by the multinational corporations. This risk states about the growing challenge of lack of confidentiality and authenticity over the virtual presence of business firms. Most of the multinational corporations are not fully relied upon by their customers over their virtual presence. This is mainly due to the fraudulent activities and cyber crimes that have been on the cards of business environment in the recent years (Reid and Weigle). It is considered to be the most essential and important requisite for any organization that aims to sustainably flourish in the competitive environment. However, this concept of communication depends greatly upon the shared language which is a prerequisite and may not be existent within several international business or political situations. Though the utilization of online social networks techniques within the workplace is still not that widely accepted, yet it has been turning into an unavoidable part of business world. The concerns that organizational employees often possess regarding their organizational confidential information being leaked or even employees simply wasting time in the use of tools for social means recall about the misconception that arose when telephones were first introduced. People feared about the thing that people may call up and abuse one another (Sumanjeet). Yet, it is considered to be the most essential and important requisite for any organization that aims to sustainably flourish in the competitive environment. However, this concept of communication depends greatly upon the shared language which is a prerequisite and may not be existent within several international business or political situations.
Conclusion:
It may be concluded that social media has been a growing market that would continue to develop in the future years to come. On one hand where corporations have started establishing a potentially strong presence of social media, on the other hand the reality of such an approach is that Companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin is on a growing phase in the current situation. It is considered to be the most essential and important requisite for any organization that aims to sustainably flourish in the competitive environment. However, this concept of communication depends greatly upon the shared language which is a prerequisite and may not be existent within several international business or political situations (Hales, Davidson and Turner-McGrievy). Although several executives confirm about the involvement of risks, yet these are not well-defined actually. Governance structures for monitoring compliance as well as managing risk are quite nascent. As these risks of social networking media start receiving increased public attention, corporations can respond even more forcefully to such perceived risks (Yang). The concept of social media has undoubtedly contributed towards multinational market strategies of the current century along with unique approaches in acquiring increased information regarding organizational products as well as enhancing sales as well as revenues. Thus, it may be observed further that social media plays important role in building of relationship management with customers. It has actually changed the traditional customer relationship management to a more holistic nature.
References
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