Social media is evolving in a big way, and everyday we are presented with a report that displays the impact of social networking channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Blogs, community forums and others on small and large businesses alike. Social media is transforming business in every way. Business models are changing with more access, choice and maturity in the cloud or on the SaaS platform.

Thus social media not only transforms brands but also impacts the brand/customer relationship like no other communication method used previously. It’s simply about finding the best way to communicate with a customer. With the slow economy, customers are becoming more cautious in their approach and want to be better informed before they use a service or buy a product. They have access to a plethora of information that can be sourced online.

Businesses have moved to exploit social media to reach an audience that was untapped before. Social media is bound to consume all areas of marketing strategy because of its ambiguity and ubiquitous nature. But how exactly companies will go about capturing information dispersed across multiple social media platforms is anyone’s guess.

There is nothing new in the social media we are using. It is the same content that has been in use: images, audio, video and text. It is how we utilize it and open up new channels of communication.

Take the Marketing Initiative

Instead of thinking of social media as a technology, think of it as a communication tool wherein you can connect with the customer and build a long term relationship. It’s simple: shifting conversations to a different medium; allowing for easier updating of content; and reaching a wider audience.

Every organization needs a social media implementation and integration framework.

a) Managing Content Aggregation – At the onset,businesses need to better understand market behavior and interaction within their marketplaces. Deploying Google Alerts, Twitter Search,Radian6, and PR Newswire’s Social Media Metrics to track conversations and instances associated with key words helps in understanding the market better.

b) Audience Reaction – Based on the reactions to their content on these social media sites, companies can respond and improve the content, define future launches or engagements and connect.

c) Data Analytic Metrics – Itis a managed service for multiple social media channel monitoring and reporting activity in order to show the trend, usually in the form of friends, followers, conversations, traffic and reach.

d) Enterprise Integration– Any department affected by external activity will eventually socialize. Organizational transformation will gravitate towards a top-down hierarchy of policy, education, and empowerment across the entire organization and provide on-going support for content development and community building initiatives. Enterprise integration links social analytics with existing CRM and BI tools.

Incorporating social media solutions into your client’s or company’s existing content strategy does not have to be a painful process. By hearing and observing the responses and interactions of the customer, we can touch on the pain points, source new ideas, foster improvements, learn and integrate a sense of purpose into our social media programs, thus opening the door to new possibilities.

Any individual or organization that sells products or offers services should value open communication as a goal. If your client or company does not have one, social media integration might be a good starting point.

Social media data helps hotels and casinos transform unstructured text data into critical insights that drive profits and improve business decisions. Presented in partnership with the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research. View the full webcast at go.sas.com .
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