Can the CEO of an enterprise, benefit from Social Media?

Most CEO according to Forrester is not very social and do not have a profile on Twitter, FaceBook or do blogging on the social platform. Some CEO see Social Media more as a place where you can brag about your latest “achievements, get attention, approval and applause from an audience which is a place for non achievers to be”.

So in a CEO objective do they need to be social?

It depends how they and you look at it. From an enterprise CEO point of view, people want to communicate with him or her and if he or she has to work the social media, they will have just another platform to present their companies view and benefits towards their costumers.

Could it benefit the CEO personally?

Again, it depends on how well known he or she is in the public room. According to head hunters they will look for activity on the social media. Is the CEO is a public person and knowledgeable in his area the CEO will be found, by the right people for the right job anyway.

Should the CEO recognise Social Media as a “Buzz-word” campaign?

Many CEO feel disappointed from their past experiences,, with other new products, protocols, portals where they have been promised increased revenue, better efficiency and optimization of the utilization. The CEO feel that non has performed, as advertised from the various marketing and sales departments.

Why should the CEO work the social media anyway?

If Social Media is a part of the enterprises communication strategy it will be a good signal from the CEO to be a “first mover” in the company and herby draw attention to the enterprise with his collaboration with the costumers. Even though he/she has been disappointment in the past, they should look at Social Media as different approach. In the past, the CEO was not necessarily part of the campaign. The difference with social media is that the CEO is a very active part, of the campaign he she is the face of the campaign, he she participate actively and get an unfiltered feedback from the costumers if he get their attention and trust.

Could every type of CEO use the social media?

Yes if he or she knows how to create good content and be able to present it in the right context where it creates good purpose for the enterprise and its costumers. The lazy CEO could always go to the marketing department and make them handle his blog, tweet and even his LinkedIn account, but he will be easily spotted by the audience and the one he want to collaborate with – and then it will not work it is not authentic.

Is their a lot of cost using Social Media for the CEO?

The difference from previous times marketing campaigns is that using social media is low cost from a money investment point of view. It could be time consuming and costly for the CEO in that perspective if he/she do not take proper percussions of getting the right content. As a CEO you are in the campaign you are addressing the costumer and you are changing the one-way approach, which marketing could be to a many-to-many approach where you get a profitable conversation and connection with your costumers.

What is the Bottom Line to the CEO and the enterprise with Social Media?

The CEO has a very simple purpose he has to make sure that the shareholders are content this is where the CEO must look into the fundamentals of the enterprise and make the changes, which could make the company be prosperous in the future. One area where change must occur is marketing. Fundamentally, marketing must refocus away from selling product and toward creating relationships. Customers don’t like to be ‘owned’ if that implies lack of choice or freedom. But they do like to be ‘owned’ if what that means is a vendor taking ongoing responsibility for the success of their joint ventures.  Ownership in this sense means an abiding commitment and a strong sense of mutuality in the development of the marketplace. When customers encounter this kind of ownership, they tend to become fanatically loyal to their supplier, which in turns builds a stable economic base for profitability and growth.”

 This is where Social Media can help developing this way of communicating with the costumers. CEO´s should use their position to create and maintain relationships with costumers and prospects. This should be an important part of the CEO job description, and in that perspective the CEO could really benefit from Social Media.

Does Social Media create Social change or “revolution”?

There is no doubt that Social Media can change the opinion of a topic or a product/service if the peer-to-peer communication creates context and content which moves the people or the consumer. The technology power, which Social Media gives to the people and in a business context to the consumer, demands great responsibility from all parties. The positive disruptiveness, which we have seen Social Media has made in the uprising of the Egyptian people towards their leaders, and which have helped Syrian show the upraise in their country has shown the power of social Media communications in driving coverage of conflicts. You can say it has helped showing the surrounding world that governments cannot suppress their people with force without been known to the world. As a tyrant you cannot make genocides to your people without been exposed.

The latest example of this is an article on CNN by Andres Monroy-Hernadez (Mexico Murders show the influence of Internet) which shows the power of Social Media on drug cartels. The drug cartels murder numerous people in Mexico but the latest development where they hang notes to the corpses telling the world to stop using the internet to expose their destructive behaviour will create more dead people. This show, the power of Social Media and show how frightened these criminal organizations are for being, exposed in a bigger context. This is how social media create social change on a geopolitical level, helping opposition and minorities to be taken seriously.

On a business level, we have seen products having been condemned out of the market and has made it’s way back into the mindset of the consumers, by using exceptional content in a extraordinary good context. I am talking of the product Old Spice. Old Spice is in my mindset a product, which was modern in the 1960 and early 1970. It is a product, which my farther used and a product with no appeal to a younger generation. The Social Media change is here the reinvention of the product, in a humoristic context with appeal to the women, instead of the men using Old Spice. The change is not the target group that was change but the change of media and the cheapness of production – the commercial, was on YouTube. Next step in the communication/collaboration with costumer, was when they was asked to post questions directly to “The Man” and getting answers back in video format on YouTube. This was part of the tactics in the campaign. Together with the use of other Social Media as Twitter and FaceBook Old Spice body wash was, reinstalled as a product to be used, in the 21^st century by men. The commercial result has been impressive as Old Spice is the #1 body wash for men. The commercial with all the humour has been the all-time most viewed commercial on YouTube. The traffic on Oldspice.com has increased up to 300% all very impressive. This is Social Media change in rebrand a product – this is a revolutionary change in how to get a conversation among peers on the social media.

I would argue that Social Media create social change, in the geopolitical environment it even create social revolution. On the business level a smaller revolution are created – here we are not talking life and death but survival of products in a new and interesting content. I hope that Social Media will  continue to create change on numerous levels and on different platforms, this will help to change the world for the better.

Social Media and Mobility

Getting social, on a mobility platform demands the right strategy. As in any other aspect of your marketing mix, you need to look into what kind of strategy the market prefer, and which segment and region you want to attend in. It is old knowledge that content and context is tow of the important strategy parameters when you want to have success with social Media.

Now where do you want to set your social media foot prints?

This is the next question you want to ask yourself making your strategy. One thing is for sure that the majority of people in rural districts of the world want to participate in the social conversation and exchange of goods and knowledge. Devices like mobile phones, I-pads have in the recent years, become more important with the development of new and innovative functionality on these devices.

In the emerging markets like Brazil, Argentina and other Latin American countries, the popularity for attending Social Medias on mobile devices has exploded. The Latin American countries are not just following the western world on social media on mobility they are leading.

To me this is a very positive surprise, as I can see how people in Latin and South America connect to the web and get social via their mobile devices. The readers of my blogs are increasing in the use of mobile devices and coming from emerging markets the use of mobile safari and mobile phones has during the last 6 month increased from 1% to 6% and the emerging countries has increased from 3% to 10% of the readers.

The current trends on mobility and Social Networking include:

• Mobility can provide a competitive advantage, as solutions become more business critic.
• Mobility solutions have increased in complexity—before, during and after deployment.
• Additional device functionality and connectivity demand enhanced information security.
• Mobile solutions require full life cycle management to accommodate changes and updates.
• Social networking is up 58% on mobile devices.
• Services on mobility platform must be simple.
• For 26% of the mobility product user, ease of use is critical.
• 43%, of the mobility users are prevented from using services due to ease of use issues.

Due to various analyses, this is only a start more users in other geographies than Latin and South America will connect via mobile devices.

Why has the social media on mobile devices been so popular and developed that fast in Latin and South America? According to an anthropologic the culture and the history in these regions has developed the use of getting social. The price of mobile devices has decreased rapidly and the need for ease of use devices has increased. Still 43% of the consumers in emerging markets, are prevented from using services due to ease of use issues.

Is it now you as an enterprise company, wanting to sell and marketer your products and service, would approach the emerging markets?

Not necessarily, you need to take into consideration how does these markets use the Social Media and what is the purpose of the use. According to market specialists in Argentina and Brazil, the main purpose of Social media is as the Latin culture in general is to hear how others are doing – friends and relatives and just have a small talk of the current situation – exchange of information among each other. This is not necessarily bad for doing business if you can “turn” the conversation into another subject which suites you as a business. This is where Content and Context starts. Content gives Social Media the depth. Context, create the social interactions and relations you create social identity.

Now you have to create your content and context so you will get the most out of the target groups in the geography you choose. Take an emerging market as Brazil, here women use 39 hours per week on social media on their mobile devices, you want to get into the conversation and secure that you get both content and context which suites this target group. To get your fair share of these markets you need to fine tune and simplify your services so these consumer groups will choose you for the ease of use and get social with your company.