Social Transformation: The Art & Science of Accelerating Business Growth!

In my last two business transformation series publications; I had covered “Financial Transformation” & “Digital Transformation” in detail and on this publication; I shall cover “Social Transformation” to complete an end-to-end evolution strategy; every business must look at, to be prepared for next two decades and beyond. What is social; first of all? Social is about living in the society, within its terms and contributing to its organization. Seeking or pertaining to, connected with the society; living in a community, rather than in isolation. People are social beings. And what is social media? Social media provides a way people share ideas, content, thoughts, business and relationships online. This online engagement can take on various designs from simple interaction (e.g., blogs, chats) over collaboration to cocreation (e.g., tagging, content editing etc), primarily applied in social networking sites. Such social networks (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn or XING – the European pendant to LinkedIn) allow individuals and groups to connect with each other and build networks based on a personal or company profile; with personal or business objectives in mind; resulting in considerable changes in the communications landscape.

Now; let’s see where lies the power of social media at the moment?

• From the 7.4 billion populations live in this world; 3.4 billion people are active internet users; from which 2.3 billion people are active on social media on a daily basis.
• Annual growth continues apace (10% increase in internet users & social media users) and particularly 17% increase in mobile social media users, which has hit last year. That is incredible. Huge!
• It's particularly interesting to observe; how far some countries are diverging in terms of social media use, and surprising that Western Countries are actually lagging a fair way. Asia-Pacific is driving much of this annual growth, with internet usage rates high (12%) and number of active social media users increasing to 14% & increase in active mobile social users seeing a growth of 21%. 59% people in Asia Pacific use internet; in comparison to less than 30% it is used in other developed nations.
• When looking at the world by number of internet users, it really rams home the importance of East Asian and South Asian markets. Digital offers new opportunities to reach these people, although as always cultural differences are considerable challenges to international marketers.

Scope of the Opportunity:

Because; we are increasingly adopting the new ways of doing business; we are only going to be loosing strongholds by sticking around with the old ways. There lies the power of social media and its wider reach. In the current day trading cycle:

• Sales process & Customer role has changed.
• Voice across social networks has become increasing important & powerful.
• Buyer has become digitally driven & connected.
• Multiple devices & real time information has empowered the digital initiatives.
• Millenials are going to become 75% taskforce by 2025, which run purely on social media. Millenials are born digital.
• Sales personnel are 51% more likely to hit the quota; as they deal with 45% more opportunities; by using social media as selling instrument.
• 5.4 people are now involved in the average B2B buying decision.
• 75% of B2B buyers now use social media to be more informed on vendors
• 90% of decision makers say they never respond to cold outreach. They are more informed buyers now.

Efficiency:

Social media are fundamentally changing the way we communicate, collaborate, consume, and create. They represent one of the most transformative impacts of information technology on business, both within and outside business boundaries. Cost cutting, Customer orientation & increased opportunities/growth are the core benefits, achieved through these initiatives – we cut down all redundant processes, we listen to customer sentiments to serve them appropriately and we take advantage of low barriers-to-entry; by making impact online, selling virtually; without having to invest huge capital on traditional methods of trading, marketing and caring for the customers.

Effectiveness:

Our responsibilities do not end with us; simply integrating various social media platforms with our sales and marketing cycle. Buried within the mountains of social media chatter; are nuggets of valuable data, customer comments and opinions on companies, their products and services, breaking news and market trends. Every day, customers and prospective buyers offer feedback and engage in online conversations about businesses on Facebook and Twitter. Organizations looking for a competitive edge can use social media monitoring and analytics tools to find, sort and analyze that data. Among other potential benefits, social media analytics offers businesses the ability to identify patterns in customer sentiment and gauge their marketing effectiveness.

Consumer goods manufacturers, personal technology makers and companies that rely heavily on word-of-mouth referrals to generate business may find social media analysis tools crucial to their business strategies. But other companies may have less reason to invest in these tools. Because social media listening doesn't encompass offline conversations among consumers, it might not provide a complete picture of sentiment about a company or its products. Companies in various industries are starting to recognize the potential value of managing their social media presence and engaging in social listening. Social Transformation can help to position businesses above their competition.

Business Transformation = Financial Transformation + Digital Transformation + Social Transformation