As a believer and promoter of business social media, we at OneDesk are very active on social networks. We keep our users, blog readers and peers in the industry updated on what we are doing, and share tips and ideas on Twitter, Facebook. LinkedIn, and on our blog.
Yesterday, as I logged in to Twitter, I noticed a tweet that read: From Social Networks to Collaboration Networks: Evolution of Social Media for Business. This caught my curiosity. I clicked on the link that followed, and was taken to this article on Forbes.
The article preaches that “the biggest value that social networks offer goes beyond being marketing channels to push communication to prospects and customers.” Business social media is no longer used just for networking. They are turning into new channels that companies can use for collaboration and innovation.
It goes on to say that “Firms that successfully leverage social networks are doing so to engage their communities in conversation explicitly to tap into their brainpower and energy. They ask customers and followers to participate in brainstorming with them so they can learn how to be a better company, offer better products and services, or support the values and issues of the community. Social networks are increasingly tapping into this collaborative mindset in ways that continue to evolve.”
Business social media is not just for marketing
One important lesson that this article teaches is that businesses should stop thinking that social media is simply a marketing tool, and start thinking of it as a collaboration and innovation tool. “Companies of all sizes can start by setting up a network of internal experts, suppliers, partners and customers. There are even technology platforms that can be employed to facilitate this collaboration.”
At OneDesk, we also use the application’s social media monitoring tool to listen and engage with our customers. What’s good about using OneDesk to monitor social media comments is that with a single click, you can transform customer comments into OneDesk ideas, issues and questions and automatically bring customer insight into a collaborative development process.
Learn more about social media monitoring with OneDesk; read the related blog posts and tutorials below.