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Alex - Alexandros Poulos is Covisio's Managing Director and co-founder. He enjoys technology marketing, innovative thinking, and living by the sea.
Alex is the main contributor of the On the Scene marketing blog.
Learn more about me here.
The Social Media Divide
We are sitting at the dawn of 2009, a year that’s expected to be one of the most challenging ones in recent history. A year that is likely to redefine social and economic structures worldwide with drastic effects on our lives and businesses. Can we be optimistic?
Some say that things can only get better. But, let me add, only for those organizations that put the extra effort, have the right strategy in place, and persevere with a focused execution. This is especially true to web 2.0 enterprises for a number of reasons:
- With an overwhelming loss of confidence in corporations and their messaging at large, social media – that promote the voice of end users, objective reviewers, hands-on contributors, and diligent collaborators – will get even more value amongst participants in B2C, B2B or B2E (Business-To-Employee) settings.
- With budgets under scrutiny across the board, web 2.0 marketing, customer support, knowledge management, and product development will be true levers of growth and innovation in the face of limited resources.
- With more and more internet users starting to feel comfortable to contribute knowledge, share experiences, and actively participate in valuable web 2.0 initiatives, the tipping point for social media will be unavoidable.
- With social media communities growing both in quantity and quality, the value organizations and individuals derive from such communities will also grow in terms of specific and tangible results.
Businesses that have made an investment in putting in place solid social media strategies in 2008 to reach out to their target audiences will start reaping the benefits of their efforts in 2009 with potentially increasing returns. Businesses will use their initial web 2.0 investments in a more aggressive way to drive their competitive advantage against their rivals in the marketplace. This means greater buzz in the marketplace, better brand equity, more engaged prospects, shorter sales cycles, more loyal customers, …, in other words, greater value creation for the company and the marketplace as well. However, businesses that have not yet put in place such strategies will likely fall more and more behind in 2009. Maybe this growing gap in value creation is a form of “social media divide” between organizations whose social media footprint is already established and organizations that are just starting to explore this space just now.
Yes, we can be optimistic for 2009. There are certainly tough challenges ahead of us, but also tremendous opportunities. And as we know, opportunities turn to realities by those who dare to think outside the box, whether it’s via web 2.0 or anything else.