Some of the best information and insight on how a company can succeed comes from the
inside. What I mean by that is often times organizations, whether they are for profit or not, look
to consumers and outside sources for ideas about how to improve their product, service or
logistics. And though the customer is the appropriate audience for desired outcome or finished
work, they know little to nothing about the company and how it can most effectively be run.
Most decisions made in large corporations come from the very top. Owners, CEO’S, CFO’S, Vice
Presidents and board members typically make decisions that influence an entire company. Are
these before mentioned individuals the brightest and most innovative employees in the
workplace? Sometimes, but not always.
In the article “How companies are using social media to make better decisions” by mat Fogarty,
the importance of utilizing the strengths of current employees via social networking is quite
evident. Again, who knows the product or service better than the ones creating and managing
them? There is an old saying that goes: teamwork is extreme work. Yeah it is pretty catchy but
when this maxim is broken down it is very true. Collaboration with employers who have vision
and direction, with employees who have familiarity and innovation can make for an “extreme”
amount of productivity around the workplace.
Chat features along with message and wall forums make for clear communication on Facebook,
Twitter and Salesforce. A company that talks and reads with one another, walks and succeeds
with one another. I made that up. It is incredibly cheesy but I like it!
In a 2010 article covering the National Football League’s use of social media, I was intrigued to
see some statistics which suggested that most team pages on Facebook were fan run. I love fan
interaction in sports as much as the next guy, but I don’t love the lack of professionalism and
accuracy that accompanies it. These pages for individual teams in the league range anywhere
from 460,000 members down to 20,000 followers. These are professional teams in big markets!
Why are there not a million plus followers of each team in the league?
According to the author of this article, it is the lack of awareness from the NFL to hire public
relations specialists to update and maintain these pages properly. From my experience,
Facebook is not a reliable sports news source. But for people who live and die by the network,
they may take these pages a bit more serious. Just think, a well maintained Facebook page can
help attract the friends of current followers regardless of the current success of a particular
team.
Now, since last year things in the social media social world have grown exponentially. I’m sure
that the 2010 statistics are certainly shy of 2011 data for the NFL fan pages on Facebook. I
agree with the author though, in staying ahead of the curve for whatever the social medium
might currently be. Perhaps a strong twitter presence and following will be necessary to stay
relevant in the online battle for fan support. I know that each NFL team has potential to win
games every year and football fans across the nation have the right to be accurately informed
of that as well by a team representative. We as fans want to feel like we are getting the inside
scoop from our favorite team.
I agree with the need for more effort in expanding facebook as a professional resource with the help of public relations specialists. I have suggested it to my boss as well- to at least have the company name represented with updates posting upcoming events. In a society where we want more and more quick access, social media becomes imperative in order to maintain order and potential increase in revenue. What I find the most interesting about facebook is that it has become limited in terms of artistic self expression and augmented in terms of advertisement. Now instead of creating colorful artistic layouts we have come to advertise ourselves by displaying where we went out to eat or "liking" a certain product. Consumerism and social interaction has never been more intertwined. Nevertheless, it does not exclude the need for company's to produce their individual websites. After all, facebook and twitter, etc. still create many limitations as to what is advertised and how. I mean don't get me started on the hassle of having to adjust and readjust privacy settings due to the sites lack of organization skills...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, especially you spiel on NFL or sports teams. I love interacting with my favorite teams but it is very fan run and unorganized. As well as inconsistent which ultimately makes it unreliable! But at the same time it is a fine line, social media's advantage is that it is raw and unedited and people like to interact with their fellow humans.
ReplyDeleteamen! great post!
ReplyDeletegreat job man! amen to the sports aspects
ReplyDelete