International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, 2(2), 255–267
Managing the Business
of Social Technologies
Jeretta Horn Nord
Oklahoma State University, USA
A greater number of consumers use social technologies-social media, social
networking, and social relevance-than organizations. Economically, however,
companies have much to gain by taking the plunge. Results show that or-
ganizations that have made the effort to increase their knowledge and build
social technology platforms have experienced astounding results. The pur-
pose of this article is to discuss social technology categories and present a
strategy for knowledge management so that organizations may successfully
implement these technologies. A huge growth is expected in the number of
companies whose management will make a decision or have already made a
decision to develop social technology platforms in the near future. This article
provides a straight forward approach accompanied by examples of real com-
panies who have used social technologies and experienced real returns–many
in the millions of dollars. The intention is to provide a concise, up-to-date so-
cial technologies knowledge management guide.
Keywords: learning; knowledge management; social technologies;
social media; social networking; social relevance
Introduction
Social Technologies encompass social media, social networking and social
relevance. Social media includes the use of mobile media and the Internet
(videos, photos, presentations, and documents) for sharing ideas, concepts
and messages; social networking is about connecting people through online
communities and communication methods; and social relevance is defined
as the online reputation of an individual or organization (Klososky, 2011).
Terminology varies when describing these emerging technologies. This pa-
per will use terms and descriptions as defined by Klososky, unless directly
quoting another author.
Are organizations who have not gained control of learning and managing
the knowledge that exists around social technologies at risk? Worldwide,
the use of social technologies in business and industry has steadily in-
creased as consumer use of these same technologies has skyrocketed.
Jason Breed (2011) states, ‘If a company can re-imagine their business
with these new ways to communicate and interact, they will have a distinct
advantage over their competitors who take a long time to figure this out.’
The true economic impact is yet to be determined as businesses recognize
www.issbs.si/press/ISSN/2232-5697/2_255-267.pdf
256 Jeretta Horn Nord
the importance of social relevance and develop strategies to embrace and
manage social media and social networking.
Overview
There are numerous online social media and social networking sites. When
developing a social technology knowledge management strategy, the best
bet is to go with established sites to increase the potential reach. Keep
in mind, however, that with the dynamics of social technology, it can be
challenging to stay on the cutting edge and that up-to-the-minute information
is at your fingertips through the Google search bar.
A real obstacle exists with the perception of the purpose of social tech-
nologies and how (or if) these tools should be used in business. Many
who have experience using these technologies view them as tools for per-
sonal communications among their friends and for keeping up with the lat-
est news.
Organizations must have employees dedicated to becoming knowledge-
able on the ‘good, the bad, and the results’ of using social technologies
in business for increasing awareness and ultimately revenue. For best re-
sults, the principles of knowledge management-capturing, distributing, and
effectively using this knowledge–should be applied. KM is the movement to
replicate the information environment known to be conducive to success-
ful R&D-rich, deep, and open communication and information access-and
deploy it broadly across the firm (Koenig, 2012).
Hamilton (2012) shares a similar view:
Where Knowledge Management and Social Business diverge is the or-
ganic nature of Social Business. Knowledge Management is about the
capture, structure, organization and availability of information from all
sources. Social Business is about encouraging people to share what
they know, to feel good about doing so, establish relationships with
others in the organization which span the organization tree and gen-
uinely do something extraordinary. There are legs to Social Business
which all organizations can benefit from.
A recent business challenge facing enterprises is that of mobile com-
merce (San Martin, Lopez-Catalan, & Ramon-Jeronimo, 2012). With 4.8 bil-
lion mobile users and most social technology sites now available on mobile
devices, this is a reality and should be viewed as not only a challenge, but
also an opportunity for organizations.
IT continues to play a vital role in business organizations (Peslak, 2012).
The IT issues that are most important to companies vary, but an area
that has been ignored or neglected by many is the management of social
technologies in business-social media, social networking, and social rele-
vance.
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
Managing the Business of Social Technologies 257
Social Media
Examples of some of the more popular social media sites include YouTube
(videos), Flickr (photos), Slideshare (presentations), and Digg (articles).
YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and the third most
visited website with more than 2 billion views per day (Bullas, 2012):
Communication and engagement is much more than talking or writing
and the popularity of YouTube is evidence of that. The availability of
cost effective high speed internet access is making it easy for people
to express themselves via video. Brands have seized its power to be
a viral media that augments traditional advertising media such as TV.
YouTube’s advantage is it is always available and searchable.
Flickr houses over five billion of the world’s photos. More than just being
a web site, Flickr is a community – one with a very large number of active
users. Creative business people can set themselves apart by marketing
through connections and photos on Flickr. Slideshare is a Web 2.0 based
service for sharing slide shows. The world’s largest community for hosting
such documents, Slideshare is a great way to learn from others and share
your expertise. Digg is a social news website with an estimated 4.4 million
unique visitors per month.
Social Networking
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are the giants of social networking with
plenty of competitors jockeying for position. Google’s new social network
Google+ is gaining 625,000 users per day and now claims over 400 mil-
lion. Pinterest is generating more referral traffic to websites than YouTube,
Google+, and LinkedIn combined (Bullas, 2012). Facebook has approxi-
mately one billion users; Twitter currently claims 500 million worldwide with
100 million of those in the US; and LinkedIn has 161 million accounts
in over 200 countries including more than two million companies with a
LinkedIn page. The numbers continue to increase as 200 million Facebook
users are added annually, LinkedIn reports two new members per second,
and 11 Twitter accounts are created every second.
Social networks are used by organizations to connect employees, reach
customers and communicate with suppliers, although most companies are
far from using these networks to capacity. This appears to be rapidly chang-
ing. According to Mullaney (2012), Forrester Research indicates the sales
of software to run corporate social networks will grow 61% a year and be a
6.4 billion business by 2016.
Social Relevance
Social relevance is already starting to make a difference in the world
and will soon have a dramatic impact on a company’s ability to sell
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258 Jeretta Horn Nord
products and services. Organizations are just starting to use online
reputation management to understand the good, the bad, and the ugly
of open and accessible public comments on products and services,
there to be seen by anyone with Internet access. [Klososky, 2011]
It takes a lifetime to establish an online reputation of integrity and one
negative review to cast a shadow of doubt. Does this mean that one should
avoid the chance of negative comments by avoiding an online presence?
Absolutely not! Comments should be taken seriously and addressed rather
than being ignored. For comments that have validity, responding to the com-
ment and attempting to right the wrong is the best approach. For those that
are falsely stated, the best approach is to contact the guilty party if possible
and ask them to remove the post. Otherwise, responding in a professional
manner online is better than no response at all. Consumers rely on ratings
and also pay attention to whether the company is alert to the concerns of
their customers.
With employers now using social technologies to make hiring decisions,
social relevance is not only important to an organization but equally as
important to an individual.
Strategies for Developing a Successful Social Technologies Platform
Developing a successful social technologies platform requires much more
than just creating profiles on social technology sites. This is a start and
where many companies are at this point, but to make a difference a sys-
tematic approach followed by management and social technology strategies
is a necessity.
An activity oriented process model illustrating a knowledge management
approach to developing a social technologies platform is shown in Figure 1.
Each of the steps listed in the model is discussed in more detail:
1. Hire dedicated personnel who are committed to not only learning, but
also managing the organization’s social technologies, preferably an
individual with proven organizational experience in this area. This step
parallels with the first stage of Knowledge Management-Information
Technology. As Koenig (2012) points out, the salient point is that
the first stage of KM is about how to deploy a new technology to
accomplish more effective use of information and knowledge.
2. Identify the organization’s social technology goals. Historically, the sec-
ond stage of KM – HR and corporate culture – emerged when it be-
came apparent that simply deploying new technology was not suffi-
cient to effectively enable information and knowledge sharing. This
may include added exposure, increased sales, additional branding,
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
Managing the Business of Social Technologies 259
Hire proven dedicated personnel with social technologies expertise
Identify the organization’s social technology goals
Identify your audience
Identify your competition
Create a social technologies policy for your organization
Develop social technologies platform based on goals
Create content
Be attentive to the organization’s social reputation
Measure the results or ROI
Evolve
Figure 1 A Knowledge Management Approach to Developing a Social Technologies
Platform
improved customer service, hiring, savings when compared to tra-
ditional methods, etc. Goals should be established in collaboration
with a management team. Expectations should be clear and result-
oriented. The implementation of Knowledge Management involves
changes in the corporate culture, in many cases rather significant
changes. KM therefore extends far beyond just structuring informa-
tion and knowledge and making it more accessible (Koenig, 2012).
3. Identify your audience. If you have a global audience, the language
used should be English. Demographics of the target audience may
make a difference in relation to the social technology tools selected.
For example, the primary users on Google+ are currently students.
Like Facebook, however, this will likely change over time.
4. Identify your competition. Check out their social technology sites and
learn from and improve upon what they are doing. There are compet-
itive analytic sites that help monitor the competition. Anna Johnson
(2010) compiled a list of sites that are free and there are many great
ones that are by paid subscription. By conducting a search on Google
you will find sites like sproutsocial and Competitive Analytics whose
business is to keep up with an organization’s competition.
5. Create a social media policy for the organization. In Susan M. Heath-
field’s (2012) words, ‘These guidelines will help open up a respectful,
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260 Jeretta Horn Nord
knowledgeable interaction with people on the Internet. They also pro-
tect the privacy, confidentiality, and interests of your company and
current and potential products, employees, partners, customers, and
competitors.’ Templates and examples of social media policies are
available on the web. Chris Boudreaux (2013) has compiled a com-
prehensive listing of links to over 200 companies’ social media poli-
cies which can be sorted by industry. It is not only important to have
a social media policy, but also to make sure that all employees read
and acknowledge their understanding of it.
6. Determine social media platforms based on goals. It is better to man-
age fewer sites well than to have multiple sites that are ignored. The
rule of thumb is that two hours per day should be devoted to each
social technology site. An eight hour day should not include more
than four sites, although this could vary depending on the organiza-
tion’s goals. Multiple dedicated social technology personnel may be
required to properly handle the demands.
7. Create content. The third stage of Knowledge Management-taxonomy
and content management-developed from the awareness of the im-
portance of content, and in particular the awareness of the impor-
tance of the ability to retrieve content, and therefore of the impor-
tance of the arrangement, description, and structure of that content
(Koenig, 2012). To increase the number of followers, provide content
that is interesting and useful to your audience. The industry standard
is 80/20 indicating that 80 percent should be content that does not
include sales pitches and that would be of interest to the followers.
This could be links to articles, fun facts, knowledge sharing, blogs
that are on a related topic, videos, etc. and 20 percent should be
directly selling a product (if that is the goal) including coupons or spe-
cials. Creating content is where many get stuck; however, the content
does not all have to be original. It is acceptable to have only 20% orig-
inal content with links or references to the remainder. The best way
to increase your online following is to post interesting content. Credit
should always be given to the source of the non-original content.
8. Be attentive to all comments and always address negative comments
or reviews. It has been proven that unaddressed negative comments
or video posts can cost companies millions of dollars in revenue. For
example, after United Airlines passenger, Dave Carroll, had his $3500
guitar broken by baggage handlers and was unsuccessful in getting
the issue resolved, he created a music video titled United Breaks
Guitars that went viral on YouTube. Chris Ayres (2009), a reporter
from the Times of London, reported that ‘within four days of the song
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
Managing the Business of Social Technologies 261
going online, the gathering thunderclouds of bad PR caused United
Airlines’ stock price to suffer a mid-flight stall, and it plunged by 10
percent, costing shareholders $180 million.’
9. Measure the results. Although ROI is measured in almost every other
aspect of an organization, an astounding number of organizations do
not measure their social technologies return on investment. Shea
Bennett (2012) confirms this stating, ‘Measuring the return on in-
vestment (ROI) of your social media strategy is something that still
frustrates a lot of brands and marketers-studies have shown that just
10 percent of marketing decision makers in the UK monitor their Twit-
ter and Facebook ROI.’ Scott Klososky (2011), expert in the social
technologies arena and author of Enterprise Social Technology, sug-
gests a five step process when measuring ROI:
•Measure the current impact of your social technologies.
•Set objectives for ROI.
•Determine social tech results needed to meet objectives.
•Source and implement social tech measurement systems.
•Measure results, compare to objectives, and adapt continuously.
Nate Elliott (2011) suggests that standardized reporting templates
should be created and frequent reporting of digital measures should
go to community managers and social media strategists, per-campaign
with annual reporting of branding and trial metrics to other marketing
team members. Distribution of quarterly or annual reporting of finan-
cial metrics to the executives should also be included in the reporting
process. Without this, it is difficult, if not impossible, to know what is
working and where changes need to be made.
10. Evolve. Social technologies are rapidly changing, so it important to
stay abreast of these changes through research and training. The
best way to be strategically competitive is to be informed, stay on the
cutting edge, and evolve when it is economically feasible.
Many marketing campaigns combine both traditional marketing and so-
cial technologies. One of the most notable to successfully do this is Old
Spice, a company that was founded in 1934. Old Spice increased their
product sales over 100% through a continuous campaign that included tele-
vision commercials, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In two days, Old Spice
gained 80,000 Twitter followers and Facebook likes now exceed 2.4 mil-
lion with video posts increasing interaction by 800%. They also hold the
distinction of having the number one most viewed sponsored channel on
YouTube. Bullas’ (2011) statement sums up the bottom line. ‘At the end of
the day you can have all the noise, buzz and viral success you like but if you
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013
262 Jeretta Horn Nord
Social Media
Social Networks
Social Relevance
Social
Technologies
Platform
Increased Revenue
(Sales/Savings)
Figure 2 Simplified Social Technologies Platform Model
don’t increase sales you might as well pack up and go home. The Old Spice
campaign achieved both.’
Societal and Economic Impact
Peter Kim (2012) in an internet post on January 11, 2012, listed examples
of social technologies implemented by organizations and the return. As Mr.
Kim mentions, results in social business and brands willing to stand behind
them are difficult to find. His complete list quantified shows approximately
60% revenue generation and 40% cost reduction, a true testimony to the
potential effectiveness of social technologies.
Never before have such opportunities existed for an organization’s voice
to be heard around the world while at the same time being vulnerable to at-
tacks that echo throughout the atmosphere. Many hesitate to jump into the
social technologies arena because they haven’t seen real examples or real
results and because of a lack of knowledge about the use of these technolo-
gies in business. It is impossible to manage knowledge that doesn’t exist
in the manager’s mind. The knowledge first has to be captured before the
principles of knowledge management can be applied. It could be compared
to babies learning to crawl and then walk. Once the benefits are apparent,
the walk becomes a run.
Social Media, Social Networks, and Social Relevance must be part of
a strategically designed Social Technologies Platform, which will result in
additional revenue through increased organizational sales and/or savings
as illustrated in Figure 2. Social Technologies business examples follow.
Table 1 includes selected social technologies business examples as re-
ported by Peter Kim (2012), listing brand, activity, source and year. Those
selected for this paper represent a spectrum of social technology success
stories including the use of blogs, Facebook, twitter, corporate social net-
works, YouTube videos and others. A blank cell in the table indicates that
this information was not revealed, which is not surprising considering the
competitive nature of most organizations. This summary is intended to
serve as motivation for the implementation of social technologies and as a
springboard for ideas.
Discussion and Conclusions
The overall objectives of this paper were to discuss social technology cat-
egories, present a strategy for knowledge management as organizations
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
Managing the Business of Social Technologies 263
Table 1 Selected Examples and Results: Companies using Social Technologies
Business Social Tech. Process Results
Aflac Community Drove online payments
process – increase of 3%
$95,000 in savings
AT&T Community 21,000 customer issues
resolved
16% improvement in call
deflections
Audi Audi A1
Community
40,000 people created
customized versions of the
new model. 5.5 million
people visited the microsite
119 million times.
Largest number of pre-orders
in its history
Best Buy Community $5 million in annual support
savings and sales advocacy
Blendtec Viral Videos Increased company sales
+700%
Bonobos Twitter Exclusive sale 1200% ROI in 24 hours on
promoted tweet
Burberry Social
microsites
Secured 100,000 fans 10% increase in sales
Cerner Community 70% decrease in internal HR
issues logged
Charles
Schwab
Customer referrals (ratings &
reviews)
40% increase in new
customers
Cisco Community Deflects 120,000 support
cases each month
Dell Twitter Generated $2 million in direct
sales, influenced $1 million
of additional sales
Ford Social
Networks
Word of mouth campaign
31,000 pieces of original
Ford Fiesta content
10,000 online vehicle
reservations
Hershey’s House Party 10,000 parties, reached
129,000 people
Seen by 7 million people
Continued on the next page
implement these technologies, and illustrate examples with real results of
the use of social technologies in organizations globally. Jason Breed (2011)
suggests that corporate social networks or communities (as they are some-
times referred) are just now beginning to test the limits of how they can add
value back to the company beyond branding and product marketing.
Social technologies have existed for almost a decade and only in re-
cent years have businesses used this platform to generate revenue, create
brands, communicate with customers or collaborate internally. This sup-
ports Clive Shepherd’s (2011) philosophy that when it comes to media
technologies, corporate behaviour tends to follow what happens outside of
work, not the other way around. The opportunities are greater than ever be-
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013
264 Jeretta Horn Nord
Table 1 Continued from the previous page
Business Social Tech. Process Results
Honda Facebook Increased fans from 15K to
422K
Generated over 3500 dealer
quote requests
HP Forum Customer service Solved issues for 4.6 million
people, made customers
happier and saved the company
millions of dollars
IBM Community Customer service Saved $100 million annually
Intuit
Quick-
books
Ratings and reviews Business owners engaged with
rated ProAdvisors 555% more
often than unrated counterparts
Jewelry TV Customer ratings and reviews Boost mobile sales by 30%
La-Z-Boy Comfort Stories campaign 13,000 new leads
Justin
Boots
Social media marketing Exceeded sales goal for new
product line by 30 percent,
social media marketing
accounted for 95% of sales
Logitech YouTube Bowiechick ‘Breakup’ video Doubled webcam sales on
Amazon.com
Microsoft House Party 40,000 in 12 countries 3–4 million in software sales
Movistar Community Delivers 5.75 million in call
deflection savings annually
NetApp Community $500 million in sales and drives
28% of all NetApp web traffic
Paramount
Pictures
Twitter Promoted movie through
tweets using hash tag
#Super8Secret
9 million impressions in less
than 24 hours and mentions of
the movie skyrocketed to more
than 150 per minute; receipts
for the sneak preview exceeded
$1 million; weekend box office
surpassed expectations by 52%
Continued on the next page
fore with social technologies expanding an organization’s reach worldwide.
Translating the results from social technologies in order to understand
the ROI is a must. Bell (2012) reported that Marshall Sponder, author of
Social Media Analytics, confirms that social media ROI is achievable, and
companies, more and more, are working with social data in an intelligent
and scalable manner. Perhaps even more persuasive is a statement made
by Erik Qualman (2010) – ‘The ROI of social media is that your business
will still exist in five years.’
The examples presented provide evidence that by strategically develop-
ing a social technologies platform based on the principles of knowledge
management, an organization will significantly grow their customer base, in-
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
Managing the Business of Social Technologies 265
Table 1 Continued from the previous page
Business Social Tech. Process Results
Petco Q&A content 75% increase in sales; 100%
more orders per session; 28%
increase in items per order; 9%
higher average order value
SAP Community 15% reduction in product
release cycles
Sprint Brand monitoring helped
uncover conversation insights
to drive campaign messaging
changes
$133 increased revenue
Starbucks 75,000 product and service
ideas suggested
T Mobile Sales and product training Reduced time from 1.5 hour
sessions to 15 minutes
University
of London
Internal
Social
Network
Students collaborate remotely Expected to deliver future
savings of £300,000 per year in
print, courier and administration
costs.
UPS POPURL
dashboard
Videos 32,000 video views; 25%
regular return visits to the site;
and average of seven minutes
spent on the site per visit
Virgin
America
Twitter Exclusive flash sale Raised the maximum $50,000
in charitable donations for
Stand Up to Cancer; top five
sales days ever for the airline
Notes Adapted from Kim (2012).
crease their revenue and realize considerable savings over ‘doing business
as usual.’
Maintaining a desirable online reputation is the key that will keep the
social technology doors of opportunity open.
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Jeretta Horn Nord is a professor in the department of Management Science
and Information Systems in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma
State University. She is the Founder and CEO of Entrepreneur Enterprises,
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
Managing the Business of Social Technologies 267
LLC, and the Founder of A Cup of Cappuccino for the Entrepreneur’s Spirit
book series. Jeretta conducts research in the areas of technology and en-
trepreneurship. She has served as the Associate Dean for the Spears School
of Business at Oklahoma State University, and is currently the executive edi-
tor of The Journal of Computer Information Systems. jeretta.nord@okstate.edu
This paper is published under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013