Marketing and the CMO
Social is often first embraced by marketing, as chief marketing officers (CMO) quickly saw the value in being able to monitor and quickly respond to customer conversations. A recent IBM study of more than 1,700 CMOs reveals that 82 percent plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years. Another survey by Duke University’s Fuqua Business School revealed that social media spending as a percentage of marketing budgets will more than double in the next five years. Couple this with the fact that CMOs are slated to spend more on IT than CIOs, and it's safe to say that there’s a lot of focus on the right social tools to help and retain customers.CMOs can gain insights on external data from sources like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and public forums to react more swiftly to customer trends, build their brands and create exceptional customer experiences that inspire brand loyalty. According to a 2012 Nielsen study, one in three social media users prefer contacting customer service through social media than by phone.
Finance and the CFO
CFOs
can use data shared through social tools to streamline business
processes and drive results, particularly as social tools transition
from a new technology into an essential tool for conducting business. According to Gartner,
by 2016, 50 percent of large organizations will have internal
Facebook-like social networks, and that 30 percent of these will be
considered as essential as email and telephones are today.From the CFO’s perspective, social tools pay off because they can reduce customer attrition, which is critical when you take into account that just a five percent decrease in customer attrition can boost profits by up to 95 percent. On the flip side, finding new customers can cost up to seven times as much as keeping existing customers.
Human Resources
Organizations cannot succeed without focusing on acquiring, empowering and growing talent. Human resource executives can use social tools throughout the recruiting, hiring, onboarding and employee development process to help create a happier, more productive, global workforce.Human resources are also receiving pressure from executive leadership; according to a 2013 Bersin by Deloitte study, over half of business leaders surveyed cite gaps in their leadership pipeline as one of their three critical obstacles to growth.
For recruiting purposes, human resources can use data shared through social tools to identify the skill sets and attributes that create successful, engaged employees. This information can then be used throughout the recruitment and hiring process, to ensure potential candidates will be a cultural fit.
HR is also using social tools as a part of the onboarding process. During orientation, new employees create their personal profiles on the internal social network and are shown how to find experts on various topics, access information and collaborate on projects with colleagues. Not only does this enable employees to quickly acclimate to their new position, but by incorporating social into their daily work processes from the onset, organizations create future ambassadors and power users of social technologies.
A great example of a company using social tools for human resources is Electrolux, a global leader in consumer and professional appliances, including the Frigidaire line of refrigerators. Having recently moved employees from its Brussels location to a new facility in Stockholm, Electrolux HR created a community on the social business platform where employees created and shared information related to the relocation. Employees were engaged, felt better informed and were more comfortable with the relocation process overall.
Adopted from Sandy Carter Blog
