The Role of Social Media in the Knowledge-Based Organizations

This chapter introduces the role of Social Media (SM) in Knowledge-Based Organizations (KBOs), thus explaining the concept of KBOs, the difference between KBOs and non-KBOs, the concept of Knowledge Management (KM), the concept of SM, the importance of SM to KBOs, the application of SM in the KBOs, and the challenges of SM in the KBOs. This chapter explains the significance of SM for organizational development and adaptation to the business architecture in order to create knowledge integration environment in the KBOs. SM enables the creation of knowledge value chain to customize information and delivery for a technological business growth. Firms need to be connected to their technological business environment through SM because interacting with external sources of knowledge can effectively improve their capabilities about industry benchmark and competitive advantage. Understanding the role of SM in the KBOs will significantly enhance the organizational performance and achieve business goals in the global business environments.

Web 2.0 and Social Media in Today's Business World

Social media technology is an innovative way for businesses to collaborate, network, and provide a mechanism for individuals to interact. When social media technology is used effectively, it can be a powerful tool for businesses to market themselves and obtain important data on their customers and competitors. Given the importance and public nature of today's consumer opinions, it is vital for companies to present themselves effectively on social media. Some companies and their employees are not familiar with this form of technology and do not realize the massive amount of data social media sites can generate. Therefore, companies need to develop a social media policy and educate their employees on how to analyze and respond to the data produced from social media. This chapter studies Web 2.0 tools and social media in today's business world and provides guidelines of adopting social media for organizations.

Using Social Media in the Workplace

This chapter examines the internal communication practices of Lenovo, a $34 billion Fortune Global 500 technology company, and the world's second-largest PC vendor. In particular, this study examines how this company uses social media as a method of internal communications in fostering employee engagement. Internal communications is generally led by marketing or PR professionals with expertise in human resources, public relations, marketing, social media, and/or employee engagement. One new way that companies are extending internal communication is by developing the use of their company intranets. Intranets can support an organization by sharing accurate company information on a timely basis. This chapter describes how Lenovo has developed and uses its Lenovo Central intranet to engage employees in its mission and vision.

Impact of General Social Media Experience on Usefulness for Business in the Workplace

This chapter looks at the adoption of general social media applications on usefulness for business, comparing the factors that influence adoption at work between Japan and the United States. In Japan, ease of use and usefulness for collective knowledge in general social media are predictors of usefulness for business social media, and in the United States, only usefulness for collective knowledge is a strong predictor of usefulness for business. The authors did not find behavioral intention to use social media in the workplace to be an important factor in predicting the usefulness of social media for business. The value of this research is its ability to understand the use of social media in the workplace to include how the experience of social media impacts on the expectation of usefulness for business and how the impact of ease of use differs from Japanese to the United States because of cultural, technological, and market reasons.

Using the Power of Social Media Marketing to Build Consumer-Based Brand Equity

This chapter highlights how companies might use social media marketing to build brand credibility and, ultimately, consumer-based brand equity. By building brand credibility and equity through SMM, companies can connect with distinctly different consumer groups. Because consumers are adept integrators of marketing communication channels within and across media, companies with strong virtual communities may reap even greater results from the theoretical perspective of customer-based brand equity discussed within the chapter. Marketing scholars and practitioners alike may find this chapter of interest due to the growing desire by companies to develop strong bonds with consumers and their interest in effectively using social media as a marketing tool.

Social Media for Business Model Improvement

This chapter reviews some of the major business applications of social media and discusses how social media applications are used to support business model improvement. Social media offers business organizations an array of innovative ways to interact with their employees, customers, partners, and other stakeholders. Consumers have easy ways of interacting with companies and their employees in real time with various social media embedded devices. Managers are realizing that social media affects a wide spectrum of business activities from building product or brand awareness to after-sales services. Therefore, it is crucial for companies to analyze their social media applications, develop a plan to continually monitor their advancements, and quickly respond to the social media needs of customers. For practitioners, this chapter provides managerial guidelines for social media applications for business model improvement.

Re-Conceptualizing Relational Integrated Marketing Communications from the Perspective of Social CRM

As a new emerging trend, social Customer Relationship Management (social CRM) can be defined as the business practice of promoting voluntary customer engagement activities driven by social media into the value creation process in order to build long-term co-beneficial relationships with target customers as the ultimate end-goal of customer relationship management. Following the spirit of social CRM, this chapter is intended to propose conceptual guidelines for the design of effective relational integrated marketing communications strategies, including message and media strategies, with particular focus on the promotion of opinion leaders' voluntary engaged efforts with others in a typical social network setting. By implanting the power of social media in relational integrated marketing communications strategies, marketers are able to put the “relationship” back into CRM in order to restore its true meaning – building better long-term relationships with customers.

Greek Politicians and the Use of Online Technologies for Citizen Engagement

This chapter examines how politicians utilise Internet technologies to create an online presence, the motivating and hindering factors for doing so, and the perceived significance such a presence can have. The authors present empirical data collected via in-depth interviews with Greek politicians taking part in the general elections of 2012. The findings suggest that although politicians are increasingly interested in engaging with citizens using online technologies, their efforts are not always focused on achieving measurable and tangible results. Consequently, they do not make full use of the potential online technologies offer. Instead, the authors conclude, online strategies need to be organised around predefined objectives and based on clear communication and engagement plans.

Social Media

On the basis of qualitative research conducted in two different case contexts, this chapter explores attitudes and approaches to the use of social media in relationship and community building. Two contrasting study contexts are addressed: the UK football sector and UK pure-play Small/Medium-Sized (SME) fashion retailers. After an introduction, the chapter summarises discussion and research on brands and their management in social media. This is followed by an outline of the two contexts for study. From this, the aims, objectives, and research methodology are drawn. The findings are then presented, and the ensuing discussion proposes a summary of the approaches to social media strategy adopted in the two case contexts. Four important foci are established, namely strategic marketing, marketing communication, brand and community, plus monitoring and evaluation. This results in a useful strategic framework empirically drawn from the in-depth data. Finally, suggestions for future research precede a conclusion.

Viral Advertising and the Implications of Social Media

Given the estimated online advertising market in the United States of around 4 billion dollars and the current proliferation of social media Websites, this study focuses on reviewing the key theoretical and practical aspects related to viral advertising. It includes an overview of different aspects related to the nature, characteristics, and evaluation of viral advertising, especially focusing on what makes advertisements viral. After a review of the term viral advertising, the author discusses the key characteristics of viral ads, including the most used viral advertising appeals—humor and sexual—and also including a section regarding the importance of the message source on consumers' reaction towards an advertisement. The study also provides a discussion about consumer-generated advertising, a modern online advertising feature that leads to increased interaction and involvement from consumers. The last part of this chapter focuses on the monitoring and evaluating viral ads outcomes by using both traditional and social media specific advertising measures. The author also presents a few ideas related to future research directions and information that might prove useful for advertising research and practice.