Social media = Great for Corporations
Traditional images of corporations are those of big buildings, powerful exec’s in boardrooms in HQ’s in the key locations in the US, we all know Corporations are large global companies with Hundreds of thousands of Staff each doing what they do best. In my particular instance i talk about the People at HP, a company with over 300k+ Employee’s doing things the HP Way.
As an employee i know this and it defines the way i look at HP and the way i talk about HP to other people and this defines the image of HP in my eyes; But how do you show customers etc… what makes HP tick and how do you improve image ?
While you could spend a couple million dollars on Commercials with tag lines etc… Its still very black line, no personal contact etc…
Ill give you an example take Major Nelson (http://www.twitter.com/majornelson) who has a senior position at Microsoft’s Xbox division and a very active Twitter user! Now the chances of me coming across him in day to day life is slim to be honest, but with Social Media i can follow what he is doing and build up a picture and even get some sneaky xbox information.
And its great, because i can see that he is just a normal person like you and i think it removes that Corporate Image from him, Because as ive already said Corp’s are made up of people who do real things and not just sit at desks all day.
Twitter has also been good for me to find colleagues and interest groups, another example is one of my colleagues from the US who i don’t work with directly (http://twitter.com/AngelaAtHP) now let met tell you something Angela first off has a pretty mean Nachos recipe, but is also there letting people know when HP related events etc are on and its my opinion that Corporation and business’s should look at social media as a way to improve corporate image but most importantly talk to our customers.
Its very easy to make a product nobody wants, but its harder and takes time to figure what people actually want; Look at all the Mini Notebooks now, for years people wanted small Truly portable Laptops that didn’t break your legs trying to balance it or burn them for example and when the technology was available to be truly miniature all manufacturers started producing them.
Corporate forums are also great, check out HP’s one for Consumers: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/
Normally monitored by companies it can be a great resource to find faults in products which are long into service and in the field, its also great to find what can fix this product. It can be a faster way to find faults and release official fixes for them which in term helps customer satisfaction and builds a greener image of Companies !
** Notice **
While i am a HP Employee, the above represents my Opinion on Social Media + Its benefits; It does not represent the opinion of Hewlett-Packard Company or its subsidiaries and i am not a Spokes Person for HP, to speak with someone at HP Please see http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/media.html