Social Media and Applications
Social media has moved from being a platform for fun that connects different people into a tool which is being used in the classroom and businesses. Social media and applications facilitate connection and communication between various people in different parts of the world. The use of social media has not only enhanced communication process but has also encouraged the sharing of information among different people.
Social media maturity model
This is one of the articles that I have selected on social media and applications. The authors of the article argue that effective adoption of social media into the business model requires that businesses reach certain levels of knowledge, sophistication, and integration of their social media strategy. A social media maturity model is a crucial tool to healthcare managers because they can be used for many purposes. For instance, determining where the organization stands in terms of its social media capabilities, what strategies are appropriate to its maturity level, and how they can move from one level to another. Social revolution in the healthcare industry has led to the realization of the importance of social media in healthcare. This is as a result of the advancement in technology that has characterized the contemporary society where social media is becoming one of the most common forms of communications and engagement amongst employees in many firms.
Social media maturity models are used to help businesses to assess their position and their follow a course that is geared towards a comprehensive state. Social intelligence has become the basis that is used to achieve immediate and responsive interaction and adaptable processes that are driven by customers who are empowered. Social Intelligence is simply the knowledge of customers that emanates from combining insights into customers (Thomas and Woodside, 2016). Social media intelligence enables us to manage real-time conversations with customers by listening to their points of view, and delivering relevant information to the managers. Social Media Customer Care Model is one of the frameworks that can be used to manage real time conversations with customers. This model has five levels which include; listening or ignoring, social media broadcasting, social media marketing and social media customer care.
The are many versions of social media which have been integrated into healthcare, for instance, support sites to online Patient Health Records, from mobile interventions to connecting patient with healthcare providers. The article proposes a social media maturity model which healthcare organizations can use as a management tool to understand their position and capabilities and to plan for improvements. This model can also be used to determine the state of the industry, and to identify leaders and laggards because it is a process of preparation, coordination, and integration on a path to coherence. Preparation and coordination, the origination must learn how to utilize its skills to identify and understand its constituencies. By doing this, the firm understands what is important to the consumers and what they prefer so that they align their products to the preferences of customers.
Integration, as the organization grows, it raises the level of its interactions and expands its partnerships with healthcare consumers, support groups and its workers. It develops meaningful ways in which to incorporate the social engagement, self-generated data, and behavior of its health consumers toward specific goals that have been articulated. Coherence, the operations, community relations and vision of nay organizations become more seamlessly meshed when it approaches social media maturity. This aids in increasing its responsiveness as well as its ability to distinguish where to focus tactically on issues as they occur and where to best place its resources strategically.
Conclusion
The authors of the article conclude that social media maturity in the healthcare industry is more than an organization’s implementation of technical tools and technologies. It is the role of any organization to select tools, to recognize new sources of data, to present the data, content and interactions to audiences in ways that are consistent and driven by objectives. The social media maturity model presented is a critical tool for healthcare managers to evaluate the organizational social media capabilities, plan future phases, and identify the components that are required to improve organizational social media maturity.
Application of social media types in the sales process
Sales media is a crucial tool for enhancing customer-related information management. The purpose of the research in the article was to measure the extent to which sales people have integrated various types of social media in the various steps of the selling process. The use of social media in the selling process by salespeople help them to freely interact and participate in development ideas as well as improvise new ideas based on the feedback of the customers. It is also crucial because it helps sales people to reach new clients who may not be aware of the products but can see the positive reviews of customers on various social media sites. Through social networks, for instance, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, business entities nowadays are able to advertise and market products to a wider audience who form part of the potential customers of their products.
A questionnaire was developed and designed in such a way that participants were asked about the social media types that they were professionally involved with on a weekly basis. The respondents were also asked to indicate the duration in which they have been employed in the sales profession through fifty seven questionnaires that were given to them. Based on the responses of the respondents it was evident that the top social media types that were used by most of the salespeople were Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Those who use Facebook tended to agree with all the five applications/statements that were designed in the questionnaires. The users of face book in the sales process tended to agree with the statements that were designed whereas the non users did not agree with the statements. The statements include; our company regularly posts news stories on Facebook, our company shares news stories on Facebook, our company uses face book to direct potential clients to sales channels, our company recruits participants who are tasked with promoting new products via Facebook, our company carries out and runs promotions on Facebook, our company asks for referrals from Facebook and other social sites like twitter, pour company is using blogs to address various issues that arise during the negotiation process.
Twitter, ten applications were found to be vital of the users of twitter, those sales people who used twitter tended to agree with the following statement; our company has established twitter presence, our company tweets about results and innovations, our company shares its success stories on Facebook and LinkedIn, our company announces their sales through tweets, our company uses twitter to address complaints that emanate during the sales process.
LinkedIn, sales people who embraced LinkedIn in their sales process tended to agree with two statements. Non users of LinkedIn tended to agree with three other statements whereas users were neutral. our company shares news stories on LinkedIn, our firm uses LinkedIn to direct potential clients to sales channels, our company recruits participants who are tasked with promoting new products via LinkedIn, our company carries out and runs promotions on LinkedIn, our company asks for referrals from Facebook and other social sites like twitter
Conclusion
The research looked at the social media activity to establish the utilization of various types of social media in the process of selling products where it was established that firms have moved into social media in the early stages of the selling process. Most companies have joined social media networks to market their products (Schuldt & Totten, 2015). These sites are used to monitor activities that take place during the selling process and get feedback from various people. Social media is also used to monitor customer comments and use them to improve the products of various companies based on preferences of customers. Various types of social media types are used by salespeople in the process of selling their products. Companies need to have presence on various social media sites thus able to monitor what is said about its products. Those companies whose salespeople have embraced social media tools in their selling process increase their sales because social media enables a firm to reach many potential customers. Social media is also crucial in the process of feedback; firms are able to know about the feeling of customers on their products from the comments that are posted on social media sites.
References
Thomas, L. & Woodside, J. M. (2016). Social media maturity model. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 9(1), 67-73.
Schuldt, B. A. & Totten, J. W. (2015). Application of Social Media Types in the Sales Process. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 19(3), ccxxx-ccxlii.