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The next billion consumers will never have lived in a world without social media
@dionnelew
dionnekasianlew.com
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If you’re an executive who’s still uncertain about using social media for business, here’s a compelling
reason to consider it: almost two billion consumers already do.
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That trend shows no sign of abating, with social media having grown by around 18% in 2013 &predictions it
will reach 2.55 billion by 2017.
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Still not convinced?
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The billions of new consumers who are about to emerge globally will have never lived in a world
without it. .
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They will expect to find you on their platform of choice, not because you’re a cutting-edge, socially savvy brand, but by default – much as shops once
required floor space and a front door.
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Here’s another reason why having a social media presence matters: the people using social media are
shopping.
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There’s hard data that the research they do in social networks influences what they buy.
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Although social networks influence decision-making on and offline (for example, who people vote for or what accountant they’ll use) this year e-commerce alone was worth $1.3 trillion with expectations it will continue growing at a staggering 20% per year.
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According to a recent Sensis Social Media Report, of the 65% of Australians who use social media, one in
five research products using social media – nearly 70% of which convert to a sale.
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Yet, as Frost & Sullivan shows, of the $18.3 billion spent online by Australians, 79% is on overseas sites. (Notwithstanding this social commerce,
or shopping by social media, is still sizeable, bringing in $300 million this year.)
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While many factors contribute to this statistic, the gap between consumer expectation and business
behavior is telling; only 30% of small businesses and around half of medium-sized businesses currently
having a social media presence.
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Of those that do, many whack up a Facebook page or start a Twitter feed because they believe they ‘should’ instead of asking the deeper, age-old
questions about who they are as a business, why they are there and what their customers want. In other
words, having a strategy. .
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A disconnect is that many leaders continue to think about social media as a channel, specifically for
communications or sales.
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But its reach is far greater. .
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What social media, like technology, delivers is an expectation that cannot necessarily be delivered
under legacy business structures: immediacy.
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This can in part be addressed at a channel level.
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For example, in Australia 70% of social media users shop by smartphone and businesses that have
successfully adapted to mobile can generate sales by suggesting additional options at the point of sale.
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(Not surprisingly, those customers want issues resolved just as fast and in an online space that
suits them.)
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But there’s increasing evidence that this is not enough and that it’s the companies that ‘get’ digital
as a ‘way of being’ rather than a ‘handball-to-marketing’ which outperform their peers.
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A recent two-year joint study by Capgemini and MIT Sloan of almost 400 firms found that businesses who are more digitally mature, or ‘digirati’ as the report calls them, have a clear digital advantage over their
less mature peers.
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This trend applies to every industry.
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The report found that digirati were:
• 26% more profitable than their less mature peers; • Generate 9% more revenue through their employees and physical assets; • Generate 12% higher market valuation ratios.
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Capgemini Australia’s Digital Transformation lead Ben Gilchriest says that what distinguishes digirati is that they make strategic decisions on where to excel
in digital.
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That results in technology-enabled initiatives that change engagement with customers and internal operations, and even transform business models.
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However, most importantly…
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… they never lose sight of the leadership elements: vision, governance, the IT-business relationship and
engagement with employees. .
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There’s evidence that real business benefits emerge as a result of this deep structural transformation and
not fashion-driven tinkering at the edges. .
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A key factor is a digitally driven board and executive prepared to propel change through every
layer of the business.
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This leaves us with something of a problem right now.
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Last year only 16% of CEOs used social media.
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Some sign up to platforms like LinkedIn but are not actively using it.
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This is a bit like going to a networking lunch and standing in the corner.
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In the past a succession plan would have ensured social and digital capabilities were identified and
emerging leaders trained but the accelerated speed of change means the impact of delay is serious.
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Leaders can act to ensure their business models do not put them at a competitive disadvantage in the future by understanding that social media is not about a
‘like’ on Facebook or a 140-character tweet, but the future of how we do business.
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Social media is not about social media. It’s about leadership.
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www.dionnekasianlew.com