The preconception seems to be that social media is solely the preserve of marketing folk. And that is so wrong. Social media tools can be (and occasionally are) integrated into all aspects of a company’s business. Reading a piece on car companies active in social media (US social media company Virtue just did a ranking of automotive brands active in social media) it was Ford’s Scott Monty who highlights it
Ford’s recognition among Internet users didn’t happen by accident, said Scott Monty, who heads its global digital communications.
The company “maintains active conversations” on blogs, message boards and discussion forums, and integrates social media into other areas of the business such as customer service, product development and marketing, Monty said.
We work with Nokia on the corporate blog side of things, within the social media team, which in itself sits inside the comms team. However that’s not the only place you’ll find social media at Nokia.
BetaLabs is a section of Nokia product development designed to bring pre-release software to a wider audience for testing and feedback, before the final applications are released. The site is designed around social media fundamentals (there’s a blog, RSS and commenting which all allow readers to share and participate). It’s been an invaluable tool for the developers at Nokia and there’s been a good many successful apps already “graduated” from there to become full blown products. Sports Tracker was downloaded some two million times whilst it was in development, with feedback from comments going directly back to the developers, who were then able to polish the app before its final release. That is social media in action. And guess what? Not a marketing body in sight.
We need to rapidly evolve our thinking around social media and move it away from being solely a marketing domain to a tool. It isn’t a fad, it’s a way of life, and one that is being rapidly adopted around the world. Just a shame the preconception hasn’t quite caught up yet.
Read more about the Virtue report on Las Vegas Review Journal