LEADING THE WAY
Social media are here to stay. Do you have a strategy?
- Published: 11 Dec 2012 at 00.00
- Newspaper section: Business
No business can deny the power of social media. Social networking has emerged as the dominant cultural phenomenon of the digital era. It's not about businesses selling products, promoting the company message or sending out data over a one-way communication channel. Consumers are in charge, talking about those businesses _ and their products, services, employees, performances and reputations _ across social networks in billions of chats, blogs and emails.
Social media are changing the way people work, shop, receive services and communicate with each other. We are in the midst of a major change in the way that businesses and customers interact, whether our customers are consumers or other businesses, internal or external. It's a change enabled by technology, but not fundamentally about technology. It's about having conversations with customers. These conversations are partially or wholly public, requiring a new culture of transparency.
Recognising the importance of this trend, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has gathered the thoughts of CEOs from around the world over the past several years (PwC's annual global CEO survey). CEOs expect that social media and mobile devices will prompt a "significant change" in companies' strategies to engage customers, as customers turn to social media to voice their preferences.
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