July 26, 2012
HOT OFF THE PRESSES!
Businesses can no longer ignore Social Media Management. McKinsey and Co., the world’s largest consulting firm, just released their findings from a recent study indicating VALUE and PRODUCTIVITY increase with Social Media.
Companies can no longer afford to ignore Social Media. Social Media Management is necessary to not only engage your clientele, but to also compete in today’s economic environment.
McKinsey Says Social Media Could Add $1.3 Trillion to the Economy
Published: Thursday, 26 Jul 2012 | 10:51 AM ET Text Size
By: Quentin Hardy, The New York Times
Juan Mabromata | AFP | Getty Images
And you thought Facebook’s valuation was big.
McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of the business consulting giant, has just published a lengthy study on “unleashing value and productivity through social technologies.” The short version is that things like improved communication and collaboration from social media in four major business sectors could add $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in value to the economy.
The value is mostly through added productivity. Improved consumer focus as well as better-functioning teams are two other benefits. That is a great big number, likely to attract attention. McKinsey last did that in May 2011, with a report that said that by 2018 the United States could face a shortfall of 1.5 million data analysts and managers able to cope with the flood of data in their businesses.
The report adds credence to a recent flood of social media acquisitions from companies like Oracle [ORCL 29.80 0.54 (+1.85%) ], Salesforce [CRM 125.4201 0.1001 (+0.08%) ] and Microsoft [MSFT 29.24 0.41 (+1.42%) ]. Big companies with large corporate customers have been spending billions on everything from better ways to manage how customers view them in chat rooms to internal communications software that looks and works like Facebook [FB 27.371 -1.969 (-6.71%) ].
Since they work with a lot of autonomy, but also in consultation with others, interactions workers benefit the most from knowing such things as which employees have the deepest knowledge in certain subjects, or who last contributed to a project, and how to get in touch with them quickly.
There are challenges to using social media effectively, the report says, and it could take years to put these productivity tools in place correctly. The main challenges are organizational and personal, as managers have to develop nonhierarchical cultures, where data and knowledge are exposed and shared, not hoarded.
“These technologies are successful when influential people are role models, using them and explaining them,” Mr. Chui said.
Uh-oh: once again, no matter how good the machines, people still have to be good, too. And that remains no simple matter.
This story originally appeared in The New York Times