The year ahead will see the lines drawn between consumer and corporate use of corporate use of social media becoming blurred, an analyst suggests.
UK organisations must adapt and build better relationships with increasingly savvy consumers if they wish to boost their performance in 2012 claims Mark Guinibert, customer and channel partner at KPMG.
Guinibert forecasts that companies will increasingly use games to encourage greater brand engagement and believes they will take note of fast-growing mobile social networks such as Instagram. He also believes that “social media laggards” will realise that non-participation in social media is no longer an option and there will be increasing recognition that greater transparency via social media makes good business sense.
His comments follow a recent KPMG report that found 48% of UK companies surveyed used social media to communicate for business purposes, compared with 72% in the US and 83% in China. It also found that four in five survey respondents agreed that the “significant business returns” delivered by social media use outweighed the risks.
“It is naive to think that social media has no place in the business world. With multiple channels available to consumers in the shape of smart phones, tablets and laptops, the businesses that do well will be those that can adapt and adopt,” says Guinibert. “Anything less risks closing off routes to market at a time no business can afford to turn opportunities down.”