Social media use is catching on with businesses. A study from the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth shows that social media adoption and awareness amongst Inc. 500 companies continues to increase:
“… 91% of firms are using at least one social media tool in 2009″
Three-quarters of these businesses even describe themselves as “very familiar” with social networking. So where does that leave everyone else?
For businesses that are less familiar (or just plain unfamiliar) with social media, one tactic to consider might be something that is familiar: acquisition.
Hallmark and Kodak create partnerships to become more social
In the last month there have been two standout examples of companies entering or increasing their presence in social media by way of partnership deals.
- Hallmark expanded its presence on Facebook by making an investment in the Facebook application called SocialCalendar, a tool used to organize users’ social lives. The application was rebranded and relaunched as Hallmark SocialCalendar.
- Kodak forged a partnership agreement with TweetPhoto, under which both companies “will collaborate on initiatives focused around real-time photography and photo sharing.” Their first co-project is the real-time Event Photo Stream.
Neither Hallmark nor Kodak is new to social media (both are on Twitter; Kodak has several initiatives), but these situations represent a new direction for the brands. Hallmark now owns a Facebook application with over 2 million monthly users, and Kodak has all but confirmed an official photo-upload tool for Twitter, which is now standard on several third-party clients.
Who could you partner with?
As you think about your social media strategy and how it best fits in with your organization, could creating a partnership with someone (or some service) already active in the space be a good solution? Look for individuals, web developers, or companies that are operating in your industry and consider starting a conversation about how you could work together in social media.
What do you think about this idea? Can companies become social by partnering with others who are? Did Kodak or Hallmark make a smart move?
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Mike – Fantastic post. I think we are going to see more and more of this as companies realize the importance of the medium and the fact that they currently do not employ any experts to assist with their strategy. As a result, many companies are going to outsource this facet of their business or look to companies that “get it,” which is much to your point above.
I’m glad you followed my logic, Pete. As we get out of the “magical” stage of social media and businesses start thinking about it like another facet of their communications strategy, I think they’ll employ the same tactics that have always worked: find someone who gets it and bring them in.
What will be most interesting from my perspective is seeing who ends up where. I’ve seen a number of individuals in the past year that are leaving their traditional posts to join socially-engaged companies as analysts, strategists, and community managers. Companies need to be mindful of this and seek to acquire or partner for the assets they don’t have.