9
SOCIAL MEDIA IN BUSINESS

As a management accountant, you could be called upon—now or in the future—to help your company determine or refine its goals for communicating both inside and outside the organisation, develop strategies for accomplishing those goals, and evaluate whether those strategies are working. You could be asked to assist with new initiatives, such as integrating social media into your company’s business plan and operations. Management accountants can apply the same technical knowledge, financial expertise and critical thinking skills to communication management that they have applied to other areas, such as advising a company on managing operations more efficiently and at lower costs or evaluating plans to enter new markets or acquire other companies. This chapter will discuss some of the benefits and risks of using social media, summarise the features of some popular social media platforms, and explain why your company should have a social media policy.

Social media refers to interactive platforms where individuals or groups (such as companies) can create, share, discuss and modify user-created content. Employees of corporations and businesses are probably well-accustomed to using social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.¹ Individuals spend more time on social media sites than anywhere else on the Internet.² According to an MIT Sloan/Deloitte survey and research study, the main reasons people participate in social media at work are to network with others, work more effectively and voice opinions.³ Among other reasons are to feel more connected to the organisation, improve personal reputation and develop skills.

By contrast, many companies are still in the early stages of incorporating social media into their business models and operations. The potential to use social media in business is enormous, including improved customer relationship development and market research. One of the biggest potential benefits for companies is the ability to communicate with customers through social media. Corporate leaders have been hesitant to adopt social media, which may explain why their companies are not pursuing social media. Seven of ten CEOs reportedly have no presence on major social networks.⁴ Concerning the use of Twitter, some executives say they don’t have the time or don’t see a direct correlation with sales. But advocates of CEOs using Twitter and other social media say they provide an inexpensive and effective means of connecting with customers, clients and employees.

Companies that do use social media have seen benefits in the area of communication. Internal and external networking and social media tools can be used to speed access to knowledge, cut communication costs and reduce time to market for products and services. As companies find new uses and applications for social media, they are expanding their goals for social media from specific objectives (such as cost savings) to strategic goals (such as increasing the rate of innovation through collaboration).⁵ Finance professionals, typically sceptical about social networking, are starting to see the value of social media for interacting with investors, employees, customers and stakeholders.

Because social media platforms are continuously evolving, some companies may find it difficult to grasp the benefits and risks of using social media. According to a Financial Executive Research Foundation report, ‘many companies are just now starting to take a serious look at the benefits of social media in business, and they are looking even more closely at the risks involved, such as fraud, theft, defamation, cyber-bullying and invasion of privacy among others.’⁶ The report ultimately found that many of the executives surveyed believed the risks can be mitigated or are outweighed by the benefits. Let’s examine the benefits and risks of using social media as a business communication tool.

BENEFITS

Among other benefits, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn empower companies to

• broaden, deepen and strengthen relationships with audiences, including current and prospective customers and clients, current and prospective employees, shareholders and investors, business partners, vendors, suppliers and service providers.

• communicate with a wider market of prospective customers and at a lower cost than may be possible through traditional means, such as print advertising.

• develop their own social business applications or acquire applications from third party providers to write plans for incorporating social media into the organisation, create metrics for measuring the value of social media, manage social media more efficiently and evaluate the performance of social media.

• increase the company’s visibility in the marketplace and promote its brand using platforms such as Facebook or Twitter and communication channels such as blogs, videos, webcasts and podcasts. In the UK, a wide range of small businesses, including a hotelier, a dentist, a business coach and a bookbinder have used social media to attract customers and increase sales.⁷

• put a human touch on an organisation through blogs, tweets, videos and other communication from senior executives and others in the company.

• inform and educate existing and prospective customers and clients about the company’s products and services, launch of new products and other news about the company, and get customer feedback, for example, through polls of customers on social media sites.

• learn more about customers and clients based on their comments left on company social media sites, online conversations with them, and market research using social media and other sources of information and intelligence.

• study the social media sites of competitors and other organisations to learn about best practices, competitors’ social media initiatives, social media trends and other information.

• use internal networks based on social media models like Yammer to enable managers and employees to communicate and collaborate within the organisation.

• foster innovation in the organisation through collaboration, sharing of knowledge, testing of ideas, and research and development.

A further benefit of the increased visibility generated by social media is in hiring. As you may recall from chapter 2, the next generation of management accountants has required some companies to re-think many of their policies. Anoop Mehta, vice president and CFO of Science Systems and Applications, Inc., has observed that technology has affected the communication skills of recent graduates. ‘Companies will have to adapt to [young people’s] expectations if they expect to recruit and retain talented young people, which is why we are looking at the possible use of Facebook and other social media tools in our company.’ See interview 13 with Mehta in appendix A.

RISKS

Although social media offers exceptional opportunities for companies to communicate, collaborate and reach global markets, it also carries serious risks. A few of these risks are explained in the following list:

• Loss of control. A company’s postings on its social media sites or comments about a company on its sites or other sites could go viral, reaching millions of people almost instantaneously.

• Damaging comments. Comments about a company from people inside or outside the organisation can seriously damage a company’s reputation.

• Security breaches. Protection of sensitive or proprietary information could be breached because of inadvertent or deliberate disclosure by employees or others or in the event an employee accidentally loses his or her smart phone, tablet, or other mobile device containing company information.

• Hacking. Social media sites are vulnerable to malware attacks and hacking that could result in loss of company information and data.

• Loss of productivity. Employees could spend time using their personal or professional social media accounts for purposes that are not related to work.

• Regulatory transgressions. A company could violate governance and compliance laws and regulations for corporate social media sites.

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Although business leaders may have questions and concerns about social media, they generally agree on its growing importance to their organisations. To investigate the effects of social networking and social software on business, Deloitte and MIT Sloan Management Review collaborated in a global research project.⁸ While just 18% of all survey respondents believe social business is important to their organisation today, 63% say it will be important in three years. Similar results were found in a separate IBM study of CEOs worldwide.⁹

Breaking down the results of the Deloitte study further, 28% of CEOs, presidents and managing directors say social business is important to their organisations today compared with 14% of CFOs, treasurers and comptrollers.¹⁰ The gap persists looking ahead: 71.3% of CEOs, presidents and managing directors believe that social business will be important to their organisations in three years, compared with 56.3% of the CFOs surveyed. That CFOs place less value on social media may be because they tend to focus on returns on investment, and few companies measure the results of their social initiatives. Many CFOs seem inclined to hold back on adopting social business until the technology matures and there is more evidence to support its business value. However, now is an opportune time for CFOs to take the lead in the social business of their companies. Embracing social media could enhance the strategic role of CFOs in the organisation and enhance their companies’ competitive edge.

Although social media can help to improve communication with external customers, increase productivity and achieve other corporate goals, it has limits and is not an appropriate substitute for all other forms of communication. A Deloitte survey of the role of social media in building workplace culture found that nearly half of executives surveyed believe social media has a positive effect on workplace culture while only a quarter of employees surveyed agreed.¹¹ There was a similar divide when executives and employees were surveyed about their thoughts on if social media allows for increased workplace transparency. ‘Our research suggests executives are possibly using social media as a crutch in building workplace culture and appearing accessible to employees,’ said Punit Renjen, chairman of the board, Deloitte LLP. ‘The norms for cultivating culture have not changed, and require managers to build trust through face-to-face meetings, live phone calls and personal messages.’

Another difficulty that companies face when determining the value of social media as a communication vehicle is developing metrics to measure the return on their investment. One question is whether traditional metrics can capture the true value of social media, or whether new metrics need to be developed to measure its value in reaching a global audience, building relationships with current and prospective customers, converting those relationships to sales, or fostering innovation in an organisation. Management accountants may be called upon to help determine if an investment in social media is practical. See box 9-1 for ways that management accounts can contribute to social media projects. Despite the uncertainties surrounding social media, this much seems certain: Measurement could become even more important if social media causes companies to make significant changes in their practices, processes, measurement systems and information systems.¹²

Box 9-1: CGMA: Role of Management Accountants in Web 2.0 Projects

* CGMA (Chartered Global Management Accountant), ‘How to make a business case for Web 2.0’ www.cgma.org/resources/tools/pages/make-a-business-case-for-web20.aspx
† For more details, including corporate case studies, see the report on the CGMA website at www.cgma.org/resources/tools/pages/make-a-business-case-for-web20.aspx.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

Assuming a company has established a business case for using social media or has reviewed and validated an existing business case for its use, a company must consider which social media channels to use or evaluate its existing use of channels. The following sections summarise the social media channels most actively used by businesses today. We will start our examination of social media platforms with LinkedIn, one of the most popular tools for professional networking. LinkedIn will be discussed as both a personal and business tool, whereas other sites—Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube—are discussed as business tools only.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet. As of September 30, 2012, LinkedIn had more than 187 million members in more than 200 countries and territories. More than two million companies have company pages on LinkedIn. On its page, a company can tell its story, highlight its products and services, engage with followers, including current or prospective customers, and share career opportunities.

Author Jan Vermeiren says the most powerful concept behind LinkedIn is that it finds the right people and the connections that you, the user, have with them.¹³ These features make it possible for you to connect with your primary network: the people you know. More than that, they enable you to build on those connections to associate with other people and other networks.

Your LinkedIn Profile

Creating a profile on LinkedIn gives you visibility in the business and professional community, promotes your personal brand, and showcases your work experience, knowledge and expertise. Furthermore, you can enhance your reputation by getting recommendations to add to your profile. The more detailed your profile, the easier it is for someone to find you.¹⁴

If you work for a global organisation, people in your own organisation who work in distant offices may learn about you through your LinkedIn profile. You may use LinkedIn to find people in your organisation with the expertise you need to help you with a project or join your team. You also can develop long-term relationships with others in your company. If you work for a small business, you can use your profile to connect your business to a global audience. In return, professional colleagues, professionals in other industries and others can find you through your profile.

Groups and Answers

By joining and actively participating in LinkedIn Groups, you can meet people with skills and interests similar to yours, learn about trends and issues in your company’s industry and markets, and build a reputation as a knowledgeable and thoughtful participant in group discussions. Likewise, by actively participating in LinkedIn Answers, you can develop a reputation as a knowledgeable source of information in your area of expertise. These interactions will strengthen your profile and enhance your professional credentials. They might also help impress future employers and recruiters.

Company Page

When you create a LinkedIn profile, you select the company for which you work. Your profile is then automatically added to the company page. Employee profiles on the company’s page serve to showcase the talents, skills and experience of its workforce to customers and clients, investors, business partners and others. They also show an organisation’s human resources. Through LinkedIn, employees can help their organisations to provide customer service, provide customer feedback, identify prospective customers, develop business partnerships, recruit people, track competitors or find experts who may help a company to address a business problem.

Twitter

More companies, from small businesses to corporate giants, are setting up Twitter accounts and tweeting, and some CFOs who are at the forefront in using social media are active Twitter users. As with other social media, a company should first consider how using Twitter fits into the organisation’s strategic goals and business plan. Twitter could help to support specific goals, such as building relationships with customers or prospects, improving customer relations, sharing ideas, promoting its thought leadership or other purposes. But the purposes for using Twitter should be clear.

Twitter is one of many ways a company can communicate, and it should be integrated with the organisation’s other communication platforms. The company should develop a plan for Twitter usage, including its goals, target audience, tweet topics, responding to questions and asking questions of followers.¹⁵

In a large company, a full-time ‘social media specialist’ might be dedicated to managing the organisation’s Twitter account. In smaller organisations, managing Twitter might be part of (many) other responsibilities. Regardless, the company should have designated people managing the account. If multiple employees are managing the account, some companies use the company name as a Twitter handle, and, in the profile information, they list the real name of the employees who manage the account.¹⁶

Facebook

If Facebook were an actual country, it would have the world’s third largest population. With more than one billion users,¹⁷ it is one of the most popular social networking sites. Businesses, from large corporations to small businesses, are networking with current and prospective customers and clients and marketing and selling products and services on Facebook. Businesses can draw on a wealth of advice from Facebook and other sources to promote their brands.

Facebook has a ‘Social Business Blueprints’ section that offers suggestions on building a page and promoting a brand, the success stories of some well-known corporations, and more. It also has a best practices guide for managing a Facebook account. Other organisations also have produced guides.¹⁸ These guides can be useful resources for developing your company’s social media presence.

Because it is free (if you don’t advertise), Facebook enables small businesses to market to a global audience at no cost. To make the most of Facebook, provide robust company information, make it a point to respond to every question from followers, make it easy to share content and partner with other small businesses. Small businesses are having success on Facebook. The National Federation of Independent Businesses profiled three such businesses on its website: a computer repair firm, a carpet and flooring business, and a photography company.¹⁹ The owners of each company describe how Facebook has allowed them to provide better communication with customers and quickly resolve customer service issues.

Google+

Google+ is a social networking and identity service operated by Google Inc. It has 500 million registered users of whom 235 million are active across Google.²⁰ Google describes it as an overarching layer that integrates many of its online services, such as Google Mail (Gmail), Maps, Profiles and Picasa.

Google+ also includes new services such as Circles, Hangouts and Sparks. Circles enables users to share information and ideas with friends, colleagues and others. Hangouts lets up to ten users join an online video meeting. Users can add a Hangouts event to their Google calendar, join the meeting directly from Gmail and open a Google document in a meeting. Using Hangouts, workers could efficiently collaborate in a virtual meeting and embed in a calendar future work commitments and follow-up. Sparks enables users to find articles and videos of interest on the Internet, sort them by topic, and share them. By creating Google+ Pages, businesses can share information that interests customers, prospects and others, promote their brand, and increase their visibility in the marketplace.

YouTube

Founded in 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share original videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe. It acts as a distribution platform for original content from creators and advertisers large and small. More than 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month, and more than four billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube.²¹

In contrast with some other social media, YouTube does not have a platform specifically designed for businesses. Even so, businesses large and small are creating branded channels on YouTube to which they upload videos they’ve created on a variety of topics, such as video annual reports or short videos that highlight a company’s financial results. (A channel is the YouTube home for a company’s brand. It is similar to a Facebook page or Twitter profile.) Creating a channel enables businesses to build relationships with clients and prospects and other viewers, build their brands, and market products and services.

Businesses and professionals are using YouTube to search for and view videos for a variety of purposes: (1) as a means of competitive analysis, (2) for garnering information that could be helpful in managing the business and (3) as a way to help employees develop their skills. Businesses also are using YouTube to participate in communities focused on issues of common interest. They are also leveraging their YouTube videos to achieve higher rankings on Google and other search engines.

INTERNET

In addition to social media platforms, the Internet offers many different ways for a company to build relationships with customers and clients, build its brand, increase its presence in the online marketplace, market products and services, obtain feedback from viewers on the company or its products and services and realise other benefits. Social media features can be integrated into a company’s online presence to allow clients and customers to further increase communication.

As with social media, a company needs to develop a plan for using the Internet. The plan includes the reasons for online communication, the audiences, a risk assessment, resources required and management responsibilities. Here again, as a management accountant, you could be asked to assist your organisation in writing and implementing a plan, and you might develop new skills or build upon existing skills in using the Internet to communicate in various ways.

Some online options available to a company are discussed in the sections that follow.

Company Website

A company’s website is the centrepiece of its communication online. Many businesses, from Fortune 500 corporations to small businesses, have websites. Some sites contain a brief description of the company, contact information and not much else. Others are robust sites that include detailed information about the company, its principals, products and services and their benefits, articles and reports of interest to customers and others, and much more. Companies use their own employees or contract with outside designers, writers, videographers and others to design and produce content for their sites.

With so many business websites, the challenge for a company is to produce fresh, quality content that attracts interest, stands out in the marketplace, builds relationships with its audience, and helps to market its products and services, and increase rankings on search engine websites.²² Blogs and podcasts, discussed in the sections that follow, are excellent options for generating content to make a company’s website more robust.

Blogs

In a small company, one or two people may write a company blog. In large corporations, people at different levels in the organisation may write blogs. For example, the CFO may write a blog and ask management accountants to contribute or write their own blogs. Company blogs may cover broad business, economic and other issues, as well as company news, stories about how its products or services help customers and clients, interviews with employees or others, and other content. To keep content fresh, new content is posted on a regular basis. Content may be linked or posted to a company’s social media channels and other outlets. In addition to their own blogs, some small businesses and companies write and post content on microblogging sites, such as Tumblr, that enable users to post text, photos, quotes, links, music and videos.²³

Podcasts

Podcasts provide another way for small businesses and corporations to engage their audiences, and they provide a more personal connection than words on a page. A company may create an original podcast or convert its blog content into a podcast (or both). In addition to hosting the podcast on its own site, a company distributes the podcast through iTunes (subject to Apple’s acceptance) or other channels. Like blogs, podcasts can cover a variety of content, and people from all levels of the organisation may participate in creating podcasts.

Video

Technology has made video production affordable for small businesses, as well as large corporations. Depending on their budgets and other considerations, businesses can produce videos on their own or use professional talent on their staff, or they can use outside service providers. Quality videos have the power to make a strong connection with audiences, and videos can enhance a company’s search engine optimisation.

Search engines often display video content along with text pages, and videos that incorporate target key words can achieve higher listings in search results.²⁴ But especially with businesses that are new to producing video, close attention must be paid to the production process, from a selection of a simple topic to keeping the video brief and concise, to incorporating a call to action.²⁵

Web Conferencing (Webinar)

In a web conference or webinar, persons in different locations participate in meetings, conferences, lectures, training and presentations. Communication is by text messaging, voice and video. It is point-to-point, or between two locations, or multicast, or between a sender and multiple locations. A webinar may be between only a presenter and an audience, in which case it is sometimes called a webcast. It also may be collaborative, with members of the audience offering comments and asking questions or completing surveys. If you are making a presentation on a webinar, many of the same rules apply (see chapters 7 and 8 for more on presentations). What is your goal? Who is your audience? What is your key message? What is your call to action? But you also must adapt your presentation to the web platform. For example, to keep your audience engaged, you may want to use more slides than in a live presentation. As always, make sure that you are prepared for the presentation: what you will say, what slides you will present, whether the equipment and services to support your presentation are working correctly, and so on. Rehearse your presentation so that when the webinar goes live, you feel confident conducting the programme.

MOBILE DEVICES

People are accessing the Internet more frequently using mobile devices, and businesses and corporations have taken notice. More businesses are harnessing the power of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices to communicate with customers and clients through mobile websites and mobile applications (apps). If you own a smartphone, you can take advantage of the apps from many of the social media sites previously discussed. If you are called upon to advise your business when it considers its mobile strategy, you will need to consider many of the benefits and risks of tackling new forms of social media.

As with any form of communication, businesses should determine the purpose of their mobile strategy if they choose to create or adapt content for mobile devices. Is it to bring in new business? Provide better service to existing customers and clients? Keep up with the competition in an increasingly mobile world? Achieve other business goals? Businesses also need to consider the value of a mobile strategy versus the costs.²⁶ That is where management accountants, led by the CFO, come in. You may be asked to determine if certain technology is an appropriate investment. Your experience with metrics can assist your company with decisions about adopting mobile strategies.

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

If your company has not already done so, it should consider adhering to a social media policy. Social media policies provide guidelines or a code of conduct for employees who post content online as part of their job or private life. As a management accountant, you might be asked to help your company develop and implement a plan for social media usage or evaluate an existing plan. This could be an opportunity for you to get experience in the management of social media in business—experience that could prove valuable if, as expected, business use of social media continues to grow. And of course, as an employee, you should know how to comply with the policy.

Social media is about communicating, and the company and its employees are communicating regardless of whether a company has a policy. Likewise, customers and clients and others outside the organisation, as well as employees themselves, are communicating about the company. The difference is that if there is no policy, the risks of damage to a company’s reputation, legal liability and other risks could be greater than if it had a policy. With a policy in place, a company may be more likely to realise the benefits of social media, such as developing deeper relationships with customers and clients, converting those relationships into new business, fostering innovation within the organisation and other benefits.

Some companies have published specific policies for the use of social media by their managers and employees, whereas others have only general guidelines for usage or nothing at all. More companies are expected to write policies as corporate use of social media continues to grow. For ideas and guidance, companies can look to firms that have such policies.²⁷ Some regulatory agencies also have issued guidelines. For example, the Australian Department of finance and deregulation issued a ‘Social Media 101’ guide for Finance employees.²⁸

Among the considerations for a company that is writing or reviewing a plan are

• how social media can help the organisation to achieve its business goals.

• the investment of capital, employee time, and other resources to start and manage social media channels.

• how to manage the risks in the use of social media.

• how to establish criteria for measuring the effectiveness of a company’s social media channels.

• who the social media audience is. In addition to customers and clients, the audience could include prospective customers, investors, business partners, the media, the public, employees and other audiences.

• whether to begin using channels such as Facebook that are new to the company.

• who in the organisation will be responsible for helping to manage social media and their responsibilities.

• how will policies and procedures for use of social media be developed and by whom.

Social media policies often are the result of a collaborative effort across the company. Employees offer experience in using social media; marketing defines the scope of messaging; IT outlines social technologies and devices; and the legal or compliance department ensures guidelines meet the necessary regulatory criteria. As a management accountant, you may be asked to help quantify and explain the value of social media data. In addition to your technical and communication skills, you may already be experienced in using social media for personal use, and you can apply that experience when assisting your company to fine tune its policy.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

• As a management accountant, you could be called upon to help your company determine its goals and implement strategies for communicating inside and outside the organisation.

• You can apply the same technical knowledge, financial expertise and critical thinking skills to communication management that you’ve applied in other areas of the business.

• If you are asked to help your company develop a plan for the use of social media or evaluate an existing plan, it could be an opportunity for you to get experience in social media management in your organisation.

• You could also be asked to assist your organisation in implementing a plan for communicating on the Internet through blogs, podcasting, video, or other ways. In the process, you might develop new skills or build upon existing skills for communicating online.

Endnotes

1 Ignite Social Media, a social media marketing firm, has published ‘2012 Social Network Analysis Report: Demographic—Geographic and Search Data,’ a statistical analysis of a number of social media. Go to www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-media-stats/2012-social-network-analysis-report/

2 ‘State of the media: The social media report 2012,’ nielsenwire.com http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/2012/, accessed 9 Dec. 2012

3 David Kiron, Doug Palmer, Anh Nguyen Phillips and Nina Kruschwitz, ‘Social Business: What Are Companies Really Doing? The Growing Importance of Social Business,’ MIT Sloan Management Review, May 2012 http://sloanreview.mit.edu/feature/social-business-value-key-findings/

4 Leslie Kwoh and Melissa Korn, ‘140 Characters of Risk: Some CEOs Fear Twitter,’ The Wall Street Journal, 26 Sept. 2012. http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444083304578018423363962886.html?mg=reno64-wsj. The article cites a recent report by CEO.com and analytics company Domo.

5 Josh Hyatt, ‘Putting Social Networks to Work,’ CFO. com, Aug. 2012 www3.cfo.com/article/2012/8/it-value_social-networks-collaboration-companies-cfo-research?currpage=1

6 Thomas Thompson Jr., Jan Hertzberg and Mark Sullivan, ‘Social media and its associated risks,’ Financial Executives Research Foundation report sponsored by Grant Thornton, Nov. 2011. www.grantthornton.com/portal/site/gtcom/menuitem.91c078ed5c0ef4ca80cd8710033841ca/?vgnextoid=324b4c0939f73310VgnVCM1000003a8314acRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&vgnextrefresh=1

7 Alison Coleman, ‘How social media can benefit small businesses,’ The Guardian, Aug. 2012 www.guardian.co.uk/small-business-network/2012/aug/14/small-business-benefit-social-media

8 David Kiron, Doug Palmer, Anh Nguyen Phillips and Nina Kruschwitz, ‘Social Business: What Are Companies Really Doing? The Growing Importance of Social Business,’ 2012 Social Business Global Executive Study and Research Project, MIT Sloan Management Review, May 2012 http://sloanreview.mit.edu/feature/social-business-value-key-findings/

9 Mark Fidelman, ‘If You Don’t Have a Social CFO, You’re Going to Be Less Competitive,’ Forbes, May 2012 www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2012/05/22/ibm-study-if-you-dont-have-a-social-ceo-youre-going-to-be-less-competitive/

10 David Kiron, Doug Palmer, Anh Nguyen Phillips and Nina Kruschwitz, ‘Social Business: What Are Companies Really Doing? Who Values Social Business Today May Surprise You,’ MIT Sloan Management Review, May 2012 http://sloanreview.mit.edu/feature/social-business-value-key-findings/

11 ‘The Social Divide: Employees, Executives Disagree on the Role of Social Media in Building Workplace Culture: Deloitte Survey,’ Deloitte [website], Jun. 2012 www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/press/Press-Releases/917ed0b3d26e7310VgnVCM2000001b56f00aRCRD.htm

12 David Kiron, Doug Palmer, Anh Nguyen Phillips and Nina Kruschwitz, ‘Social Business: What Are Companies Really Doing?’ MIT Sloan Management Review, May 2012 http://sloanreview.mit.edu/feature/social-business-value-putting-social-business-into-action

13 Jan Vermeiren, How to Really Use LinkedIn, (Charleston: Booksurge, 2009).

14 Robin M. Hensley, ‘LinkedIn Tips for CPAs,’ Journal of Accountancy, Mar. 2011 www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2011/Mar/20103310.htm

15 ‘Best Practices,’ Twitter for Business, Twitter.com https://business.twitter.com/basics/best-practices/

16 Jill Duffy, ‘How to Use Twitter for Business,’ PCMAG.com, Nov. 2012 www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383442,00.asp

17 Mark Zuckerberg, ‘One Billion Users on Facebook,’ Facebook Newsroom, Oct. 2012 http://newsroom.fb.com/News/457/One-Billion-People-on-Facebook

18 ‘Facebook Guide Book—How To, Tips and Instructions by Mashable’ http://mashable.com/guidebook/facebook/

19 ‘3 Everyday Companies Using Facebook to Provide Better Customer Service,’ National Federal of Independent Businesses [website] www.nfib.com/business-resources/business-resources-item?cmsid=56293

20 ‘Google+: Communities and photos,’ Google Office Blog, Dec. 2012 http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/google-communities-and-photos.html

21 ‘Statistics,’ YouTube.com www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics

22 Gregory J. Wright, ‘Six SEO Tips for CPAs,’ AICPA Insights, Dec. 2011 http://blog.aicpa.org/2011/12/6-seo-tips-for-cpas.html#sthash.jGoOJgp6.dpbs

23 Laura Drell, ‘The Quick and Dirty Guide to Tumblr for Small Business,’ Mashable, Feb. 2012 http://mashable.com/2012/02/18/tumblr-small-biz-guide/

24 AJ Kumar, ‘Five Ways to Optimize Video for Search Engines,’ Entrepreneur, Mar. 2012 www.entrepreneur.com/article/223195

25 Gail Goodman, ‘How to Use Video to Market Your Business,’ Entrepreneur, Apr. 2011 www.entrepreneur.com/article/219524#

26 Michael Millar, ‘Does your firm need its own mobile app?,’ BBC News, 7 Apr. 2011 www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13000883

27 Corey Eridon, ‘5 Noteworthy Examples of Corporate Social Media Policies,’ HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog, Dec. 2011 http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29441/5-Noteworthy-Examples-of-Corporate-Social-Media-Policies.aspx

28 ‘Social Media 101: A beginner’s guide for Finance employees,’ Apr. 2010 http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/files/2010/04/social-media-101.pdf. See http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php for more examples of social media policies.