By Michael Alan Hamlin

Recently, we undertook what I call a social networking facelift for the Web sites our agency operates. This involved installing links to our corporate Facebook and Twitter sites, and incorporating a widget that allows visitors to share content we place on the Web site and post in our media center. Like readers of this magazine, I have used these tools frequently on a wide range of sites. This was the first time I’ve put them to use myself.

There were several objectives in doing this, but the overall objective was to leverage the popularity of social networking in the Philippines and in other markets to increase our visibility to clients and prospective clients. We also wanted to demonstrate to our clients and prospective clients how we make these tools work for us, and how they can also work for them.

Any marketing or IT manager responsible for a Web site understands how important it is—and what a chore it is—to keep a site “live.” And because tools that tell us how effective our sites are in attracting visitors and new business are unreliable, it is not unusual for corporate Web sites to be neglected. This is true everywhere and probably more pronounced in developing economies like the Philippines, where bandwidth and Internet penetration are both low.

The notion that bandwidth in the Philippines is inadequate, unreliable, and expensive is unfortunately quite true. However, the notion that Internet penetration is low is fortunately quite untrue. Broadband penetration is low, in large part because bandwidth suffers from the infirmities I’ve already mentioned. The rants among my Facebook friends as well as my personal experience demonstrate this reality very clearly.

Despite the obstacles to Internet access, Filipinos have distinguished themselves as avid Internet users. Filipinos are the third most active YouTube enthusiasts in Asia, for example, just behind the Japanese and Australians. This is significant because YouTube gobbles up bandwidth, which Japan and Australia have plenty of. Imagine where Filipinos would place in this race if they had better bandwidth.

Although unofficial, I hear that Filipinos are also among the world’s most enthusiastic users of Google Map Maker, an application that allows users to map areas they are familiar with but haven’t been well mapped. Since its introduction late last year, Google has pushed edits made by Filipinos in Map Maker to Google Maps twice. Several of these individuals have made thousands of edits, one more than 11,000.

By the end of this year, it’s estimated that the Philippines will have 35 million regular Internet users. That’s about seven million more people than the entire population of Malaysia and 30 million more than the population of Singapore. We think it is important to be able to communicate regularly and meaningfully with the almost 40% of the population that are dedicated Internet users.

Installing the infrastructure to communicate provides the means to do so. That’s the easy part. The more challenging issue is providing interesting and compelling content that will be of interest to visitors to our Web sites and social networking sites.

We approached that issue in a number of ways. First, we appointed a smart, young marketing manager to manage content across all three sites. That includes content updates to the corporate Web sites, Facebook status updates, and Twitter notifications. Second, we make sure that the different divisions of the company provide regular updates to the marketing manager. Third, we casually encourage staff to post their own Facebook updates and Twitter notifications in their downtime.

That third item is the tricky part, as many companies have learned in not always pleasant ways. According to a report in BusinessWeek recently, Zachary Weiner, the CEO of a boutique ad agency in Chicago, provides a perfect example. “Recent adventures include employees twittering about how demanding Weiner is, how hung over they feel, and ‘how totally not into’ the client they are.”

To avoid these types of undesirable social network visibility experiences, companies have started developing and implementing social networking ground rules. BusinessWeek reporters Michelle Conlin and Douglas MacMillan said that IBM is among the companies pioneering the process of “managing” social networking among employees by developing a set of social computing guidelines.

IBM employees engaging in social networking are expected to:
1) “Be responsible, personally, for any content they publish;” 2) “Keep in mind that what they publish could be public for a long time—and they must protect their privacy;” 3) “Be transparent about their role at IBM in all posts related to IBM matters;” 4) “Get approval before reporting on private or internal conversations;” and, 5) “Be up-front about correcting their own mistakes and altering previous posts.”

It’s too early to tell what strategic impact our social networking facelift will have. But it seems clear that if it’s successful, it will be a group effort and that guidelines like IBM’s are critical to conveying a coherent and constructive message.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Attracting Investors is The Private Sector’s Job, Too
• Agusan Del Sur’s IT-Enabled Governance
• Is 2012 the Year of Social in the Philippines?
• Do Quality Certifications Provide Competitive Advantage?
• Do Quality Certifications Provide Competitive Advantage?

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