Five ways to use social media

I had a very interesting day yesterday. First I had a little chit-chat with Elias. He have no Facebook, Twitter or even e-mail. He´s only seven weeks. And he is the son of my cousin. That reminds me of a story a couple of months ago when we got a picture from the hospital with our friends son. From a newly created Gmail account. The baby was just a couple of hours old, but already a part of the web...

Later in the evening I went to a conference arranged by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm/Uppsala. The theme was how companies can build welfare in our society". At the dinner I had a discussion with a representative from the Chamber and we talked about social media. There are lot´s of companies that want to understand how to use the social web. Here are some ways:

1. Intranet, let your employees communicate, solve problems, and communicate to help the colleges improve.
2. External information, to report what´s going on right now. Like the RedCross on Twitter
3. Business intelligence, you can listen on persons, companies, topics and trends.
4. Reversed Customer Service, like the Swedish Rail Company SJ AB that respond their passangers on twitter. When a customer writes "I´m stuck on train 1247 in the middle of nowhere and have no information" they respond with information. A couple of days ago they helped a man find the briefcase he lost on the train.
5. Build relation and engagement. All companies need customers. And it´s inspiring to see how Apple builds relation, engagement and Hype around the brand.

On the news this morning they reported that some of the parties in Sweden will learn the politicians how to use social media. After making contact with 81 members of the parliament, only 69 responded within one week.

/Jakob