BusinessWeek’s March 23-30, 2009 issue focuses on Smart Ideas for Tough Times which describes how managers are taking innovative approaches to weather the downturn.  The most interesting part of the series covers 11 breakthrough management ideas that are now the basics of any business school education.

This 4 part series will examine these breakthroughs alongside social media to see if we are witnessing a world-changing idea, or just another management fad.  First, here is the recap from BusinessWeek:

Some of the most powerful and lasting management methods were launched during tough times, when companies needed new ways to manage costs and grow. Here is a look back at some of the biggest ideas over the past 100 years.

1910 – The Assembly Line – Explanation

1920 – Market Segmentation – Explanation

1931 – Brand Management – Explanation

1943 – Skunk Works – Explanation

1950s – Lean Manufacturing – Explanation

1967 – Scenario Planning – Explanation

1973 – 360 Review – Explanation

1987 – Six Sigma – Explanation

1989 – Outsourcing – Explanation

1990 – Reengineering – Explanation

2000s – Open Innovation – Explanation

#1 – The Assembly Line

The Breakthrough: Ford dramatically lowered labor costs through standardized parts.  This made an expensive technology cheaper and therefore increased mass market demand.

The Question:  Can Social Media make expensive technologies more affordable for the Mass Market?

• Answer:  Probably Not – Social Media makes communication faster and more relevant through online social networks.  This makes knowledge workers more productive than in the past.  However, big industries that rely on knowledge workers (pharmaceuticals, software, finance) can profit more from using this information to increase features, and therefore price.
• Additionally, while collaboration is now less expensive, globalization and other technological improvements have already made streamlined labor costs a barrier to entry in most industries rather than a competitive advantage.

# 2 – Market Segmentation

The Breakthrough: GM divided customers into groups based on their unique needs and focused their products on meeting those needs.  This decreased competition and cannibalization between their brands.

The Question:  Can Social Media allow companies to better identify and meet distinct consumer needs?

• Answer:  Absolutely Yes  – Tremendous amounts of data are being created by users of social networks and organized by marketing-savvy companies.  A company’s biggest challenge is how to make sense out of all thea data that is out there.
• Eventually, managers will have the tools to micro-segment their consumers and offer highly specialized products that do not contain features that would compete with other products they offer.

# 3 – Brand Management

The Breakthrough: Organize brands into “mini-businesses” that must differentiate themselves from both internal and external competitors to survive.

The Question:  Can Social Media allow organizations to more effectively align their resources to maximize total profit?

• Answer:  Sometimes – Social Media can extend the communication and collaboration ushered in by the first generation of internet technologies.  Larger organizations with many brands competing for internal resources will benefit from improved information flow, but this will be a one-time, medium-size improvement rather than a radical redesign.
• However, the majority of the benefits from improved internal communication have been realized through the adoption of first generation internet technologies.

Mashable’s wonderful update on new Facebook explains many of the changes, including a link to the most relevant changes for social media marketers.  In the Opportunities section, they highlight these 4 points:

Opportunities

1. Stronger Interaction with Fans
Because the Wall tab will become the focus, Pages will feel much more active and dynamic than ever before. This will encourage more participation and interaction between brands and their Fans.

2. Increased Virality
Content posted on the new Wall will also show up in Fans’ News Feeds more often. This means that posting updates to your Page is much more viral and has the potential to drive significant traffic to your Page.

3. More Ways to Communicate

The Status Update will provide a powerful way for Pages to share short interesting blurbs with Fans in a way that is less obtrusive than an Update delivered to their inboxes. Brands that use Twitter can sync their accounts so that selected Tweets will automatically post to Facebook as Status Updates.

4. Specific Landing Page for Non-Fans

The Wall tab will be the point of entry for all Fans when they visit a Page (with the idea that they’ll first be exposed to the newest content). When it comes to non-fans, Page admins will be able to choose which tab they’d like to use as the landing page. This means that if a Page has a new application or custom content that they’d like to promote, they can set this as the point of entry for all new visitors to the Page.

But seriously…how many brands are you a fan of?  Probably your company and a few others to make former high school classmates think you’re cooler now than when you were 16.

Don’t recycle Twitter Content

The biggest implication is in Mashable Opportunity #3, More Ways to Communicate.  Specifically, “a powerful way for Pages to share short interesting blurbs with Fans”.  However, don’t take the lazy way out and recycle your Twitter messages; your fans are interested in you so give them more interesting stuff than what you are spamming to the legions on Twitter.

Create short URLs from your domain

If you are providing links to content you host, don’t bog your URL down in a mess of directories.  Additionally, if you have to use a URL shortener like bit.ly or tinyurl.com avoid the random letters and make it your own.  Simple is key, for example, a post from CareerBuilder.com offering advice for job seekers should read like this

“Tips to make your resume stand out to recruiters – careerbuilder.com/resumetips”

Provide “How-To”, not “Buy Me”

No one wants to see an advertisement in their news feed, that’s why facebook puts their ads on the side.  Make your updates a source of information to help your fans make a purchase decision.  Sorry Skittles, not much you can do here…however Guitar Center, pay attention.  A great Guitar Center status update would read something like the following:

“How do guitar strings affect the sound of your music? – http://bit.ly/GuitarStrings“

I’ve heard of Social Media being aligned in a bunch of different functions across the organization.  In a perfect world, Social Media is its own function with the leader reporting directly to the CEO.  But…we’re not quite there yet.  TheSocialOrganization.com had a great post about corporate initiatives being staffed in its own “function”, but until we get there, here are 3 common approaches and their pros/cons.

Marketing

Pros

• Easier to tie results to key business metrics (revenue, profit, brand awareness)
• More natural fit for organization makes it easier to gain stakeholder buy-in

Cons

• Can limit potential – initiatives focused on increasing sales
• Customer perception of spam – lame company attempts at Twitter

Information Technology

Pros

• Easier to iterate/change technology applications
• Employees with more experience in the space

Cons

• Over-engineered solutions that complicate content
• Many tech departments aren’t known for being user-friendly

Strategy

Pros

• Provide longer-term, “big-bet” focus to the initiative
• Able to apply value to multiple organization functions

Cons

• Can be focused too focused on “great thoughts” instead of quick action
• Often balancing multiple strategic initiatives which could divert attention from Social Media

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