A Case Study in General Electric
[University Affiliation]
Introduction
The rise of social media in the last decade has been quite phenomenal. Smith (2009) pointed that with more internet penetration across the world, social media platforms have the potential to occupy a dominant position as a medium of information exchange. Social media have now acquired a status where the news can spread at rapid fire and can either elevate or cause damage to any company’s reputation. Wright & Hinson (2008) pointed out that a world wide web has the power of enhancing the value of a brand instantaneously when the idea takes off. Hence, there is a need for companies to customise their digital strategy to derive maximum value from social media. Neti (2011) highlighted this need of use of social media for marketing and how it can be used to reach out to consumers and keep them engaged. In the current report, I have delved into the knowledge management and how its use in social media can lead to innovation. Knowledge Management is the process of storing and sharing knowledge assets using repositories within an organization. While the traditional knowledge management calls for sharing the intellectual assets within an organization, there is a growing need for companies to engage with customers and external communities to understand the current trends and derive benefits from it. In the current report, I have discussed the benefits of using knowledge management in social media platform to derive business benefits. I have considered the case of General Electric which is one of the oldest corporations having business operations worldwide and how it uses social media to connect with external community. General Electric has always been known for empowerment of its employees and continuously fostering learning within the organisation (Calvert et al., 1994). In the current report I have discussed the engagement of GE’s knowledge management practices with the social media community and how it can prove useful for the company to proactively use this media platform for successful innovation.
Organizational Learning Approach and Knowledge Management in Organisations
Knowledge Management is defined in the academic literature as the storage, collaboration, and management of organization’s intangible intellectual assets with the objective of increasing awareness, and creating value for the organization (Fischer and Ostwald, 2001; King, 2007). Wiig (2000) noted that the purpose of KM is to make best use of the “knowledge” capital present in an organization for generating new business. Generally speaking, knowledge management is a process through which an organization aims to achieve competitive advantage by effective use of their knowledge based assets. It involves creating a central repository of useful collection of documents which draw upon the expertise and knowledge of individuals to drive organisational performance and help it to compete with the global competition. Blumentritt and Johnston (1999) further added that an effective knowledge management system must combine organisational initiatives, employee contribution, technological platform and managerial motivation to ensure that maximum value is derived from such an investment. Chong et al (2000) pointed out that promoting creativity and increasing the efficiency of workers are few reasons why organizations are focusing on knowledge management. Other factors which promote knowledge management include customer focus, distributed workforce, evolving technologies and changing business dynamics (Grant, 1996). Riege (2007) pointed out that organizations which focus on knowledge management and are able to effectively transfer knowledge within the organization are innovative and give better performance. It helps to build intangible resources which cannot be effectively replicated by competitors (Stewart, 1997). The process of knowledge management is a continuous process and involves contribution from all levels of employees. It aims to support the flow of information easily through the organization and helps in reducing costs.
Zahra and George (2010) pointed out that any effective knowledge management system must have four key capabilities – knowledge acquiring capabilities, capabilities to make efficient use of the knowledge, capabilities to transform the knowledge and finally, capabilities to assimilate knowledge. Acquisition of knowledge refers to the experience and abilities acquired in the past projects and experiences with customers and clients on various projects. Ability to use the knowledge is how effectively the organization can learn from past experiences to ensure that the mistakes are not repeated and how the current practices can be improved (King et al., 2008). While ability to use knowledge acquired is important, it is more important to assimilate knowledge which means to plug the gap between existing knowledge and required knowledge to carry out that tasks. Finally, transformation of knowledge refers to generating new information by combining existing knowledge with new ideas to come out with a solution which fulfils the needs of the customer. Gupta & Govindarajan (1991) observed that while documenting and storing knowledge is useful, its presence itself is no guarantee for the intended benefits of knowledge management process. Employees of the organization must devise ways to make use of the available knowledge into actionable information which culminates into value addition for the firm.
Social Media Development
In the past decade, social media has emerged as a powerful medium of communication, and source of information. The emergence of social media, or as Shih (2009) calls the fourth revolution has opened new ways for the organizations to reach out to their target audience. The most commonly used social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Vine, Pinterest, Tumblr, and others have provided ways to gather information and encourage an interaction without the limits of geographical boundaries. Kaplan and Hanlein (2010) noted that the primary objective of all social media platforms is to engage people and hence companies can leverage this platform for deriving business value by adequately and effectively engaging with people (Blanchard, 2011). In particular, Miller and Lamas (2010) studied the implications of social media on viral marketing and found that the widespread usage of social media has become a potent medium for engaging with consumers provided the companies have the right strategy for listening to consumers, engaging with them and creating customised products to suit the needs of customers. Skoler (2009) noted that the primary reason that social media has seen such an exponential growth is that it gives people the power to assimilate and share information with other users. This line of thinking has made the preferences and voices of consumers more powerful. Consumers now want to raise questions and expect to be listened whenever they have questions (Bashar et al, 2012; Divol, 2012; Stavrakantonakis et al., 2012). In addition to this, Chen et al (2011) observed that social media also offers other benefits to the companies such as brand awareness, enhanced brand popularity, sharing business information and opening up the company’s line of business. These opportunities on social media can help the organization to project them as a trustworthy brand and can therefore increase sales. Hence, it becomes imperative that the companies formulate a well thought out social media strategy before engaging with the consumers in the social media platform as the consumer mind-set can change quickly and affect the efforts utilised in creating such an engagement (Lipsman et al., 2012).
Social Media development and use in GE
Social media is a big part of GE’s Digital strategy. The company uses social media to connect with users, explain about its business, convey its stories and allows an interactive session with its fans. Through the social media, General Electric highlights its sustainability strategies, talks about what its employees does, increases its brand awareness, and shares relevant stories about its challenges and successes. The company is extremely interactive on most commonly used social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc. For example in Instagram, GE posts stunning images of its turbines, propellers, boilers, and locomotives and tries to engage the scientific and other interested communities for an innovative discussion. In Twitter, the company has over 400K followers and tries to educate its followers about the products at GE and replies to the questions asked by its followers.
Figure 1: GE on Twitter (Source: GE Twitter)
Furthermore, by showcasing the people behind its technology innovations (such as #LookLikeAnEngineer) helps in boosting the motivation of its employees and inspires youth community to get excited about science, technology, mathematics and creativity resulting in a positive brand reputation.
Figure 2: GE on Facebook (Source: GE Facebook Page)
On Facebook, the company discusses wide ranging innovative and informative issues such as future of drug delivery, journey of jet engines, global health innovation, internet of things and many more.
Figure 3: GE on Facebook (Source: GE Facebook Page)
Harrysson et al (2012) noted that social media has a very important role to play in determining the competitive strategy of a company. By engaging with communities and experts and information and viewpoints exchange through social platforms, companies can develop market insights and “social intelligence” which can help the top management to arrive at a basis of their decisions in the best interests of the company. For a huge company like GE, budget for social media promotion might be very small but can provide meaningful insights when executed properly. By investing in data mining tools, the company can filter out appropriate information and can use them for actionable intelligence that can provide valuable insights to the top management and help in identifying new areas of growth.
Knowledge Management features embedded in Social Media
Knowledge Management has become an elusive goal for many companies in today’s dynamic competitive scenario. With the advent of social media, this goal has become even more challenging. While traditional knowledge management practices involve identification, collaboration and use of intellectual assets in an organization, use of social media along with knowledge management is far more complex. Information circulated on social media, with its reach without the geographical barriers, can have wider ramifications when compared to traditional knowledge management practices which are usually limited within the borders of the organization (Davenport, 2011; Hajli, 2014). Hence, a company must be careful while using social media for knowledge management. Pfeiffer and Tonkin (2012) noted that different social media platforms have different communication techniques and that the posts on social media are visible to competitors also. Hence, knowledge management using social media presents challenges at different levels namely, individual, organizational, community, competitors and regulation. Top management and knowledge creation team must carefully analyse and then decide on which content to share and which to constrain within the use of boundaries of the organisation (Ballantyne et al., 2000; Poh-Kam, 2000). Managers must ensure that they carefully consider each aspect and then customize their knowledge management strategy to make best use of the social media platform. The knowledge management strategies must be designed accordingly to ensure that they fulfil their objectives.
Knowledge management using social media in GE
GE has actively embraced social media tools and uses this platform to connect with employees as well as external communities, invite ideas and create awareness about its products which can help the company to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Such a strategy helps the company to tap into the benefits of mass collaboration, collective experience and quick response times without being dependent on the bureaucratic internal processes (Culnan et al., 2010). General Electric uses social media to spread information to its followers on wide ranging issues. These include functioning of Fast Power turbines, effective use of cloud technologies, innovations in healthcare, renewables, oil & gas, aviation & energy, initiatives with different governments like Make In India in India, etc. Such information interchange attracts the scientific community to connect with GE.
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Opportunities for Business Innovation – Use of Social media in GE
Through its presence in social media, General Electric uses the platform to attract ideas from its users. In one such effort, GE invited ideas on a “social airplane” and offered prizes for winners for travel with Virgin Airlines. In response, the company received thousands of fresh ideas within few hours. These ideas were creative, unpublished and offered new insights on how to use electric vehicles and solar panels, LEDs for manufacturing of engines. This is an example of how the company can leverage the social media for generating ideas which can be further refined to generate business value. Such engagement with community outside the boundaries of the company helps GE to attract fresh ideas and new insights on complex problems. Such efforts also create a brand reputation of a company which is willing to change with the future trends and does not carry a baggage of being a “138 year old legacy” (Frink, 2014). The purpose for GE on social media is clear as is evident from its Facebook page which invites forward thinking individuals to engage in conversation around different areas in which GE operates. It is clear that GE wants to exploit social media for engaging the communities, attracting ideas and enhancing brand reputation. Hogan and Quan-Haase (2010) noted that social media is dynamic and is prone to changes in a short period of time. In order to counter this, the company has created specific social media campaigns for its products. For example, GE has used social media extensively to promote its new appliance “Aros”, a smart air conditioner which can be controlled through a smartphone. Not only do these efforts indicate a dedicated digital strategy, it also points out that companies are willing to spend more to garner their share of attention in social media space to reach out to a wider audience without the constraints of physical boundaries. By sharing its knowledge outside the organization, GE is able to attract interested participants to work in collaboration and build upon innovation and creativity.
Conclusion
Social media has changed the way business is run today – and it has been quick. From nearly minuscule existence in early 2000 to the explosive growth in the mid-2000s till date, social media has transformed existing businesses and created opportunities for new business models. The rise of social media has also forced organisations to come out with dedicated strategies to leverage the platform and enhance the brand value and derive new business opportunities. In the current paper, I have looked into the knowledge management process in organizations and how social media can be used to increase business value. Knowledge management in an organization is essential to ensure a process driven organization and ensure that an organization has documented the best practices for easy reference. The rise of social media has helped the organizations to share their knowledge with external communities and invite fresh ideas which can lead to innovation. In the current paper, I have studied the social media engagement of General Electric and how it leverages the social media platform and knowledge management practices to engage the community. The report has presented the development of social media and how knowledge management practices embedded in social media can be beneficial to the organizations. The report has presented examples of how General Electric shares its knowledge of complex products and how it engages its employees, community and customers. The report has been a good exercise to understand the knowledge management practices in an organization and how the social media can provide a useful platform to leverage the knowledge of an organization towards enhanced innovation.
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