Putting Social Media to Work

About this paper

The HBR Insight Center highlights emerging thinking around today’s most important business ideas. In this Insight Center, we’ll focus on how social media can bring value to all parts of an organization — it’s not just for marketing anymore.

There’s been a lot of talk about social media’s vast promise for business, but where are the deliverables? Sure, virtually all businesses are on Facebook and Twitter, and everyone knows that, in theory at least, social media tools can give companies direct access to customers and an opportunity to learn about their likes, dislikes, and desires. A number of corporations have become adept at using social media to geotarget customers, customize messages, and even communicate with individual consumers. And no marketing or reputational campaign would be complete these days without likes and tweets.

But what about social media’s supposed power to change the way businesses innovate? Create strategy? Interact with employees?