The Conversation Prism in the accompanying figure shows the vast choices available in social media and their applications to business. Discuss the concept of the Conversation Prism and the use of social networking in corporate culture.

What will be an ideal response?

With so many social media alternatives available, companies need to identify those that best apply to their business, industry, or brand in order to locate the conversations that are the most relevant to them.

At the center of the Conversation Prism is the word "brand," suggesting that building a brand is the most important goal of a company's Web presence. Building and reinforcing a brand identity extends to the use of social media tools as well. The innermost ring of the Conversation Prism encourages companies to make use of the social Web by discovering and listening to the various online communities where people talk about the company's brand and products. The middle ring identifies the different parts of an organization (Marketing and Public Relations, Community Outreach, Corporate Communications, Support, Product Sales) in which social media may be used to build relationships and respond to customers. Various social networks and social media providers that appear in the colored petals serve as ongoing sources of information for businesses to monitor and sometimes participate in to reach their customers.

Companies looking to use social media and social networking to raise awareness about their brands should develop a strategy for doing so. A first step might be to search for relevant keywords on both large and niche social networks (not only Facebook and Twitter) and see what conversations people are having about their company and their competitors. Doing so will give a sense of the networks on which a company should have a social presence, because competitors are there also or because they want to attract customers from the membership of a particular network. Developing a strategy may help a company build its social network and find friends who become actual customers.

Smaller companies can also make use of the Conversation Prism. For example, a travel company might monitor sites such as TripAdvisor and WikiTravel to see what people are saying about their services. They might use Twitter to offer special deals to customers. The company could post images and video about popular vacation destinations on Flickr and YouTube and then embed this multimedia in a corporate marketing blog. They could bring in external content about international currency conversion rates from an RSS feed to provide an additional service to their customers on their Web site. Finally, creating a presence on Facebook might help to attract customers who use word of mouth and the recommendations of friends when selecting travel opportunities.

Many companies are using social networks to help employees communicate with each other within the organization or to connect with their customers. Social networking platforms offer a means by which companies can provide continuous feedback and support to customers by creating online communities both internal and external to an organization. A presence on many different social networks helps an organization to promote itself and its brand through the use of blogs, video, rankings, music, wikis, and social networks.

Twitter can be a great source of information for companies looking to see what their customers are saying about them and their products. Companies such as Pizza Hut (a chain of pizza restaurants) and Comcast (a cable, Internet, and phone service provider) can use information about them posted on Twitter to improve their customer service and build their social networks.

Pizza Hut uses Twitter to promote its brand and offer special incentives, service, and support to customers. Comcast uses Twitter to provide technical support and service to its customers and to reply to their inquiries.