Northwest Nazarene University senior sales-management students recently surveyed Treasure Valley business operators about whether and how they use social media sites and other online tools. Many businesses are using, or at least showing interest in using, social networking sites and online tools such as search engine optimization, the students found.
The late 2009 survey also looked at how businesses are using these tools – including search engine optimization methods that aim to move a business closer to the top of Web-search lists – and how businesses are trying to measure the results, said Bill Russell, NNU business professor and associate dean.
“My belief was that the practice of managing sales is changing,” he said. For example, taking the traditional geographic approach to establishing sales territories may not be best for a business that generates a high level of sales over the Internet, he said.
“What is clear is that companies across the board are starting to wake up to the need to use the new technologies,” Russell said. “Having a Web site isn’t enough.” Many of the business operators that NNU student Ashley Morman surveyed were aware of some of the online technologies. Many were starting to put the technologies to use or at least preparing to look into the possibility further, she said.
NNU senior sales management student Frank Borbe, who surveyed businesses, said the vast majority of companies that market to individuals use social media. However, social media “forces companies to lose control” in a sense, he said. For example, it’s hard for a business to remove all negative comments without making this move obvious to the social media public, he noted. On the other hand, social media “forces them to be better at their jobs.”
The NNU student survey team included Frank Borbe, Rita Fields, Kendall Gielow, Kayleigh Greene, James Jensen, Danial Masoud, Ashley Morman, Michael Murray, Phillip Myer and Mary Jo Usabel”
Submitted by Bill Russell and compiled from a story by Brad Carlson published in the Idaho Business Review on January 15, 2010