Providing Customer Service by use of Social Media Channels (best practices)

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,3, University of applied sciences, Marl, language: English, abstract: 1 Introduction
1.1 Problem Definition
The relevance of web 2.0 will increase enormously until 2012. This view is
shared by 83 % of the 110 companies that were interviewed within the scope of
a study carried out by the agency creative360 in cooperation with the International
School of Management.
Considering the economic circumstances companies face with respect to the
buyer's market more and more effort has to be made to maintain competitiveness.
Supply exceeds demand, thus forcing companies to extend their marketing
activities in order to receive the consumer's attention for both itself and its
products on the one hand. On the other hand, adequate customer service has
to be provided, which is inevitable for obtaining customer loyalty.
Especially in the field of marketing, traditional techniques of advertising seem to
have lost importance. According to the survey of the Monitor Economic Communication
in 2010 television is solely used by 20 %, whereas print media is
also used by only 60 % of the respondents.
Actually, these are considered as mass advertising, appearing rather annoying
to the consumers, likewise referred to as interruption marketing.
In addition, call centers or email support as point of contact in case of problems
are regarded as insufficiently available and requiring long hold time.
Due to the rapid progress of the internet a new communication platform has
been spooned - social media, the web 2.0. While there were 45 million of internet
users in 1997, the number is predicted to exceed 2 billion until the end of
the year 2010. Accordingly, what does social media explicitly mean, how can it
be used and which benefit can be generated?

1.2 Objectives
This seminar paper aims at giving an insight into the wide spectrum of social
media, proposing to demonstrate its remarkable influence these days.
With reference to best practices this seminar paper has the intention to verify
the necessity of integrating social media in business communication.