The word throughout the business world is that social media makes communication and marketing easier, but why? Well, it has the ability to be a low-cost driver for high engagement both within and outside your organization. There are three main reasons to use social media at your company.

1) Conversations can be consolidated through Yammer. A way to start utilizing social media internally in your organization is through Yammer.  This can be a way to take some conversation away from email, or have certain departments in your company organize themselves in their own groups in which they can discuss their projects, or even invite their colleagues out for happy hour. A great deal of your organization’s communications can move on to the social media platform. Additionally, as Yammer will be integrated into the full Microsoft Cloud platform offering, it is helpful to stay current on the features of Microsoft technologies and use the resources at hand.

2) Similarly to Cloud, social is the other definite direction of the technology industry.  Just as Microsoft partners work on moving their business into the Cloud, they should focus on “getting social.” Even though some partners still are uncertain about how to make money in the Cloud with offering off-premise solutions, they are still investing in becoming a Cloud business. This same fearlessness to embark into the way of the future and have a strong social media presence should be a priority of partners. There is even less of an investment in becoming social than to become a Cloud business. The marketing engines through social are available they just need to be utilized. As social and Cloud are the way of the future, both should be a focus of your company’s trajectory.

3) Social media is a low cost way to have a tremendous amount of reach to your target audience. For example the recent infamous tweet Oreo made at the Super Bowl had 15,000 re-tweets and cost them next to nothing as they just posted a timely image with the witty tag line “you can still dunk in the dark.” Social media is about consistent and real time engagement, but in a low maintence way. Tweets and posts can be scheduled, your marketing and communications departments can manage the conversation, and a great deal of creativity can be employed to drive dialogue. Partners that may find the low cost marketing opportunity of social media particularly valuable are system integrator (SI) companies and independent software vendors (ISVs) because they tend to have limited marketing budgets, and social media presents a tremendous opportunity to still market effectively, but with little overhead.

Not engaging in social media will leave your company behind the curve as you will not be ready for Microsoft Cloud products because employees will not be well versed in the integration of social media into their office environment. Also, as social is the way of the future in technology just as Cloud is both are important to keep up with. Furthermore, not using social media for marketing is a missed opportunity because of the high reach, low cost nature of it.
Be at the cutting edge of technology and “get social!” Microsoft Cloud partners are invited to join the “Microsoft Partner Cloud Community” on Yammer. Simply request membership and begin engaging with partners globally regarding best practices in growing your Cloud business, such as how to make money in the Cloud.