There are various ways in which organizations may utilize social media as a tool to help various areas of their company perform better in today’s business climate. Although many organizations already use social media within certain facets of the workplace, social media may also be applied across the whole organization to create more effective business plans throughout the entire company. For example, rather than simply focusing on using social media for only marketing and customer engagement purposes, a company may decide to work on integrating strategies to aid employee involvement, product development/design, metrics and supply chain management, to increase the effectiveness of the organization as a whole. However, in order to make this strategy possible, businesses require the integration of enterprise social media which provides the platforms necessary for all departments within an organization to communicate and share unique department data with one another. In other words, enterprise social media works to help all departments in their collaboration and planning processes in order that social media may be successfully integrated across the whole organization. In turn, enterprise social media, if implemented carefully and strategically, has various benefits to add to a company’s business performance. One company that is reaping the rewards of enterprise social media includes major food processing company MARS, who has successfully integrated social media across it’s organization. Although the first thought that may come to mind when considering the company from a Canadian perspective is the decadent Mars nougat and caramel chocolate bar, candy confectionary isn’t the only thing MARS produces. In fact, MARS also produces gum, beverages and even pet food! Another important fact to consider about the company is its global scale, as it produces and distributes products across the world.

About the company: The Kraft Heinz Company is the third-largest food and beverage company in North America and the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world, with eight $1 billion+ brands. In 2015, the Kraft Heinz Company had 13 different brands with $500 million or more each in annual sales. Kraft has served American families for over 100 years now. This has positioned them in a unique way where the products they offered fits into American lifestyle and the way they raise their families. Kraft Heinz are running a campaign for almost a year now supporting modern families. Family Greatly Kraft’s research showed that 80% of parents today feel pressured to be ‘perfect’ parents whereas 80% of the children would prefer having great parents over the perfect ones. “There’s no one perfect way to family, as long as you’re doing it with love and conviction, we support how you family.” says Anne Field, director of brand building for Kraft. Kraft believes that parents don’t have to be perfect in order to be great therefore they launched a campaign called #FamilyGreatly that emphasizes that there is no wrong or right way to raise a family as long as you do it with conviction and love. Rather than hiring professional artists or reality show families, Kraft decided to get the ‘real American families’ onboard. “When we first identified this insight, we knew it clearly spelled out what we believe as a brand. When we shared it with families, we felt such power in this universal truth. And as mom of two young daughters and a daughter myself, I couldn’t wait to share this message.” Anne Field, Director of Brand Building for Kraft Kraft, as a part of its communications campaign, invites families to engage with #FamilyGreatly on social media, sharing the realities, joys and challenges of family life on @KraftBrand Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels. In order to set the ball rolling, Kraft got its employees to kick start the conversation on behalf of the brand. Audience and participants will hear from these Kraft parent employees about their own genuine and heartfelt experiences.

What makes up the framework of an organization is the diverse set of employees which holds it together. However, this framework may be significantly weakened if it is not maintained through proper communication between all employees which ultimately affects their own involvement within the organization. Thus, it is also important to consider, whether in the work place or everyday life, how modes of communication are not static, but in flux. From the telephone to the internet, technology continues to transform the dominant ways in which we relay information to one another within the workplace. However, keeping up with the times and adapting to the current, rapidly evolving social media landscape may pose a struggle to organizations that were not born in the current social media era. One organization that is fighting against the odds and keeping up with the times is Dutch airline company KLM. Despite, KLM being the oldest scheduled airline in the world still operating under its original name, the company has successfully integrated a social media strategy internally within their organization to increase levels of employee involvement.

Some chocolate lovers are easy targets for many chocolate distributors. But how does a company successfully compete with hundreds of different chocolate bars on the market? A chocolate company may have to develop new products like new flavours to continue to increase sales. Some companies like Snickers stick to their original flavours that the world loves. The classic Snickers has continued to promote their quality chocolate bars and continues to increase sales and brand awareness. Snickers is owned by Mars and has a long history with 5 principles that they promote on their website. The 5 principles that the company follows are; Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Freedom and Efficiency. Snickers is able to effectively build their chocolate empire based on their 5 principles.