Luke Smith
Service providers of all kinds can benefit from tapping into a digital supply chain. Social media is so pervasive now that it spreads information like wildfire. There are ways that you can leverage social media to inform and optimize your supply chain.
What Is a digital supply chain?
Supply chain management has gone digital. Just about every business industry has leadership concerned with supply chain topics like risk, visibility, and resilience. The internet has facilitated the ease of supply chain management.
Online supply chain management involves greater visibility of each part of the supply chain process. You can now easily research suppliers and distributors. There are also online platforms available to keep track of deliveries and demand. With advanced tech, companies can keep a closer eye on each part of the process, optimizing supply chain flow with more informed decisions.
Social media and risk management
Social media typically isn’t first thought of as a contributor to digital supply chain management. However, it can play a pivotal role. Social media enhances supply chain risk management in many ways, including:
- Providing real-time news updates on stakeholders in the process;
- Offering insight into customer reception of third-party companies;
- Updating businesses on current and upcoming risks, such as natural disasters or terror attacks.
When social networking first came on the scene, its potential for business was considered game-changing. Decades later, it seems to have the most influence in the consumer market. The instantaneous nature of social media is important in decision-making, making it an integral part of digital supply chain management.
Most recently, during the Covid-19 pandemic, social media helped companies keep abreast of developments in healthcare such as industry standards, pandemic regulations, company standings, and more. This helps gauge the landscape of the industry so users can make more informed decisions about who to trust to carry out important parts of your supply chain.
Anxiety and social media
The quick spread of information via social networking has pros and cons. During the height of the pandemic, companies remained informed about the current state of the health industry across the globe, but so did the public. Anxiety has changed in the wake of the pandemic , especially when related to health concerns. Anxiety can also increase with the ease of access to information— and sometimes misinformation or disinformation — on social media.
Social media can give companies an inside look at how people are responding to health threats. This can offer insight into supply and demand, such as what tools providers and patients are searching for and talking about. Businesses can also keep an ear to the ground about delivery times and dissatisfied customers. This way, you can optimize the supply chain to meet the most pressing demands.
Social platforms
When it comes to choosing what social platforms to use, it depends on your specific niche. However, there are ways to be smart when choosing social networks. For example, brands want to look for social media sites like Twitter that put out news quickly. TikTok and YouTube have informative content but it may be slower-moving. Forums like Reddit are a bit touch-and-go with reliable information, but they can give you insider info if you are selective and do your research behind any claims.
While it’s important to stay aware of the top social media sites and the distinct content niches they occupy, be a little picky when posting as your brand. Stay wary of information you see on social sites, as it isn’t always reliable. At times, speed is more important than accuracy in social posts. It’s crucial to fact-check anything you see on social media about the healthcare landscape, especially if it’s going to affect a large part of your supply chain.
How to leverage a digital supply chain
Above all, you should leverage social networking for your digital supply chain management. There are social media mistakes supply chain brands make, such as promoting their services rather than being transparent. As long as you are aware of what is credible on social media, you can use information gleaned from social platforms to optimize your supply chain. You can even post, yourself, to gain partners that otherwise might not have known about your company and its role in the global or local supply chain.
