Intel Corporation

Founded on July 18, 1968, Intel Corporation is an American multinational technology company engaged in the design and manufacture of digital technology platforms. In addition to producing processors, Intel also harnesses the capabilities of the cloud, the ubiquity of the Internet of Things, the latest advances in memory and programmable solutions, and the promise of always-on 5G connectivity.

Intel’s Main Revenue Streams and Interests

Current Social Media Strategies

Known for being a successful B2B company that leverages on B2C communications on social media, Intel has a heavy social media presence – ranging from Facebook to its own platforms – such as Intel And Me and iQ.intel.com, a content hub that aims to drive brand affinity with interesting articles and content.

At the moment, Intel works in partnerships with Original Equipment Manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and ASUS – hoping to drive up demand for these OEM’s personal computer (PC) products so as to drive up demand for Intel’s processor chips:

A Facebook campaign that Intel Singapore did in collaboration with ASUS to drive consumer interest in the ASUS ROG GT51 Gaming desktop.

Current Business Climate and Intel’s challenges

Currently, Intel is facing an uphill battle with its previous strategy of boosting PC sales.

(Source: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/231852-windows-10-blamed-for-continued-drop-off-in-system-shipments-flat-it-spending)

Intel’s chips were the bedrock of its fortunes yet PC sales have continued to be on a global decline. Amid the poor outlook, Intel laid off 12,000 of its workers in April 2016.

As a result of this trend, Intel has been trying to refocus its business away from the declining PC industry towards data centers and the Internet of Things (IoT) – a vision of the world being filled with billions of connected devices.

Research Value

While conducting our research, we found that most academic studies centered around social media strategies in a B2C context.

As a group, we saw the academic value in exploring social media in the B2B context as well. In light of that, we hope to answer the following question: To what extent can social media be used to further the business objectives of a B2B company like Intel?

Project Goals

For this project, we seek to build a social media ecosystem for Intel that compromises both B2B and B2C communications that will be best aligned to Intel’s business objectives.

This will assist Intel in gaining a first mover advantage and a strong foothold in the IoT industry, which we have previously identified as Intel’s new business focus moving forward.

Future Steps

We propose 3 main steps that we will be embarking on in order to garner a deeper understanding of Intel’s current operations and its future prospects.

Firstly, it involves understanding Intel’s current business environment, challenges and objectives. This helps us to identify target consumers or businesses that are interested in diving into the IoT solutions industry.

Secondly, we seek to evaluate Intel’s current social media performance using the traditional metrics of engagement such as the number of reactions, shares and comments. This will be complemented by a qualitative analysis of the comments they have received in their campaigns. This will help us to identify gaps in their current strategy, and to make recommendations on improvements.

Lastly, by evaluating the performance of other B2B businesses on their current strategies we hope to learn the effectiveness of potential media channels. We will then apply our learning to assist Intel in utilizing social media to drive its message.

Cheers,

Aisyah, Angel, Catarina, Wei Xuan 🙂