Macpherson

http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2010/07/27/federal-contractors-social-media.aspx

In order to find whether Government contractors are actively using social media, I have read and collected a number of news articles on Google. According to many sources, not only Government contractors but also Government agencies make huge efforts to share information with their own customers via various social media channels such as Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

However, the article above on which I mainly focused highlighted some skeptical opinion on the results of Government contractors’ social media usage. According to the survey of 167 contractor employees conducted by the research firm Market connections Inc., although a number of federal contractors have rushed into building relationship with their customers via social media, many of them have casted doubt on calculating a return on their investment.

It means that in spite of the fact that social media came to be known as a dominant and everyday method to develop relationships with customers, it is not necessarily easy to evaluate the ROI that is based on the considerable amount of investment. In other words, the Government contracting industry at large agrees on the necessity of social media in part, but, when it comes to the actual effectiveness and impact, there is still room for debate.

Accordingly, there will be predicted to have lively discussions and active information sharing on the effective way to use social media in the federal contracting industry. As a result, the advice of experts will increasingly requested throught the industry. Therefore, this trend will definitely be a huge opportunity for Deltek, a company providing solutions for the government contractors. It needs to start offering strategic analysis and solution for dealing with social media to take the lead in the changing Government contracting industry.