According to T. Micheal Glenn, president and CEO of FedEx, "'Communication is at the center of everything. You can't execute strategy if you can't communicate about it,..."(Argenti, Howell, Beck, 2005, p.84). I believe this sums up business. If you do not have the ability or do not take the time in which to communicate properly what your strategy is, then all of your segments, employees, stakeholders, audience, etc, lose purpose, or worse, create what they feel their purpose should be, further blurring the intended strategy and creating a fragmented business. This will not achieve your strategy. Also, take in to mind employees. They look for a purpose and a commitment from their executives.
"'The only way to show the commitment is to communicate with passion, face-to-face, all the time with the same message.'"(Argenti, Howell, Beck, 2005, p85)
With all of the different ways in which company's can communicate with their audiences, and the need for constant reminders and a "real" relationship, integrated communications, as well as proper use of social media is important. Integration is simple, all parts must work together, you must have a consistent message. Social media provides company's with the ability to gain the "face-to-face" element with a vast audience at the same time. Social media is rebuilding the relationship element of business, where customers feel like they have impact and importance to business. A part of strategy should revolve around the customer, the end user. What better way to support this element then to openly communicate with them?
"As an organization grows in size and complexity -- more markets, customers, products, services, employees, suppliers, investors, and so on -- the need for a consistent communications strategy becomes even more critical because it must communicate to a diverse and rapidly expanding array of constituents while remaining relevant to all."(Argenti, Howell, Beck, 2005, p86)
It is important that all communication must work together. If the overall theme of your Twitter, Facebook group, website, and blogs are mismatched and voice conflicting information, your business can come off as confused and your sites lose reputability. As you look to reach multiple audiences, you must take into account that they will use multiple platforms in which to reach you. By creating an integrated communications strategy, a company is able to position themselves in a way that is definable, recognizable, and understood by all audiences in which they interact.
Have you ever come across a company whose social media content across different platforms is conflicting? If so, what was your initial reaction and what conclusions did you draw about the company due to their fragmented communications?
Argenti, P.A. Howell, R.A. & Beck, K.A. (2005). The Strategic Communication Imperative. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved February 4, 2014 from https://www.dartmouth.edu/~opa/communicators/fall08/reading//Sloan_MIT_Strat_Comm_Imp.pdf
Courtney, I’m glad that you specifically mentioned the use of employees in your forum this week as they are a key but far underutilized element to the success of any company’s social media plan. While some organizations are still hesitant to promote the use of social media among employees, many forward-thinking organizations are finding great benefits to tapping into employees as brand ambassadors. According to a recent Forbes article, “involving your employees in social media may, in fact, be the best way to prevent online disasters” (para. 2). The article goes on to discuss organizations that share guidelines for social media usage and teach their employees how they can assist the organization in monitoring and bolstering the brand image through their personal social media platforms. It is an interesting concept and I’m curious to hear what you and our classmates think about it!
ReplyDeleteReference
Clark, D. (2013, October 15). The best way to prevent social media disasters. Fobes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2013/10/15/the-best-way-to-prevent-social-media-disasters/
Thanks Bobbi Sue!
DeleteTouching on what you mentioned about employers hesitant about making employees able to use social media to promote their business, I ran into a bad meme of a product my company sells and felt like I was stuck. I wanted to report it, but to who? Did they already know about the bad press? These are just some of the questions that ran through my head and it made me realize that if we had a social media policy or had some insights to help us with social media, I could have easily responded and help support my company.
Do you think all employees should have free reign to respond to company related news, pictures, etc. that they find online?
Courtney,
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned the importance of communications needing to be both consistent and integrated in order to accomplish positive results that align with an organization's strategy. For example, "an integrated marketing communication plan uses the same thematic message in different types of promotions. The idea behind the message remains consistent whether consumers see a magazine ad or the company's web page" (Akers, n.d.).
You illustrated the importance of consistency in brand voice and personality. The same images, content and themes of an organization's campaigns need to be unified and cohesive in order to carry maximum impact. In order for consistency to happen, it's important that an appropriate social media policy is implemented and understood by those contributing to a company's social media outlets. This ensures that consistency and brand voice and tone do not vary among those contributing on social media channels. "Consistency builds recognition and memorability" (Arruda, 2013). This consistency builds a common platform for an audience to recognize and recall the brand in their memory.
I have come across companies whose social media varies and conflicts from channel to channel. The unfortunate result is a lack of clarity and recognition from their target audience. Less impact equals less results. Fragmented communications lack professionalism and often devalue the brand in the minds of the target audience.
Thanks for your insights! What are some examples you have seen of superb consistency and cohesiveness on a company's social media channels?
References:
Akers, H. (n.d.). The Steps in Developing an Integrated Marketing Communication Plan. Retrieved
February 4, 2014, from The Houston Chronicle website: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/
steps-developing-integrated-marketing-communication-plan-56305.html
Arruda, W. (2013, August 27). Three Elements Of An Effective Social Media Strategy. Retrieved
February 5, 2014, from Forbes website: http://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2013/08/27/
three-elements-of-an-effective-social-media-strategy/
Hi Courtney,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I also really like the title, very clever. I like the point you make about conflicting information making a business look confused as well as damaging their reputation. By not being consistent, your company seems disingenuous, unreliable, and will eventually be passed over for a brand with a strong, consistent communications plan. I also agree with you the need to make sure the experience is the same across the all the platforms, as the consumer could be interacting with a brand through multiple channels. Jay Baer, in an assessment about the Minnesota Timberwolves’ inconsistent messages across traditional and new media (check out his article as he details out the mixed messages from print to the site to social media), shares three lessons about consistency and leverage:
1. Support a new concept throughout the brand’s digital world.
2. Link all platforms together in order to drive traffic.
3. Distribute the content across all the platforms, instead of just one.
I agree with the first two lessons, but think the third lesson could make a brand seem insincere if they are pushing the same content on all channels, rather than tailoring the message to be special on each. While portions could be split apart and shared across platforms in order to drive traffic to each, I don’t agree with posting the same video to Facebook, YouTube, company’s website, and tweeted. What do you think?
Baer, J. (2011). Get Your Social Media Story Straight. ConvinceandConvert.com. Retrieved from http://www.convinceandconvert.com/integrated-marketing-and-media/get-your-social-media-story-straight/.
I think companies need to be cautious about spreading themselves too thin online. If you have the resources to properly maintain multiple platforms and your target market exists across multiple platforms, then by all means, use everything. If your company does not have the resources, you can run into neglect on certain sites and drive down your customer service and hurt your reputation. If your target market does not use YouTube often, does it make sense to put your budget towards this? I think if companies think about these two elements they can properly create a social media campaign that works and provides a ROI.
DeleteCourtney,
ReplyDeleteTo elaborate on your mention that all platforms should work together, I thought immediately of the organization’s social media policy. Every organization should be utilizing a social media policy. Mashable.com outlines 10-Must haves. Its important for us all to remember that “social media usage won't get you very far if you don't execute on the core competencies of your business” (Lauby, 2009).
Many websites are lacking site policies and they need to get up to speed with developing and implementing these policies. Since site policies are still playing catch up, organizations are having a hard time implementing social media policies. Many are coming out with these simultaneously now that there is a need (meaning by law). A big question for these organizations have been where does the jurisdiction fall, marketing or business offices. I say both need to work together to provide a comprehensive site policy and social media policy, and then depending on what industry your organization is in, the office responsible for monitoring usage among employees might fall under another department.
Where does your organization stand in these processes? Who is in charge of monitoring and implementation?
This could be apart of greater discussion of organizational management, but as IMC professionals we need to take charge and ensure we are complying with the ever-changing laws associated with these policies. It is our job to coordinate efforts pertaining to the promotion and awareness of our brand. If we let it go will it get done properly? What are your thoughts?
Reference:
Lauby, S. (2009, June 2). 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy. Retrieved February 7, 2014, from Mashable.com: http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/
Hi Becky,
DeleteThanks for sharing that article, it establishes some of the fundamental guidelines for building an organization's social media sites policy, but also can be applied to establishing your own policy. I especially like point #2 Be responsible for what your write, and # 3: Be authentic.By practicing those simple guidelines, as well as the others, in your own social media interaction will get you comfortable for building and contributing to your organization's online reputation.
I also appreciated point #6 Understand the concept of community and #9 Bring value. I feel these go hand in hand as they both speak to what is your social media interaction doing and who is it effecting. This focuses the priority on the consumer, and ensures everyone in an organization understands the purpose of social media isn't to push an agenda, but rather to create open relationships with the consumer.
My company has been expanding its social media interaction over the years, but currently does not encourage employees to engage on behalf of the brand in social media. I agree that policies need to be put in place prior to employees engaging in the organization's social media interaction with consumers, as the way you personally interact and professionally interact look very different. I don't think it needs to be policed, but ensuring employees understand the communication priorities and guidelines, as well as what can't be shared, is fundamental for success. By entrusting employees with this big responsibility, I believe they will rise to the challenge to represent respectfully and effectively.
Becky,
DeleteThanks for this article! I currently do not know who handles social media for my company, as I am fairly new. However, I feel like it should have been a part of my training and that is a missing link I would like to address.
If we do not know who is handling social media, its hard for me to rely that it is getting done properly. A big miss I noticed was that our twitter and facebook has been pushing the Olympics and our support, but as soon as you go to the company website, there is not even a small link to Olympic support, and that is a huge miss.
Hi Courtney,
ReplyDeleteGreat thoughts around consistency in social media messaging. One thing I see often is a company with a number of Twitter handles or Facebook pages, and this can become a bit confusing. A larger company may have a variety of products and services it offers. Therefore, it becomes difficult to promote these offerings using the same social media handle if the target audiences are different. While creating separate handles will allow the ability to create more tailored and appropriate messages, it can also become confusing for the consumer if they are unaware of specific company divisions and the differences between them.
I work in the insurance industry and I’ve noticed some insurance companies with multiple Twitter accounts. As an example, Progressive seems to offer at least three Twitter handles – one for the company itself, one for its “mascot” Flo, and one for customer service. While each of these accounts serves a different purpose and perhaps a different audience, it may become confusing to a consumer which one they should really follow to receive relevant information.
Overall company messaging most definitely needs to be consistent, but companies also need to consider the ways in which it presents its information.
Great post!
-Lindsey
Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteDo you think having the separate twitter handles is almost like maintaining the separate departments? If I need help, I would probably like to speak with customer service instead of Flo and if I am just looking to have a little fun with the company, I may tweet to Flo instead of the company's own twitter handle.
Also, do you think that companies make multiple twitter handles to appeal to different audiences?
Just some thoughts, Thanks for your insight!
Hey Courtney - yes I do think companies sometimes use separate Twitter handles for different departments. This of course allows them to tailor content for that target audience. I think it may only get confusing if a user isn't quite sure which department they need to get in touch with (and if there happen to be multiple customer service accounts that might get messy). But you're right about the Progressive examples - they each have a different intention and audience so the accounts aren't meant to overlap. Companies just need to be aware of how they present themselves and make sure different accounts are clearly marked.
DeleteThanks!