Daily business communication using social media: people & objectives

Many people want to hear from your business, but are you talking to them? Do your social media programs include your existing ecosystem of partners, analysts, investors, customers, and even your own field sales teams?

Social media conversations often fork into one of two directions. Some conversations get caught up in the revolutionary movement and we talk about how we’re driving engagement and equity for the brand, but without a clear connection to ROI. Other discussions gets stuck in a direct marketing mentality and we talk only about short-term campaigns, SEO, and conversion rates.

But your company is more than your brand, and your company does more than find new leads. Your company is a business. Are your social media programs supporting your daily business communication and operations?

Much of the overt communication of a corporation splits into two levels: one is a high-level voice of the corporation, with communication typically coming via press releases, interviews with spokespeople, and executive presentations. But there is an entire spectrum of lower-level daily operational output from a variety of teams and programs across the corporation: product teams, distribution channel and supply chain partner programs, education, professional services, promotional campaigns and events, technical support, customer programs, and on and on. They are producing items of interest that don’t belong in a press release, things like secondary product launches, new or changed programs or policies, events, case studies, webinars, white papers, calculators, contests, documentation, or even changed website sections or new capabilities. Often, though, it’s hard for people to keep up or even find what they need.

This kinds of daily operational communication can and does result in customer acquisition and increased brand equity, but that’s not its primary goal. Social media can be instrumental in conveying those program messages and also in enhancing the two-way communication between the program managers and their stakeholders.

Let’s loosely use the Forrester POST method on one scenario about this kind of a corporate ecosystem and see where that leads us. Here a few generalized assumptions about the current situation for many businesses:

• You have a set of people who want to hear from you. These are your customers, partners, and even your employees.  How do the people who would be interested in your company find out about the output of the corporation at a level of detail below press release-sized chunks? You send out email, but does it get opened? Would people prefer to get their information in other ways? People now spend more time on social media sites than they do with their email.

• Attitudes surrounding corporate communications have changed. People want to hear directly from the company, not from the press and not from the partner and distribution channel. Although email can be forwarded, it’s hard to share on social networking sites. People who hear about policy changes via word of mouth often desire an official confirmation. (A customer enthusiast recently told me: “In my country, your channel partners get their information from me.”)

People

Here are three groups that actually want to hear from you, because they need to be talking with your company to do their jobs.

• General industry audience. A wide variety of people from across the business spectrum want an overview of the company’s business activities, and they want a one-stop shop. They tend to be Spectators, at least in this context. This is a separate group from the prospective customers that come to the front page of your website.

• Partner and customer ecosystem. These are hands-on sales, marketing, and technical types who want the tools and resources to work with your company. They get email from you and come to your web site often. To do their job, they need to be Collectors of news and tools. This audience also includes your own employees in the field, who also need to keep up on the latest tools you’ve made available.

• Enthusiast community. Your product is useful to them and their careers.  Usually part of the ecosystem group, this crowd wants tool and resources, but they also need hands-on information about how to design, use, and troubleshoot your product, and they often are the ‘gurus’ that others turn to for help, online and off. They use blogs, Twitter, and other online communities to connect with their peers. They are Creators, Critics, Collectors, and Joiners.

Objectives

So using the somewhat formal language of the POST model, what do you want to do with these folks?

• Listen and participate in the ongoing industry conversation. Using these operational social media channels will push you towards listening. This will increase your agility and reduce risks, because you will have better early warning systems and hopefully will be using the feedback to course correct.

• Talk with the business community. Because you are going beyond press release-sized chunks of conversation, and because you are going directly to the community without the filter of press and analysts, this general audience will better understand what the company is actually accomplishing and where it’s trying to go. You will increase their awareness & improve their attitude towards your business, establish thought leadership, and hear what they think about your strategy and execution.

• Support your partner and customer ecosystem. Much of this mutual benefit is from simply communicating better, more frequently, and in the channel that each person prefers. This will increase your ecosystem’s ability to execute and will allow them to better leverage the assets you are already producing. If you’re listening, you’ll also find out which resources are actually useful and what you should be doing more and less of.

• Support and Energize enthusiasts. You goal is to make these enthusiasts successful, knowledgeable, and more influential by giving them the tools and training they need. By empowering them to be better advocates, and giving them the tools to pass along resources to others, they will help you increase the number of successful customers you have, and in fact will help increase the effectiveness of your marketing activities across the funnel.

See Part 2 where we finish the POST process with Strategies and Technologies and present the first of three corporate social media communications programs:  The Central Corporate Communications Channel. Part 2: Daily business communication using social media: the central corporate channel

Please let me know what you think! Are we moving beyond Social Media 101? Is this model resonating with you? Does it make sense for your type of business?