Social media in business communication: need for the added value

Brands, companies and organizations are seriously paying attention to social media. Someone starts an active communication, while somebody else is just getting acquainted with this field. But they all are interested in the possibility of organization of corporate communication in social media with the full benefits.

Having undertaken a study among the companies and users, and having analysed the existing communication theories, I have developed a model that can help companies both in planning their communication in social media, and in assessing results –  “Added Value Model”.

According to the model, the communication process in this environment starts with monitoring and analysis of what I call “listening”. This is an important stage, at which the company can collect a lot of valuable opinions about itself, competitors, field as a whole. Informed - is forearmed! The more global and popular the brand is, the more complex this problem becomes. Moreover, the notion of “passive activity” has appeared today, when brands do not register their official profiles, while analysing discussions in social media to be familiar with current trends and issues.

Then follows the statement of messages that the company is getting across to the audience. It is worth remembering that the news wall of social media is more likely reminding the colourful collage than a smooth sheet. Brand messages appear next to photos of children, dinner and friends’ pets. For communication experts it means that it is necessary to formulate a message so that each record is self-sufficient and clear, and the user should not have to study in detail a number of previous posts to pick out the messageю

Only then the particular social media will be chosen, which is the best to convey these messages. This is a fundamentally important point: the specific channels are selected on the basis of strategic message, channel functional capabilities and audience habits, not the preferences of the company employees to the particular social network.

After that, it is important to determine the level of personalization. On the one hand, the company may communicate anonymously, when the representatives of the companies give their opinion not identifying themselves. On the other hand, it is positive, that the personification tendency is being strongly developed - companies are more and more creating their official profiles in social networks, forums, their employees are speaking about their working places in social media, writing corporate blogs. In addition, the company may decide whether it addresses its posts to any specific users or orients them on the amorphous mass.

Further, the company decides which elements of interaction will be used, and how actively. Considering that the engagement rate is one of the most common indicators of successful communication, this is a significant point, which should be intentionally considered by the company.

An important element of all indicated communication stages is the “added value” - in the course of communication in social media at every stage the company representatives should constantly ask themselves if their posts are helpful to the customers. While the elements of added value can be different: consultations, tips and practical recommendations for users; the availability of company experts for communication in social media; the answers to the questions and criticism that appear in the company or user profile; publication of information that is interesting for the users, but not directly related to the business of the company; if possible, the provision of services in the social media profile and provision of bonuses for users. As you can see, discounts and contests for users - this is just one of the ways to make communication interesting and useful for users.

Also it is critically to understand that a company in the social media experiences two types of pressure. On the one hand, this is the pressure of the user community who do not overly like the commercial content and quickly and gladly point out the problems. On the other hand, companies are under the pressure of their own strategies, as they have not come to social media for entertainment, but for the achievement of the certain objectives. As a result, the companies are forced to balance between these two major types of pressure, as the ignoring one of them can cause disgrace and harsh criticism, and ignoring the second may prevent achievement of the desired results and result in the waste of resources.

The company should always come back to listening, defining of messages, choosing relevant communication channels, personalization level and ideas for interaction.

Testing of “Added Value Model” in collaboration with a number of companies showed that the introduction of the communication principles, based on the added value, results in increasing of the engagement rate, which is very important factor in social media. In general, experience shows that the communication experts under the influence of the social media are forced to change their communication philosophy: to think not in terms of campaigns, but to choose the continuous dialogue.