February 18, 2009
Meeting Stakeholders through Social Media
By Communication Adviser Christian Pedersen
How do companies strengthen their dialogue with stakeholders that affect the business?
Implementing a Social Media Strategy might be a solution. It could be a business opportunity.
In times of crisis companies naturally have even more focus on their turnover and ebit. Often this means that dialogue is not prioritized with stakeholders which do not include customers, suppliers or authorities.
If a company gets into trouble, such behaviour can be catastrophic. The company will typically be attacked through channels it is not aware of. It could be on blogs when critical customers let go of their anger. Or angry customers establish hatred groups on facebook or "I-hate-this-xx-company.com"-websites. Even statements on TV from the company's spokespersons - that might be twisted and misunderstood - can be uploaded on YouTube and be commented negatively on.
A company can not control its communication with all its stakeholders the way it could 10-15 years ago. The stream of news is endless with constant deadlines. Today's news are exposed like a flash of lightning on endless platforms and the message spreads boundlessly.
A New Communication Strategy - New Business Opportunity
To be able to handle this situation the company has to change its traditional communication strategy drastically. It should be seen as a business opportunity. To maintain and build a dialogue with all the company's stakeholders takes openness and credibility more than ever in all activities. The social media play an important role on the internet as a way to quickly track the communication and gossip about the company. Through the social media the company actually has a chance to directly impact the dialogue with stakeholders. This demands a social media strategy as part of the corporate communication strategy.
Engagement in an open dialogue with stakeholders demands that the company's employees involve themselves in the different communities on the web within their areas of expertise and tell about the company's opinions and activities in an open and simple way. It is important to show that the company consists of people like you and me. And still, the company's management has to accept that you can not control the dialogue on the web and in the public. You can only participate. Be aware of this in your social media strategy.
The better the dialogue, the more open you are, the less are the risks when the crisis hits you. The current on-going dialogue will also reduce the effect from a potential upcoming crisis.
The new dialogue is not only a job for the marketing and communication departments. Basically all employees in an organisation could be involved. These new media can be integrated in the company's current web media. This is where the business opportunity occur. And this is where the social media strategy as part of the communication strategy will show its value.
Check out the most popular websites
Facebook - "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life."
Linkedin - ¨"LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries."
Twitter - "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"
Digg - "Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web."
Slideshare - "SlideShare is the best way to share and find presentations."
Flickr - "Flickr - almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world."
Technocrati - "The site for bloggers."
YouTube - "YouTube is the world's most popular online video community, allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos."
MySpace - "MySpace is an online community that lets you meet your friends' friends."
Read more about the use of social media in companies in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly - "Six ways to make the web 2.0 work".
Read the blogger Justin French's "Top 5 Lesson Learned about Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter and Business"
Link for "Top 10 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs"
Contact Added Value Communication for more information.
