Social Media as a strategic communication platform for organizations

This week was the 3rd time Social Media Week took place. This year the event happened simultaneously in 9 big cities: New York, San Francisco, Rome, Paris, Toronto, Sao Paulo, London, Hong Kong and Istanbul. The main objective of the event was to disseminate and share ideas and information about emergent and online platforms in social media (for more information see: http://socialmediaweek.org/about/).

I’ve joined some of the debates in London and they’ve reinforced the importance and impact of online and mobile platforms of communication such as sites like twitter, facebook, youtube and corporative blogs who are gaining increasing recognition in our society. That’s mainly because social media is a powerful two-way communication media; it gives a voice to the public providing interaction between them and the organization. Nowadays only share and transmit information isn’t enough. It could have had worked in the past where consumers were loyal to brands and satisfied by just getting information and news from companies. These one way communication models have become a thing of the past and now with consumers more engaged and aware of their role in society they are demanding to be listened and heard.

Companies that are seeking excellence in service and loyalty of consumers need to understand the public/stakeholder they are communicating with. They need to know their needs and expectations and then create efficient strategies of communication. There’s no better way to do that than using social media. Creating campaigns and channels of communications without understanding your public can be a waste of money and time, consequently affecting the bottom line.

Social media allows interaction and provides the company with the opportunity to get quick feedback from the public. It also enables companies to measure the feedback. This way they can improve or modify strategies or campaigns that aren’t effective. This is different to traditional media which requires a long period of time before it can be measured. Social media channels can give instantaneous feedback. Consequently decreasing the time companies spend implementing ineffective campaigns. In addition social media campaigns are relatively low cost.

The only necessary requirement is to constantly monitor. Companies who already realize the importance of implementing social media in theirs channels of communication also need to look at social media as a strategic platform of communication. Consumer feedback needs to be quickly responded to, otherwise the network losses it best feature: interactivity. When companies start to perceive social media as a part of their strategy and include it as a tool in there communication strategy, it will reinforce the interactivity between organizations and publics making their relationship much healthier, open and based on the dialogue.