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Generally we think that social media is a outlet to the world. But many organizations are realizing their potential in internal communications.
1) It is obvious that they are much more effective and open compared to older means such as group emails. 2) Especially firms with a large number of employees can use it as a very effective means to enhance interactions between employees.3) Intra-organizational networks such as Yammer have upped the game now with internal social-media like communication. 4) Through their help organizations have built customized groups suited for their needs and are actively encouraging people to collaborate constructively and connect with each other.
However, it does seem that many corporate social networks do not see the same kind of traction that established social networks do. Many employees seem more concerned about sharing thoughts internally on a work network, and changing their habitual social platform preferences. Taking up on this trend, recently, Facebook launched a new app/ product: Facebook at work, allowing users to use their company accounts. Companies with 100+ employees are being targeted by this product. Facebook believes that smaller firms are already using Facebook groups. Internally, they are already using this:
“Facebook at Work’s strength is that we’ve spent ten years and incorporated feedback from 1 billion active users…All of that is embedded now in the same product but adapted for different use cases…When Mark [Zuckerberg, the CEO] makes an announcement he just posts it on Facebook at Work” – Lars Rasmussen (source)
The key reason why this topic of internal communications will continue to gain ground is the following:
1) Current internal communication and knowledge sharing, especially in large firms is still sub-optimal and relies on peer to peer Email exchanges which are sometimes information blockers. 2) Employees may receive as much as 100-200 Emails per day, which makes it easy to miss out on valuable information. This figure crosses the roof top if anyone is on vacation, leading to severe mis-management and internal frustration and in some cases, poor decision making. 3) In times of employee churn/ turnover, the information is rendered unavailable to others who do not have access to a string of Emails that may be important for project progress. 4) Many global firms are working on the rather pivotal topic of building transparency and employee engagement while trying to learn from new forms of communication. Social media’s growth and prominence over the last decade has made it the top contender in this regard.
There’s still a question mark on whether proprietary social networks will be the answer to this issue, or if firms will have to go to existing networks to bring back the employees. Proprietary networks face the legacy issues of being and using tools that are not necessarily modern enough for employees. And existing networks do not usually make a firm comfortable enough to share private firm information. The answer does lie somewhere in between, but will open up an interesting discussion in the coming years. Questions on the real productivity gains due to better knowledge sharing, time loss due to an additional information channel, the cost of training employee on a new way of communication, productivity losses due to the sheer feeling of being overwhelmed by information are some of the things that will have to be considered while arriving at the real answer.
While everybody was building fan following using Twitter and Facebook, some firms realized that they can be an excellent, instantaneous medium for customer service, quite early in the process. So, many customer brands respond to people complaining to them on these sites directly. Instead of sending a mail and waiting indefinitely or spending your own money to call them, you can just have a quick chat on Facebook or talk to a Twitter handle and share details of your problems. Since most people are in these networks anyway, they find it easier than taking the extra effort to call and wait on the the queue hold music.
Some of the pioneers in this field are: JetBlue, Nike, Target, Xbox, Zappos some of which use special “customer care” accounts in addition to the company social media accounts just for support.
Some of the key pointers to creating a successful social media experience for customers and bringing them the best customer care via social media are:
1) Being responsive and acknowledging the issue 2) Immediate responses, considering most customers expect a faster response via social media 3) Actively listening and not ignoring customer complaints!
Unfortunately, customers increasingly get ignored by brands on social media. As per Sprout social research:
7 in 8 social messages to brands go unanswered within 72 hours. Imagine if your customer service team answered only 1 in 8 emails right away, waited more than 3 days to get back with an answer or just flat out failed to pick up the phone 88% of the time. Unacceptable, right? Despite significant gains in the perception and value of social media, many brands remain unmoved in the quest to institute a fully functioning social communication strategy. According to NewVoiceMedia, poor customer service in the US costs companies $41 billion each year.
This leads us to believe that, while social allows firms to build transparent, quick and efficient ways to connect to customers, there’s also a huge gap in the market. This will need to change as firms continue to improve their service quality to create value and stay competitive.
With every new Startup now, the first thing after acquiring the brand name and URL is to open a Facebook fan page and a twitter handle. These are a great way to generate word of mouth and usually less expensive than traditional media.
A client of ours was trying to speak with their sourcing partners recently. They are at an early stage still, and getting the website ready, as they start building the network. While the sourcing partner understood that, “where can I find you on Facebook” was the first question they got asked in most meetings.
Whether through paid or organic promotions, social media presence and communication is an absolute must. If you have a large fan following, you can regularly share your links and generate traffic to your website, especially if your business depends on that. The traffic is also likely to be more targeted and of higher quality because your (organic) fans are interested in what you do and what you have to say. Social media traffic may form a major component of total traffic for your site/business. One of our Startup friends, Pratilipi shared earlier that 80% of their total traffic comes via Facebook, which is a LOT!
Firms, small businesses and Startups are investing in Content marketing initiatives aggressively. By creating quality content organizations or individuals and trying to establish themselves as thought leaders. This includes SEO optimization, competitive research and being aware of keywords and search rankings. Social and search are also related, as one sees more social updates or reviews show up in Google search which customers are constantly on. The true impact also depends on the industry you are in. And while, we are of the belief that there’s no industry un-touched by social, some are still more impacted by it than others. Try being a travel company with a bad review on Tripadvisor or an AirBnB host with a string of bad reviews. In all likelihood, you will kill future business and your brand!
In summary: Social media has changed the way we do business. Staying put in a corner thinking it will go away as a fad is not going to work anymore. The more proactive firms are in establishing, testing and seeing the value of networks, the more successfully they will maintain customer and employee relationships of the future. Not every single method or tactic will work for each firm, but the only way to figure that out is through tests and collaborations. Try now or be ready to perish!
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