Online Media Defined
* Listening to others and sharing ideas, thoughts, and opinions that brings people together and forms solid bonds.
* An impetus for metamorphosis in the way we connect with one another and in the way businesses relate with the world.
The new media world has arrived. It’s a wild frontier market where youthful demographics are the prize and tech-savvy adventurists lead the way. In this digital gold rush, Internet successes such as YouTube and MySpace are the envy of broadcast TV and the rest of the entertainment establishment (Berman, Abraham, Battino, Shipnuck, & Neus, 2007). They offer a huge challenge to companies which have been coordinating and controlling their promotional efforts through such established, traditional channels as public relations, advertising, personal selling and direct marketing. Social media have brought into the mix a wide range of online, word-of-mouth forums which now play a massive part in influencing consumer behavior (Getting the social media on your side, 2010). Consumer-generated media, aka social media, is media accessed through easily attainable web-based communication. It gives the average person a chance to go from being simple information consumers to information producers. The importance of social network media lies in the interaction between consumers and the community and in the facilitation of asynchronous, immediate, interactive, low-cost communications (Palmer & Koenig-Lewis, 2009). One of the greatest challenges will be in understanding and prudently using the new communication technologies that are being developed at a staggering rate. Key among these technologies is the internet and World Wide Web, a universe which journalists are making their own (Andrewes, 2006).
Appealing to big business, Social media enables legitimate brands to utilize social media to reach established clients, garner new customers and re-enforce their reputation and brand among the public. Social media have brought into the mix a wide range of online, word-of-mouth forums which now play a massive part in influencing consumer behavior (Getting Social Media, 2010). In recent years social media has grown dramatically, invigorating both big and small business, allowing them to reach customers and potential customers in new ways.
Online media has become an effective business tool for sales, advertising, and marketing. Social media marketing includes using social networks, online communities, blogs or any other collaborative Internet form of media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service (Bohi, 2010). The popularity of social networks and online communities such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube not only allow businesses to reach and interact with the public but also give people a way to network and communicate.
Integrated marketing communications is the strategic co-ordination of all messages and media used by an organization to collectively influence its perceived brand value (Gurau, 2008). Social Media has changed the game and leveled the playing field between large and small businesses. It has shifted the power to define and control a brand from the traditional institution to the individual or community. As time passes, the control of all brands is gradually becoming the realm of the consumer.
Creating a Business Strategy
Evaluate the Potential
In recent years electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been one of the most significant developments in the business world. Basically, e-commerce refers to doing business online spanning both business-to-consumer and business-to-business dimensions (Karagozoglu & Lindell, 2004). Creating a business strategy begins with goals a company wants to accomplish and at the heart of that is who the company is, why it exists, and its mission statement. A solid mission statement should define clearly who the company is, what they are about, the intended destination and route to arrive there, and define the core philosophy. It is a very precise synopsis of the company’s values and reasons for being, getting to the center of why and how the company operates and how success is measured.
To be effective, a mission statement should describe the organization’s basic and special purpose and how that organization differs from other similar organizations in its operations and services or products offered. Every organization has a purpose for existing, and a mission statement should include this purpose. Often uplifting, this statement should affirm what is to be accomplished and where while recognizing the conceptual thoughts that will guide any actions taken. Mission statements must also provide a route to take, describe the organization’s integrity in which it operates, and motivate those under its influence.
A mission statement should include a mandate and values, explaining its philosophy and how it proposes to rise to the levels of success it seeks. The philosophy and the mission should be one and the same. Mandates simply explain step by step how this process is mapped out. Knowing what must be done allows staff to set about getting the job done and increasing the success of the company. All strategic planning begins with the organization’s mission statement (Daugherty, p. 21, �3).
Identify objectives
Strategic management seeks to align an organization with its business environment. It includes the major decisions and initiatives that shape the organization and determine its long-run performance. Long-term business success typically requires the effective coordination and integration of different functions like research and development, marketing and sales, production, and financial management (Martinsons, 2006).
Anyone with business experience will state that a strategic plan is important and it must contain specific steps and SMART objectives that can strengthen and sustain the organization. SMART is an acronym for the five criteria of a strong plan. The five criteria are:
� Specific – What exactly do we want to accomplish?
� Measurable – Can it be measured?
� Achievable – Can it be accomplished in the planned timeframe?
� Relevant – Will this have the desired results?
� Time-framed – Can we accomplish this objective in the desired amount of time?
A strategic plan details the decisions made and actions taken, why they were taken, and how the organization sees itself several years into the future. This helps a business stay focused on issues that are important to the growth and survival of the organization. An organization must take a good look at itself, what they have been able to achieve and how they did so in the past. The organization’s position in the industry, its strengths and weaknesses, staffing, product or service line, fiscal stability, support for public relations, support for marketing, etc. (Daugherty, 2003). Having this knowledge is important in planning the organization’s future. Next, time must be taken to conceptualize about the organization’s future. Once accomplished, it is time to execute a SWOT analysis from the strategic plan.
Once the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) are known, planning is the next step. At this point visualizing the future comes to the forefront and the organization can then take appropriate measures to put the plan into effect. A SWOT analysis provides an organization with information that will aid in matching the firm’s resources and capabilities with its environment as well as giving it information that can be used in competing with other organizations. It is a tool for auditing a firm and its environment and is the first stage in planning, focusing on key issues. Internal factors are an organization’s strength and weaknesses while external factors are opportunities and threats.
Define Target Audiences and Messages
A company’s social media team must develop policies and strategies for managing online communities, both to mitigate negative consequences and to foster positive engagement (Kane, Fichman, Gallaugher, & Glaser, 2009). In creating a plan, it is important to define target audiences and messages. Organizational leaders must consider two main sets of audiences. First and foremost are those who receive any benefit or service from the firm; second are the people and institutions that provide other means of support that the organization needs in order to function. Companies need to address target audiences both directly and also indirectly through social media (Palmer & Koenig-Lewis, 2009).
Identify the Audience
Online communities vary widely in purpose and membership
For organizations concerned about building and maintaining mutually beneficial relations with important constituencies, the difference between publics and communities is an important one. Publics are composed of individuals while communities are made up of individuals, as well as institutions and organizations. Communities define themselves and thus exist outside the context of any particular organization. They differ from publics because they organize around common interests, not issues, and are apolitical. Communities have long and well-established histories and people within them routinely interact by sharing a common culture. By contrast, a public created around an issue often has a short-term life span and brings together diverse people whose only commonality is concern about a common problem (Hallahan, 2005).
It has been reported that the web has a significant role in disseminating information and that many-to-many online communication allows organizations to achieve excellent communication (Fjeld & Molesworth, 2006). Public relations professionals who represent the organization can play varying roles in this community organizing process. In community involvement, they are agent representatives of an organization who become active participants in community activities and conversations. In community nurturing, public relations professionals act as program facilitators, orchestrators of events, producers of information, and managers or coordinators of volunteer and philanthropic activities. In community organizing, the roles are as leaders, recruiters, and advocates. The overarching metaphor for all of these roles is community builder (Hallahan, 2005).
Integrate
Online media supports other business components
Social media networks are built on social relationships between people who share activities or interests. When joining a network each person will create a profile consisting of personal information. Web based, social media provide channels for people to interact with one another over the Internet, with tools such as instant messaging, e-mail, and community forums. These tools allow users to trade ideas and interests and meet to share activities and events with other interested users.
With a growing awareness of fair trade and socially responsible businesses among consumers and industry professionals, there has been a strong need to work toward understanding customers, investigating customer interests, and satisfying customer expectations with a good quality of merchandise in order to develop and retain sufficient market demand and in turn, support producers and artisans in developing countries (Halepete & Park, 2006). A business that wants to optimize its marketing and enlarge its audience must target a defined consumer base, have a clear vision and strategy for targeting clients, create a solid media plan and have a defined way to measure success.
Building long-term relationships
An organization must acknowledge, recognize, honor, and respect the very people who have played a part in creating its success. Fierce competition has made communicators and marketers look for strategies that would place their organization ahead of and apart from their competitors (Srivastava & Sharma, 2008). If a business neglects its customers someone else will pick up the slack. Consumers are savvy and will not tolerate being ignored; they will simply take their business elsewhere. If a business does not want to lose its customers it will create a stronger relationship with them by contacting them regularly by e-mail, special offers, trials, or offer programs to attract and interest them. A business will also ask for and pay attention to feedback from consumers. Healthy business requires a healthy community, and should be contributing to its creation and maintenance. The public increasingly wants to know about companies that stand behind the brands and products presented to them, and use their power to reward “good” companies and punish the “bad” ones (Tench, Bowd, & Jones, 2007). By using an open dialogue with consumers an organization will be able to gather information that can be used to improve services or products or to create something new. A transparent organization gives thorough and careful thought to how the organization’s values are put into business practice (Wilenius & Malmelin, 2009). (With an open dialogue information is shared and consumers have the opportunity to collaborate with a company in creating or developing new products or services, allowing both sides to win. Organizations that use these strategies will benefit years into the future.
It is important to know who is following you in social media outlets, and this can be a very valuable tool to determine if you are reaching your target and which products your consumers want (Barson, 2009). Online businesses do not have face-to-face relationships with consumers but this does not cancel the importance of building relationships with online customers. Websites have the potential to give information, to entertain and be interactive in their communication. Hence, the use of integrated communications and the subsequent development of such use means that a user can experience a range of different media when viewing an organization’s website – graphics, video clips, music, text, speech and, sometimes, virtual reality (Harridge-March, 2004). The potential for building relationships is inherent in every transaction and dialog. No longer does the marketer need to speculate about customer needs; they actually know customer-purchasing profiles (Rowley, 2004). A business must have a well crafted website that will lay the groundwork for building strong relationships with consumers. A good website will leave a lasting impression on consumers but only if it is designed for the ease of the consumer in mind. Links must be clear, wording concise and contact information easily found or consumers will leave without having attempted to make superficial contact or comments and business will be lost. Continue to work on improving the Web site by implementing a cohesive Web strategy and taking advantage of many elements to reach potential customers in whatever part of the Web they use. The costs are small and the profits large (Altschuler, 2009).
People must have confidence in a business. When someone walks into a brick and mortar store they immediately establish contact with a live person, making it easier to develop confidence that the employee and store will be there if needed. Online there is no such live contact therefore it is more difficult for a consumer to have confidence in the integrity and reputation of the business. An online business must give its visitors confidence in the organization, the buying process, the quality of services, and meet or exceed their expectations when things do not go as planned.
In recent years there has been a tendency to treat the public as herds of cattle and ignoring the individual. If a business goes the extra mile in making people feel special it will build a relationship and most likely have a lifelong customer.
A business should take every opportunity to tell its customers how its product or service will benefit them and improve their lives. Any business that does this honestly and openly will find making sales much easier.
An organization must listen to its clients needs. Listening to, hearing, and responding to those needs will make a business stand apart from all the others pushing the same services or products. Price is an important factor in the purchasing decision but not the only one. If a business listens to and responds to a customer’s needs that customer will be more inclined to build a relationship with that business. By responding to a customer’s needs and maintaining that relationship more money and attention can be spent on gaining new customers. An organization must maintain regular communications with its established customer base by inquiring about satisfaction with the product and level of service. With changes in the economy customer relationship marketing has become more important than ever.
Culture Change
The culture of an organization is deeply imbedded and formed over time. When someone new enters the organization everything feels strange, but soon the company’s way of doing things becomes second nature and people become comfortable with that culture. Usually a major event, such as a significant loss or scandal, must occur for an organization to consider culture change. Once employees realize and understand that their current culture must change for the business to survive and thrive they become supportive and change has a real chance to occur. It will not be an easy road but with the right tools, commitment, and understanding change can occur.
Every culture is unique – formed by the industry and its practices, current and past strategies, important events, and the remembered style, personality and behaviors of past leaders (Brown, Gallagher, & Brown, 2008). Changing an organization’s culture takes time but there are guidelines that, if followed, will ease the change and the organization’s acceptance of that change. First, a sense of urgency should be established. Employees must understand why implementing a new social media policy is critical. If properly educated, employees will be more receptive to the change.
Change can not happen without the support of organizational leadership. The CEO and other executives must be strong supporters of the change program. Also, a vision and strategy for bringing that vision to fruition must be developed. Having both will inspire employees to stay focused and work toward that goal. Once a company has a vision the change program to bring about that vision and its importance must be communicated to employees often and through multiple communication vehicles such as meetings, video, presentations, and email to name a few.
Managers and employees must be empowered and feel included, propelling the change initiative forward. Having short term achievable goals allows everyone to see measureable change. With each goal reached confidence is gained, further progress is encouraged, and organizational culture and acceptance for the change will allow a new culture to develop and take root.
Tactics and Tools
Choosing social media to use
Often, communications are thought of as an activity that happens in spurts of time. A firm is hired, they call a press conference to make an announcement and gain a few words in a newspaper or on the local news, the work is done and things go back to normal. This may be expensive and cause some to wonder if any gain is worth the time and expense involved. Online social media does not work that way. Although businesses don’t have to be on every social network, they do need to be where their customers are and they expect to find every business there (Bohi, 2010).
In order to gain acceptance of any online media strategy it must be clearly stated exactly in which ways the work will be done, who will do it, and how it will be carried out. A plan should include: each of the audiences to be addressed, what each of those audiences should understand about the organization, and strategies for delivering those messages. In doing this a basic model can be applied to the objectives of any organization in its entirety or for specific projects.
When addressing various audiences, an organization must be attuned to different needs and wants, because there is no one option that will be a perfect fit for all audiences in communications media planning. Every institution in this country must adjust to its publics so that mutual understanding is brought out.
An organization must be prepared to be available, responsible and responsive in a timely manner. Deadlines are constant for members of the media and if the goal is positive coverage for an organization, then courtesy to the media must be delivered. If information they need is delivered when they need it the media will consistently return.
Types of social media
Social Media is different from traditional forms of media. Traditionally, communication from business to consumer was one-way. With the advent of social media consumers are able to form networks to converse with one another, interpreting and sharing brand messages between those who have entered into discussions about shared interests. The trend is towards consumer-to-consumer or even “prosumer-to-prosumer” flows of communication as consumers start to produce content on their own accord using new media applications and services (Hearn, Foth, & Gray, 2009).
Traditional media is driven by deadlines and time which dictate when messages can be delivered and who will most likely be reached but social media knows no deadline. Social media operates continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are no restrictions, no rules, and no timeline in which to operate.
Social media is not closed to anyone. Businesses and other institutions have long practiced “community outreach” to nurture positive, cooperative relationships between themselves and the public. Before the internet, firms had far more time to methodically monitor and respond to community activity. With the rise of social media, that luxury has vanished, leaving a community-management vacuum in dire need of fresh skills, adaptive tactics, and a coherent strategy. In fact, in today’s hyper-connected world, a company’s community has few geographical barriers; it comprises all customers and interested parties, not just local neighbors (Kane, Fichman, Gallaugher & Glaser, 2009).Television advertisements are overseen by government agencies and some are allowed to run only at specific times. Social media has no regulations as of yet. Information posted on the Internet is there for anyone to see at any time. The impact of social messages is not limited to online media because people are not limited to one world. Viral marketing can be carried out by multiple “agents” (e.g. e-mail, streaming video and audio, games, programs, websites, pictures or simple documents). E-mail is used on a regular basis by most of the online audience and is therefore an obvious choice for viral marketing (Jensen, 2008). What happens on the Internet is talked about at work, school, and anywhere else people gather. An organization may remove something from their website but generally speaking, once something is put on the Internet, it is forever there for anyone to see at any time.
Online distribution tools
Social Media is more than advertising. Social media began with opinion sites and discussion forums but has evolved into social networks such as YouTube where videos are shared, MySpace and Facebook where people keep in touch, Flickr where photos are shared, and blogs, where people write about any and all subjects to share with others. Add to these promotional emails, online coupons, and search engine optimization and there seems no limit to the reach of an organization’s online media.
Evaluation and Amendment
Perform a communications audit
A strategic communications media plan means aggressively managing a company’s reputation and visibility in the marketplace, and ends with the final phase, evaluation of the plan.
Evaluating the success of a communications plan should begin at the strategic level. The communications strategy should have identified the various publics, messages to be conveyed, and ways of communicating those messages. Prior knowledge of the publics’ awareness of the organization, together with information gathered from the media strategy, can conclude if the plan was successful and what areas may need more concentration.
Evaluation must also be based on the strategic plan itself and the scale of operations. Measurements must be taken from how well the campaign handled specific assignments, not looked at on a vague, generalized objective.
Measure success or failures by objectives
The impact of social media can be measured and impacts an organization whether that organization participates or not. Devotees of social media not only share their opinions. Knowingly or unknowingly users leave much information behind about how they think, why they think that way, and who they are when they leave comments, bookmark sites, refer friends, download information or click on links. From these actions an organization can gather information and ideas on whom and what is impacting its brand.
Receive feedback from stakeholders
In the evaluation phase the organization receives and evaluates feedback from the targeted publics. This often overlooked process segment allows a company to measure its success or failures through a look back at its stated goals and objectives.
Evaluation tools are selected based on the objectives first and tactics second. Each objective must be evaluated to determine whether it was achieved. Each tactic should be evaluated to ensure that it was successfully executed (Daugherty, p. 26, �7). Finally questions are asked and the media plan is accessed allowing for any necessary changes to be implemented.
Conclusion
Planning any communications strategy should be done frequently in a world where products and services are rapidly changing and nowhere does that happen more quickly than on the World Wide Web. For any organization interested in staying current and growing its audiences, changing communication strategies is important in keeping up to date with the shifting world and economy.
Any effective communications plan is one that satisfies the needs of both the organization and its various stakeholders. The organization benefits from a strategic communications plan because the plan can organize its goals and actions related to how to best reach those goals. The stakeholders will benefit by becoming better informed and more involved in issues that have a significant impact on their lives.
One problem that must be faced is that although many people have access to computers, a significant number of people do not. Poverty and lack of access to computer technology remains a barrier for many. An organization must address the problem of how to use information technology to reach new audiences while keeping those without access to computers and other devices informed and feeling they still matter. Traditional forms of communication must be utilized to keep people and groups informed about resources available to them.
Successful organizations in the 21st century will continue to grow and adapt to changing business environments and maintaining efficient communications strategies will be a core component to their success.