The Social Media Influence

 

Social Media. Love it or hate it, it is staying, it continues to evolve, and it is the place to be.

If you’re a brand and not on social media, you’re missing out. BUT it's not too late to jump on to the bandwagon!

Pew Data has found that 20% of social media users say they've modified their stance on a social or political issue because of material they saw on social media (Lipschultz, 2021). So you can only imagine how as a marketer or a PR professional, social media could be the linchpin in all your efforts. 

Think about your objectives -- do you want to inform, entertain, or inspire confidence, or maybe all of the above (Charest et al, 2016)? One of the best qualities that distinguishes social media is a high level of interactivity, user identity formation and an openness to share content across developing communities (Lipschultz, 2021). If, as an organization, you can do that, half the battle is won.

One of the key aspects (and I would say the most important aspect) of your company's mission is (or at least, should be) to create and maintain trusting relationships with your audience, for which dialogue is key.

When I was working at Deloitte and was part of the internal marketing team, Yammer was part of the product suite that I was promoting to be used as an internal social media tool. While there were some posts off and on, employees were not really engaged with the tool. After a fair bit of analysis to figure out how we could improve uptake, we realized exactly what I mentioned above, that people wanted to connect and have dialogue, and most importantly, build relationships. We then launched a campaign called "Humans of Deloitte", influenced by the popular "Humans of New York" Facebook page, which showcased employees of Deloitte in a light that was outside of the professional working environment, highlighting how they were each making a difference in their personal lives and in their communities. The campaign was hugely popular internally, and it was replicated across geographies, and has even become a page on the actual Deloitte website, helping with recruiting efforts.

Another aspect is evoking audience trust, for which source and message credibility help drive influence through strategic engagement (Lipschultz, 2021). This is also what a lot of leaders of organizations have started realizing, for example, the CHRO of one of the organizations I worked for regularly posted her thoughts on many topics including Diversity & Inclusion or a certain HR strategy and how it was driving forward business for the organization. This helped her connect with and influence not just the HR community at large, but potential employees as well. 

I mentioned a bit about interaction and dialogue earlier in this post, and I wanted to add, as a Communications professional myself, when I think of social media influencing a current business, I like to think of this conceptual model developed by Peterson (2006) which talks about the 4 “I”s which are: involvement, interaction, intimacy (or affinity) and influence. It is the sequencing of these four actions that represents the full internet user engagement cycle on platforms, and that organizations must try to develop in order to spark conversations with their audiences (Charest et al, 2016). Do you agree?

What are your thoughts about social media influencing your organization's vision?

References:

Lipschultz, J.H. (2021). Social Media Communication: Concepts, Practices, Data, Law and Ethics. Routledge.

Charest, F., Bouffard, J., & Zajmovic, E. (2016). Public relations and social media: Deliberate or creative strategic planning. Public Relations Review, 42(4), 530-538.  

Humans of Deloitte (n.d.) https://www2.deloitte.com/la/en/pages/careers/articles/humans-of-deloitte.html

Humans of New York (n.d.) https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork/

iPhone. But of course.

iPhone. Fell in love.

Here a swipe, there a swipe, everywhere a swipe swipe.

How many apps can one download? What case should I buy? Screen guard, first and foremost! I hope I don't drop it. If you don't have an iPhone, you don't have an iPhone. All of that.

Retina Display. Oooh! Siri. Aaah, ok what do I do with her! But of course, 4S it had to be.

First things first, Whatsapp & Angry Birds Space. Mom, need your credit card. (After a week, mom freaks - I did not go to Luxembourg why has this money been charged to me? Credit card fraud! No mum, remember I bought those two apps from Apple. What is this? Use your own debit card. And there it ends.)

Free apps, FTW! There's an app to tell you about free apps. Appzapp. Thank you friend who told me about it. Now obsessing over downloading. 15 games in 15 days. Swipe swipe swipe swipe swipe, cutting tomatoes in Order Up! I always was fascinated with cooking shows, now I can cook virtually. Who cares if in real life all I can do is make chai and maggi? (oh and sometimes a fried egg) I have an iPhone.

Thank you mommy. Best. Gift. Ever.

P.S. But of course, it had to be my iPhone. My first blog post. This is fun! Yayee! :)

P.P.S. I love my iPhone girls, with whom I share all updates and we discuss what apps & games to download. It's like a special club ;)