Miriam HaraSocial media is not a single act … or a monologue. In order to achieve greatness (isn’t that what we’re all after!), a social media marketing strategy must embrace an internal social media culture. The use of social media must, and I repeat, must, be holistic. We live in an age of voyeurism. People want to know the ins and outs of brands and companies. They want to see for themselves the truth in everything. A properly developed social media marketing strategy takes advantage of a social media platform to educate, inform and to showcase what companies’ philosophies are all about, what their culture is all about.
A social media marketing strategy that promotes one tone and culture for their external audience and another for their internal audience is destined to meet with confusion and failure. You’ll be outed sooner than soon.
Recently, I was asked to take a survey giving my opinion on embracing an internal social media platform that would be like a social media intranet … allowing company departments to communicate with one another. I admit, I was and still am a little confused about this concept. I’ll tell you why.
Social media is all about being social, inclusive and holistic with everyone. To ring true, it’s a conversation that must run internally and externally. Our company’s social media is, I believe, inclusive. In any successful corporate or branded social media initiative, the entire company is on board. Social Media isn’t just marketing, nor is it customer service, or sales. It’s all of these and more, all departments singing from the same song sheet … yes, that includes the accounting department! In other words, a business’s social media marketing strategy must incorporate all departments and must make each department accountable for contributing to the overall social media initiative. That could take the form of staff or team members simply ‘liking’ a post, retweeting a comment, sharing an article, a post, or ‘how to’ video. All of these actions help fuel the integration of the business culture and business philosophy, leading to the success of the business’s social media platform, internally and externally.
As far as my opinion and receptiveness to an internal social media intranet, the concept just doesn’t ring true or right. If you’re doing it properly, your Social Media should be a dimensional blend ; whether a business or brand, speaking to staff, clients and potential clients. Using social media as a platform allows you to speak to all of these segments. The use of LinkedIn Company pages, as with Facebook Brand pages, allows for communications between teams and followers alike. The actual channels may be different, but your tone, style, what you say, how you say it, the ways you choose to communicate should remain true to your business and brand core. A social media marketing strategy must always keep in mind that in today’s landscape, and that includes the internal corporate culture, people really are looking for the truth in things. If you live it inside the company, then outside the company it’s believable too: in other words, what is true, ultimately rings true.
(173)
