New Media Mania

The goal of any organisation’s communications team is to continuously inform stakeholders of activities, initiatives and the benefits of new and existing products. But how do they know they’re being heard?

Organisations that offers a range of products and services can have very complicated, multi-tiered relationships with their stakeholders, especially if those stakeholders are themselves organisations with multiple contact points. And even more especially if they’re spread across the globe.

Communicators can never be sure if their messages are getting through, and if they do, whether they are reaching the right points of contact and being registered.

As Awad observed, in a B2B environment, customer relationship management and marketing is about relationships: “First, notice what [stakeholders] are doing. Second, remember what [they] have done over time. Third, learn from what is remembered. Fourth, act on what has been learned.”

To what end? Successful communications, based on Awad’s relationship management process, be it face-to-face, over the phone or via email, will increase the perceived value of your organisation in the minds of its stakeholders, enhance their loyalty, and boost consumption of goods and services.

Great outcomes, for sure.

However, with Web 2.0 in play, Mohammed et al say “new levers [branding and community] have been added to the marketing mix, segments have been narrowed to finer gradations [and] expectations about convenience have forever been altered”.

Indeed so fine are market segment gradations that in Web 2.0, individuals are “market segments” unto themselves; increasingly expecting personalisation whenever they visit a site or receive a communiqué.

How might an organisation evolve its information and communications technologies if it is to have any chance at following Awad’s advice in a Web 2.0-enabled environment?

By integrating databases, embracing software-as-a-service, and stepping out onto the web platform, perhaps?

Waters says: “No other communications channel affords the opportunity to create an interactive experience that can convey brand attributes; tell the business story; begin a conversation with customers, suppliers, employees, and community members; provide multiple action points through a single interaction; and track and compile data on all of the activity in real time.

“This is the fundamental value proposition of the Web.”

Some sources:

Awad, E., M.; Electronic Commerce – from Vision to Fulfillment, 3rd ed., Chapter 9, “Internet Marketing”, Pearson, New Jersey, 2007

Mohammed, R., Fisher, R., Jaworski, B. and Paddison, G.; Internet Marketing – building advantage in a networked economy, Chapter 1, “Introduction to Internet Marketing”, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2004

Waters, John, The Real Business of Web Design, Chapter 20, “A Value Proposition for the Web”, Allworth Press, 2003