There’s a new player in the world of corporate communications – you

As more and more people in an organisation start using social media, they unwittingly start to take on the role of “unofficial spokesperson”. They have the opportunity to talk with customers in a completely different way. The conversation is not intermediated – it is unbelievably direct. It is human. It is authentic. It is transparent.

For many people – particularly those trained in the arts of marketing and PR – this is quite concerning. According to some people, you can’t allow everyday employees to talk with customers. That would be madness! Entire industries have been built around preventing this.

But the world has changed. I tend to start with the idea that the people deep inside a business can have much more interesting and useful things to say about the business than its corporate communications people do. I’d rather spend an hour talking with the engineer who designed my mountain bike than spend even a minute reading the manufacturer’s marketing brochures. I’d prefer to read a blog post by one of Google’s software architects talking about why they made a certain decision than read the press release explaining it.

What does this mean for businesses?

Businesses don’t have to change – in fact they can keep communicating with customers the way they’ve always done. There is no biological imperative for businesses to evolve as the world changes around them. Sticking with what has always worked might be the right decision in the short-term. It’s great news for their competitors.

Obviously this decentralisation of corporate communications has massive implications for the marketing and PR people who have in the past been responsible for controlling the conversations that happen about a business. It also has a big impact on the lawyers and HR staff who run around making sure that no one ends up in court or gets offended.

If we are going to make the most of this shift, then we need to move past the fear and understand that there are huge opportunities here. We need to go back to first principles and re-think the way we view corporate communications to support and manage these new conversations that are taking place between employees and customers, rather than trying to obstruct or subvert them.

Your marketing and PR people will play a critical role in this. They have specialist experience and capabilities in what they do, and what they do hasn’t become any less important. But we need to recognise that effectively communicating with customers on social media requires new and different approaches and thinking.

Be social

At the company I work for, we have about 20 staff with Twitter accounts. Most have the company name on their Twitter profile. They are building their own personal brand online, at the same time as they are building our brand by making connections and being interesting. The barrier between the individual and the corporate identity is not clear, but ultimately this is a win/win for both the individual and the business.

Companies like Microsoft have done a fantastic job of fostering this spirit. According to this, around 1,600 of their staff have blogs. They use this to reach out to the user communities of their products, get feedback on new features, and talk with their customers about their future plans.

One of my favourites is the Internet Explorer team blog. Sometimes the Internet Explorer team make stupid decisions that enrage web developers around the world, so the comments section can turn into a blood sport. But I think they garner quite a bit of respect for actually engaging with the community and openly discussing their decisions.

Another interesting example of this is Alicia Jones. She’s in charge of Corporate Communications at Honda US, and has a Twitter account with over 5,000 followers where she talks with Honda’s customers. Even her Twitter handle reflects the fading line between her personal and business identities: @Alicia_at_Honda. She uses this account to take feedback from customers and pass it on to the right people in her organisation, to thank customers for supporting the Honda brand, and to share news about what’s going on at Honda. Every day she builds goodwill with her followers and demonstrates her organisation’s willingness to be transparent, listen to feedback and engage directly with customers.

If you need some help figuring out how your business and your staff should use social media, there is certainly no shame in bringing in someone to help. This is particularly helpful for large organisations where change comes slowly (and often at great cost).

If you’re considering hiring or engaging someone to help you with social media, make sure you read Brian Giesen’s fantastic post on how to tell if the person you’re talking with is the real thing. There’s a lot of hype about social media out there right now, and you want to make sure you’re talking with someone who is really good at understanding your business objectives and your customers, rather than just someone who knows how to use Twitter.

Everyone wins

When your business gets this right, you’ll see the benefits on each level of your “triple bottom line”.

Your customers will be happier – they can get the information they want more quickly and don’t have to waste time deciphering highly crafted messaging. When they have a problem they can talk directly with the people in your business who can help them. And they get the nice feeling of being a truly ‘valued’ customer rather than just a number in an invoicing system.

Your employees will be happier too. Karl Marx was a lousy economist but he was absolutely correct in arguing that since the Industrial Revolution the life of average workers has become miserable because they no longer have any contact with customers. As your organisation becomes more social and the walls begin to break down, true conversations between your employees and your customers can begin to take place again.

Finally – and perhaps most importantly – your shareholders will thank you. Happy employees make great products, and they can now work together with your happy customers to create even better products. Happy customers tell their friends about your products. Your sales increase. Happy customers need less customer service. Happy employees need less HR interventions. Your costs fall. Everyone wins.

Alex Campbell is a strategy and planning consultant at digital agency, DTDigital.