Digital Communication Strategy: An Extension of Regular Communication Strategy

Discuss about the digital communication strategy within an organization.

The aim of this report is to focus on significance of digital communication strategy within an organization. Proper implementation of digital communication strategy guides the manager to effectively demonstrate the work, promote mission, drive target audience for engaging and helping to achieve the objectives of the organizations. Digital communication strategy helps in building audience engagement around the new products and services by utilizing innovative technology to communicate as well as delight the target audience (Barry, Lee & Messerschmitt, 2012). Several businesses are seeking to create work environment friendlier through higher engagement of employees through digital corporate communication strategy. This study also highlights on the steps that an organization takes to create digital communication strategy in order to achieve business objectives. The benefits of digital communication strategy in different aspects of business is so discussed in this study. Some examples of digital communication strategy is also elucidated in this report. Furthermore, recommendations are also provided to the enterprise so that they can effectively implement digital communication strategy for achieving success in business.

According to Bharadwaj et al., (2013), digital communication strategy is generally an extension of regular communication strategy. The digital communication strategy within an organization usually proposes effective integration of digital as well as social media into every aspects of work and build the digital platform that help the managers to integrate work information and service now into future. Effective integration of digital communication strategy within the enterprise permits the managers to communicate effectively with the clients, customers, colleagues and thus deliver high quality work.  Digital communication permits the organization to disseminate information to the workers and clients via different communicative tools. An enterprise that usually takes omni- channel approach by integrating mobile, displays and web communication gives several options for employees to attain information based on their preferences. An organization strategizing to implement digital communication platform must firstly outline company’s goals, kind of content it will be showcasing, themes it needs to incorporate and types of digital communication it will utilize (Mather, Marlow & Cummings, 2013).

There are mainly four vital steps that can facilitate an enterprise to create digital communication strategy, which are discussed below:

Firstly, Identification of business goals and objectives- Some examples of business goals that an organization must try to attain are- growing brand awareness, increasing lead volume, demonstrating innovation, improving shareholder value.

Steps to Create Digital Communication Strategy

Secondly, Understanding the situation that is prevailing in the marketplace- The managers of an enterprise must identify the present state of workplace so that they effectively develop digital communication strategy. Few examples involve- new entrants in the market, losing market share to vital competitors, communicating through crisis.

Thirdly, gaining insight into target audience- An enterprise can gain insight into target audience by asking them few questions regarding- preferences of digital communication, kinds of content they find valuable as well as engaging, over-index on use of mobile and so on.

Fourthly, developing digital communication strategy after collecting information- An enterprise cam use its goals and audience insights for customizing the digital tactics for developing

In the present century, social media is one of the communicative tools within an enterprise. Tiago  & Veríssimo,  (2014) opines that social media as communication as well as distribution tool is specifically important for the team members who works together from distances. In addition to this, as the teams in an enterprise works in varied time zones, social media helps to communicate among the team members. Besides this, it also keeps the team members engaged in work and interact with the customers in order to attain feedback about the products. It has proved to be as a medium to boost engagement of workers. Most of the companies are using social media platforms for communicating with the employees as it makes them easier than to provide information on certain platforms on real time. Increasing numbers of enterprise are usually treating employee’s recognition as a main pillar of corporate strategy. The main reason behind this is that employees recognition plays vital role in driving behavioural change, strengthening engagement, developing capability and retention. Communicating companywide makes the workers feel valued within the enterprise. Few organizations makes sure that employees recognition has been done differently for different employees and thereby there has been proper external as well as internal communication about the same. Internal communication are mostly used as communicating tool by the enterprises for motivating the employees and improving office morale. Proper internal communication within the enterprise leads to rise in workers dedication as well as motivation and thus improves overall performance of work. An enterprise’s internal communication is significant for the workers to recognize themselves with the enterprise’s vision and ideas and thus subsequently leads to work done according to mission and strategic objectives of enterprise.

As the present workplace has been inherently collaborative, this collaboration mainly depends on proper communication among the co-workers. Now- a- days digital communication is the main component of effective collaboration. It mainly enables the employees to foster ideas, build a ground and develop interpersonal relationships. In the present century, instant messaging, chatrooms, discussion forums have rapidly become a standard for instantaneous communication in the workplace. The researchers have found out that near about 85% of enterprises implements instant messaging, discussion forums and chatrooms within the workplace. The main reason behind implementation of such digital communication tools within the workplace is that it allows the employees to attain ideas across real time. However, this ability to communicate privately makes instant messaging and chatrooms as the best tools available in workplace. Apart from this, instant messaging is an effective tool while communicating with the clients as well as colleagues (Darics, 2014). Thus, attaining success in workplace now involves the ability to utilize instant messaging, discussion forums and chatrooms to the full advantage.

Benefits of Digital Communication Strategy

Recent research has also found out that increasing number of enterprises are utilizing podcasts for reaching remote workforce and permits the employees to access vital content in accessible format. Moreover, as the leaders today face huge challenges in communicating with the team members, implementation of podcast facilitates the leaders in finding new ways to engage and connect with the team members. The managers of an enterprise are mainly utilizing podcasts for delivering vital internal messages, align teams and engage as well as communicate with all the employees (Oldham & Da Silva, 2015).

Few researchers have also found out that the enterprises are using social intranet within the workplace for interacting with the employees and improve internal communication. These researchers have also pointed out that social intranet gives perfect tool for linking employees at several locations or work in remote areas irrespective of size of the enterprise. Some of the popular tools that are utilized on social intranet are blogs, discussion forums, instant messaging, which the enterprise benefits of every size in any industry. Viterbi & Omura (2013) cites that effective implementation of social intranet helps to simplify the business processes. Despite having several platforms for communication, human resource documentation, file sharing, social intranet simplifies every processes into one network. As a result, the productivity of the employees increases owing to increase in their efficiency. Thus, increase in overall productivity leads to improvement in the financial performance of business.  Overall, it can be seen that proper implementation of digital communication strategy aids the employees to interact and communicate with each other as well as develop their skills. Therefore, this helps the employees of an enterprise to achieve the target within the specified time.

The recommendations are provided to the enterprise so that they can effectively implement digital communication strategy within the workplace.

• The organization should be alert while implementing proper digital communication tools within the workplace.
• The managers of an enterprise must hire expert so that they can provide suggestion for effective adoption of strategy regarding digital communication.
• The enterprise should focus on adopting the digital communication strategies so that these are capable of improving communication as well as collaboration and enabling the employees in working together effectively regardless of location.
• Every enterprise musty plan their budgets in business and then select digital communicative tool according to this. This strategy will help the enterprise to maximize higher profitability in the business and attain good reputation in the marketplace.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that integration of digital communication strategy help the organization to gain competitive advantage over their rivalries. It has been evident from recent studies that digital communicative tools help the organization to make easy their business processes. Integration of instant messaging, podcast, discussion forums are some of the digital communicative tools that the enterprise uses for interacting with the employees and motivating them to focus on their work. Not only this, integration of proper digital communication strategy creates open culture in the workplace and thus eases relationship between the leaders and other employees. As a result, this positively influences the performance of the business in the competitive market.

References

Barry, J. R., Lee, E. A., & Messerschmitt, D. G. (2012). Digital communication. Springer Science & Business Media.

Bharadwaj, A., El Sawy, O., Pavlou, P., & Venkatraman, N. (2013). Digital business strategy: toward a next generation of insights.

Darics, E. (2014). The blurring boundaries between synchronicity and asynchronicity: New communicative situations in work-related instant messaging. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(4), 337-358.

Mather, C., Marlow, A., & Cummings, E. (2013). Digital communication to support clinical supervision: considering the human factors. Stud Health Technol Inform, 194(13), 160-5.

Oldham, G. R., & Da Silva, N. (2015). The impact of digital technology on the generation and implementation of creative ideas in the workplace. Computers in Human Behavior, 42, 5-11.

Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.

Viterbi, A. J., & Omura, J. K. (2013). Principles of digital communication and coding. Courier Corporation.