Learning content

Benefits of digital communication

The benefits of digital communication for business

Digital communication lets the business benefit from lower costs, more flexibility, and higher reliability, providing faster speeds and better quality. Digital communications have changed the way of communication of work teams. Today’s teams can work remotely, asynchronously, and across wide distances. They can use apps for file-sharing, real-time interaction, and communication management, to make collaboration as seamless as possible.

The benefits of digital communication for society

• Communication is instant and fast-paced. This is a matter of seconds to send the message and make it available to the audience.
• Communication is extensive. One email message or text message can be easily routed to thousands of employees at the same time. A post on social media can be seen by millions of customers.
• Communication is convenient. It is very easy to send a message, which serves to foster better communication.
• Communication contributes to positive social change. Thanks to digital communication, the everyday life of many people have changed: we can work from home without wasting time and money on commuting, maintain constant contact with team members, or meet business without having to travel.

Email for business communication

Email communication is one of the most widely used tools in business, and it's important to use it effectively. Email is fast, reliable, and portable, providing several benefits for business communication, because email:

• offers immediate outreach,
• is used nearly everywhere, you can send it any time of day to almost every country,
• accessible nearly any time, as long as you have a data or internet connection,
• allows you to keep track of outgoing and incoming messages,
• is easier to track,
• allows targeted communication,
• is often a free tool for personal or business use.

Potential disadvantages of using email for business communication

• Email is often too accessible and makes you feel like checking your email constantly, and may affect your work-life balance
• Email is less secure
• Email can be less personal than face-to-face conversations or phone calls
• Email creates uncertainty because misunderstandings happen when an email isn't clear

When is email the appropriate form of communication to use?

• You need to get in touch with a person who is hard to reach via telephone or is not located in the same part of the country or world (for instance, someone who lives in a different time zone).
• The information you want to share is not time sensitive. Unless your reader has promised otherwise, assume that it may take a few days for them to respond to your message.
• You need to send someone an electronic file, such as a document, a spreadsheet full of data, or a rough draft of your report.
• You need to distribute information to a large number of people quickly (for example, a memo that needs to be sent to the entire office staff).
• You need a written record of the communication. Saving important emails can be helpful if you need to refer back to what someone said in an earlier message, provide some kind of proof, or review the content of an important meeting or memo.

When is email not an appropriate form of communication to use?

• your message is long and complicated or requires additional discussion,
• the information is highly confidential,
• your message is emotionally charged.

Communication through social media

Social media are websites for a community of people with interests or activities in common that make it possible for them to keep in touch, letting them share information through public or private channels. Through social media, we can communicate, create identity, build relationships, share experiences, assert social presence, and market businesses. Social media sites are also a big help in letting people from around the world connect. Also, it gave people more access to information resulting in a step forward for education globally. Social media is the most popular mean of communication. Every day the number of social media users increases, and it has already reached almost 4 billion people. And every user devotes a huge part of her/his day to social media.

Social networking

Social networking is the practice of using social networks, such as Facebook, and LinkedIn to connect and communicate with others online. Social networks allow people to develop relationships that might not be possible due to distances of place and time. They also help boost business productivity when used for public relations, marketing, and advertising purposes.

Most used Social Networks

Most used Social Networks	Social Networks to find a job
Facebook YouTube Instagram LinkedIn Twitter Google+ Snapchat	LinkedIn Xing Bebee Freelancer Womenalia Social Network for photographers Instagram
Social Networks for videos	Social Networks for musicians
YouTube Vimeo Tu.tv Funny or die	My Space Spotify SoundCloud ReverbNation

Source: 📊 The list of most used social networks in 2022: do you use them? (metricool.com)

Social networking is also a significant opportunity for marketers seeking to engage customers, increase brand recognition and encourage brand loyalty. Haring blog posts, images, videos, or comments on social media allows followers to react and engage, visit a company’s website, and become customers.

The top social networking sites and apps by active users (in million):

Social media strategy plan

Social media is a tool to generate sales and revenue. Implementing social media strategies and targeting the right audience can lead to great success. A social media strategy plan is a summary of the course of action a company or a brand decides to take in spreading awareness and endorsing their business by utilizing different online social networks. It is just a written document of your marketing action plan, after that, it’s up to you to turn those texts into reality.

Devising a social media strategy plan

• Devise a SMART goal. In the beginning, you need to set a goal and make sure that your goal you need to guarantee that it is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART)
• Construct an outline. In the process of brainstorming and planning try to organize your ideas in the proper order. You need to set your priorities and pay attention to the most complex and important things for your strategy.
• Pick out the best social media network for marketing. It is advisable to pick out a few social media networks. You should also determine how often and when is the best time to post on these media sites.
• Draw insights from data you need to constantly readjust your social media plan after gathering enough data.

Social media in the future

Social media trends for next years

• Social media has become a tool for crisis management. Because of how social media is utilized nowadays, it can be used as a potentially important crisis management tool, that helps to rebuild and make a dent in a business's reputation. It is also a dangerous tool - through social media, a business can lose its reputation very fast.
• Brand authenticity will be the way to go. Consumers nowadays demand authenticity from brands. Social media apart from fostering long-term trust, transparency can help consumers continue to do business with a brand even during a crisis. When brands work toward building more authentic relationships and deeper connections with their clients, they’re more likely to enjoy a slew of benefits, such as improved brand reputation and better sales figures.
• The use of social media as a shopping outlet will remain popular.
• Short-form and bite-sized content will dominate social media platforms. It’s expected that in the coming years, a majority of online content will be video content.
• The phasing out of third-party cookies. It’s projected that by 2023, we’ll start to see the end of third-party cookies. While third-party cookies allow brands to offer more personalized experiences to their audience, they’re facing backlash due to growing privacy concerns. Moreover, consumers are growing frustrated over this issue and are looking for an immediate solution.
• Decentralized networks will become alternatives to mainstream social media platforms
• Sustainability and the environment will become more of a priority

The power of social media influence

The time we spend on social media has a vital potential to shape our minds. Social media influence is an individual’s ability to affect other people's thinking in a social online community. The more influence a person has, the more appeal that individual has to companies or other individuals who want to promote an idea or sell a product.

A social media influencer is a user that has established credibility in a certain industry or content type that has access to a wide audience. An influencer should have a large enough following and the power to be able to spark a conversation and inspire action or change in behaviour. Companies can hire social media influencers to help expand their social reach, become more relatable and sponsor products or services.

Types of social media influencers include:

• Celebrity influencers. These are the most well-known influencers as they have acquired their following from their celebrity status.
• Consumer influencers. These are everyday people that have gained a following due to their personality and relatability.
• Microinfluencers. Also known as expert influencers, these are everyday people that have gained a following and topical authority due to their knowledge in a specific area.
• Content creators. These include professional bloggers, vloggers, and photographers. Developing is their main role.

Based on their amount of profile followers, there are 4 types of social media influencers: nano (10,000 followers or fewer), micro (10,000 – 100,000 followers), macro (100,000 – 1 million followers), mega (over 1 million followers).

Netiquette for safety on Internet

Netiquette is the set of rules that determines how to properly communicate and browse the web. This is advisable to follow the below rules.

• Keep your software/apps updated and delete the ones you don’t use
• Be careful when dealing with emails from unknown sources
• Don’t click that link or online ad
• Just because it’s free, it doesn’t mean it’s safe
• Do not reveal sensitive information online
• Keep your account information for yourself
• Report illegal activities or offending content
• What you post online stays online forever
• Use anti-malware protection before you go online
• Create backup copies for your important stuff

Case study

Context

This case is an example of good practice of how women, based on digital communication tools, support each other in improving their IT skills.

Description

Girls in Tech, Poland. This is a local branch of a worldwide initiative. The main reason for setting up this chapter is the vision of creating a community of like-minded women who could support and encourage one another right here in Poland. Plus, the large community of more than 70,000 people around the world, from different backgrounds with a common desire to see tech evolve enables knowledge sharing and social support in personal development.

This social network offers:

• Bootcamps - courses on different IT skills
• Local Events, that enable one to find a next hire or new friend
• Jobs Board, which helps to find a job.
• Workshops - that help to develop your soft skills.
• Digital Events - webinars, virtual hackathons, and more.
• Blog

As accomplishments Girls in Tech point:

• more than 4000 entrepreneurs funded, mentored, and supported through AMPLIFY, our start-up pitch competition,
• more than 49000 participants in our Hackathon series, solving local and global problems
• more than 75000 participants in our coding, design, and start-up Bootcamps

Lesson Learnt

• Women admit the need to create communities, within which they can support each other in improving their qualifications in the field of IT
• A community of women who share the same professional passion, although they undertake local initiatives, thanks to the opportunities offered by social media, they share their knowledge and experience on a global scale.
• The language of communication is English, which is also used for communication among the community in a non-English speaking country (Poland).
• Thanks to digital communication, Girls in Tech can support each other in career development and share knowledge and experience (blog), but also improve their competencies and look for new jobs.

Source of case study information: https://poland.girlsintech.org/about/

Questions and answers

Q: What would be the best illustration of the benefits of digital communication for you?

A: Use your imagination and draw 2-3 pictures illustrating the most important benefits for you resulting from the use of digital communication. Will it be a conversation with a friend living on another continent via WhatsApp, or is it a meeting of your team at work? Or maybe you work from home on the computer? You choose.

Q: Imagine that you are an employee of the sales team in a small and medium enterprise, that produces cute candles. And you have to improve the sales numbers. How can you do it using social media?

A: At the beginning identify your target group and its characteristics. Later choose the best networks that you can use as a medium. Create the content of the messages you want to send to your audience and plan how often and when you will post your messages on media sites. In this task, you can skip the first and the last step of developing social media strategy plan (e.g., devising a SMART goal and the result analysis)

Q: You just saw that your comment on a blog of which you are a member was commented on by another participant in a non-substantive way and in addition rude. How would you react in such a situation?

A: Think about the scenario that suits you best. Do you want to respond in a similar tone to take revenge? Do you want to start a substantive discussion and convince your arguments? Or is it better to end this exchange of views? Think about where each of these options leads and how much emotion it will cost you and what you will gain in return. Or maybe you have your own way of dealing with such circumstances?

References

• 10+ Content Strategy Examples [ Web, Marketing, Blog], Content Strategy - 10+ Examples, Format, Pdf | Examples
• Influence of social media, Social Media Influence On The World | Power of Social Media (softspacesolutions.com)
• Netiquette Rules: Definition and 10 Basic Rules To Dramatically Improve your Safety, Netiquette Rules: Definition and 10 Basic Rules To Dramatically Improve your Safety (heimdalsecurity.com)
• Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report 2022, Influencer Marketing Hub, Falcon.IO, SMM_BENCHMARK_REPORT_2022.pdf (influencermarketinghub.com)
• Social Media Trends for 2023: 15 Dynamic Strategies for Social Success, Corinna says... (creativeclickmedia.com)
• Social networks: The list of most used social networks in 2022, 📊 The list of most used social networks in 2022: do you use them? (metricool.com)
• The 15 Biggest Social Media Sites and Apps [2022], https://www.dreamgrow.com/top-15-most-popular-social-networking-sites/#The_Top_15_Social_Media_Sites_and_Apps_by_Active_Users
• The 4 Types of Social Media Influencers, The 4 Types of Social Media Influencers - Crimson Park Digital

Additional resources

https://hbr.org/2020/02/build-a-network-even-when-you-dont-think-you-need-one - Article explaining why it is worth building a network.

https://gettalkative.com/info/communication-channels - Blog post with information on the 10 most essential digital communication channels for business.

https://powell-software.com/resources/blog/workplace-digital-communication/ - Blog post with recommendations for mastering digital communication in the workplace.

https://www.salesodyssey.com/blog/communication-strategy - Blog post on how to define an effective digital communication strategy.

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/build-a-network - Blog post with 10 tips to help you build a network.