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It has always been important for organisations, since the beginning of business, to have positive
relationships with stakeholders. This has not changed, what has however changed is the advances in
technology, allowing organisations to build these relationships in a multitude of ways, not just in
person as used to be the case. ͞A stakeholder is a person or group that has an investment, share, or
interest in something as a business or industry͟ (http://www.dictionary.com). Given that anyone
who has an interest in a business or industry is considered a stakeholder, it means that a stakeholder
can be just about anyone, in any given business or industry, there are a large number of people to
satisfy and build good relationships with. This is why organisations have begun to explore the use of
digital media as a medium for doing so.
Digital media is a more one directional form of social media which ͞...is the umbrella term for web-
based software and services that allow users to come together online and exchange, discuss,
communicate and participate in any form of social interaction͟ (Ryan & Jones, 2009:152) .The reason
that digital media ,in the perspective of how organisations use it to build stakeholder relationships,
is more one directional is due to the organisations wanting to reach out the its stakeholders more
than the stakeholders wanting to reach out to the organisation.It must be said however that the
stakeholders do still want to communicate with the organisation aswell. As Ryan and Jones state it
allows users to come together online and exchange, these users can off course be the organisation
and its stakeholders, this is why the use of digital media is so convenient and simple for companies.
It allows them to create involvement with the majority of their stakeholders, something
unimaginable and simply impossible to do using any other offline methods due to the sheer volume
of them.Companys use numerous different methods of digital media to build these relationships
whether it be social networking, the virtual world or through telecommunications. All of these forms
of digital media have proved to be successful at building these relationships with stakeholders,
although some more than others. With the creation of new digital media, comes obstacles for
organisations and marketers ,as to how best manipulate and use this medium of interaction ͞....
many of whom have naively treated the online channel as they would a magazine or television spot
and ultimately alienating themselves from their target audience.͟ Drury, G. (2008)
Social networking since its foundation has been the ͞buzz͟ word of the ͞noughties͟ (Year 2000
onwards),these days according to research social networking is now more popular than email, which
is another form of digital media organisations use to connect with their stakeholders, evidently
however its popularity is in decline.(http://mashable.com/2009/04/17/web-in-numbers-social-
media/). Face book alone has over 500 million users logging in daily, Twitter has 190 million users
and a yearly growth rate of 1,328%.Given these figures alone of just two of the hundreds of social
networking sites available on the internet its obvious why organisations use them to interact with
stakeholders, due to the pure ease and access it gives them to do so. Social networking is something
that is likely never to leave us, therefore its essential organisations and marketers in particular adapt
and exploit it for its full benefits. ͞The desire for people to network online is not a transitory fad. It is
here to stay.͟ Stroud, D (2007). Weber states that ͚Rather than talking at customers, marketers
should talk with them, and the social web is the most effective way in the history of the world to do
just that but on a large scale͛ (p. 2 , Weber, L. (2009)) he goes on to say ͞marketers should organise,
participate in and encourage social networks of which the users want to belong͛ (p. 2).͟ This point is
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made so as the benefits of using social networking are increased, rather than ͞spamming͟
stakeholders with emails of which they receive thousands daily of all different companies, it is much
more effective to communicate and relationship build with them through a medium that they
actually want to communicate through.
Google has over 2.5 million twitter followers, all of whom can be considered stakeholders as they
hold enough interest in Google to follow them on twitter. Simply by writing a short 140 character
message a few times a day,google are building relationships with over 2.5 million interested parties
with complete ease. These ͞Tweets͟ can be news and updates such as ͞Google Places w/
@GoogleHotpot now available as an iPhone app http://goo.gl/3rwPP (via @GoogleMobile)͟
(http://twitter.com/GOOGLE) By viewing googles twitter account you can see how the usage
organisations make of digital media is more one directional, as Google don͛t ͞tweet͟(message) other
͞unknown people͟ they simply use the website to post any information they feel necessary.
However, other companies have abandoned this one directional approach to buildingrelationships.
As drury states ͞Marketing with traditional media like newspapers, television and news websites was
about delivering a message, marketing with social media is about building a relationship and
conversation with your audience.͟ Drury, G. (2008).Dominos the international Pizza chain͛s twitter
feed is full of tweets to other ͞unknown users͟. One example of domino͛s replying to a stakeholder
and joking with them can be seen. ͞@alastairflower As much as we'd like to, we still haven't figured
out how to stuff the pepperoni into the internets yet. :)͟ Domino͛s do use the account in the same
traditional way as other companies however, updating stakeholders on any news and information.
͞You've seen our latest ads, take a quick peek at how we made them: Behind the scenes of a
Domino's ad http://on.fb.me/g9dJOc͟ However, although not the largest company in the world
Domino͛s Pizza has clearly embraced the use of social networking as a form of relationship building
with its stakeholders. One tweet replying to a stakeholder who has a made a complaint clearly
shows how integral digital media is to domino͛s and the different types they use. It also shows how
domino͛s uses the media to respond to manage a crisis.. ͞@psphenom Very sorry. Did you go to the
web and fill out our contact form, or just contact us via Twitter and Face book?͟. This clearly
emphasises how domino͛s are exchanging and conversing with their stakeholders as opposed to
simple delivering a message to them. Domino͛s can in part thank their survival as a business due to
the digital media revolution. Twitter has allowed them to receive feedback like never before from
consumers who wouldn͛t have given their feedback via the usual method͛s i.e website. Domino͛s
used twitter as a crisis management solution and didn͛t shy away from open criticism on their
twitter account for everyone to see. They in fact embraced it and have gone full circle in regards to
keeping their stakeholders happy, due to stakeholder and customer feedback they have
revolutionised their recipe and redesigned their website. This increased sales by 17.5% and profits
by 29%.Showing just how useful and integral relationship building through digital media can be to a
business.
Perhaps however the most noticeable example of using the social networking medium to facilitate a
relationship between organisation and stakeholder is that of bestbuy.com.Again,best buy employed
the services of twitter to offer ͞twelp͟ from their ͞twelpers͟ from the ͞@twelpforce.Best buy is an
American electrical retailer who similar to apple have in store ͞geeks͟ on hand to help customers
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with any queries, however in a bid to improve customer and stakeholder relationship. Best Buy
decided ͞geek͟ help during store opening times simply wasn͛t enough, they decided to make use of
twitter by offering 24/7 ͞twelp͟ whereby other twitter users can tweet their problem and a best buy
geek will be on hand to help them. This not only counteracts the problem of possible shyness from
asking for help in person but also offers great customer service and has done nothing but improve
best buys relationships with stakeholders.
T-Mobile one of the most likeable Television advertisers relies heavily on YouTube to build their
relationships. Their advertisements are based upon the theme of happiness and normal people
coming together to share a special moment or experience. They set up events called flash mobs that
the public going about their everyday life are unaware of and the resulting adverts have become
very popular, so much so that cumulatively they have over 33 million views on youtube.Not only
does t mobile build relationships through youtube,but stakeholders build relationships with fellow
stakeholders through the site aswell,a process that happens for all organisations across nearly all
platforms of social networking.
Another ,lesser, way in which organisation͛s build relationships with stakeholders is through mobile
marketing. In many ways the humble mobile telephone is becoming the ultimate marketing
accessory ,most have internet access, their interactive and can even pinpoint geographic locations at
any given time, perfect for a marketer to exploit. Organisations can use mobile marketing to again
update their stakeholders with any relevant information or encourage people to become
stakeholders. However this form of digital media is not used in this context as successfully as it could
be due to legal implications to regulate this practice. ͞In many countries mobile marketing is subject
to government regulation which dictates that prior permission from the customer has to be sought
before a mobile marketing message has to be sent.͟Jayewardene et al (2009:p474). These messages
are normally seen negatively, as an act of spam, something that will infect impact negatively on
building a relationship with the stakeholder, hence like Weber said it is better to interact via a media
that the stakeholder wishes to be a part of.
The digital world is every expanding ,however organisations do their best to stay up to date. In
recent years the emergence of Virtual World Marketing has provided organisations with yet another
way to interact with and build relationships with their stakeholders. A ͞virtual World͟ is yet another
method of digital media. ͞ A Virtual world is an interactive simulated environment accessed by
multiple users via an online interface͟ (http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/) . ͞Second Life͟ is the
most popular Virtual world. Noticing this trend organisations have began to use the Virtual worlds to
penetrate a new market, a practice called avatar based marketing(Hemp, P. (2006)) ,as well as using
it as a means of connecting and building relationships with stakeholders. The organisations and
marketers however don͛t interact with the human controlling these avatars, they instead interact
with their alter ego within second life, the avatar who is spending the virtual money. Two of the
world most famous brands now have a virtual presence in ͞Second Life͟, Apple, have a Virtual
Second Life Apple store, whilst Coca Cola have a virtual island within the virtual world of second life.
The creation, expansion and new development of digital media in recent years has enabled
organisations and business͛s to reach out ,connect and build relationships with stakeholders in more
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ways then ever possible before.However,although digital media is a concept that has been widely
accepted and used by organisations, it is important to analyse its success in achieving the aim of
building relationships with their stakeholders.
Does using digital media actually build relationships between organisations and their stakeholders,
or is it merely a means of talking at their stakeholders rather than connecting and conversing with
them. Through the usage of the previously mentioned varying forms of digital media i.e.
twitter,facebook virtual worlds etc,it is necessarily fair to say ,at least not in all cases, that the
organisations don͛t actually build relationships. As in the case of google,they seem to employ a ͞one
way street approach͟ to their usage of digital media and their connection with stakeholders
especially through twitter and facebook.This one way approach, is that they merely talk at their
stakeholders, as opposed to conversing with them and setting foundations of a relationship that
could ensue loyalty to the brand and organisation. However, ͞Marketing within social media is not
just about telling and giving a message, rather it is about receiving and exchanging perceptions and
ideas.͟ Drury, G. (2008).It seems that the only way Google want to have their stakeholders contact
them is through their website, although even a link to do so is hard to find, without actually
searching for such a link in a search engine.
Microsoft, a now competitor of googles due to the changing business plans of google,employs a very
different approach and are fully behind the two way interaction between themselves and their
shareholders, as can be seen by their twitter page http://twitter.com/microsoft. They often
͞retweet͟ to their followers who have tweeted them emphasising their view of the importance of
the interaction with stakeholders. This and their ͞Windows 7 was my idea͟ advertising campaign
shows how much they value stakeholder input, something which gives stakeholders a sense of
belonging to the organisation and goes along way to improve relationships between said
stakeholder and organisation. However, it doesn͛t always appear to be the case that the stakeholder
and the organisation necessarily need to be in conversation or have a two way interaction for them
to build a successful relationship. As stated this isn͛t something google particularly makes use of
although the methods to do so through digital media are obviously their. Although this attitude of
googles to not necessarily attempt to converse with stakeholders and build relationships hasn͛t
effected its popularity in any way. Recent search engine usage figures for 2010 show google has
captured 92.03% of the market a rise of 0.5% from previous years, this shows that their stakeholders
are obviously happy with the organisation and the relationship they have as well as new
stakeholders creating relationships with the brand.
The computer giant Dell is a great example of how successful the use of digital media can be in
creating bonds and relationships between themselves and their stakeholders. Through social
networking sites they offer ͞24/7 updates, breaking news and deals and discounts͟ .On top of this
they also reply to stakeholders who have gotten in contact with them regarding any queries they
have or to provide advice on products. All this done through a form of digital media that most
stakeholders are aware of and find easier to use than more conventional methods. Dell recently
ranked number 1 in customer satisfaction surveys for
enterprise(http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/d/press-releases/2009-07-06-TBR.aspx).Something
that the use of digital media no doubt helped to achieve.
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The ways in which organisations use the digital media methods to contact, connect and build
relationships vary ,as does the success of doing so. Although it seems evident that the practice of
using digital media to achieve stakeholder satisfaction is something that is becoming more and more
integral to all organisations. Not least because of the ease in doing so but also because in todays
environment it is the most commonly used phenomenon on the internet. Social networking has
played a huge part in this. Weber sums up how important to the success of achieving stakeholder
customer satisfaction digital media is ͚Rather than broadcasting marketing messages to an
increasingly indifferent, even resentful, audience jaded by the 2,000+ messages a day they are
exposed to, marketers should organise, participate in and encourage social networks of which the
users want to belong͛ (p. 2). Digital media provides a method of building relationships with
stakeholders but in a way where no pressure is applied, thus you are not forcing the relationship
upon the stakeholder but rather persuading the stakeholder to form a relationship with your
organisation subtlety. ͞Marketing to social media may be challenging but it is possible.͟ Drury, G.
(2008).
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Drury, G. (2008). Opinion piece: Social Media: Should marketeers engage and how can it be done
effectively?, Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, Vol. 9, No. 3, 278-292.
Weber, L. (2009) Marketing to the social web: How digital customer communuities build your
business. 2nd ed., John Willey & Sons, Inc: New Jersey