Strategies Help Cutting Through the Noise

The breakthrough of social media in the last few years has made corporate communication accessible to everyone. It has also helped cutting PR budgets, since it is so easy to post a message yourself.

But many doubt the effectiveness of this sort of communication. You often hear speculation that Facebook will be gone within two years time or that LinkedIn was great a few years ago, but will never survive in the long run.

“The different social media channels actually serve their purpose very well,” claims Helen Rennie-Smith, communication consultant with more than 30 years of experience. “I find the sceptics usually are those who are uncertain how to use these tools to their full potential.”

It may be easy to post a message, but it can also be extremely time consuming. A lot of businesses find their messages getting lost in the noise online and they don’t have the time to react to everything that is happening on Twitter, Facebook or Youtube.

“This is the just the point,” agrees Helen Rennie-Smith. “To build your presence successfully in these networks you need to be proactive rather than reactive.”

This is why a communication strategy is vital. With a well developed strategy it is so much easier to know what to do and when to do it – which removes a lot of stress from business owners.

"The communication strategy has enabled me to take my business to a new level," says Malin Lundberg Müller, Managing Director of luxury travel website Haute Compass Ltd.

To develop such a plan, you have to consider what you want to achieve with your social media activities. This is not necessarily as easy as it may sound and that is the reason why Helen Rennie-Smith organises workshops for small and medium sized businesses. The result of the workshop is a communication strategy focussed on the needs of each individual business.

Says environmental innovator Monica Hallworth, Knycer AB: "The workshop was really rewarding and quickly resulted in an action plan for our social media activities."

“When you have a plan and use it skilfully, your message can cut through the noise and make people hear what you have to say,” concludes Helen Rennie-Smith.