I’ve handled corporate communications function for 3 companies, 2 in Delhi and 1 in Bangalore, before moving to the 
agency side, where I perhaps did the same, along with a team, for multiple companies/brands.
In India, usually, corporate communications is the function that manages the PR agency, coordinates with external vendors (including content/design/printing of collaterals; advertising; annual reports, if it is a listed company and so on) and works with HR for employee communication. All this, besides being the face of the company, to the external world, with undue importance, to the media.
Here, PR is handled by the agency, so the role of the corporate communicator in reaching his company’s target media is indirect. Vendor management too is indirect reach – for instance, the corporate brochure does reach the target audience, but it is usually handed over by the marketing team, in this case. Or the annual report, which is used by the investor relations team, predominantly. Employee relations is HR’s mandate, primarily, and the corporate communicator brings sanity to the messages from a non-HR, people perspective – again, indirect communication.
With social media becoming more and more critical, there is an opportunity for the corporate communicator to make his/her role incredibly meaningful. How?
1. A new spokesperson is born!
Spokespersons are usually from the board of directors or at the senior level. Traditionally, that is. A corporate communicator who is adept in social media and handles the company’s owned media property – via the website, a community or Twitter – becomes another spokesperson for the brand. What better way to explain his/her role and signficance than this elevation to a spokesperson of the company, with public at large, online?
2. The real bridge between an organization and public
This was the real role envisaged by the term ‘corporate communication’. Somewhere in the process, it ended up becoming a vendor management task, unfortunately. Where a corporate communicator is smart and knows how to increase his/her functions’ value, the role is used to be the real, inimitable bridge between what the organization stands for and it’s public. That is one powerful role organizations will be keen to retain, on an ongoing basis.
3. The funnel for assorted internal messages
Large organizations have assorted priorities in terms of what they want to communicate to their target audience and he general public. The corporate communications function could become the funnel which decides what should go out and in what form, depending on the channel and audience.
4. One-to-one becomes one-to-many and many-to-many
Gone are the days when controlled messages were beamed by the corporate communicator to safe, known people. With social media, we have a one-to-many communication happening in real time and it morphs into a many-to-many communication where the organization can only be a spectator or a curator, at best. The conversation will go on, with or without the organization’s approval. Becoming the person who is in charge of such a vibrant communication spectrum is a phenomenal task!
But…!
Given how well-entrenched corporate communicators are with the vendor management role (I am generalizing, I understand), there is a real opportunity for smart people to introduce and grab the social communicator role. This role, which I believe will become operational and critical in the next couple of years, would need the following skills, among others.
1. Communication, language and role-playing
Language – given. Grammar – given. No questions on that. Role-playing? Yes, it becomes important particularly in community management. When you have multitudes of people talking to the company in it’s own community, all of them may not be speaking in the same tone or manner. It is then important for the social communicator to treat each relevant conversation on it’s own stead and converse appropriately. A person seeking a meaningful piece of information needs to eb treated differently from another asking a question in new-fangled leetspeak. That level of customization helps build fans across levels, wherever they are relevant.
2. Living the online life
Office timing goes straight out of the window. Seriously. The social communicator is an online beast and can’t afford to stick to conventional office’ish routines. The more live the online properties seem, the better for its image. This is not physically possible, but can be managed to a large extent with the right tool and communication.
3. Direct access to the people who matter
Many a times, this role requires a direct access to people who matter within the organization – the CEO/MD, heads of assorted divisions…to ensure that the communication going out is appropriate and factually right. Standard conversations aside, particularly during crisis situations, it is important that the access is used to ensure a single tone and message going out of all channels, online or offline.
4. Thick skin and maturity
Thick skin…obvious, with the kind of junk a person is likely to encounter in the jungle that is social media. Maturity…and discernment to identify and prioritize the kind of conversations and people that make sense from the organization’s perspective.
As you see, this is not the job for an intern with an active life on Facebook, or a Twitter star with 5,000+ followers hanging on to his musings. This is as serious a role as corporate communications, only more taxing and tough, given that it deals with a vast, unpredictable group of people, almost 24 X 7.
If you notice job portals, there are just a handful of organizations who are seeking this role and it is currently being fulfilled by an agency (PR, mostly) and/or by an enthusiastic employee from a random department. There in lies the opportunity!
Related post: PR 2.0? Be the client! – From an agency’s perspective, on how they can fill the role till organizations mature and evolve to understand this role’s significance. The agency can still be used to scale conversations in cases where a brand is in the consumer space and anticipates larger number of conversations.
Photo courtesy: jj_pappas423, via Flickr.