Corporate communication in dialog

This year's symposium, which was chaired for the first time by new HarbourClub President Corina Atzli, featured two familiar faces from the world of politics. Former Federal Councillor Leuenberger and Heiner Geissler, former German Federal Minister, spoke about the communication challenges facing companies and politicians. Prof. Manfred Brun from the Center for Economic Sciences at the University of Basel and the Head of Communications at Axpo Holding AG, Rainer Meier, had previously spoken. As every year, a very important part of the symposium consisted of the various breakout sessions in which HarbourClub members presented and discussed their very specific communication projects. There were case studies from Kuoni (Peter Brun), Coca-Cola (Mathias Schneider), Swisscom (Philip Kübler) and SRG SSR (Iso Rechsteiner). This year, the 130 participants were hosted by Siemens in Zug.

Social media demands a new culture

Manfred Brun began the symposium by explaining how corporate communications will change under the influence of social media.

To this end, he put forward seven theses:
1. the social media hype has passed its zenith. Now it's time to deal with the
relevant issues.
2. communication and media mix experience a serious shift in forces. Social media is now steering consumer behavior.
3. tomorrow's world of communication will be fundamentally different. Transparency, democratization and loss of control are on the agenda.
4. social media does not differentiate between marketing and corporate communication. Communication content is more important than channels.
5 Social media places new demands on the communication behavior of companies. The content, tone and form of communication must be put to the test.
6 Not everything is becoming less controllable. Social media provides valuable new insights into the perception of companies.
7 The successful use of social media requires an adaptation of internal systems, structures and culture. However, established (mental) barriers prevent the creation of a "social media fit".

The thread between top and bottom is broken

In a humorous speech, Moritz Leuenberger spoke about communication in general and specifically during his term of office as a member of the government and Federal Councillor. He did not hold back with criticism, including of his own performance. In particular, he had learned that you can rarely win on the defensive. Or, as Leuenberger put it: "The first serve or it must be struck immediately." He sees communication not only as a means of fighting, but also as a responsible task for the community to avoid being driven further apart and paralyzed.

Heiner Geissler picked up on this thread and used his appearance to deliver an unsparing critique of society. The thread between "those at the top" and "those at the bottom" was broken. The power of the unleashed financial markets had undermined the basis of citizens' trust in decision-makers in politics and business. Only when we return to a genuine social market economy will the foundations be laid for a real dialog between citizens and politicians, consumers, employees and companies. Andreas Jäggi

Social media study 2011: Professionalization of companies
As part of the .HarbourClub. symposium, the online communication service provider Namics surveyed leading Swiss companies on the organization of their communication in social media and identified clear differences between the organizations experienced in social media and the laggards. The study gets to the bottom of the key success factors of corporate communication in social media and concludes that the time for experimentation on social media is over and the rising expectations of target groups no longer leave any room for error.

Social media has become an integral part of corporate communications: 84% of the 51 organizations surveyed are active on social media. A third of these are B2B companies. The 16% non-active organizations - all of which operate exclusively in Switzerland - have decided against getting involved, mainly due to a lack of resources or the unpredictability of the media.

Almost half of the companies surveyed consider their organization to be in the initial phase with regard to social media. Only 15% of the companies consider their organization to be very mature in the area of social media. But what is their recipe for success? On the one hand, social media activities are supported by the management and underpinned by a strategy. On the other hand, their commitment thrives on new or specially prepared content. The analysis therefore shows that companies that are now starting with social media cannot avoid a strategy and guidelines in order to avoid mistakes and quickly meet the expectations of their target groups.

Swiss companies see limited resources, the creation of suitable content, the unpredictability of interactions and dealing with trilingualism as the biggest challenges. And although limited resources are proving to be a central problem on social media: Most companies operating internationally foresee the same resources in 2012 as in 2011, while 30% of respondents plan to increase their social media resources by 50 to 300%. Download the Namics social media study free of charge: www.namics.com/social-media-studie aj