At first sight alliances and social media seem two completely different topics. However, they share many elements in purpose and execution. Let’s have a look at the three C’s they share:
First of all both alliances and social media center around collaboration. For alliances that seems obvious. After all an alliance is a collaboration between two or more parties to achieve something one of them could not easily achieve alone. For social media the collaboration purpose may not be that obvious at first. However, social media is about dialogue and interactivity: collaborating with your target group, whether it be customers, employees or another stakeholder group.
Communication is obvious when we look at social media, but it may be less obvious for alliances. Without continuous communication alliances will fail to succeed. In the alliance skill mastery classes I teach it often appears that the solution to a case lies in communication, while at the same time the cause of the case lies in lack of communication.
Culture is for both an element to keep in consideration when planning and executing. Organisational culture may differ and the same applies to the country or even the regional culture. A message on social media may be differently interpreted in the more hierarchical oriented Germany than in the consensus driven culture of the Netherlands. An alliance needs to keep cultural aspects in mind to ensure the path to success and to ensure both parties have the same understanding in what is agreed.
Collaboration, Communication and Culture: the three C’s alliances and social media have in common. Besides the fact that social media can enable communication in alliances and increase effectiveness of the alliance, do you know more aspects alliances and social media have in common?