Nowadays, with the diffusion of social media among people, the way of communication increased exponentially in both the social and economic field. Companies hold social profiles where they interact with customers, and customer seek social media pages of companies to engage them, ask information, offer compliments and present complains, usually preferring them to the traditional contact ways such as telephone, emails and official websites.

A study led by the VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands, investigated the phenomenon of the social media in companies and was published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communications. The study found out that social media account represented by a “human profile” inspire more credibility in customers and give a positive view of the company.

The study was published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication by Corné Dijkmans, a researcher from NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences, and three VU University Amsterdam’s researchers: Peter Kerkhof, Asuman Buyukcan-Tetik and Camiel J. Beukeboom. The research targeted customers and non-customers of the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

The sample of the study involved 3,531 residents, divided in three sections: a sample composed by KLM’s loyalty program users; a sample recruited from the KLM’s social pages of Twitter and Facebook and, finally, a representative sample made of random Dutch adults.

In the second stage of the research, 1,969 of these participants were asked about their ideas and perception toward KLM’s corporate reputation, the level of exposure and involvement of the respondents to the different social media activities of KLM, as well as their perceived level of KLM’s “human voice” on their different social media channels.

The results of the research proved that a major level of “human voice” in the social media communications of companies led to a higher impact of consumers’ exposure to these communications, and that it overall benefits the company’s reputation in a positive way.

Other studies had already proved the existence of correlation between the level of exposure to activities and the use of social media by the companies. However, this study succeeds in adding something new because it adds the aspect of the “human voice” to the previous researches, outlining its importance in the social media channels in building trust and credibility.

Corné Dijkmans explained: “This study shows the importance for a company to communicate in a human-like way for establishing the best relationships with consumers. We show positive effects of communication style on perception of corporate reputation, which – in turn – plays an important role in the achievement of business objectives”. Then he added: “Burson-Marsteller found that 95% of US chief executives considered corporate reputation as very important in the achievement of business objectives. To be able to improve perception of corporate reputation by employing social media activities in a “human voice” has high managerial importance.”

Written by: Pietro Paolo Frigenti