Communication in general, that is, the ability to interact with information between human beings, has had a series of variants in terms of the tools used and the technological advances that have transformed its handling. But let's first analyze the foundations of our discipline. Corporate Communication is made up of a number of elements, both internal and external, which, when developed, constitute the platform for projection of the image in a more efficient way.
In the 50s of the last century, it began with the title of Public Relations; then, in the new century, it became "Social Responsibility", a name that covered only a part of the functions it projected, since it corresponded to the sub Community Relations function.
Since that time, the professionals who held management positions in Public Relations were university graduates of the university career of Journalism, Social Communication and the like, reaching specialization in many American (in the broad sense of the word) or European universities.
The Public Relations Department comprised three fundamental areas: Imaging and feedback (feed back), Press and Community Relations.
Some time later, the discipline of Advertising and the Marketing technique were implemented, which were merged in the corporations into a single department (even downplayed Public Relations), reaching its peak in the last third of the 20th century. This was a big mistake, since, despite the fact that the three had a communication base, the objectives, goals and procedures differed tremendously from each other.
We agree that they used the same means of communication: Press, Radio, Cinema, TV, outdoor advertising, flyers and personalized presentations. But the big difference between them was the Message.
- The communicator created a message to raise awareness in his audience The advertiser created a message to persuade his audience The marketer created a message to attract his audience
And I repeat, they used the same media of that golden age, until the Canadian researcher Marshall Mcluhan wrote his book "The Global Village" and published the phrase "The message is the medium." The means of communication becomes the tool and the message, now correctly called content, rides on it.
The Sender -> Medium -> Receiver trilogy
It totally changes its meaning. The medium or content becomes the most important element because it is what generates a perception in the receiver. In other words, we stop being the object of the conditioned reflex of Pavlov's model to become reasonable and emotional beings who raise awareness of a received message and to whom they take a certain position.
It is at this time, the end of the 20th century, when technology begins to wreak havoc on the communication routine. We entered the web 1.0 platform, the network connects computers through a protocol; the information is on a computer and users, through another computer, access a copy of it to read it locally. There is a significant acceleration in the way of communicating. Search engines like Yahoo and then Google open the universe of knowledge to humanity by replacing scientific books and magazines.
This lasts very little and web 2.0 is coming. Data appears on stage and is linked to services that allow data sharing and interaction with great ease. Social networks are the basis of this evolution of the Internet. Newspapers and magazines see their pages decimated as advertisers begin to migrate towards digital advertising. Marketing techniques now become Digital Marketing.
Hard blow for the Advertising and Marketing agencies; The only thing that is not transformed is the Public Relations function; in fact, it is somewhat enriched. Currently, companies dedicated to communicational consulting have incorporated, in the creative area, a web master (a mix of designer with programmer) and in the feedback area with digital strategists, formerly called community manager, and only the tool that carries the message changes.
The content is maintained and thanks to the speed of the network, it is necessary to reduce the message, in the case of twitter to 280 characters; on the other networks a little more. But there is a point in favor, it is allowed to insert graphics and videos in the message. As the proverb said “A photograph is worth more than 1,000 words”. This has been enriching in terms of content.
Web 3.0, which is in the full process of evolution, refers to the new generation of smart devices through which you can interact with the tool by talking both (Amazon Alexa, Google Glass, Apple Watch, etc.), regardless of the device through which we connect, since it seeks flexibility and versatility that overcome the barriers of format, time, location, structure and dialogue, with a proactive interaction model.
The projection of the contents of a person or institution is carried out in a comprehensive way where external and internal audiences are combined so that the image, advertising and marketing merge into a single messenger through which the recipient is exposed to all the informational, promotional and advertising elements of the company. And that content informs, persuades and motivates the purchase action simultaneously.
The biggest challenge, for now, of Web 3.0 is the Turing Test where it gets to the point that the human being does not know if he is interacting with a computer or with another human being.
The idea of web 3.0, in this context, is related to what is known as the semantic network. Users and tools, in this scenario, can interact using a natural language, developed in software.
According to the portal definitions.com and Wikipedia, “The term semantics refers to aspects of the meaning, sense or interpretation of linguistic signs such as symbols, words, expressions or formal representations. Imagine: a computer, smartphone or monitor speaking like a living being.
Semantics can be studied from different points of view:
- Linguistic semantics, deals with the codification and decoding of semantic contents in linguistic structures. Logical semantics, develops a series of logical problems of meaning, studies the relationship between the linguistic sign and reality. Semantics in cognitive sciences, tries to explain why we communicate, and what is the psychic mechanism that is established between speaker and listener during this process.
Web 3.0, in short, is related to artificial intelligence. The websites would even have the ability to connect with each other according to the interests of the user.
Now, let's see what is the link between Corporate Communication and WEb 3.0
Corporate Communication 3.0 is oriented to the use of the latest tools available so that its messages can be perceived by the target or target audiences to which they are directed. The global village of Mcluhan becomes the digital village, but the phrase "the medium is the message" is maintained and the fundamental objective is for the recipient to obtain a personalized and direct communication with the other person or company as if they were sitting opposite each other. to the other in the living room of the house.
You can no longer use the term mass communication or the strategies that were planned to reach as many people as possible. Share and media measurement are things of the past. Now the same platform tells you how many people have seen your message and if they have browsed it.
