Simply said, digital communication involves an organization’s online communication efforts. Most organizations today use a wide range of digital communication channels—from their website to mobile chat to blogs—to connect with current and prospective customers, employees, and other stakeholders. They need digital marketing professionals who have a keen understanding of how to leverage this convergence of technology and messaging to their advantage. Digital communications professionals are responsible for everything from creating online brand assets to building an engaged social media audience.

“Today, the options for getting a message out are much broader and quicker than they were just a few decades ago,” explains Edward Powers, professor in Northeastern’s Master of Science in Corporate and Organizational Communication and Bachelor of Science in Digital Communication and Media programs. “Digital communication professionals have to be mindful about how to put forward these new tools in the right way.”

Examples of Effective Digital Communication

Throughout the years, the number of digital communication tools continues to grow. Many aspects of everyday life are now transferred to digital formats, such as work, school, and human interactions. As a result, there’s been increasing amounts of digital content consumption. Here are some examples of effective communication being utilized through digital formats.

Spotify

One example of a company leveraging digital channels in their marketing strategy is the digital streaming service Spotify. Spotify’s Wrapped campaign—offering users a comprehensive list of their listening habits over the past year alongside national and global trends—has become an increasingly popular content offer for users to share on social media channels like Instagram and Facebook. While Spotify originally took on its social strategy of “A Year in Review” back in 2013, this campaign has evolved over time and continued to garner amazing results.

In 2015, the campaign resulted in 5 million site visitors and over 1 million social shares. To ensure users continued to see value, Spotify made further adjustments to this campaign by creating personalized playlists based on each person’s streaming habits throughout the past year. Users could click through a colorful collection of slides to see more of their favorite artists, songs, podcasts, and more. As a result, the campaign earned more than 60 million social shares from 90 million users in 2022.

In addition, Spotfiy’s Wrapped campaign has widened its demographic reach by playing off of trends and language found on trending social media platforms. For example, one of the campaign ads reads, “You always understood the assignment.” This ad copy directly plays off of a common TikTok trend that Gen Z users can relate to. Therefore, employers in many industries are seeking professionals who can navigate digital communication in this same way. Due to the significant success of social media campaigns, digital communication has become an integral part of every business’ marketing strategy