Social Media Roundtable
Ian Howlett – Head of Digital Anja Maerz – User Experience Consultant
28 June 2011
Introduction
• Housekeeping
• Session structure
• Our approach to the topic today
• Presentations
• Discussion
• Timetable
Context
• What does it mean to be social?
• Or when did we become ‘anti-social’!
• Don’t be fearful - it’s hopefully already how you do business
• Now with connected tools/software to help us
About communicating, listening and responding
Why might you use social media?
• Could be for many reasons:
– Traffic
– Exposure
– Brand build
– Listen
– Share
– Collaborate
Or put another way
• It depends on what you are trying to achieve
What are the issues you are facing?
I don’t know where to start!
I don’t have the time or people to support social media.
Not the right channel for us
Social media is only for B2C or my kids
We can’t control it!
I don’t even know where to start!
What do you need to do first?
• What is your ultimate objective?
• Culture?
• Is there a commitment at a senior level? From a legal perspective?
• Might views be different for internal and external comms?
• Technical restrictions?
• Test the water
• Pilot or internal test
• Monitor & make measurable
I don’t have the time or people to
support social media.
• Start small
• 1-2 people can coordinate
• But advocates and champions are crucial
• Cross departmental involvement
• Certain competencies are necessary (content creation, monitoring and moderation, technical support)
Nothing’s happening
• Whatever you do will take time to grow, so you must persevere
• Develop your champions
• Remind people
• Work hard to make it a priority
Show your social media footprint • Email footer
• Letter head
• Poster
• Business card
• Website
Some ideas take only hours
But we can’t control it!
• You decide what you say and where
• Don’t fake it
• Don’t smother negative content – respond to it
• You do need guidelines and policies for everyone
Make it clear
Otherwise you can lose control
Or make mistakes
Social media? Yes, but it’s just
for fun and networking.
Excellent customer service • Goal: Engage with customers and
improve the customer experience.
• Success: At a point of crisis (Heathrow Airport closed due to weather) social media was successfully used to provide customers with information about travel options
Idea generation
CR Reporting
Single channel campaigns are effective
• Procter and Gamble CSR initiative ‘Future Friendly’ invites visitors to pledge participation by saving water, energy etc
• Share pledges with friends
• 146k followers, active community
• Consumer brands secondary
Recruiting via social media
Not the right channels for us
Collaboration through social media
• Goal: Connect to your peers within the business to share their business experience and expertise
• Success: Creation of a social business network where all employees can collaborate; high employee satisfaction
Improving internal communications
• Goal: Faster collaboration and communication across company
• Success: More than 14,000 employees use Socialcast. The CEO, Stephen Elop lso uses it, and holds important dialogues with employees via socialcast.
Changing the recruitment process
• LinkedIn is fast becoming the only place to recruit
• Widely used by recruitment agencies, companies are now using it directly to advertise jobs
• Offers far more insight into candidates with recommendations, social integration etc.
• Shifts recruitment emphasis back to company
So much more than recruiting
• Show your expertise
• Encourage debates
• Promote your events
• Increase the company’s visibility
• Encourage connections
Involving customers in customer support
• Goal: Find a ways to scale up customer service and support
• Success: 75% reduction in support requests to the company, more than 90,000 registered users and over 15,00 topics created; vibrant
Share what matters to you
Be creative – channels can offer more than you might think
In summary
I’d like a social media strategy please
One size does not fit all
It’s not for everyone or every situation
Who should I listen to?
Whoever is asking you the right questions
Enough of us talking
• Firstly, did we answer the questions you have?
• Are there key questions we’ve missed?
• Have you faced similar issues in your own organisations?
• What other issues are you facing?
• Where are you on your social media ‘journey’?