Brand Marketing

By adaptive - December 11th, 2013

A creative, energetic and self-motivated person with significant experience in both PR and marketing activity.

What are the key drivers behind your organization’s use of social media?

Social media is used to support commercial objectives through campaigns, initiatives and social insights. It helps us manage our reputation, influence how we are perceived externally and service our customers in the digital world.

How is social media organised within your company?

Social media as a governance function resides within the Communications department. The proximity to Public Relations, Reputation Management and Press Office makes it easier to understand what is triggering conversations on social media, and vice-versa. The social media team itself has a ‘Hub and Spoke’ structure, interacting with all business units to facilitate and encourage best practice on social media.

As a corporate user of social networks, how does your company value the networks it has a presence on?

Social networks are valued just as much as traditional channels and this view is consistent at board level. Our organisation has customer experience as our number one KPI; we believe social media is just another platform to help enable great digital experiences for our customers.

Can you outline a recent initiative that included a social media component?

This year we asked our customers to get excited about technology and the world around us, to embrace their inner dogs (Be More Dog campaign). To support our multichannel brand campaign we used social media as a vehicle to get people to be more active, curious and playful. We used influential bloggers, a real-time content hub and media firsts with the likes of YouTube and Buzz Feed to deliver our message. The campaign was independently measured by Nielsen Research. The results showed uplift in brand intent and favourability due to the social media component.

How much pressure is there to show ROI with the social media you use?

We have invested a considerable amount of resource into social media and we have to prove a return on investment to the organisation. To do this we report on a number of metrics that demonstrate real ROI including sales, cost savings and customer satisfaction.

How did your organisation approach the mapping of your enterprise to identify where social media should reside in the corporate structure?

From its inception in 2008, social media sits within the Communications department due to the existence of strong and reliable interactions with the entire organization we are there to help encourage and facilitate the use of social right across the organisation. It was easier from this position to develop clear governance, guidelines and interactions with key stakeholders.

What is your advice to organisations that are beginning to map their own corporate structure with the view to embedding social media activity within their enterprise?

There is no single approach that will work for every organisation; it depends on industry, structure and available resource. It is important to determine what business objectives social media is helping to achieve, as this will help identify which area is best suited to manage the function. For customer centric organisations where reputation is key, this may mean sitting closer to communications. For others that wish to use the channel mostly for broadcast and advertising, Marketing may be more suitable.

Are there any specific tools you employ that help your business manage its social media activity across multiple departments?

We partnered with a social research agency to build a bespoke social media listening and engagement tool that is suited to the needs of our organisation. From the outset we knew it was necessary to adopt tools that would enable us to provide scalable customer service through social and gain reliable social insights to inform business decisions.

How do you see the management and development of social media in your company evolving over the next few years?

Social media is becoming ubiquitous and a seamless part of everyday lives, so it is important that everyone has the opportunity and shared responsibility for its success. There is now, more than ever a need for a central point of strategy, governance and policy due to the speed of which this media has grown. It is important that managers of social media act as facilitators of best practise and success across all departments and initiatives in an organisation.