Customer Experience

By adaptive - March 19th, 2014

With more than 22 million registered users and over 25,000 invitations sent each hour, Evite is the top online invitation and social planning website.

As the Chief Marketing Officer of Evite and BuySeasons, Jennifer is committed to holistic marketing strategy and business transformation. She is a results-oriented and entrepreneurial strategic marketing professional with proven ability to create and implement sustainable strategies.

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

Social media is another touch point to connect with customers and party enthusiasts. We use it to communicate with our customers, and share information and build engagement. We use social conversation further our position as experts in all things party and dress-up.

How is social media organised within your company? What organisational models do you use and why?

Social media is a focus and channel within marketing. We lead the strategy, direction and content. In addition to in-house team members, we partner with an agency for additional resources.

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

Each network is valuable for its own specific reasons. Pinterest especially helps us inspire moms in party planning, and help make it affordable, accessible and aspirational to them. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google+ help communicate and push out additional content to engage. In addition, LinkedIn helps position our talented associates and is a recruiting tool for us as well.

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

Each of our brands has a specific voice and goal in communications. Social media starts and continues these conversations. Most importantly, social media works with other departments such as merchandising and creative to determine the opportunity and focus for social media content.

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

We held an Oscars party concurrently with the airing of the Oscars that was driven primarily by social media. We kicked off the initiative with a Twitter chat, which helped get the word out and engaged the attendees. The purpose of the party was to connect in-home parties socially via our partner, ConnecTV, for a get together, because we all know life is better together. During the party, video clippings, photos and conversations across social media channels were captured and tied to our bash - America’s Big Hollywood Party.
 


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

As with any marketing channel and investment, it is important to show ROI. We use many different measurements of success including reach, impressions, downloads, coupon codes, share, tracking codes and more. In addition, we strive to increase engagement among our fan base so we are top of mind for celebrations year-round.


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?

Ensure you have unique and different content for your audience so you can prove worth and relevance. Testing to see what is most engaging for your audience and fans is crucial. Social media needs to be nimble.

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

We use a platform that allows us to push out content easily from one source. In addition, we use a calendar mapping out all promotions and opportunities to show how we are furthering our message.

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

The party and dress-up businesses are very visual and engaging, and social media helps us capture this and share it with others. Social media will help us showcase year round parties and dress-up opportunities beyond Halloween. It also helps reinforce and remind others that life is more fun together, and in costume!