Social Media to Change Our Image: Company A's Story, part 3

In the story I posted about Company A, the decision makers agreed to try a social marketing campaign because they had heard it could change the company's tarnished image.

Social networking through social media is important, and I think there are very few (if any) organizations operating in first world countries today that can afford to ignore its power. But it isn't a cure. It needs to be part of an overall campaign, an overall strategy. You need to know why and how you want to use social media. And you need to be flexible enough to revise the why and how as you learn what works and what doesn't work for your organization.

Social media isn't magic. Facebook. Twitter. Blogs. These are all part of the general media, just like print adds, radio spots, television, and newspaper and magazine articles. Simply beginning to use social media isn't going to change your image. You still need to work at it. Anyone who tells you you don't is wrong.

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Employee Evangelists: Company A's Story, part 2

In the story I posted yesterday I was contacted by one of the assistants to the head of Company A. This assistant read a comment I'd posted on a blog and wanted more information. He wanted my help selling the idea of social media marketing to the company board.

Having a social media evangelist high in a company or organization is incredibly helpful. In many organizations--nonprofit, government, business, any organization--the decision makers are people who have not had time to stay up with the most recent trends. And social media marketing is still a young trend.

In the minds of many people who have been in management or marketing for years (decades), social media is young and untried, untested, untrustworthy. Not worth putting time and money into. But when someone who has the ear of the decision makers, or, even better, one of the decision makers themselves, pushes for social media, it's likely to be considered.

Are you a social media marketing evangelist for your company? If not, why not? If you don't have access to the decision makers, evangelize to your manager or supervisor. Get them as excited as you are, and help them carry the message up the chain. Use comment cards, newsletter articles, or whatever media your company has put at your disposal, and get the message out there:

Social media is here to stay, and the businesses who take advantage of it now will be one step ahead of the rest of the pack.

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Company A's Story, part 1

Here is a story about a large, national company I'm currently working with. It's a story of some of the decisions they've made about their brand new social media marketing campaign. Over the next few posts, I'll focus on different parts of this story and talk about the good or bad of a particular decision.

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I'm currently working with a large company that's been around for several decades (I'm not allowed to disclose which one, so I'll call it Company A), helping them get a fledgling social media PR campaign off the ground.

It began when I left a comment on Company A's new blog. One of their newer, younger employees--an assistant to the head of the company--contacted me after reading my comment. He agreed that Company A should have a social media campaign and wanted something he could take to the board.

I outlined a basic plan that specified a few social media outlets they should focus on and how to use them to engage their customers in useful conversations. He took it to the decision-makers--largely people who don't use or understand social media. And, like so often happens, they were afraid of it. But this employee, this assistant to the head of Company A, understood the power of social media. He convinced them to try it. But the decision-makers still were not comfortable.

"As you know, Company A has an image problem. Almost all of the press we've gotten lately has been about The Problem. The only reason we're even considering this type of program is because we've heard it can change our image."

They passed my plan to their Public Affairs department where, based on what they were used to and directives from above, they quickly changed it.

The first decision they made was to shut down all unofficial Facebook fan pages and create a new, official Facebook fan page. They asked me for questions they could use to engage anyone who visits the page.

"But nothing that might get someone talking about The Problem."

I created a list of discussion points, the first of which they posted to their Facebook page the day it launched.

The day after their Facebook fan page went live, Company A's PR department sent an interoffice memorandum to every employee, informing them that there was a new social media marketing campaign and giving a brief overview of it: a new Facebook fan page, and possibly using twitter for important bulletins.

The Facebook fan page went live last week. Right now, that's as far as this social media marketing campaign has gotten.

Check out my upcoming posts to see what I think of individual decisions they've made, and what I think will happen because of them.

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What is the Five Hive?

What is the Five Hive?

The quick answer--it's the people I'm connected to.  My middle name is Five (really), and everyone I'm connected to makes up my hive. Some people call it a network, but that doesn't rhyme with my middle name.

Why another blog about social networking and social media? Fair question.

I've been using online social networks in one form or another since 1989.  Back then it was all BBSs. Those were the local Bulletin Board Systems that I would physically call by having my computer and modem dial a local phone number and connect to someone else's computer.  Usually only one person could be on a BBS at a time. Each BBS had various forums (similar to chat rooms) for conversations, and real time chat (IM) with the sysadmin (the person running the BBS). These were social networks in their early form, but they led to what we have today.  And I'm still friends with many of the people I met on those BBSs.

Once it became easier to connect to the Internet (back then it was still written with a capital 'I'), I found the next step in the evolution of social networks and social media--various real-time chat (IRC, ICQ, AIM, etc.), forums that mimicked the BBSs I was used to, and web pages run by people who wanted to reach out and meet the world. The global social network was real.

And then the internet blew up. It expanded and grew and became this amazing living tool. I've had websites. I've had blogs. I joined twitter in 2007. I've been active on most of the big social network sites at various times, using a variety of social media. I love them. I love watching as social media has evolved. I love playing with it and growing my hive, my social network.


When friends need help coming up with ways to promote their businesses, personal blogs, or what have you, they come to me.

When the huge organization I work for decided to finally start using social media to promote themselves, the main office (several states away) asked for my help because I'm a social media evangelist.

When I see businesses failing at using social media to support themselves, I cringe.

In short, through years of experience I've become an expert in social networking through social media.  I want to use that expertise to help you and people you know.

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