Social media begins with people and grows with collaboration

“Several years ago, integrated
marketing was a big buzz,” Christa
Carone, Corporate Vice President
and Chief Marketing Officer for Xerox,
says. “Now we’re talking about brand consistency across these media. I’m
helping to drive that. What I’ve learned
is that you have to start with your
people first and a commitment to the
integrity of the brand, then give them
some kind of guidelines so they can get
started. I’ve been fascinated looking at
how the community evolved. When you
let people go [ahead with social media],
they’re excited, they’re smart – have
high aspirations where you can take
social – it’s really exciting to see this
creative energy.

“It’s unsettling for some people in our
organization to feel empowered,” she
continues, “because in the past we’ve
said ‘No, you only speak to the media
if you’re in PR,’ for example. Now we’re
saying, ‘Anyone can speak.’ We have
our guidelines for developing Facebook
pages, Twitter handles, and lines are
blurring between personal and business
online personas. We hope to empower
our sales force more to use social.”
With Best Buy’s Twelpforce – where
more than 3,000 Best Buy in-store
employees answer consumer questions
via Twitter – and other digital and social
initiatives, Best Buy has made the most
of its early-adopter clients to build
multi-way conversations that support
their core business goals.

“[The evolution of our social strategies]
is happening fast, from an organizational
perspective,” Adobe’s Travis says.
“Part of being a leader in social is
being genuine. We’ve reorganized our
organization to be a hub and spoke,
not to regulate but to provide shared
learning, a lot of dialog between the
hub and spokes.”
“We have corporate communications,
but we also have call centers and so
many other touch points,” Kimberly
Kadlec, Worldwide Vice President,
Global Marketing Group for Johnson &
Johnson. “We need to start to empower
some of the areas beyond marketing
and advertising. Whatever touches your
consumer needs to have a consistent
tone and with a human voice; we’re
focused on that.”
“We try to get our marketing people
into the call centers at least once a
year so we stay connected,” Steve
Fuller, Senior Vice President and CMO
for L.L.Bean, says. “It humanizes our
customers; when customers become
numbers, bad things happen. It also
simplifies marketing and promotion
messages. Talking to your customers
will often give you a very different
perspective around a marketing
effort’s effectiveness.”