Corporate Strategy

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-oil companies could encourage employees (not just one comms representative, eg Mark Salt, BP Press, to tell their stories, engage in energy conversations - show a more human side of big oil, answering questions, being a genuine resource for people. benefit - PR, marketing and reducing recruitment costs

- analysing their tweets to find out how to engage better - ie, chevron analysing data from their LinkedIn group and releasing it, producing a report which has been downloaded over 17K times

- Companies that are in heavily regulated industries like oil and gas have special challenges. One of the biggest I’ve seen is the mindset change required to move from a reactive to a proactive stance.

you don’t have to do EVERYTHING in social media. Pick one thing and do it well. Maybe you tweet, maybe you post videos, maybe you guest blog. It’s ok to do just one thing – but pick one and start. Corollary: social media is best played as a team sport. It shouldn’t be one person’s job – it should be a communication mindset.

ear – yep, people are going to say mean things about you. Terrible things. Things that are hard to hear. But guess what – they are already saying those things; you starting a blog doesn’t start the bad comments – they are already happening. Why wouldn’t you want to know about them so you can fix them? And, some people are actually saying really great things about you. Why wouldn’t you want to thank them?

We worked with legal to address liability issues, with marketing to address content and control issues, and with senior management to address reputation and ROI issues. It was a long sell up the chain but we did it by including key stakeholders at every step of the way, having a clearly defined mandate for the blog (Gas Prices and Fuel Efficiency) and having an exit strategy (PumpTalk was initially positioned as a one year pilot project).

risis communication readiness – getting plans, process and communications channels in place and ready to go when a crisis occurs. Tip: Getting the process right is the hardest one. Mobile readiness – this takes a couple of forms. Making sure websites are ready for mobile (smart phones and tablets in particular). Also discussing the need for offline content in the form of an app. For example, CAPP recently ported their Oil Sands Fact Book to an iPhone app. Employee engagement – I’m thrilled that oil and gas companies are starting to open up access to social media sites for employees. This needs to be accompanied by strong programs that educate and support employees, not only on how to use social media appropriately vis a vis the company, but also how to protect their own privacy online.

Expectations need to be set and employees should have clear guidelines.

Finally, I’m also starting to see some branching out by companies in their social media efforts to specialized or niche audiences. http://www.communicatto.com/2012/03/15/the-skinny-on-social-media-for-oil-and-gas-from-kate-trgovac/

Other corporate social media examples
http://www.omniture.com/en/products/social-analytics Adobe Social Analytics - a Social Analytics tool to measure the impact of social media on business. It enables marketers to directly measure their social media efforts, and understand how conversations on social networks and online communities influence marketing performance. Using Adobe SocialAnalytics, marketers can manage their strategy and investments in social media based on measurable outcomes and in the context of broader, multichannel marketing efforts.

Examples of social media marketing from other sectors
Ford gave 100 indie "agents" a free Fiesta for publicly 'lifecasting' their experiences with the car. Recipients included bloggers, filmmakers, and social networkers who were already documenting and sharing their lives. Their stories built an authentic and compelling narrative, published online at FiestaMovement.com. Alexis Morrell drove her Fiesta across the country twice in six months. "It changed my mind about Ford cars," she says. Meanwhile, a huge plus for Craig Benzine was that Ford didn't lead the discussion. "They made sure we could do or say what we wanted about the car, even if we hated it."

Best Buy has long held an "open social strategy." The retailer took it public in 2009 with the launch of Twelpforce, a Twitter program in which employees offer advice to people who tweet questions about electronics. With nearly 3,000 active employees tweeting, Best Buy is realizing its vision of becoming more than an electronics chain. The company sees a future where customers rely on Best Buy as a trusted source with a "human search engine." Best Buy is also launching an experiment to help people share knowledge with fellow shoppers at BByfeed.com.

. By tethering the brand to its "manly man" equity, Procter &Gamble made Old Spice relevant to a new generation. Nothing demonstrates this better than 2010's real-time social media blitz. The Old Spice team posted 186 personal video responses to queries from fans featuring ex-football player Isaiah Mustafa in nothing more than a towel holding an Old Spice Body Wash.

The live production process made marketing history. Even more impressive was the seeding strategy: Days before the blitz, Mustafa recorded messages to influencers, including a "get well" video for Digg founder Kevin Rose who was home sick. Engaging with those who influence the technorati set the stage for success when the videos hit You Tube. By treating social media as a place to have a conversation with fans, P&G saw Body Wash sales climb 107 percent (versus the prior year), got tens of thousands of people to post questions, and made Old Spice the top-viewed branded channel on YouTube ever.

Yet one company stands alone in refusing to join the rush to social, and it just so happens to be the world’s biggest tech company.

Apple’s refusal to truly embrace social is well documented, but I was encouraged to take a closer look at its approach by the laughable share buttons on its e-commerce site.

Nearly every company you can name has filled its product pages with share icons for Facebook, Twitter, and in some cases Pinterest, but Apple doesn’t have any.