Corporate Social Media Use Will Lead to the Evolution of Web 2.0

Published by Ryan Healy on January 26th, 2009 in Blogging, Social Media | 7 Comments

Corporate social media use has been a hot topic in the blogosphere for awhile now. Most articles discuss ways that companies can get involved in social media from a very theoretical perspective. There are some absolute rules like; people want to talk to people rather than a brand name, transparency is essential, and employees need to be empowered to represent the company without jumping through a thousand hoops.

All of that information is great, but it's not concrete enough for companies to implement. Some companies have jumped into the world of social media, but many others are still resisting because they are in a highly regulated industry or they don't have the resources to get involved. The thing is, not getting involved in social media now is only delaying the inevitable. Social media isn't going anywhere, and the companies that are actively pursuing how to get involved today will have a major leg up when corporate social media use is the norm.

Gaspedal, a Chicago based word of mouth marketing company, started an organization called The Blog Council. It's a private community of senior executives in charge of social media at the largest corporations in the world. The community is defining how companies can best use social media to attain their business goals. In short, they are putting processes and controls on what is now an unregulated industry. And I think it's brilliant.

I'm sure many people believe that social media cannot be regulated, that applying rules and best practices go against the nature of the medium, but I disagree. Companies cannot use social media the same way that individuals can. Rules and procedures need to be put in place, and that's OK.

Last Friday, I drove down to Chicago to hear from some of corporate America's early adopters of social media at the Blogwell conference. I was blown away at the progress that some of these companies have made.

Home Depot has a three pronged strategy for their social media use. They plan to recapture attention, connect with new customers and engage current associates. Their main medium is Twitter, and they even have a set of rules for what type of information should be posted to it. It needs to be Trusted, Timely, Relevant, Accurate and Appropriate. Most importantly, they don't want people to be selling.

When Hurricane Gustav touched down, the company decided to stay open for 24 hours to allow customers to stock up. They put the word out through traditional media, but it didn't have the same effect as a simple tweet from Home Depot's Twitter handle. The news quickly spread virally, customers streamed in all night and Home Depot got the recognition they deserved for helping their community.

Sharpie's social media campaign is a one-woman show. "Sharpie Susan" started a blog and a Twitter account for the company. She is doing the whole thing on her own, and spent less than $2,000 on the whole campaign. Sharpie's blog does two things. First, they target artists who use the pens and display the art on the blog. Second, they show celebrities signing autographs with a sharpie. It's a simple strategy, but they know what they're doing and they're using social media the right way.

Molson is another great example. The company has embraced the huge social media scenes in both Toronto and Vancouver to spread their message of great tasting beer. Molson's marketing team identified top bloggers in each city and invited them to a beer tasting event. They mingled with the bloggers, educated them on how to brew beer, and politely asked that they write about the event if they enjoyed the night. Most bloggers were more than happy to write a quick post about Molson, despite being hesitant before the event.

There were many other companies at the conference including P&G, Allstate, H&R Block and even the U.S. Coast Guard. Each company was doing something unique, but they shared one common trait, they each had specific processes and best practices for social media use.

As time goes on and more places like The Blog Council spring up to aggregate new ideas and processes for corporate social media use, every company will adopt social media as an essential business tool. And I would be willing to bet that after corporate America comes to some sort of agreement on how they can effectively use social media, we will see web 2.0 companies with actual business models emerge on the scene.

Leave your thoughts here. (7 responses)

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Chris Ferdinandi

Jan 26th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

Ryan,

Great look at some of the specific things companies are actually doing as part of their social media campaigns. I love articles like this!

Chris

Ryan Healy

Jan 26th, 2009 at 3:51 pm

Hey Chris,

I love seeing what companies are really doing in the social media world. Hopefully these conferences become a regular occurrence!

Ryan

Amanda

Jan 26th, 2009 at 8:53 pm

Ryan,

I'm so glad you blogged about Blogwell. I wish you had called out the work that is being done at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. I've really been inspired by what they have been doing with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to get their messages out to their employees, patients and the world. @leeaase is a great follow on Twitter, as his @SMUG_U. Lee blogs about social media by way of a virtual SM university – Social Media University Global (SMUG).

Great article, as always!

Ryan Healy

Jan 27th, 2009 at 9:50 am

Hi Amanda, I did hear great things about the Mayo Clinic as well. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see their presentation. I'll look ingot those two twitter follows, and I'm very interested in SMUG. Thanks for the tips!

Ryan

Grady Locklear

Feb 6th, 2009 at 4:31 pm

This is a cool post, and to be honest, the "not enough resources" excuse doesn't really work – one of the great things about social media is how cheap it is to talk with people. Even small/relatively boring companies can do something. Who would have thought that Sharpie could have an interesting social media campaign?

By the way, I was thinking yesterday about companies that don't understand the "absolute" rules you mentioned. Understanding the goal of social media – NOT selling, but talking – helps understand the value of the results. "Not having a budget" is an excuse that comes from the wrong mindset.