Corporate participation in social media is just starting to take shape. With a little more experience under their belts from corporate blog efforts and policies we are certainly entering an era where social interaction can be a key marketing tool and strategy.
Corporate Social Media Marketing
As major corporate executives begin to try for social media interactions we are likely to see some creative campaigns and partnerships. Anheuser-Busch recently launched a new strategy to provide a social media benefit to the company's industry and product offerings. In order for social marketing campaigns to be effective and rise to popularity they must by definition be interesting news or entertainment items that allow the social community to self promote the social content element.
Company Social Media Policy
Just a few years ago, most corporations had no idea how to deal with the social media era of employee's starting personal blogs and many lacked a policy (Delta Airlines fires employee for blogging) for dealing with the implications of this new public online channel of publicity. As companies look to utilize social media they will once again need to evaluate their social media policy especially since their own marketing department may be utilizing this as a key media and publicity tool. But social media has crossed the line in which any single blogger should be a significant factor (either positive or negative) to the corporate profile. It will still be important that employees understand the role of social marketing and have clear lines as to what is not acceptable for posting information online.
Corporate Social Media Consulting
So who are the companies that will help small to large companies establish a social media strategy? While major corporations can certainly utilize social media and online social media tools it's clear that outside social media consulting firms & traditional advertising agencies will need to be involved in the business social media campaigns and strategies.
The corporate social media consultants must understand the spectrum of social media tools as well as the social interactions and implications of utilizing social tools and platforms. The social marketing consultants should have experience with many different forms of social media from blogs to podcasts to video and how these items integrate with traditional media formats.
If you are looking for how to start a corporate social marketing effort be sure your marketing and advertising teams understand how to monitor and manage these campaigns and that a clear conversion goal may not be a metric that can be used to evaluate this type of a promotion strategy. Branding and interest development may be derivative effects of a properly implemented social media strategy.
