The Buzz at BlogWell NYC
By Marcus Casal, Director of Product Management, GeoFluent
With Manhattan as the backdrop, social media strategy was the headline act at BlogWell’s first gathering of 2013. Reps from a cross-section of industries listened intently as big name brands Verizon, Wendy’s, Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s, TD Bank, Monster, Corning and Commonwealth Edison presented. These firms shared the secrets of their successes in leveraging social media and online communities to build relationships, foster deeper and more meaningful collaboration with customers, projects, employees and key stakeholders, and increase engagement and loyalty.
The GeoFluent team was able to chat with both presenters and participants about not just the rewards, but also the challenges, presented to businesses that are just starting to implement a social strategy.
Here are three key observations we made at BlogWell:
1. Businesses are learning together. You might think big brands like those represented here would be “old pros” at social media by now. However, in speaking with presenters and attendees it became clear that many have actually had an established social media strategy in place for less than a year. Others are still in the early stages of developing or deploying an approach. While many companies may feel as though they are falling behind the social curve, even the largest brands are just beginning to understand the latest tools, technologies and techniques and how these new solutions can help optimize a social approach to engagement.
2. Break the language barrier. In conversations with BlogWell participants, those who already have a community in place usually deployed it for internal engagement. It was interesting to discuss the challenges of communicating across a multilingual, global workforce. Companies are clearly searching for the best avenue to encourage participation from non-English speaking employees and/or external audiences. Most aren’t yet considering the implications of reaching and working with a global audience. If global reach is a consideration, architecting for future multilingual success is critical. Forward thinkers will want to experiment with automated translation of social media content from the start.
3. Success should be measured. Quite surprisingly or amazingly, not one presenter spoke about their social media program in terms of a calculable ROI. Instead, traditional social metrics such as participation rate, number of users, and content volume were the benchmarks. Social metrics have a reputation for being difficult to quantify, but it’s important to demonstrate the impact on revenue to ensure ongoing executive support. For example, a clear benefit of deploying a real time translation solution for community support forums is global participation to improve problem resolution, resulting in tangible ROI through reduced customer service support costs.
In today’s global business world, online engagement has never been more important. Social media is reshaping the manner in which companies interact with both employees and customers. While some brands have several years of experience under their belts, most are just starting to develop a plan for turning social media into a strategic tool. Which group does your company fall into? What do you perceive as the biggest challenge for those just starting out? Share your thoughts in the comment section.