SOCIAL MEDIA CLUB – MONDAY 16th JULY
Guest Post by Suzanne McNamara
The Social Media Club was back on in Auckland at the new Telecom building after a hiatus of 6 months.
Last night’s panel discussion was titled Social Media Managers Forum: Tales and Tactics from the Front Line
The panel included social media managers from Mercury Energy, Ticketek, Westpac and a couple of social agencies. The discussion consisted of questions from the audience that were answered by the panel. All the while the twitter feed was in full view on screens around the room – hashtag #SMCAKL.
The evening’s opening address from Adnan Khan, NZ Manager of Facebook (yes, we do have our own
Facebook Manager for ANZ) started with a funny quirky video produced by Lady Gaga as an innovative example of
social media channels combining Facebook and Farmville.
Khan used the video as an example to make his point “put people at the centre of your social marketing – and the
rest will flow”. He went on to say in the 2000’s the web is about people (prior it was about content – remember the
catch phrase ‘content is king’). His next slide ‘No marketing or advertising is more interesting to people than
their friends’. We figure Facebook would advocate for that position but with 2.2 million New Zealanders with facebook
accounts, 61% logging in every day and average use is 5-6 hours per month– they deserve to be listened to. Facebook is
also the largest photo sharing site in the world, thanks to their clever people tagging function.
Some outtakes from the evening for businesses using social media as a communication tool:
- ROI – Facebook’s own metrics such as ‘Likes’, ‘Reach’ and ‘people talking about this’ are commonly used as a company’s ROI metrics. There is not necessarily a direct link to sales.
- Relate the metrics back to your business – ask yourself or people in the company ‘did the last engagement do anything?’
- It’s important everyone is on board with social media and committed to the company using it – it’s difficult to have some in a company that are behind social media and others that don’t really support it (usually because they don’t understand it themselves)
- Some companies have a signed off content calendar, they know in advance the types of posts they are going to do in any given day but they also have a degree of flexibility for news of the day
- Have a social media policy in place that everyone understands and is signed off by management
- Have KPIs, set goals and figure out how you are going to get there
- Be in touch with what people are talking about
- Is the sentiment positive to what you are talking about?
- Give people something worthwhile – create something that touches people
- Behind that LIKE is a human – cherish it
Looking forward to the next Social Media Club in September. The topic is using social media for recruitment
www.convergencepr.co.nz
suzanne@conv.co.nz
StopPress…. A joint entry by Convergence Communications and Social Innovation won the Supreme Award at the 2012 NZ Public Relations Institute Awards for communications by the Student Volunteer Army following the 22 February earthquake. The win marks the second time in the last three years that Convergence has won the Special Project or Event category, which always attracts the majority of entries. Convergence also won in 2010 for its marketing and promotion of Auckland’s Splore music festival.
