Drew Benvie stressed the fundamentals of social media in a corporate context are Influencers, Insight and Innovation, the "three I's". Ian Burge further explained that constant, consistent and open engagement is a vital element of a corporate social media strategy. But how do you actually successfully practice what you preach?
The Budget
is always a big date in the corporate calendar because of its impact on Tax,
and Nick Masters of PwC explained how they ran live coverage through a variety
of their digital channels in order to provide real-time commentary and opinions
about the implications. PwC made excellent use of social media to engage with its stakeholders at this
important time. Proving to be highly effective with increased media coverage,
Nick Masters even experienced a significant decrease in journalist calls as
they were offered information through online platforms.
Some
interesting legal matters were also raised, including the implementation of
social media use policies: when does an employee have a right to privacy and what
counts as communicating in a public forum? Where social media is concerned, and
with complicated privacy settings on many social sites, the lines can be very
blurry. Graham Shaw, an employment law specialist, said that in order to
minimise the risk of reputational damage and breaches of confidentiality, an
organisational social media policy needs to be established, preferably with
input from the PRs and those who will be implementing the social strategy.
The
concluding message from the board of speakers was “don’t be scared of social
media” – there is a lot of unchartered water so you won’t always know what the
outcome will be, but it will usually be good. While the panellists accepted
that some companies prefer to be private with their affairs, they maintained
that listening is an integral part of a social strategy, giving companies an
awareness of what is being said about them online. If you don’t try using
social media as part of your communications strategy, you will never experience the
potential results.
@IanBurgePR
@nickmasters
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