On the morning of Wednesday, May 19th, over 100 advertisers, marketers, and media types convened at the New York Hilton hotel for Advertising Women of New York's Social Networking Breakfast. Moderated by Robin Carey, Co-Founder and CEO, Social Media Today, the five-person panel discussion focused on how social media is being used to grow and develop brands in the 21st century.
AWNY President, Mary Morgan, provided guests with an introduction to the event. She posed two questions--how is social media being used to build and develop brands today and how isn't it being used--for the crowd to consider.
She then touched on the ways in which AWNY is using social media to grow the organization's brand. During the last year, the AWNY Board decided to harness the power of this emerging vehicle and hired Vicky Sullivan to be the organization's first social media manager. Sullivan manages AWNY's presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, keeping members and prospective members in tune with all things AWNY. "It will leave nothing untouched or unchanged," said Morgan in reference to the impact of social media.
Morgan then turned the session over to Nancy McDonald, Multi-Media Sales Director, at The Wall Street Journal, the event sponsor, who discussed the ways in which The Wall Street Journal is using social media to develop its own brand. "We are constantly innovating to ensure that we provide content to our consumers whenever and wherever they want to consume it." Highlighting the importance and value of the online resources the Journal has created, she said, "We are creating communities where our consumers can interact."
MacDonald then introduced moderator, Robin Carey, who identified the panel: Marisa Thalberg, VP Global Digital Marketing, The Estee Lauder Companies, John Bell, Managing Director, Ogilvy 360 Global Digital, Influence Group, Pepper E. Roukas, Global Marketing & Brand Management, Director, Online Content & Community, American Express, Adam Christiansen, Social Media Communications Manager, IBM, and Natasha Stevens, Senior Director of Insight Practices, Cymfony, A Division of Kantar Media.
Carey's first question was posed to Thalberg who responded by talking about the mind shift that social networking creates for a luxury brand like Estee Lauder that is accustomed to using a carefully crafted message. "Engaging in the new medium means letting go of control and passing it to consumers." However, she noted, if you truly understand how people are influenced, you can use social media in a way that reinforces your brand equity.
Roukas talked about how American Express is using social networking for its cause-marketing initiatives. "We're giving people options for how to make a difference in the world," she said. Members can vote online to determine which charities will receive donations from American Express. The campaign, she said, created lots of online buzz and had a halo affect around the brand.
American Express is even engaging consumers on social networks to promote new product launches including the company's new ZYNC Card targeted to young professionals.
For Christiansen and IBM, the challenge is different, because social media is being used for business-to-business rather than business-to-consumer communication. He said social media presents, "a shift in the way we do business." IBM has used it to foster personal interaction between employees and between the company and employees.
For Stevens, who, rather than managing a brand, works on developing and measuring social networking campaigns for brands, the challenge is how to use listening to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. Her response focused on the analytics with the challenge for marketing being deciding what to do with all the data. "Methodology is very important," she said. "What are we trying to measure?" By identifying trends and using feedback, she noted, clients can adjust plans in near real time.
When asked which campaign makes them most proud, Bell used Ford Motor Company as his example. "[Our client] Ford was committed to changing how the company did business," he said in reference to a social networking campaign his company created for the car manufacturer. The campaign, targeted at women, brought together 61 female bloggers who were invited to tour the Ford plant and meet with the company's design team.
Estee Lauder used social networking to promote the company's long-standing breast cancer awareness campaign, a cause that was very important to the company's founder and namesake. The company created a website that enabled users to connect around the world. Metrics showed that the campaign spread virally to almost three quarters of the world.
Overall, the message coming from the panelists is that social networking is constantly changing and evolving, and no matter which industry you are in, it is being used in some form to develop and grow brands.