Time 22:14

How do big corporate brands implement social media? One answer is, they don’t, their customers do it for them. That’s one way, others include:

1. Providing social tools – Facebook applications or widgets
2. Cause collaboration – Supporting in dollars and actions a cause involving company and customers
3. Being one of many in a non-branded social space – jumping onto Twitter as a company or a rep of a company with full weight of delivering actions on behalf of the company
4. Customer collaboration – customers that support company goals work in conjunction with social network in completely transparent way to share ideas for greater good

In this podcast, Mike Donnelly, the director of worldwide interactive marketing for Coca-Cola, shares his experience with social media and one of the world’s most recognized brands.

Even though social media is new, the conversation reveals that the historic core brand personality remains as the foundation of participation in this case. Coke is a social brand, remember this early seventies commercial, at a time of domestic and world transformation, the common denominator in this ad was sharing.

The act of being social for Coke is also a one-to-one relationship, here with Mean Joe Greene and a little fan.

Fast Forward to Today

Being social in a world of immediate access to information, the ability for anyone to produce & consume multimedia, and the unbound energy of ideas means the relationship is multilateral. Your brand is company to individual, individual to company, and individual to individual, oh yeah with the rest of the world having access to just about all of it. That last part is what makes it dynamic for Coke. I mean after all, how many beverage companies would want customers spraying their product into the sky instead of drinking it. Now that’s classic, as done by Eepy Bird

Coca-cola also provides social tools to use like its Facebook application called Coke Tags. It’s an interesting use of technology that allows the interests that an individual places inside the tag to be shared with that individuals friends. So a Bluegrass Band James Reams & The Barnstormers can get some name recognition inside a Coke Tag, go figure,

What way do you think your company can be social? Call in your comments and questions to 206-600-6887 and we’ll get them on the next show.

Places I am Hanging Out

Luncheon Discussion – A Different Perspective, business fundamentals of social media, October 27 (Speaking)

Mississippi Hospital Association, November 6 (Speaking)

Society for New Communications Research Symposium November 14, Cambridge, MA (speaking)

And if you are in Minnesota online at the Social Media Club Minnesota

An observation from the Society for New Communications Reserch conference in Boston, Dec. 5 and 6: Social media is like having babies.

Why? As a father of five, I speak from experience:

1) There never really is a good time. You can wait till you have enough money, till you think you are in the right job or house, but really, the right time never comes. So if you want ‘em, get busy.

2) The first child is always nerve-racking. From the first ultrasound to the child’s first steps, everything is a big deal, full of uncertainty and doubt.

3) As things progress, and if you are fortunate enough, you may have another. The entire process is a bit easier but still intimidating, which leads to a greater appreciation for parenting — and your children.

Segue to the Coca-Cola and Mentos videos that entertain millions on the Web. It’s a fascination with seeing common things behave uncommonly. It is the quirky progression that draws you into these video vignettes created by eepybird productions. These guys are actors, not marketers. Their approach to life is to engage people in what they are doing. Hmmm — that’s a good thing.

Big companies with iconic brands like Coke are extremely protective, and rightly so. After all, getting involved in any form of social media is not child’s play. It can seem more like playing in traffic, and every parent is nervous about their kids crossing the street.

Luckily, there are rules. Last night at the Society for New Communications Research dinner, I had a conversation with a senior executive from the Coca-Cola Company. I came to these conclusions about entering social media for corporate marketers:

1) Social media is a playground of ideas, with plenty of ways to stay safe.
2) Observe the way consumers interact with your brand. The more fun they have with it, the greater the reason you should be a conduit for them to share it with others.
3) Creativity is the art of discovering where the playground ends and the street begins.

Stay tuned to Coke. They will be coming out with another element of the social media in their virtual world playground real soon.