A long-time leading seller of networking gear, videoconferencing set-ups and other communications solutions, Cisco Systems has been as close as any company could be to pioneering the use of search engines, portals, blogs and social media communities like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Even if your enterprise isn’t a global high-tech titan, there’s a lot to learn from the San Jose, CA-based company’s social efforts. Chief Business Marketer talked to LaSandra Brill, senior manager of global social media about how Cisco is creating a social media strategy with a marketing mission.
One size doesn’t fit all.
Customize your approach to suit specific segments of your audience.
“The social media avenue that we use really depends on the business area in which we are trying to market a product,” says Brill. “We have to look at when and where the conversations are happening online around the issue that our product is addressing.”
On Twitter alone, 108 feeds are maintained by Cisco and its employees, such as chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior. About 200,000 people subscribe to these feeds. On YouTube, more than 1,000 Cisco videos have gotten over 2.2 million views. The company also supports at least 20 external blogs managed by its employees and has produced more than 350 podcasts, all in the name of getting its products, services and sales pitches in front of the right audiences.
How can a smaller company get started? It isn’t as complicated as you might think. Here are some ideas you can apply to your social strategy.
Have a plan.
Make sure employees know what is expected of them when theyparticipate in the social sphere.
Cisco has a process for setting up blogs and its own handbook to guide how and what employees should and should not post.
“We try not to go too crazy with the blogs, and start them up only where we see them overlap with a high business priority,” Brill says. “If an employee has an idea for a blog, we have a form they fill out to let us know the market objective. We get our public relations group involved, and after it launches, we monitor it pretty closely. We have a pretty open policy about who can post to them, and contributors need to follow our handbook guidelines, things like don’t be anonymous, and don’t bash the competition.”
Though 20 blogs are a lot to track, Cisco watches them closely enough that it actually has shut down some because bloggers weren’t posting frequently enough.
“The biggest risk you can take is not participating at all, because those conversations are going to happen anyway,” Brill says.
For example, a customer recently complained on a blog about a problem he was having with the new Cisco Valet wireless networking product. “We reached out to him and got it fixed. It’s something we wouldn’t have heard about at that time if we hadn’t been in that community.”
Cross-promote your social assets.
Make the most of all your digital content across various sites.
Brill says the company also cross-pollinates where it makes sense, placing a video produced for YouTube on one of its blogs, or using a Tweet to mention something posted on another social media site.
Network
