April 22 2008

Social media rewrites the corporate rule book

Social Media Influence conference brings together social media practitioners and big name brands to shine a light on social media/p>

No company has taken more of a beating in the Blogosphere than Dell. In recent years angry bloggers have swarmed en masse against Dell for unresponsive customer service. Starbucks has 14,000 videos - many of them lampooning its ubiquitous presence or criticising its ethical stance - that have been posted to YouTube, (nearly one for every store on the planet). Then there's General Motors, that is struggling in a consumer market dominated by oil and environmental concerns.

What did these major corporations, with a combined annual sales of nearly a quarter-trillion dollars, do to address the consumer backlash? They launched online forums and social networks, asking their most vocal critics, customers and would-be customers to direct their concerns, snipes and kudos in a single place for all the world to read and join in. This is the brave new world of social media corporate communications where customer relations management is as important as traditional press relations.

Today, Starbucks employs 40 in-house experts to mine its new social forum, My Starbucks Idea, for new ways to conduct business, from instituting recyclable cups to loyalty cards and free Wifi. Similarly, General Motors has launched GMNext, a network of blogs and podcasts written by some of GM's most knowledgeable employees discussing upcoming models and eco innovations. The automaker even launched a wiki asking customers to help write GM's corporate history. And Dell has launched Ideastorm where customers can lob suggestions (not always in the friendliest tone) about features they'd like to see in upcoming models, be it standardised power cables that could be used for different models to back-lit keyboards.

To hear more about best practice in this new world of corporate communication, join us at Social Media Influence, a one-day conference to be held 4 June at the Cavendish Centre in London, that will shine the light on how social media is changing corporate reputation management and company's marketing and branding efforts. Building off the successful "Blogging4Business" conferences of years past, Social Media Influence will gather top practitioners in the field of social media along with major companies that have joined the social media conversation to help attendees understand the power of online engagement.

Speakers will include Antony Mayfield, Head of media and content iCrossing UK, Joanne Jacobs head of Mothercare's Gurgle.com, Matt McAlister, head of developer networks at the Guardian, Pete Clifton, Head of Editorial Development, Multi-Media Journalism at the BBC, Guillaume du Gardier - New Media Manager, Ferrero, Robert Andrews, editor of Paid Content UK, Neville Hobson, social media PR consultant.

Register online. Visit http://www.screenevents.co.uk/influence08/index.html or email mark@screenevents.co.uk

by Marcus Austin (Web Editor)