Lessons from Coke on their Social Journey!

1.   We speak in storytelling.   We make sure the story is engaging, surprising, and grounded in experience.   It is choked full of emotion.   The new generation wants to be engaged in something exciting.   Coke showed a great video of bringing the world together featuring India and Pakistan.   Very Powerful!   We strive for Shareability.

2.  We embrace our new SalesForce.   Most openness comes when something goes wrong.  But look at something like TripAdvisor.  They have postive and negative.    Social networkers are willing to provide feedback both positive and negative.    Coca-cola has 24M impressions from themselves, and 124M impressions from consumers. 

3.  Listen first and then engage.   Everyone wants to be heard.   But they want a response.   If you start you must go all the way!  Coca-Cola uses gen y’s to answer the social questions. 

4.  Speed trumps perfection today.  Gave an example of the response of a top retail fashion company and it took 10 days for a response.   And it was in the form of a 3 line PR release….not in social!  Stock price took a beating while they polished the story.     Great example.   Oreo cookie speed on their “You can still dunk in the dark” when the lights went out unexpectedly at the US Superbowl.   Brillant social marketing in 5 minutes from Oreo!  It took over the social conversation — be ready, and give people the freedom to embrace the principle of speed.

5. Allow transparent conversation and play well.   Both positive and negative.  The way that you handle and manage them really matters.    Make sure you establish long term relationships.