Part of my responsibility at Ford is to set strategy for the company globally on social media activities. So when DM News called to ask for an interview, I talked about what some of the challenges are at a multinational corporation.Recently, I discovered that my interview was front page news over at DMNews.com. Called "Social Media Goes Global," I was quoted, along with Shiv Singh, VP of media and global strategies at Avenue A/Razorfish and Bob Pearson, VP of communities and conversations at Dell. Here are some excerpts from the piece:
Ford is not the only company that realizes the marketing opportunities of social media — from social networks and blogs to videos and photo-sharing — as it expands to every region of the world. However, US brands looking to leverage social networks internationally know that while their messages need to stay consistent regardless of the region, the language, cultural reference points, platform and tactics all need to be tailored for each market.
“There are different social media sites used in Brazil than in India or in the UK,” [Monty] says. “So we need to be sensitive what the most popular social media sites in these regions are [as well as] the region-specific differences in the ways people consume content and interact with each other online.”
“We're interested in the global aspect of social media, but we also realized it has applications across the company,” Monty says. “Whether it is customer service, IT, HR, or product development, there are a number of uses for social media. And when you add to that all of our constituents — customers, employees, shareholders, dealers, retirees — it becomes a very complex assignment.”
You may recall an earlier post titled Social What? which had a handy graphic delineating the top social networks in many countries. It's worth checking out as a handy guide.
Any global advice or experience you'd care to share?