Old Coke in new bottles
Is there anything really new in Coca-Cola’s new social media ‘strategy’? The brand is widely considered a leader in terms of its use of social media, and every new approach it tries out attracts interest.
Its latest one is based on the “4Rs” – reviewing, responding, recording and redirecting, according to Natalie Johnson, the brand’s digital communications manager.
The reviewing element consists of monitoring popular opinion about its main products, as compiled from social media sites by firms like Radian6, Sysomos and Scout Labs.
Company ‘experts’ will then respond to these comments, through blogs and social media users. The recording element involves placing information with relevance and common interest for placement, ranging from blog posts to short viral videos. ‘People don’t want to hear sales talk … they want information that is relevant to their daily life,’ Johnson says.
‘Redirecting” means giving information to consumers via connections from Google and Facebook to MyCokeRewards. The more links out there, the better the brand’s Google rankings will be.
Nothing earthshaking here. It’s what everyone is doing – or should be. But it makes sense for a leading brand to keep renewing the old maxims in new packaging. The idea that it’s doing something new helps keep its own people motivated, attracts interest in the blogosphere and maintains the perception of it as a leader.
Sometimes just talking about what you’re doing is as important as doing it.
June 8th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Thanks for this post and for mentioning Radian6.
This entry reminded me of something I was thinking about the other day with regards to businesses and strategies having become more responsive and flexible possibly as a result of integrating social media. A great side effect, I think, of social media seems to be that business strategies whether those are for marketing, sales or customer service become more fluid. While there might be an overarching strategy with a focus on integrating social media into the business there is an understanding that the environment is constantly changing and evolving therefore businesses are more open to reassessing and revising their strategies and initiatives.
I do think that for companies that have been involved in social media monitoring for a while like Dell or Coca-Cola a new strategy doesn’t necessarily mean that something drastic has changed but rather that they have made tweaks to hone in on what works/ what doesn’t and are creating a new focus – encouraged by where social media is headed – to progress what they are doing.
This definitely got me thinking and I look forward to reading more from it’sopen.
Olivia Landolt
Marketing and Community Manager
@6Consulting
UK focused Radian6 partner