Ever wonder how big corporations make their forays into social media, develop strategies and measure success? Social Media Breakfast Seattle did, too, and invited Kristin Graham, VP of Communications and Recruiting, to share the lessons she's learned from implementing a social media presence at Expedia.
This weekend, before Graham's formal presentation (plug: Thursday, May 20 at 7:30 a.m. at Expedia in Bellevue register here), I sat down with her for a more informal chat to uncover the untold stories of managing social media engagement for an online travel site. The stories were fascinating!
Audio: SMB Seattle 5: Social Media Lessons from Expedia
Show Notes
- 1:20 What does the VP of Recruiting and Communications do?
- How and why Expedia got into social media
- How the team was formed
- 6:00 What was the content strategy?
- To have a conversation
- 9:30 What lessons did you learn from the early foray into social media?
- go big or go home
- have a partner to share the load
- find the personality
- have fun
- 16:55 How was the line between personal Twitter accounts and Expedia's brand identity drawn?
- Being surrounded by the spirit of travel guided more than any written content guidelines
- 26:20 How do you measure success and engagement?
- Not by number of followers
- Measure mentions and reTweets
- 28:20 Thoughts on in-house versus agency for social media management
- 31:30 Final thoughts?
- There's no such thing as "instant expert; just add Twitter"
- Be aware and open; others know more than you, even about your brand