Broad field of pursuers

If you want to assess a trend, it's best to look not only at the avant-garde, but also at the field of followers - because sometimes this field is thin on the ground and the media hype surrounding a topic soon dries up. That's why this series of case studies on the use of social media is not about pioneers for once. In order to find out how well-known companies that have not yet attracted attention with large fan bases and huge numbers of followers deal with social media, Werbewoche asked a number of them. The fact that not all of them responded should not go unnoticed when assessing the development of social media. Nevertheless, it is clear that sooner or later the pioneers will be caught up.

Swiss Post: At the end of 2009, the yellow giant launched a project to develop a social media strategy, as Gundekar Giebel, Head of Electronic Media, reports. In July 2010, together with the launch of an iPhone and Android app, a Facebook page also went online, which "gave an initial boost" to the creation of a fan community. The two other Swiss Post brands, Postfinance and PostBus, also have their own social media presences on Facebook and have between 1000 and 3000 fans each. PostBus has also been present on YouTube for a year and a half, and Postfinance recently opened a Twitter channel, primarily for journalists. "These are still small communities, but we haven't advertised them heavily yet," says Giebel. A strategy of small steps is being pursued: opening channels in order to be there and serve customers with the quality they are used to from Swiss Post. In principle, the social media strategy is being developed and implemented uniformly, with a focus on solid structures. For the past two months, two people have been working on social media, with a half-time position at Postfinance and a quarter-time position at PostBus. In addition, a central social media management office is responsible for the framework conditions and coordination within the Group. "This will grow, and we assume that we will have to expand these channels considerably over the next few years," says Giebel. Nevertheless, Swiss Post does not want to massively promote the social media channels, but sees them as additional dialog channels to the Group's homepages. The focus here should be on customer service. "If a customer decides to get in touch with us via Facebook, we will serve them there." Considering that Swiss Post as a national company has 60,000 employees alone, it is clear what a large community could be created online. For the time being, an internal guideline (netiquette) for dealing with dialog media is currently being drawn up so that all employees know how they should behave and also make it known that they are insiders when commenting on post topics, for example.

Kuoni: While, according to Simon Marquard, Kuoni in the UK "communicates very actively and successfully with its customers on Facebook about attractive travel offers", Kuoni Switzerland is not yet doing so and uses social media to communicate special travel topics and for general dialog about travel trends. Social media is a new way for Kuoni "to communicate directly with our customers and make the Kuoni brand tangible". The company believes that the brands of the future and their image will increasingly be shaped by customers and communities. There is a risk that anyone can express their personal opinion and spread unverified or false information, which can quickly and naturally have a negative impact. This loss of control when using social media is an opportunity to receive feedback from guests and fans and to respond to it directly. As Marquard puts it, the aim is to "open ourselves up further to dialog". Social media guidelines are currently being developed for the individual country units.

Hotelplan: "We are in a 'testing and learning phase'," reports Prisca Huguenin-dit-Lenoir, Head of Corporate Communications. The main thing is to get to know the target group: "What do they react to? How do they react? What do they tell us? What do they like, what don't they like?" Last December, the travel brand Hotelplan started to build up its social media community on Facebook and Twitter with the horoscope campaign. Once the current test phase has been completed, the opportunities, significance and importance of this tool will be evaluated and a decision will then be made as to "whether and how the necessary structures need to be established".

Axpo: According to media spokeswoman Anahid Rickmann, the electricity giant is "closely" following developments in the area of social media. So far, however, social media platforms have "not played a significant role" in Axpo's corporate success.
Sulzer: "As a B2B industrial company, we naturally have a different starting position; there is less experience of the industry in general than in the consumer goods industry, for example," says Verena Gölkel, Head of Media Relations. The current focus is on information distribution, and the company is active on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Xing. Social media is another channel to get in touch with the various target groups, i.e. customers, IR & media representatives, (potential) employees, sustainability specialists, technical experts, etc. In principle, the company would rather actively participate in the dialog than be "outside". We are working on finding out which target groups can be reached via which social media channels and how, in order to then expand our own activities accordingly. Last year, for example, a "how to start" concept was created that follows the "listen, speak, engage" approach. The focus is currently on the "Speak" phase and the concept will be revised for the transition to "Engage". No specialized employees are planned for social media support, as this is seen as an integrated activity in the area of media relations. As it is crucial to be able to react quickly in the area of social media, good networking within the company and professional and functional decision-making skills are important. In future, responsibility will therefore probably be extended to the Marketing, Sales, Customer Support Service and HR departments. Before it is clearly defined who will act or react, the company does not want to take hasty action, as this would entail risks.
Christoph J. Walther