Mobile will Take Social Beyond Broadcasting

Susan Beebe, Manager of Social Media and Online Communities at Tyson Foods, joins the Social Pros Podcast this week to discuss philanthropy in social media, how mobile is helpful for both brands and customers, and how she got started in social media from a uniquely legal and IT background.

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Tweetable Moments

“You really want to be able to tap into that customer mindset.” -@susanbeebe (tweet this)

Starting by Helping

Tyson Foods is not just what you thought. It turns out that Tyson is more than chicken – a lot more, actually, since they sell more beef than chicken and have products that don’t include meat at all.

Susan Beebe sits in the PR area to run the @TysonFoods Twitter handle, and then each of the individual brand channels under Tyson tends to get run by someone in the Marketing department.
On the corporate side of things, they do a lot of philanthropy, including food donations and disaster relief. In fact, the original presence of Tyson in social media was centered around the Tyson Hunger Relief Blog and Facebook page.
Susan’s team works closely with the legal team to make sure their content is accurate for their audience. They also work on training the various Marketing team members to make sure they understand social media best practices when managing individual brand channels.

The Assets of Mobile

From Susan’s perspective, mobile is helping brands like Tyson show its customers the type of content they want to see at the moment they need it. This allows us to go far beyond broadcasting messages out into the ether.

If a customer is at work, trying to figure out what to make for dinner (or pick up for dinner) later that night, Susan and her team can answer that question. People don’t want to eat the same thing over and over, but they need inspiration.
To that end, Tyson has also put together a @TalkToTyson handle on Twitter. They don’t push out much content, but it’s staffed by a trained customer service team. They listen to complaints and comments and respond in real-time. Their hours are expanding, Susan says, as that channel becomes increasingly useful.

Social Media Number of the Week: 165,000

A couple weeks ago on the podcast, we mentioned the #esurancesave30 ad campaign that ran at the end of the Super Bowl. Since Esurance created the campaign to give away $1.5 million to one lucky tweeter, they have gained 165,000 followers (originally they had about 9,000). Of course, many of these are bots or perhaps people who just wanted to win and will unfollow after a while. Regardless, that quick growth is astronomical.
For comparison, Oreo gained about 85,000 Instagram followers after the famous “dunk heard ’round the world” at the previous Super Bowl.
Will more Super Bowl advertisers finally have creative calls to action in the future?

Holy Social!

Good friend of the Social Pros Podcast, Shannon Paul of Fifth Third Bank, joins the podcast to talk about Fifth Third’s #paytotheorderof campaign.
Many banks give cash rewards to customers who open a new checking account. Fifth Third is giving $150 to the customer and $150 to Stand Up to Cancer for each new checking customer.
Additionally, everyone can get in on the fun by using #paytotheorderof on a social media channel – Fifth Third will donate $1 for every tweet with that hashtag. It’s a way to get people to sign up for checking accounts, sure. But it’s also an opportunity to build stronger relationships with the community at large, and that’s really what counts.
Fifth Third and Stand Up to Cancer is compiling the user-generated content, along with a running total of the amount raised.

The Big Two – Susan Beebe

What’s your one tip for becoming a social pro?
“If you want to learn and be an expert, read their material.” Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google have material for marketers to help your brand. You have to work with those brands to develop strategies.
If you could do a Skype call with any living person, who would it be?
Alton Brown.
See you next week!