I was invited to speak at the Malaysian Media Conference 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 2 April 2012. I shared SingTel’s success story so far in social media with the crowd of over 300 advertising, media & marketing executives from Malaysia and the region.
I joined SingTel in February 2011 to set up a digital marketing practice within SingTel’s Consumer Marketing team, including developing and implementing a social media strategy. In the last 12 months, SingTel’s Facebook community has grown from about 8,000 fans to over 108,000 fans. In addition, we maintain high engagement with our community with over 50% of the fan base visiting the Facebook page every week.
Last December, SingTel also launched its Youtube channel with a weekly made-for-Youtube programme, TGIS. The show has found its own loyal audience with some episodes exceeding 230,000 views.
Today, Facebook and Youtube are now part of most SingTel campaigns, from new product launches to promotions and contests. Importantly, Facebook has become a legitimate Customer Care channel, with full time staff dedicated to handling hundreds of customer queries and issues every week.
The community management and content calendar are managed by a cross-functional Editorial Board. This ensures that social runs across our company’s key operation areas — not just Marketing but also Customer Operations and Corporate Communications. Internal collaboration and top management buy-in are among the five factors that contributed to SingTel’s success in social media.
Be sure to scan the full presentation here.
ADDENDUM – The folks behind the Malaysian Media Conference have published some videos from the conference. You can now watch part of my presentation below:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6yYcSzSiw0&feature=player_embedded]
0 comments
click2view (@click2view)
04/04/2012 at 11:32I like the deck but I have a question – how do you communicate the value of social media to senior (in every sense) executives to get their buy-in before you embark on your campaign? It’s often the biggest hurdle to achieving the other 4 factors I find. Cheers, N
Grumpy Fanboy
04/04/2012 at 11:52You are right in saying that this is often the biggest hurdle. Very often, senior management may have heard of the need to engage in social media but not fully appreciate its value because they do not use social media themselves in their personal lives.
In SingTel’s case, we approached it by setting an aggressive but achievable target (e.g. a “fan” number to hit), which they can quickly grasp because it’s a tangible number. The rest is something of a leap of faith but, if you are willing to stake your reputation (if not your job) on that target, you should be given a free hand to go and attempt it. Once you hit your number, you can start sharing other metrics such as reach, engagement and cost efficiency versus paid media.
Not many big corporates can brag about a success story in social media so your success makes the senior executives look good as well. You should find even more support after that.