Webinar: Scaling social for business

A new McKinsey report says “social recommendations induced an average of 26 percent of purchases” across a range of 30 product categories that the consultancy surveyed with consumers. And with penetration numbers like 80 to 90 per cent for Facebook in some Asian markets, and 100s of millions of Chinese consumers using platforms like QQ or WeChat, there might just be something to this social media thing.

The reach for social media is without question. Research firm comScore also put out a report a few months ago that charts different social networks (again in the US) and shows the major networks easily claim about a third of all digital audiences.

The fact is most brand managers and CMOs recognize that social media is big enough to pay attention to and use for advertising and marketing. Still, that idea is short sighted. You can do more.

From PR to HR and into operations, social media is becoming as integrated into businesses as pens and paper. But how do you scale something that is inherently public and out in the open into parts of a brand that are more behind the scenes? Scaling social media to new levels is the main focus of Campaign’s next webinar.

I’ll be talking to Dennis Owen, group manager social media from Cathay Pacific, who is embarking on that exact journey today, helping to bring social media to more departments outside of marketing. An airline is a massive enterprise, literally globe spanning, and how the company is moving to bring social to more parts of the organization just might be your blue print for expanding use at your company. Or at least offer some paths to consider.

Hootsuite’s VP of marketing De Anna McPherson will also join; her background is pertinent to the topic as she helped establish the concept of Enterprise Social Networking as a new category of business and is responsible for leading marketing strategy, driving growth and building the social media management company’s global brand.

And for a broader Asia perspective, Joe Nguyen SVP, Asia Pacific at comScore will round out our panel. He has over 20 years of APAC experience and is a veteran of the online analytics industry. His perspective on how Asia uses social media will add an element of analytical realality to the conversation.

And then there is you. You can get in on this conversation too. You can start asking now. Tweet your questions to @CampaignAsia; use the comments on this article page; or email [email protected]. You will also be able to ask questions during the live webcast after you register.

Join us on 13 August at 10:00 AM Hong Kong time (7:30 India; 12:00 Sydney) and become part of the conversation while learning about how to scale social beyond marketing.