Hi Jen,
Thanks so much for covering AMD's use of social media, and their work with Radian6. We've really enjoyed learning from them about what's working, what challenges they're facing, and how listening has evolved into a full engagement strategy for them.
Appreciate the article!
Best,
Amber Naslund
Director of Community, Radian6
One of the biggest challenges social media enthusiasts face while trying to sell their executives on a progressive marketing program is proving the value of listening. The concept of purely outbound marketing is old, yet safe, and many companies are afraid to invite the scary conversations in and take action on them.
Technology provider AMD had no such fears when instituting a social media program, but it had a significant advantage: it’s always been engaged in “social media,” even before the popular term was coined, with its expansive user communities.
Chris James, social media and community strategist at AMD, is responsible for leading the social media charge. His objective is to utilize social media across all points of marketing and public relations to reduce costs by scaling and getting in better touch with customers. James is also responsible for driving information about the marketplace back into the business, and says that while other businesses leap first into creating a presence with social media tools, the company’s first objective was to determine what was being said, by whom, and where it was all taking place.
“Our core need is to engage in listening and utilizing as much as we can of what’s going on out in social media to inform business decisions – whether its messages and marketing, language and press releases, customer insights, and so on,” he said.
