Digital Digest: Future-Proof Your Social Media Team

Digital Digest: What Edelman Canada is reading in digital marketing, technology and strategy. Fresh links served up Fridays.

Why do some teams struggle to get anything done, while others plan and execute flawless programs? Teams that mesh don’t just happen, each role on a social media team must be carefully chosen to extend the team’s skills and productivity. But as social media evolves (see fifth item) roles and responsibilities must change as well. That means that community managers, social media strategists and CEOs must all learn new skills for connecting with the social customer (see last item). This week, Edelman Canada’s Digital Digest looks at how communicators and marketers are anticipating changing roles and building future-proof social media teams. Read more »

Digital Digest: Social Media Governance

Digital Digest: What Edelman Canada is reading in digital marketing, technology and strategy. Fresh links served up Fridays.

A recent IBM survey of 1,700 Chief Marketing Officers paints a picture of constantly evolving challenges at the top. Today’s CMO must ensure their organizations have the expertise to make the most of channel and device proliferation, consumer co-creators, a big data explosion, and of course social media. “Today’s CMO has a pivotal role in determining how companies react to industry trends,” concludes Edelman Digital SVP Michael Brito.

But two thirds of CMOs feel unprepared for social media in their organization. To evolve their social media strategy, communications and marketing leaders need the support of a social media center of excellence. Implementing a social media governance model – a toolbox of educational resources, guidelines (see fifth item), internal experts and agency partners – is a key tool for CMO’s bringing social media into their organization. That’s why this week’s edition of Edelman Canada’s Digital Digest looks at how organizations are structuring and motivating their social media teams. Read more »

Digital Digest: Your Customer is Everywhere

Digital Digest: What Edelman Canada is reading in digital marketing, technology and strategy. Fresh links served up Fridays.

Communicators and marketers must come to terms with the fact that doing more social means retiring traditional marketing practices that aren’t delivering results, argue three McKinsey consultants (see second item).  While it’s true that many companies should be investing in their social infrastructure and pilot programs, it is not the time to give up on traditional altogether. Rather, the imperative is to find the best marketing mix to reach your customers, and that means investing in some digital and some traditional channels.

Organizations that look to their customers to tell them how, when and where they want to engage will learn that their customers are, in fact, everywhere. That’s why this week’s edition of Edelman Canada’s Digital Digest looks at how smart marketers and communicators are engaging their customers across channels and launching integrated campaigns that bring many different roles under the same umbrella. Read more »

Alan Middleton: The Task is to Rebuild Trust

Alan Middleton the Executive Director of Schulich Executive Education and Assistant Professor of Marketing, Schulich School of Business, joined Richard Edelman and our panel to discuss the Canadian findings of the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer at the Windsor Arms on February 2, 2012. Here, Alan’s guest blog contemplates the question of “So What?” from his perspective as the most quoted marketer in Canada.

The surprise is not that we don’t trust our leaders, but that seemingly we still want to.

The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer results show an almost worldwide reduction in trust of government, business, and of NGOs. The only social institution to see some increases was the media. After a year of tsunamis and nuclear meltdowns in Japan, debt crises in Europe, the continuation of the financial and economic effects of the 2009 recession and the advent worldwide of either Arab Spring-like movements or ‘Occupy’ movements, this is not surprising. Read more »

Q&A Interview with Steve Ladurantaye

Globe and Mail media reporter Steve Ladurantaye was a panelist at the Canadian launch of the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer in Toronto last week. For those looking for more, Steve answers a few questions about who he trusts and what the media industry is doing in Canada to deserve our trust.

Edelman: In many ways, the media’s job is to distrust everyone else, is it not? So when you look at the Edelman Trust Barometer’s ranking of who people trust when forming an opinion about a company, who do you trust? Read more »

Trust 2012 in Canada: Three Practical Applications for Communicators

As the 2012 Edelman Trust Event wraps up here in Toronto this week, I can’t help but think about the real-world applications for the data and how these findings can continue to influence our approach to communications over the coming year.  I was particularly struck by how closely the shifts in trust seemed to correlate with the major global events that occurred in 2011, including the European sovereign debt crisis and the Japan tsunami and nuclear crisis.   We also saw the meteoric rise of the “person like us” who has more authority than ever, perhaps influenced by events such as the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Arab Spring.

But what does all this mean for us here in Canada?  How can communicators interpret these results in meaningful and tangible ways?  There were a number of insightful conversations around this topic at our recent Trust event in Toronto and I’ve outlined three key outcomes that can positively shape our outlook on trust this year. Read more »

Digital Digest: Six Views of Trust

Digital Digest: What Edelman Canada is reading in digital marketing, technology and strategy. Fresh links served up Fridays.

Yesterday, Edelman’s global CEO flew to Toronto to present the Trust Barometer, our 12th annual survey of global trust in institutions and the people who run them. The Canadian data is remarkable: while trust in government and business remained stable, there has been a reshuffling of the relative importance of different spokesperson roles. CEOs and government officials are now some of the least trusted spokespeople in Canada.

Canada is “one of few countries we surveyed where CEO trust is the lowest,” among a list of spokespeople, Richard Edelman told the Financial Post (see third item). “That’s a warning sign for business.” So do Canadians believe their leadership is failing them? No, but we are seeing a broadening of who we trust. This “big tent” approach – for example, regular employees are credible sources of information about a company – is part of the ongoing shift of authority away from traditional gatekeepers of information. Read more »

Le Baromètre de confiance d’Edelman 2012

La semaine dernière, Edelman a publié les conclusions de la douzième édition de son sondage international annuel le Baromètre de confiance d’Edelman 2012 (version disponible en anglais seulement). Aujourd’hui, à l’occasion du lancement des résultats du sondage pour le Canada, nos collègues et nos clients sont réunis à Toronto afin de participer à un panel d’experts animé par notre président et chef de la direction, Richard Edelman. Je profite de l’occasion pour partager quelques réflexions sur les résultats canadiens du Baromètre et la façon dont ils s’inscrivent dans l’environnement québécois. Read more »

Trust in 2012: 4 Implications for Social Media

Originally posted on Dave Fleet’s blog.

Edelman recently released the results of its 2012 Trust Barometer survey. Given the events of the last year, it’s hardly surprising that trust is decreasing pretty much across the board.

That is, except in Canada. Read more »

Introducing Edelman Trust Barometer Canadian Findings

It’s been an uncertain year around the globe – and there’s no doubt that levels of trust have been affected as a result.  Yet here in Canada, things have remained relatively stable, both economically and politically.  The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer found that we remain one of the few countries with our feet firmly planted within the neutral zone, with consistent levels of trust across institutions.  But being neutral doesn’t give us licence to be complacent.  The Barometer also found that neither government nor business is meeting the public’s expectations.  Today in the Toronto office, I sat down to talk about the changing dynamic of trusted sources, and the opportunity for business to earn the licence to lead.

Read more »