Coca Cola’s New Social Media Model

Is it really news that Coca Cola loves to experiment with social media and that whatever they come up with is generally spot on? Maybe is the the limitless funds or the long years of success and errors that power their sense of doing things right when it comes to sales and marketing. Whatever it is, it has helped them determine and implement a new model for their social media approach designed to help them get exactly what they want. Call it engagement, fan love or brand recognition, say it’s sales, they’re nailing it!

So what is the whole model about? It’s another 4 model, 4 Rs this time, namely reviewing, responding, recording and redirecting. Sounds complicated, it really isn’t!

The beverage giant has caught on fast that information is everywhere and shared freely on blogs, websites, YouTube, Facebook and other online communities, through short comments on Twitter and so on. With currently over 5,000 mentions on their brand on a daily basis on English language websites only and a perspective of a three times higher number, it’s no wonder they need to refine the way they review what’s posted online and employing the top tools of the industry is a must.

What’s interesting is that they thought the ‘responding’ phase through. Sure, you have your expected PR pros and marketers and social media power users, but then there are experts from all fields of interest, such as techies and nutrition specialists, generally people who can actually reply a query, not go around PR statements that say nothing. How many experts? Well, I believe it’s enough that they call the team handling individual questions posted on blogs the blog squad!

The recording phase is a cool way to refer to creating material to be distributed online. Yet not any kind of material, but the type of information that’s relevant to netizens, as stated by Natalie Johnson, Coca Cola digital communications manager:

“We’re trying to make sure … as we listen to the conversations that are discussed online, as we review them and we start to engage, that we’re creating compelling information,” said Johnson.

As compelling content is nothing without the right distribution, enters redirecting phase, that clever strategy of distributing information where people look for it. All data is being released through interconnected routes from Google and Facebook to MyCokeRewards, helping build grand “link love” which Coke knows how to properly cherish:

“The more ‘link love’ or ‘link juice’ that we have out there the better our Google scores are,” said Johnson.

Frankly, there’s nothing new in Coke’s model. We’ve heard before that we need to learn how to listen online, to then properly respond and engage Internet audiences which would help us find out what they want to know. Only then can we create content that would interest them and after producing it, we have to make it accessible and easy to find. It’s not a revolutionary social media model. It’s just a well tested, compelling and carefully planned one. They don’t only state they need to do stuff, they actually know how to do it and accomplish all their goals.

Yet I am sure the 4R model made public by Coca-Cola will be catchy enough to be preached by many. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to implement it in an exceptional manner, just like Coke does! Get your hunter’s mark on your business target everyone, and go for the kill! :)

Porter Novelli & Ketchum PR are among the large PR firms to have worked with Coca-Cola.