Being B2B social: A conversation with Maersk Lines head of social media

The container shipping giant with operations in 125 countries came to the attention of the social network after winning the European Digital Communication Award in September for the Social edia Campaign of the !ear"# which was praised as an e$ample for other %2% companies to follow& 'n less than 11 months the Danish compan( was able to attract more than )**#*** fans on +acebook and establish an e$tensi,e presence on other platforms& The right mix of channels: -e ha,e been ,er( e$plorati,e#" sa(s .la,s /alsko,# Director of Communication& %eing on social media is about tr(ing different channels out&" aersk 0ine operates nine with 1oogle2# +acebook# 0inked'n and Twitter at the center of its strateg(& Google+ 3angouts are used to hold smaller press briefings when the compan( is launching new initiati,es& The communication team uses +acebook to reach out to followers which include 415s# emplo(ees# potential emplo(ees# competition# suppliers# regulator( bodies and a surprisingl( large crowd of shipping nerds& Se,en thousand of aersk 0ine6s 25#*** emplo(ees are seafarers and +acebook has become an important channel for them to connect with colleagues# people at home# and follow what the compan( is up to& The( are ,er( proud to be sailing on big blue ships and lo,e to tell people about it& The( publish tons of pictures from their e,er( da( work& Turning bloggers into tweeters: Twitter has become an important part of aersk 0ine7s media relations strateg(& The( ha,e a lot of 8ournalists following them and the( can see that the( download their press releases from Twitter& The Danish trade press has been 9uite intrigued b( the fact that a traditional shipping compan( has embraced social media with such con,iction& aersk 0ine has ten official tweeters# which include the chief commercial officer# the head of anti:pirac( and business managers& At the start# the( ga,e them ad,ice on whom to follow# how often the( should tweet and on how to make tweets sound interesting and less corporate& The communication team has used internal blogs to spot potential tweeters& To create further s(nerg( between internal and e$ternal channels# aersk 0ine6s intranet has a feed displa(ing the compan(6s e$ternal tweets& Vibrant conversations: LinkedIn ser,es a different purpose and is considered a more serious professional forum" where the compan( can ha,e con,ersations with customers& /alsko, has created a discussion group for the Dail( aersk ser,ice# which ships cargo from Asia to Europe& The( know which

customers are using that# the( ha,e their email addresses& the( ha,e in,ited them to be part of this group because the( want to be able to monitor what the( sa( and spot trends& A ,ibrant con,ersation with their customers can tell them much more than a sur,e(& aersk 0ine also uses 0inked'n to bring together shipping e$perts to discuss issues like pirac(# trends affecting the container industr( and inno,ation& This is how the compan( came across the idea of a container that can be folded when empt( to take up onl( one tenth of the space of con,entional containers It's about qualit and engagement! not quantit : Social media measurement in aersk 0ine is more about 9ualit( than 9uantit(& To measure engagement on +acebook the( came up with a formula& Take a sample of (our latest ten posts& Add their number of ;likes7 to the number of comments multiplied b( two and the number of ;shares7 multiplied b( four& ;Shares7 carr( more weight because in sharing content with their followers fans take ownership of a message& The sum of these factors is an indicator that aersk 0ine has been using to benchmark their +acebook performance against that of other multinationals like 1E and 0ego& -hen comparing engagement scores against other world leading brands# aersk 0ine : at <=&* : ranks onl( second to 0ego6s )>&*& Disne( is number three at <)&2# followed b( 1E6s <2&?# Shell at 1?&1 and +ord at 1=&2& "howing internal communication leadershi#: aersk 0ine is now thinking about internal social media& /alsko, belie,es that communicators ha,e to be bra,er and show the leadership needed to make decisions about internal channels and strategies&