Ella Rychlewski

The second half of 2013 has been about walking the walk when it came to Gong’s website and our social media channels. We kicked off with a revamp of www.gongcomms.wpengine.com, making full use of our Creative resources. Our  lead designer Rachel then turned her attention to our social media channels and we expanded from Twitter and LinkedIn to include Facebook and Google+.

Our next step was to involve all Gong members in our social media engagement by a rota, led by our internal social media team (SMT). We felt it was important for everyone to have the opportunity to be the voice of Gong and capture the different perspectives of our multinational team. We then provided hands on training, while the SMT kept an eye on the analytics and general progress.

This has translated into the provision of a wider range of social media services for our clients, from design and training (Continental Reinsurance on Facebook and LinkedIn) to design and management (Garden City on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), as well as content writing and channel management (Homestrings and Olam). Gong also published its first social media briefing note for EMPEA.

And, we have been reminded of a few lessons along the way:

• The time required for social media is drastically underestimated and requires specifically allocated resources and channel prioritisation
• Sharing the load makes things a lot easier and fosters better awareness of and communication around internal and external goings on
• Reaching out to people or organisations during live events amplifies exposure
• The conversation about what the company’s tone of voice is and what material is appropriate to post is an ongoing one
• Saying it visually makes everything more engaging

Over the Christmas period and in an effort to start the New Year in the same way we mean to continue, we will be sharing the most read and shared material we have published or broadcast over the last six months. So do keep an eye out on our social media channels!

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season!