December 2nd, 2008
Fortune 500 series: How Newell Rubbermaid uses social media
Q. What has driven your adoption of social media — sales, customers, marketing trends?
A. We started our social media marketing efforts by listening to our customers first. Understanding where, when and how they would be like to be engaged is a critical first step. Once we determined our customers would be interested in interacting with us on a corporate blog or through Reviews and Ratings, we created these services. The more we engage with our consumers, they more we learn and the more we can expand our social media efforts. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to start small, be flexible and be willing to pull back and change if something does not work.
Q. How long would you say you’ve had a social media program in place?
A. Our Graco team began listening to consumers and strategizing in 2007 and launched their blog in early 2008. The Rubbermaid team started later in 2008.
Q. What is one example of a social media project gone right for Newell Rubbermaid?
A. I feel that we have a couple of initial successes. The Graco team has achieved increased positive brand awareness in the blogosphere and especially with “Mommybloggers,” the primary customer target. Rubbermaid has also achieved significant success with their Reviews and Ratings program using the BazaarVoice service. They have received over 1,800 reviews in the first three months of operation with an average score of 4.7 out of 5. One of the most significant achievements of this program is that the reviews cover 70 percent of the Web site product catalog. We initially thought the reviews would be focused on the most popular products; instead they are spread out much more than anticipated. This is good news as it shows consumer engagement and interest across the breadth of our product line.
Jennifer Leggio, aka "Mediaphyter," writes about the "social business" side of social media - including enterprise, security and reputation issues. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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