By: Autumn Truong

Autumn Truong — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:38:42 +0000

Dean – It depends on how you define “meaningful”. As you know, social media has changed the way we engage with our stakeholders. Social provides access and enables real-time feedback. So while some may view an in-person meeting as more meaningful, some of those connections may not be possible without the connections made on the social channels. If you look at it this way, community managers are creating those connections. If they don’t have the domain expertise, they are connecting stakeholders with those that do. And that is of course as you pointed out, part of the authenticity and credibility of extending our brand in social.

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By: David H Deans

David H Deans — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:00:13 +0000

Autumn, it seems that we tend to use the term “community manager” very loosely at Cisco, but then so does Jeremiah Owyang.

Moreover, a lot of the real engagement and meaningful dialogue between Cisco employees and our stakeholders doesn’t happen on company-centric social channels.

Maybe that’s why the “informal” representation of our brand is actually viewed as being more authentic and credible when it’s shared on a public channel — such as a topical telecom oriented peer-group within the LinkedIn site.

Besides, I believe that in an industry as complex as ours, you really need substantive domain experience to be able to fully engage with your stakeholders on a broad cross-section of topics. That practitioner insight gives you the confidence to interact, rather than simple pushing out “approved” content.

My point: I’m guessing you’ve touched on a small subset of the many ways that passionate Cisco employees manage and develop the interaction with their broad-based stakeholder groups online.

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Comments on: #CMAD: How Cisco is Defining the Role of a Community Manager

By: Autumn Truong

By: David H Deans