Social Media Insights from Molson at BCBC Summit
Prior to the Business Council of British Columbia CSR Summit the past week a pre-summit panel was conducted on Thursday October 16th. The panel consisted of Vicki Gabereau moderating with participation by Dr. Mary Lynn Young, Director of the School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia and Scott Ewart, Chief Legal and Public Affairs Officer for Molson in Canada.
It was an interesting dialogue that challenged the varying impacts of social media and traditional media for corporations in the business world. A core theme was a question about the impact of “citizen journalists” vs the more traditional media coverage of events and corporate news.
Scott spoke about the approach that Molson has taken on our community blog and the fact that Molson is committed to listening to our consumers, and for that matter, all stakeholders that may have an impact on Molson business in the market place. I must admit that it is also really great for us at Molson to have Chief Legal and Public Affairs Officer that “gets it” when it comes to our need to be in the conversations that are taking place out there. Scott repeatedly reminds us that we just need to be there because it is the right thing to do. There is also a critical need for corporations to understand that they have a social license to be mindful of and to protect as the go to market in all aspects of their business.
It was evident by conversations in the room (in my humble opinion) that there is still a real struggle for many corporations to embrace social media. I don’t think that it’s necessarily a disbelief in the validity of the medium, moreover it is still so new for people and often times major corporations need to follow established and validated sets of benchmarks and key learnings before imbedding new practices into their business culture. At Molson we have been fortunate enough to have a culture of innovation where our team has been challenged with exploring opportunitites on line for decades. Being “in” the conversation from our standpoint is a lot better place to be than on the sidelines and outside of the conversation. Molson continues to learn by listening and through experimentation in social media and undersatnding the conversations that are taking place…whether that is on Facebook, through the millions of blogs that exist or on Twitter (MolsonFerg). It is a very exciting time for our communications team at Molson as we continue to learn and develop our interactions and discussions through social media.
And as always…we welcome your thoughts, opinions and suggestions as to how we can ensure that we are tuly in dialogue with all the stakeholders interested in our business from the beer drinker loyalist to the regulator and special interest groups that take interest in our products. Here’s to responsible choices !
Glad to see that Molson is “getting it” I actually came here through one of your Toronto reps on Twitter. I do believe social media’s attractiveness and potential benefits differ from industry to industry. Those in your industry and similar could definitely benefit from having a positive presence in the social media space.
Glad to see you have a blog as well!
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 amWell done Molsons. Its great you’ve entered the arena, and I look forward to the evolution of your blog as a conduit to share stories. Hopefully you’ll give us readers some interesting insights into life at Molsons.
October 30th, 2008 at 5:22 pm