Trust, empathy and honesty the keys to make social work – Telefonica Europe’s digital and social lead
Social media is an “incredibly accountable, commercially focussed and results-driven environment”, Paul Fabretti, digital and social media lead at Telefonica Europe, believes.
A judge for The Drum’s Social Buzz Awards in association with iomart, Fabretti suggests that one of the biggest changes in social recently has been the role of paid advertising, stating “customer care is not free”.
He added that it makes a difference to the social industry “not just in the importance it plays in ensuring visibility, but the complexity of targeting. It feels like we are now starting to realise the benefits of all this social data, in making things more relevant to our customers.”
But it is not just the rise in paid ads that has changed the social market. An increase in both messaging apps and a mobile first approach has led to a change in the way that social is marketed.
“The challenges this presents are two-fold - firstly, with customers on the go, on legacy social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for example, we need to think again about how we make ourselves relevant when people are on the go. Secondly, the huge (Global) adoption of messaging platforms (WhatsApp, Line, WeChat etc.), where typically messages are 1-2-1 private conversations, present a huge dilemma. In some cases, there is no 'virtual/physical' place for brands to exist, in others, brands just have no place. Obsolescence in messaging platforms is a huge risk,” he explained.
Fabretti has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business, having originally gotten into social when he ran his own online bathroom business.
The beauty of social, he discovered, was that it helped to combat the issue of trust: “Why would you buy such an expensive item (a bathroom at that) off some guys you've never heard of on the internet? Social as we knew it then was a great way of showing our expertise, care and desire for outright customer satisfaction. We blogged avidly, told stories about us, the places some of our products came from, the places we visited when delivering …and spent hours and hours in forums helping people. It was all about earning trust.”
It is not just trust that plays an important role in social: empathy is also a trait that is needed to do well in the customer care industry on social.
Working on the social at O2, Fabretti says that he gets asked a lot about the witty tone that the brand is known for using. “I’d say it boils down to precedent and confidence – even before my time here, the social teams have totally understood the need for empathy and honesty, so it follows that the words they use should not be throttled in any way, just to ensure consistency with brand values.
“There is a long history of individual personalities coming through tweets as part of their job, so others gain confidence that they can mimic this, but in their own way. Naturally, this then breeds confidence, although everybody understands when and how 'banter' can and should be used – I don't think any of our teams ever belittle anybody's grievance, nor should they.”
It is clear that Fabretti believes that social media is something that should be taken seriously – and as for any channel, results are important.
When asked what he is looking for from entries to the Social Buzz Awards, he said: “Very simple – results which are aligned to objectives – which themselves are derived from insights. And I won't even read an entry who can only cite per cent increases in activity. Every industry and business is different and so will your results – don't hide behind percentages.”
Show off your social media results to Fabretti in the Social Buzz Awards. You have until 13 August to enter.