Telefónica’s Paul Fabretti moves to Microsoft as global director of social media

He told The Drum that the opportunity to work with Microsoft brands such as Skype, Outlook, and OneNote, as well as the relocating Palo Alto in Silicon Valley, “was an opportunity that was too good to miss”.

“The energy within the business is addictive. I feel privileged to be leading such a talented team of social media marketers,” he said.

Reporting to Angie Hill, general manager for audience marketing within the division, he will handle the social media strategy across consumer apps and services.

“My main area of focus is to understand how we can deliver even more effective, data-driven and meaningful social media communications to our customers,” he said.

“We have some of the largest social properties on the web, but recognise we need to develop and constantly evolve the role social plays in helping customers whilst still achieving our commercial goals, especially in the face of such a dynamic marketing environment.”

Fabretti said the division has led some of the most engaging campaigns for Microsoft and, with this, has some “battle scars” about how best to work with large, global social audiences on a number of different commercial objectives and campaigns.

“The learnings from this are naturally applicable to social media teams across the whole of Microsoft, so plugging our learnings and ‘best-practice’ in to the rest of the business is a natural next step,” he explained.

“The dynamic environment in which we operate also presents some truly exciting opportunities about how we go to market, which is why innovation in our communications is key to our plans for the next year.”

He added that the way Microsoft measures impact of social will see it take a “forensic” approach to things like the content strategy.

Prior to his time at Telefónica, Fabretti was digital director at Manchester-based PR agency Brazen.