Open Social Media Strategy Pays Off for Panda Security

Bill Bourdon — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:42:58 +0000

Juan Santana, CEO for the Bateman Group’s client Panda Security, just published a great blog about his company’s experience with social media.

Juan explains how Panda has embraced social media over the last year to transform itself from an introverted and technology focused company to an open organization that is now able to better interact with a rapidly changing marketplace.

With so many organizations, large and small, putting rigid rules on employees about when and how to use social media, Panda has taken a different approach:

“While some companies were (and many still are) concerned about productivity, spokespersons following the company communication guidelines or employees potentially disclosing confidential information when they interact with the media, at Panda, we have taken a conscious decision and encouraged everyone to interact with the “outside world” as they see fit. After over a year of having this new “policy” (or more appropriately, the lack of) in place, we can only talk benefits from a decision that has impacted most areas in the company: from support to product management, from PR & Communication to sales … even some developers, who tend to be much more reserved, can be seen in Twitter : -)”

I’m pleased to say that the Bateman Group collaborated with Juan and his team on developing a set of educational resources (how-to documents, best practices guides, etc.) and a loose policy framework for encouraging all of the company’s employees to use social media constructively. As Juan notes in his blog, the policy is more of a corporate statement that removes excessive red tape for engaging with Twitter and various social networking sites in meaningful ways that positively impact the Panda Security brand.

Since that time, the use of social media among employees at every level inside the organization has exploded and the results have been extremely positive. Juan attributes much of this success to the fact that Panda did more than just give lip service to employees about the benefits of social media; they invested the necessary resources and time to ensure multi-channel communications would become ingrained in the company’s culture.

“I am totally convinced that the success of a social media strategy in a company is achieved when you actually stop talking about it as a differentiated strategy. When that happens, it is because it has become natural for these ‘new’ channels to be used for the company’s daily work.”

We continue to be amazed by Panda’s forward-thinking and incredible ability to execute internally when it comes to social media. We certainly would not have been able to achieve the results seen on the PR side if it weren’t for the company’s ongoing commitment to multi-channel communications and encouragement of employees to become actively engaged.

Here is just a sampling of how some Panda employees are using social media to make a difference for the company:

http://twitter.com/Panda_Security

http://twitter.com/Panda_Japan

http://twitter.com/kaijern

http://twitter.com/PandaBrasil

http://twitter.com/PandaTechSup

http://twitter.com/Luis_Corrons