John Earnhardt's lecture for BUS94

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The Network
Cisco’sTechnology NewsSite
PresentedtoStanfordBus94
“TheCompany istheContent:Marketing inaSocialWorld”
John Earnhardt, Director
Corporate PR and Social Media Communications
@urnhart
April 21, 2014
“You can’t have social media without media”

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Source: Moo.com

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 The changing state of
traditional media has left
number of talented writers in
search for their next
assignment
 Social media use for
business is growing at a
rapid pace
 Cisco has the ability to
influence the way
communications is done
industry-wide and beyond

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Brand Journalism: Create a social
technology news site dedicated to
producing engaging multimedia
content about industry trends,
innovation and best practices
developed by a creative team of
seasoned journalists, editors and
artists with the goal of driving
conversation among key influencers.

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External Validation
“I’ve seen your site and I like
it. If I’m looking for a story on
cloud, I’ll read an article on
your website and won’t think
it’s propaganda because it’s
from Steve Wildstrom. I know
he wouldn’t write anything
that wasn’t well reported and
that he couldn’t feel he could
put his name to.”
(Name here)
Editor of Major Business
Magazine
(unsolicited comment)

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• Aligned with overall business priorities and
communication goals
• Targeted at communications influencers
• Work closely with Comms and Marketing peers to
vet story ideas and amplify final pieces
• Content Curation and Social Media Amplification
• Goals and direction of the site are posted, shared
and socialized

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Contributing Writers Program:
• 15 + professional journalists
and academics producing
stories each week
Curated Content:
• Videos, digital assets, etc.
are regularly featured
Original Content
produced by The Network
team:
• Regular multimedia
series
• Interactive animation
• Videos
• Blogs

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1. Conversations
(aligned with business priorities)
2. Social Integration
3. Latest News
4. Custom Portlets
2
1
3
4

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Social Spoken: Summer Poetry Series A
series of original poems written and performed by
some of the best spoken word poets in the
world. The poems focus on the real life uses and
impact of the network on our daily lives.
Official Honoree Webby Awards –
A FIRST for Cisco
Cities of the Future: Songdo, South
Korea
A video series providing an in-depth look into the
creation of a 21st century city.
NY Times mention, 25K views on The Network.
Translated into Korean and showcased at Cisco
House for 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Cisco Innovators
This series showcases the vast amount of
engineering talent at Cisco by featuring top
engineers, in their own environment, sharing their
experiences and innovations.
Feeds into the larger innovation story: Cisco:
thenetwork.cisco.com/innovation and CEC.

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REPUBLISHED
Stories republished on
third party outlets
LOCALIZED
Process in place to
translate content into
local languages
VALIDATED
The Network
stories are
considered
NEWS and
searchable
within Google
News.
SOCIALIZED
Approximately
50% growth Y/Y
across Cisco
corporate social
channels
The Corporate Newsroom Redefined.
RECOGNIZED
Awarded and nominated
for multiple industry
awards.

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COMMUNITY
MANAGEMENT
EXPERIMENTATION
CONTENT
REPOSITORY
• Community management of
corp. channels – Amplification,
engagement, campaigns, platform
innovation, etc.
• Represent corporate voice from
various perspectives – The
Network, press announcements,
blogs, campaigns, etc.
Audience 1M+

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• Raise awareness around social media innovation and best
practices
• Educate and up-level social media skills
• Create processes to maximize social media adoption and impact
Thought
Leadership
• Awards
• Editorial/Content
placement
• Speaking opps
• Social Media
Influencer (SMI)
engagement
Social
Amplification
• The Network
content
• Company
Priorities
• Brand
campaigns
• Press
announcements
Exec Social Bios
• Extend voice of
leadership team
• Aggregation of
exec content
• Amplification
Global
• Content
distribution
process across
theaters
• Social activation
process
• Theater pages
Training
• Public Relations
• Investor
Relations
• Community
Relations
• Analyst
Relations
• Global

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• Our contributing journalists:
http://newsroom.cisco.com/author-bio
• SERIES: “My Networked Life” (highlights the trailblazers in
networking): http://newsroom.cisco.com/networkedlife/
• SERIES: Cisco Innovators (highlighting innovation at Cisco)
http://newsroom.cisco.com/innovation
• SERIES: “Songdo: Cities of the Future” (with customer Gale
International)
http://newsroom.cisco.com/songdo/
• “Take. Share. Engage.” Campaign (giving the audience
“permission” to take and share our content):
http://newsroom.cisco.com/take-share-engage

22. Thank you.