Wellington
Anyone that fronts up and admits they're still learning and don't know everything, in this caseabout using social media in business, gets a sticK award for honesty.
Which, ironically, is part of Whittaker's Chocolates core values, and part of the Porirua company's presentation on 'Traditional Marketing - DigitalTwist' recently given in Wellington.
The Social Media Club regularly putson sessions highlighting different aspects of the use of Facebook and Twitter and a host of other(almost instant) means of communicating.
A hundred or so members of the digital creative sector heard Whittaker's marketing person JasmineGriffin outline what the cocoa 'beans to bar' company's been up to since engaging a social mediastrategy since May 2010.
Griffin made the point later in the question and answer session that it customers don'tnecessarily expect instant answers from the likes of Twitter - which, as she is the main point ofcontact at least allows her to have a life outside of work.
"The community understands that Jasmine at Whittaker's can't do 24/7," she says.
The page has more than55,000 fans, and that as well as its traditional marketing strategy is built around four keyvalues:
•Premium quality
•Honest
•Generous
•Family
Among initiatives undertaken by the company is the first website built of chocolate - literally.The fonts, buttons to click and follow through, were all first crafted from chocolate, before beingphotographed and laid out on a digital page.
Whittaker's also undertook a
"The key difference between digital and traditional marketing is that traditional is one way,digital is two way," says Griffin.
"But digital's not the be all and end all, it still has to be integrated with an overallstrategy. We are still learning. We don't know everything, we're honest about that. The whole fieldis evolving and changing."
[Disclaimer - sticK did take up Griffin's offer to take home a couple of chocolate bars forsampling - thanks Whittaker's]