When you think social media, think Electrolux
When conversation turns to companies that have embraced social media, Electrolux isn’t one of the names that comes up. However, Richard Gatarski sent me a note about a post he wrote on the launch today of Electrolux’s social media newsroom.
Richard liked the Swedish kitchen appliance company’s newsroom but had a few observations about ways it could be improved. The single comment to the post (as of this writing) comes from Anders Edholm, an Electrolux representative, explaining why some things were done the way they were and acknowledging that some of Gatarski’s recommendations should be implemented.
It’s particularly gratifying to see a company like Electrolux. It’s not a high-tech company. It’s not a massive General Motors-like corporation. And it’s not based in Silicon Valley. Yet the company clearly recognizes the value of expanding the definition of “media” and presenting content in a manner that makes it easy to use online.
The newsroom currently features a tag cloud (tags link to related press releases), video and images (including company videos on YouTube), blog posts about Electrolux products on Engadget and Gizmodo and a series of RSS feeds. The whole site is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial license.
Using the Shift Communications template for a social media newsroom, it’s easy to list elements that could be added down the road to enhance the site. Technorati tags, purpose-built del.icio.us accounts, and an RSS-enabled events calendar leap to mind. It would also be great to see the press releases housed in the newsroom adopt the social media press release format.
But it’s easy to point out what’s missing. Mainly I wanted to add my congratulations to Electrolux for not only launching the newsroom but also for walking the talk by joining the conversation about it that Dr. Gatarski began.
That’s a great little example. A company you wouldn’t expect to do this sort of thing, but it makes perfect sense. They clearly have a ways to go with their site bit it’s a great start.
Posted by Magnus on 11/07 at 04:58 PMAwesome, thanks for showcasing. Viva la evolution!
P.S. - I’ll buy you a cup of coffee every time you spell SHIFT with all-caps.
Posted by Todd Defren on 11/07 at 05:09 PMHi Shel, this is clearly a company to watch at the moment. I had lunch this week with European Communications VP, Ulrich Gartner, who was in London revealing its secret sponsorship of Dan Fielding: Domestic God, aimed at getting cool young men taking control of their domestic life!
Great fun too - have a look at: http://www.myspace.com/thedomesticgod.
Love the new Facebook photo, Ronna
Posted by Ronna Porter on 11/08 at 12:08 AMShel,
interesting example, thanks for flagging it. We are rolling out social media newsrooms for our clients, according however to a “purer” model, described here.
I predict very soon this will become a “must have” for all PR agencies / departments.
Posted by Gianni on 11/08 at 01:44 AMThank you for the encouraging words about our new news room. Great to hear all the positive feedback and attention that we’ve got. But, yes, it’s easy to point out what’s missing - but working on improving and getting there, step by step.
Posted by Anders Edholm on 11/08 at 03:05 AM