NEW YORK CITY-Social media may be ubiquitous today, but at the recent Benchmark Social Media conference here, one panel took some major companies back to their campaign roots. Speaker Robert Harles, global head of social media at Bloomberg LP built the company’s strategy basically from scratch, while AOL social media director Matthew Knell found he had to work and change public perception of the Internet giant. Whatever the reasoning, panelists agreed that social media has become, in Viacom's director of social viewing and social media Jacob Shwirtz’s opinion, “a core part, an intimate part of everything that we do.” And this connection opens up new and innovative forms of communication between companies and clients.

For instance, broadcasting messages on Twitter brings a new kind of access to a captive audience. “We connect with stories on a very fundamental, human basis,” expressed SAP senior director of Global Social Media Todd Wilms, and these stories can be told via social media content, which encompasses video, images, audio (podcasts) and articles. He added, “eventually, the idea is to start listening instead of talking – to open up and have conversations and interactions. This shift has been fundamental.”

Online conversations have become larger and more accessible to more people, and all panelists had to learn new ways to telling their company’s story. Listening to an audience, as Wilms described, makes it then possible to structure a corporate social media strategy to best suit a target audience. But listening is key, right from the start – even offline. “Before you start to do anything, take time to get to know people,” Harles said. “Find out what’s important to the business.”

In the case of AOL, it was important for them to use social media to engage with customers and connect with a new generation. This was essential for the company. Knell described the way AOL reintroduced the brand to a public, who may have associated it with dial-up modems and the cheery “you’ve got mail” message, in order to win back its customer perception. On the other hand, SAP incorporated social media strategies for marketing, community building and observed its intense “transformative effect,” Wilms said.

However, many hoping to adopt social media or beef up their campaigns will quickly learn what Schwirtz admitted:  “there’s no global Twitter strategy.” On a more positive note, this certainly does keep content interesting – one must continually bend and stretch in a manner that best reaches out and touches an ever-moving audience chasing the next shiny object. And while each company had a slightly different reason for using social media, and contrasting manners in which they increased their reach, it was strongly communicated that a solid social media plan is key to business development today.