John S. Wolfe

In social media, it’s a level playing field.

At the Sept. 23 Arizona Technology Marketing Summit in Phoenix, executives of five multi-billion-dollar corporations described their firms’ forays into Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Companies with large budgets and global resources and staff face the same issues as a 6-person startup: identifying audiences, generating content, filling the information “pipe” 24-7, and engaging customers.

They are challenged to stay on a brand message, to produce blog posts on a regular schedule, and to optimize all content with keywords to show up on the first page of a Google search.

And like smaller firms, they have seen their share of successes and failures.

Over the next week this blog will report on five corporations’ strategies:

• Microsoft
• Honeywell
• Molex
• Intel
• Avnet

The participants were articulate on what customers expect, how the company assessed their priorities and how social media has changed their approach to marketing.

The event, organized by the Arizona Technology Council and the Phoenix chapter of the Business Marketing Association, included presentations by Suzanne Martin, head of worldwide field marketing networks for Motorola, and Aaron Kahlow, founder of the Online Marketing Summit.

Martin detailed how Motorola’s re-branding effort of 2009 eventually led to a more in-depth assessment of what the corporation does (and now its looming split).

Instead of revisiting mission and vision statements, the Motorola team focused on a new word: Purpose.

The intent was to speak to employees first, then customers. The team envisioned a circular flow of Inform, Inspire and Engage.

Kahlow emphasized that social-media technologies are great and effective but that they need to go hand-in-hand with offline marketing activities.

He also shared the tools he uses to measure social media’s impact.