Social media - it's not a department

From SmartBlogs I really liked this interview with Heather Oldani, senior director of communications and Steve Wilson, senior director of global web communications for McDonald’s, on how McDonald’s is using social media at all levels of the organization

Here are the bits that stood out for me:

1. It’s not a department that owns social media, it’s the consumer.
2. Rather than having one team “own” social media, lots of departments collaborate on it at McDonald’s, including creative, customer satisfaction, legal, and brand content.
3. Fostering existing communities is key.

Heather explained how one of the hardest things for McDonald’s to learn was that the adage, "If you build it, they will come" isn’t necessarily true. Some of the biggest opportunities in social media are internal.

The article also reported on how McDonald’s Mindshare community helps owner-operators share ideas with one another:

One of Steve’s favorite examples was how an owner in Italy used it to share a simple way to remove fingerprint stains from doors and windows with other McDonald’s owners around the world.

Here is their presentation on Slideshare: BlogWell Minneapolis Social Media Case Study: McDonald's, presented by Heather Oldani & Steve Wilson.

What is really encouraging to me is how many of these lessons and experiences align with the teachings of the Social Media Academy - and we have encapsulated them in our methodologies - for example our Social Media Team addresses point #2. That's exciting.