ABIE France Webinar on Adapting Social Media To Your Business – 14 April 2021

The significance of social media for across the board company communication was clearly highlighted when ABIE France explored the subject in a webinar on Wednesday, April 14.

Titled “Adapting Social Media to your Business”, the discussion drew on the expertise of ABIE France member Susan Pak Poy, Founder and Director of the design and events agency Rebellis, Anne Thomine, Head of Projects and Group Digital Communication with ABIE France Corporate member Transdev, and Thomas Baur, Media and Online Reputation Director with ABIE France Corporate member Keolis.

The well-attended event was hosted by ABIE France secretary, Frédéric Calinaud, lawyer and partner at Calinaud David Avocats.

Susan Pak Poy’s well-researched presentation certainly answered the event’s subheading:  “Some Clues” as she took us through social media’s latest statistics.

• Facebook, with 33 million users in France, and 387 million in Europe, has the biggest demographic group aged 25 to 34. However, the fastest-growing group is seniors.  It’s best use?  Building and maintaining relationships with customers.
• Instagram she described as being all about image, a showcase for the brand, and increasingly used as a direct shopping channel.  Its best use?  Raising brand awareness, building trust, and consolidating brand image.
• Twitter helps build a community and is seen as having the best potential for meaningful engagement.  Its best use?  Discovery and engaging with your community.
• LinkedIn, with 21 million members in France, and 163 million in Europe,is a powerful player in the market, with 840,000 companies represented.  It is the platform favoured by B2B decision-makers.  Its best use? B2B social marketing and employer branding, creating interest not only for recruiting but for business in general.

Social media posts for transport companies have proven vital for much more than time schedules, as Anne Thomine pointed out.  She gave two interesting examples of Transdev’s use of social media.  Partnering with UN Women France, and using all social media, a successful campaign was launched to raise awareness of passenger safety.
Another, a recruitment campaign for drivers, was linked to employer branding.  Posted on Facebook, the campaign reached 650,000 targeted people, almost double the number anticipated, and more than 2 million videos were viewed in full, that is to say 70% of the total videos viewed during the campaign.

Using media to restore passenger confidence during the COVID-19 epidemic has been of primary importance for Keolis and Thomas Baur, their Director of Media and Online Reputation.
“We initially had 12,000 Twitter followers”, said Thomas, “so we needed to reach out further.”  “We paid to have our safety message seen for four weeks on Twitter and Instagram. The result after a month was 1.3 million Twitter impressions and a 7.5% engagement rate on Instagram.”
Keolis has also focused on raising awareness amongst its employees about social media, with each employee receiving social media guidelines explaining what they can and can’t do.

A few “takeaways” from the lively panel discussion?  Don’t go into social media without a plan, test what works for you, and adapt the strategy to your objectives.

Frédéric Calinaud warmly thanked the three speakers on behalf of ABIE France for their very informative presentations.


To view the speakers’ slides, click HERE.