Inside the Coca-Cola Social Media Ambassador Program

Eric Schwartzman

I help #startups, change-ups & scale-ups pivot to #digitalmarketing Podcasts: http://ericschwartzman.com/prtw & http://ericschwartzman.com/b2blg SaaS founder & author

How is the Coca-Cola Company — which has always plied its trade through 60-second spots with heart-warming tales and catchy jingles — adapting to the age of social media?

How are they getting digital marketing value out of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube?

And how are they managing public relations at Coca Cola in the digital age?

They're doing with a brand ambassador program.

The beverage giant is sponsoring is a novel program called Expedition 206 which is sending three, hand-picked “happiness ambassadors” to all the 206 countries and territories where Coke is sold to seek out and share about what makes people happy around the world.

The happiness ambassadors Blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, YouTubing and Flickring their every step, equipped with iPhones, Laptops, air cards, external hard drives and SLRs.

I caught up with two of the three happiness ambassadors Tony Martin and Kelly Ferris upon their arrival in Djibouti, Africa and we discussed what they’ve learned so far about gathering different media formats in different countries with different cultures, how they’re pulling it off logistically from a gear and gizmos standpoint and the foundation of authentic happiness.

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About Me

@EricSchwartzman provides social media training, strategy and social media governance to public relations, public affairs, corporate communications and marketing specialists. He has extensive experience integrating emerging information technologies into organizational communications programs through public speaking, hands-on training seminars, consulting and the development of corporate policies on social media usage.

His clients have included Boeing, BYU, City National Bank, Environmental Defense Fund, Government of Singapore, Johnson & Johnson, NORAD Northcomm, Southern California Edison, UCLA, US Dept. of State, United States Army, US Embassy of Athens, the United States Marine Corps and many small to medium-sized companies and agencies.

I'm the instructor behind PRSA’s top-rated social media training seminars and my book “Social Marketing to the Business Customer” with Paul Gillin about B2B applications of social media communications is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Borders.