In this interview with Peter Fasano, the key insights are about the Coca Cola Facebook Fan Page.

Susan Bratton: This is Susan Bratton, and I am the host of the Community Powered podcast series here at South By Southwest, and you’re going to get to meet Peter Fasano. Peter is a digital marketing consultant, owns a company called Mass Logic and he’s running social media strategy for the Coca Cola company. Welcome Peter.

Photo Credit Keith Burtis SXSW

Podcast Here and Transcript Below.

Susan Bratton & Peter Fasano

Peter Fasano: Hi, thanks for having me today.

Susan Bratton: Hey, it’s my pleasure. It’s good to get to know you. Aaron has, Aaron Strout of course, who is the host of the Community Powered podcast series has spoken so highly of the work that you’re doing at the Coca Cola company.

Peter Fasano: He’s very kind, and we were able to do an analogue version of this earlier in the month, so that was fun to put some thought around about how necked you get in this business.

Susan Bratton: Ah hah…

Peter Fasano: Yeah.

Susan Bratton: exactly. Well we’ll have to look for that. Is that up on his blog, too?

Peter Fasano: It is, yeah.

Susan Bratton: Okay, good. Perfect. So we’re getting a double dose of Peter Fasano. Perfect. So, the first thing I want to do, we’ve asked a lot of people this same question and it’s fun to get a different perspective. Now the Coca Cola company, there’s not many companies that are bigger than that, and so what one pearl of wisdom would you share for another brand person who’s just getting started in social media marketing?

Peter Fasano: Oh, thanks. You know, it’s really exciting to be working for one of the biggest brands in the world and to have accidental successes like Coca Cola has run into and those that have been intentional, and certainly, you know, the ability and interest to learn. I think the pearl of wisdom is just that, is that learn from others that have entered in the space. You don’t have to be first in the market, but you need to be prepared to be able to respond to what happens, so don’t be afraid of the failures, you know. You need to engage and learn from it and make changes, so be a little bit flexible.

Susan Bratton: What about if your boss doesn’t let you make mistakes?

Peter Fasano: Well, you know, certainly again, you know, as Coca Cola certainly has a brand image and is very protective of that, starting out by being a listener is one of the key things. Listening and understanding where it is that you fit in within the conversation, and that’s really the key to social media is that this isn’t the translation of a, a campaign you did in another medium, but it is a channel in which you now are specifically engaging in and are creating for.

Susan Bratton: What are some of the Coca Cola social media strategies? Is there one big initiative or a number of small initiatives that are verticalized by their brands, or how does it work there?

Peter Fasano: That’s a really good question. Actually we’re, you know, we’re, we have a tremendous amount of great work that’s been done globally, and that’s my focus in the market is to look at the global marketplace and, you know, there’s more than two hundred countries that Coca Cola has a presence in and, you know, more than 20 of them are digitally engaged, and they have certainly, have capabilities and creativity beyond what gets thought of in Atlanta, and it’s not a top down type of model, so it is learning from what’s happened out in the field and bringing it back and seeing what can be mobilized, if it makes sense to do that outside of that region. But, you know, I guess one of the key things is that we all want to have a, an ability to commonly measure, share and to create platforms in which we can, we use in other places, so, you know, if someone has done a great Face Book application or has had great successes around a podcast series around a topic, lets find out about them and lets move them onto other markets that may have the same affinities.

Susan Bratton: What in the US market have you done, maybe a URL you can send us to that we can go check out some of the work that you’ve implemented for Coke?

Peter Fasano: Ooh, good question. You know, I think probably the best example right now is an accidental one and there’s some good press about it today in Ad Age. It’s our Face Book page, which we didn’t create. It was done by two fans in Los Angeles, they created on their own, and in a matter of three months it had three million people who became fans of this, of us through this beautiful image on the Face Book site. We became aware of it by, via Face Book, and there’s hundreds of other fan communities around the world, but this one just, for something that had a secret sauce to make it go. We now co-administer the page with the two fans and have a great relationship with them and let it organically develop. So if you go to Face Book and do a search for Coca Cola and fan page where the number two, the number two worldwide, but the number one brand in the world on Face Book.

Susan Bratton: Wow, that’s so lucky. It’s an enviable thing to actually have your fans love you so much they do beautiful work on your behalf as a brand, huh?

Peter Fasano: It really is, and when you go through the, you know, the thousands of comments that happen through there everyday, you rarely see anything negative. It is very lucky, fortunate and, you know, it’s, you know, the brand is created by the people for the people and, you know, it’s there just, you know, giving back saying, “Yeah, you’re doing it right.” So, you know, we’re happy for the response.

Susan Bratton: You lucky ducky. Well what’s became your personal interest in social media right now? Is there a particular technology or an area of social media that’s intriguing to you?

Peter Fasano: Good question. I, you know, I’m, I like the concept now of, of, of profile portability is very interesting to me, both from a marketer and just from a consumer standpoint. To be able to bring and share what aspects of my profile that I know about myself and allow selectively to share with others, with other communities, with other sites and with brands, to have that value, you know, equitable type of exchange between each other, that’s very interesting to me, so I’m following what’s going around, around the portability project and around VRM, so that’s around Vendor Relationship Management. And so these are new areas of kind of, you know, considering CRM in different kinds of ways, and that’s both as a personal level and then as a company, how you engage with the consumer.

Susan Bratton: And how do we find you in the social media space if we want to connect with you?

Peter Fasano: Oh, thanks. So, Mass, Mass Logic is at mass-logic.com, and then, I blog there and at fasano.org.

Susan Bratton: Terrific, and what about Twitter?

Peter Fasano: And of course I’m pfasano as a handle, most other places, Twitter, Friend Feed and other places.

Susan Bratton: Do you want to spell that?

Peter Fasano: Sure, thanks. That’s p-f-a-s-a-n-o.

Susan Bratton: Terrific. Well thank you so much, Peter. It’s been great to connect with you. I’m going to check out some of the work you’re doing with Coca Cola and I’m sure other companies, they’re probably keeping you so busy there might not be other companies right now…

Peter Fasano: Yes.

Susan Bratton: Uh huh.

Peter Fasano: I am kind of bottled with them right now, but I, no, it is great…

Susan Bratton: Bottled, ha ha. That’s great. Well you’re making me thirsty. It’s been good to get to know you, Peter. Thank you so much.

Peter Fasano: Thanks again. Bye.

Susan Bratton: Alright. This is your host, Susan Bratton. Thank you for listening in on the Powered Community series podcast at South By Southwest. You just got to meet Peter Fasano. Have a great day.