I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Stephanie Leavitt, who is the Director of Social Media and Branded Content at Carnival Cruise Lines. You're going to hear how she started the first presence at Carnival, and how she grew that community and content base exponentially from 2007 until today. You'll also hear some interesting stuff about how introverts exceed in social.
Key Topics
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The Story of Stephanie's Career
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Success with Paid Media
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Taking on Carnival's Biggest Challenge on Social
Key Answers
How has social grown and changed at Carnival Cruise Line?
"When I first arrived at Carnival, I was lucky enough that they had already dipped their toe into social. They had one blog and a separate website called Carnival Connections to encourage people to invite their friends and family to cruise with them via a forum. These were the two platforms that we focused our social efforts on. We then started adding other platforms like Twitter and YouTube to showcase cruise videos and profile our cruise staff behind the scenes with the aim of encouraging connections with our audience. Our strategy for social hasn't changed dramatically over time, it's just that now we use different and varying networks to connect authentically with our fans and followers and humanize our brand."
As the networks grew and the need for content grew, how did you execute this against the increasing demand for sophistication on social?
"Growing our team was probably the hardest but most satisfying part of working at Carnival. It takes effort to succeed on social. Everyone loves social; it's like a cute little puppy. It's fun and free, but people often forget the support, time and resources needed to nurture it. By growing our team, we're able to make a bigger impact which has allowed us to have a greater presence on more channels. The results that helped us to grow the team and showcase the social program overall started with share of voice. We were shifting the conversation and showing that the number of posts on our channels was growing compared to other competitors. Over time, it increased beyond share of voice to engagement, reach impressions, videos views etc."
Key Soundbites
- "Social media is like a cute little puppy - it's fun and free, but people often forget the support, time and resources needed to nurture it."
- "We view paid social as a vehicle for brand interest and use it as an opportunity to reach new audiences."
- "Our strategy for social hasn't changed dramatically over time, it's just that now we use different and varying networks to connect authentically with our fans and followers and humanize our brand."
Resources
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Company Website: http://www.carnival.com/
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Company Twitter: @CarnivalCruise
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Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieleavitt
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Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/carnival-cruise-lines
Enjoy, and check back here for more episodes of the All the Social Ladies podcast on Social Media Today.
This article was originally published on Apple News: