This guide from eModeration and iStrategy provides a bird’s eye view of social media for CMOs. It examines: what social media can achieve; how consumers behave on social media; resourcing social media; moderating and managing communities online; the pitfalls; and what you can measure in terms of ROI.

1. CMO GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA
BY eMODERATION FOR iSTRATEGY

2. oduction
Intr
The proliferation of social networks, tools and platforms has
dramatically changed the way we market products and services. And
yet, in many ways, the principles of navigating this new world mark
a return to the fundamentals of marketing: creating conversations,
building relationships with customers, and using real metrics to
measure success.
This guide is a collaboration between iStrategy (www.
istrategyconference.com), the world-class conference on marketing
for CMOs, and eModeration (www.emoderation.com), a global social
media management agency that works with some of the biggest
brands in the world. It is designed to provide a bird’s eye view of
social media for CMOs, examining: what social media can and
can’t be expected to achieve; the social principles of social media
marketing; how consumers behave on social media (and what brands
should expect); resourcing social media; moderating and managing
communities online; the pitfalls and potential risks; and what you can
(and what you can’t) measure in terms of ROI.
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we’ve enjoyed producing it.
SPENCER GREEN,
CEO
G D S I N T E R N AT I O N A L

3. [ SECTION ONE ]
AN OVERVIEW
OF MAJOR SOCIAL
NETWORKS

4. SECTION ONE
AN OVERVIEW OF MAJOR SOCIAL NETWORKS
There are thousands of social networks, networking apps, blogging platforms (such as Tumblr, recently bought by Yahoo!) and influential communities (such as Mumsnet, Reddit): far too many to list here.
This section focuses on the major ones being used by brands, and is not an exhaustive list.
Facebook was launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg,
LinkedIn is primarily a business networking tool. It was
and is the most popular social network in the world, with
founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and launched in 2003.
751 million monthly active users as of March 2013. It is
The firm went public in 2011. LinkedIn has more than 200
in every major market in the world with the significant
million members (at January 2013), most of whom are
exception of China. It is a public company, and Zuckerberg
based in the USA (74m). There are more than 3 million
is still chairman and CEO. It recently bought Instagram
company pages on the site.
(see overleaf). Both individuals and companies can create
Facebook pages.
YouTube, the video sharing and streaming site, was
bought by Google in 2006. YouTube has 1 billion monthly
users across the world, and reports that every company
Twitter is a microblog (it calls itself a ‘real time information
in the AdAge top 100 brands uses YouTube for their ad
network’), created by Jack Dorsey in 2006. Posts, or
campaigns. Further integration with Google (and Google+)
‘Tweets’ are limited to 140 characters, and appear in the
will only add to the site’s importance.
feed of your followers (although anything you post publicly
can be seen on your Twitter page). It has more than 115
million monthly active users.
Pinterest is an image sharing site launched in 2010, which
allows users to theme their interests into boards (it has
been compared to an online scrapbook). Users can ‘pin’
Google+ is owned by search engine, Google, and is currently
the second largest social network in the world with around
235 million active monthly users. Google+ lets you ‘circle’
(or group) friends and connections into areas of interest,
images onto boards; and follow, like or comment on other
people’s boards. Pinterest has almost 49 million users,
80% of whom are female. Sixty-nine of the world’s top 100
brands have a Pinterest business page.
and post specific updates to those circles. Businesses and
individuals can set up Google+ pages, and link their YouTube
MySpace, the social network that found its home among
(also owned by Google) accounts to their Google+ profiles. It
musicians and their fans, relaunched in 2012 under new
is becoming an increasingly important tool for search engine
owners Specific Media and Justin Timberlake. It had been
optimisation, as Google is starting to show search results
launched originally in 2003, and bought by News Corp in
that are given a high number of ‘+1s’ (Google’s equivalent of
2005, under whose ownership its popularity declined. There
a Facebook ‘like’), particularly when those +1s come from
are currently 32.6 million users, around half of the number of
within your circle of connections on Google+.
users the network had at its most popular.

5. SECTION ONE
AN OVERVIEW OF MAJOR SOCIAL NETWORKS
Flickr is an image and video hosting community rather than a
social network. It was created in 2004 and bought by Yahoo! a
year later. Flickr users upload 1.4 million photos a day (behind
Facebook users at 350 million; Snapchat users at 150 million;
and Instagram at 40 million).
OTHER WORLDWIDE NETWORKS
China is worth a special mention as neither Facebook nor
Twitter are permitted to have a presence there, and so a vast
number of Chinese social networks take their place. Sina
Weibo (Weibo means microblog) is the Chinese equivalent of
Twitter and is used by 22% of Chinese internet users (there
are 540 million internet users in China). Tencent Weibo is
Instagram is owned by Facebook, and is a mobile photo and
very similar to its competitor, but incorporates elements of
video sharing social network popular with younger users. It lets
Facebook by connecting people like a social network. It has
users take and share pictures on a smartphone, and apply pre-
between 200-250 million users.
set filters for special effects. Instagram had 130 million monthly
active users by June 2013.
RenRen is the Chinese equivalent of Facebook, with around
31 million active users per month. Its competitor, PengYou,
is a social network owned by Tencent. Tencent also owns
Snapchat is a photo messaging application that lets users
send pictures to each other and then deletes the pictures
after 10 seconds (although of course the ability to take
QZone, a social network that also allows people to blog; it’s
the most popular social network in China with 712 million
registered users.
screenshots means those pictures don’t always disappear).
Its appeal is mostly to a younger audience, and it has a
reputation for being used by teenagers to send sexually
In Russia, the big social network is not (yet) Facebook but
explicit pictures. Around 200 million pictures are exchanged
VKonakte. Founded in 2006 by Pavel Durov, it has around
every day. Brands are beginning to experiment with using it
300 million visitors a month. In addition to its Facebook-
as a marketing channel, notably MTV and Lynx.
like features, users can also stream video on the site.
Odnoklassniki, Russia’s class reunion social network, was also
launched in 2006 and has 29 million daily unique visitors.
Orkut was Google’s first attempt at a social network, and
although not popular in the US and UK, it’s one of the most
visited sites in India and Brazil, and still has around 33 million
active users.

6. [ SECTION TWO ]
CONTEXT AND AIMS
OF SOCIAL MEDIA

7. SECTION TWO
CONTEXT AND AIMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media has opened up a whole new world of communication for consumers and
brands alike. It hasn’t fundamentally changed human behaviour, but it has allowed people to
make connections – with friends, family, strangers who share an interest – like never before.
One of the biggest shifts for brands on social media is that the corporate entity is suddenly
able to (and expected to) talk directly to customers or other consumers in huge volumes,
without the conduit of media, advertising or via a chain of shops.
Get it right, and the rewards are significant. Think of Facebook and you probably think
‘marketing channel’. It is the primary reason brands use social media – to reach an
increasingly targeted audience with specific marketing messages – but it is by no means the
only reason.
WORD-OF-MOUTH, SHARING AND RECOMMENDATIONS
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION
Syncapse says, after a 2013 survey, that the average value of a Facebook fan is $174.17
(measured on a number of factors: spend, loyalty, propensity to recommend, media value,
acquisition cost and brand affinity). Of course, with no context, that figure’s pretty meaningless:
your most valuable fan might be not someone who’s bought from you, but someone who’s
recommended you to a highly-valuable customer.
To measure customer acquisition on social media, you need two things: clear objectives at the
start of the campaign; and a way to track the journey of a customer from that first share to the
final sale. We’re not talking about acquiring fans here, but customers who buy. As Jason Falls
puts it:
“You can’t make payroll with more fans.”
Around 655 million people use Facebook every day across the world. 200 million use
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Twitter. The potential for the right branded content to be shared on social media – the holy
Social media is blurring the lines between social media marketing and customer service.
grail of social media marketing – means that it is a great way to promote word of mouth
Customers are asking product or service-related questions on social channels that are often
recommendations amongst groups of friends, for a relatively low cost. Of course, people will
primarily run by marketing departments. Social media managers of branded social pages are
only share great content with their friends, and this is the biggest challenge for brands. With so
having to respond to customer queries which have the potential to reach a global audience.
many companies vying for attention on social networks, how do you stand out from the crowd?
As mentioned earlier, one of the challenges of delivering great customer service on social
The drive for brands for the first years on social media was to grow the number of ‘likes’ for a
media is the speed at which consumers expect companies to respond to them. That takes
Facebook page or number of followers on Twitter. While these numbers might indicate the size
considerable resource, that not all companies are able to provide. US cable firm Charter shut
of the brand (it’s no co-incidence that the likes of Coca-Cola and Disney attract the highest
its social media customer care (‘Umatter2Charter’) on Twitter and Facebook in December 2012,
number of likes on Facebook), likes are no longer considered to be as important as sharing
reportedly to focus on traditional channels, saying social media was just too time consuming.
content – a far more active choice on the part of the fan than simply clicking ‘like’ or ‘follow’.
According to Aberdeen Group, 59% of companies don’t yet integrate customer care to their
We are far more likely to take a recommendation from a friend than we are from the brand itself.
social media delivery.
In addition, Facebook’s own algorithms mean that posts not liked or shared widely are hidden
Jeff Zabin, writing for CRM Buyer, says too many companies are transferring their offline
from users’ news feeds (you can pay to promote a post instead), so it is in the brand’s interest
practices online; response times which might be acceptable for an email are not sufficient on
to post engaging, personalised content to be shared organically, rather than using overtly
social channels. He cites research from Gleanster that found many companies take 24 hours to
corporate or marketing-led content that is likely to be ignored or hidden by a user.
respond over social media, and in his view that’s 23 hours too long for most customers.

8. SECTION TWO
CONTEXT AND AIMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
But if you can resource it properly, and achieve the timeframes expected by demanding
customers, the upside can be huge: 71% of customers recommend a brand that gives them
a ‘quick and effective’ response on social media, according to NM Incite’s 2012 social care
study. The result of good customer service is brand advocacy. And according to Forrester’s
2013 report The Future of Customer Service, customer service is moving from being a cost
centre to a differentiator for brands.
There are suggestions in some sectors that Twitter is the only way for consumers to get
good customer service. Research by StellaService analysts tested Twitter against traditional
call centres for flower retailers on Valentine’s Day in 2013, and found that interactions on
Twitter beat phone calls to customer care teams hands down. Forbes’ Managing Editor of
Business News, Dan Bigman, went so far as to say:
“If you’re like me and you didn’t get the flowers you ordered for your wife on Valentine’s Day,
and then you felt like a complete idiot for wasting a hunk of your day or so on the phone
with no result, that’s because you are an idiot. If you want customer service these days, use
Twitter. Period.”
The lesson here is: get your customer service right offline, and you could prevent some of
those negative conversations from happening in public, on social channels.
MONITORING, SOCIAL LISTENING AND R&D
There are any number of social media monitoring and listening tools on the market, designed to
help brands monitor and make sense of what’s being said about them on social media channels.
PR and social media agencies will almost all use media monitoring tools like Radian6 (now
owned by Salesforce), Sysomos or Unmetric, which give varying levels of insight to what all
those mentions mean. Almost none of them give specific recommendations for action – you still
need a team of human analysts to deliver that, layered over the tool you choose.
There are also various specialist social media tools such as Adobe Social, HootSuite and Sprout
Social, which let you manage and listen to social conversations, triage posts and then act on
relevant information.
Social listening and monitoring tools are particularly useful for:
• spotting issues early (such as faulty products)
• allowing the company to put right a problem quickly
• solving customer service or reputation issues
• getting feedback on products or services to inform future campaigns, the development of new
products, or the improvement of existing ones.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
But really effective customer service on social media requires the integration of social data to
Take social listening a step further, and you can use social media to crowdsource new ideas,
CRM systems. A report in CRM Buyer talks about the need to ensure that the customer has
or test new products with genuine fans. One worth mentioning is My Starbucks Idea, an ideas
the same experience of customer service no matter what channel they use to interact with a
community started by Starbucks for customers to post their ideas for a better Starbucks
company. If a customer has spoken to a service representative over the telephone, and then
experience or product. The community can vote for or comment on ideas submitted, and the
messaged that company on Facebook or Twitter, they’ll expect the same level of service,
conversation is continued on Starbucks’ social networks.
and that the firm will recognise their query. This single view of the customer requires real
integration of social data with CRM systems (as far as data privacy allows). This is, in our
view, the next big area for growth within social media customer service.
RECRUITMENT
Companies such as JP Morgan use Facebook to give potential employees a look behind the
For more information on social media and customer service, see eModeration’s guide to
customer service in the publications section of its website.
scenes - a great use of social media to show the human side to a company.

9. [ SECTION THREE ]
SOCIAL
PRINCIPLES

10. SECTION THREE
SOCIAL PRINCIPLES
1
SOCIAL MEDIA MEANS HUMAN INTERACTION, NOT ‘PUSH
MARKETING’
5
BUT DON’T PUT UP WITH ABUSE
Listening to criticism doesn’t mean you have to listen to abuse. Never tolerate
In the early days of social media marketing, brands used social channels to ‘push’
bullying, abusive behaviour, hate speech or other inappropriate content on your
messages to as wide an audience as possible. Now the market is becoming more
social media pages. Be clear about what you will and won’t accept, and set out
sophisticated, this is shifting towards smarter engagement and human, one-to-
some house rules.
one interaction with targeted audiences. While this is a more natural style for social
media - which is, after all, all about having conversations and sharing information
within networks - it can feel uncomfortable for some marketers as it doesn’t allow for
6
CREATE CONTENT THAT IS COMPELLING
message control or corporate approval processes. But it is becoming increasingly
(and to be fair, sometimes it works), but as social media use develops, consumers
branded content is hidden from users’ Facebook feeds, unless it attracts high levels of
are looking for content that is informative, useful, funny, or compelling. Create
interaction from ‘fans’.
2
There are many brands who still post the ‘Like us if you love kittens’ style of content
important, not least because Facebook’s algorithms mean that the majority of
content that people actually want, and that is designed to be shared.
CREATE AN AUTHENTIC TONE OF VOICE
The voice in which the brand ‘speaks’ on social media should be consistent, open
7
You could have five million ‘likes’ on Facebook, but unless some of those convert to
and authentic. Social media is no place for overtly corporate messaging, but a place
customers (or influence people who’ll convert), they have no real value to you. There
of conversation. For bigger brands, social conversations will be managed by a team
are several unscrupulous companies out there running ‘click farms’ - businesses set
of people, not a single person, so developing a clear tone of voice is crucial if different
up to buy a company fake ‘likes’ – which of course will never convert to a sale.
social media managers are to speak on behalf of the brand.
3
INTEGRATE SOCIAL MEDIA AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
Social media is no longer solely the preserve of the marketing department. Social media
DON’T PLAY THE NUMBERS GAME
8
THE LINES BETWEEN SOCIAL AND TRADITIONAL MEDIA
ARE BLURRING
managers are dealing with posts from customers, fans and detractors across all sorts
Journalists are bloggers, news channels use video footage from mobile phones,
of areas including product questions, technical help, customer service, complaints or
journalists source stories and interviewees from Twitter, and TV programmes use
conversations amongst fans. The team needs to be able to deal with all these issues,
hashtags to extend their audience. Social media cannot exist in a silo.
triaging posts as required and escalating more serious issues upwards within the business.
4
LISTEN, AND RESPOND TO WHAT YOUR FANS SAY
Social media gives you the opportunity to listen and respond to what people are
saying about your brand, product or service in a way that has never been possible
before. Not all those comments will be positive, but many will be constructive or
informative (see previous section on ‘social listening’). Listen to all feedback, not just
the positive, and never censor negative comments. Where possible, respond - and
again, not just to praise.

11. [ SECTION FOUR ]
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
ON SOCIAL MEDIA
- WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT?

12. SECTION FOUR
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ON SOCIAL MEDIA
- WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT?
VOLUME OF POSTS
DEALING WITH NEGATIVITY
Research from Simply Measured indicates that of the top brands using Twitter for customer
Just over half (52%) of customer feedback on social media is negative, according to a study of
service, 15% respond to 10 or more tweets a day; 7% to 50 or more tweets a day; and just 3%
40 top brands by Brandwatch. The majority of this negative feedback relates to dissatisfaction
to 100 or more tweets a day.
with customer service. According to the study:
“Social media users were more likely to take to the web to voice general discontent of a brand’s
customer service than for any other reason, corresponding to the negative perception of the
15%
RESPOND TO 10 OR
MORE TWEETS A DAY
survey as a whole. This was particularly prevalent in the utilities sector.”
In the main, negative feedback isn’t determined by the channel through which it’s reported,
but by the service provided by the brand (YouTube may be an exception to this rule, where
comments tend to be more abusive than on other channels).
SPEED OF RESPONSE
07%
RESPOND TO 50 OR
MORE TWEETS A DAY
Social media users expect answers to questions, fast. eModeration’s best practice dictates that
a brand has 15 minutes to respond to a question on Twitter, and an hour on Facebook.
15 mins
60 mins
03%
RESPOND TO 100 OR
MORE TWEETS A DAY
eModeration’s best practice guide for social media response

13. [ SECTION FIVE ]
RESOURCING
SOCIAL MEDIA

14. SECTION FIVE
RESOURCING SOCIAL MEDIA
WHO IS REPRESENTING BRANDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS?
CHOOSING AND MANAGING A TEAM.
Thankfully, the days of giving social media to the intern are over. Social channels have far too
important a role in reputation management. Core skills of a social media manager include:
IN-HOUSE TEAMS
marketing, sales, PR, customer service, HR and legal,
1
A
great writer. Social media managers have to respond fast, often
under pressure, and should have a good command of language.
2
Teams are expanding to include representatives from
Robust, social personality. This is, after all, a social role, and one
that will often present criticism as well as positive engagement.
3
An eye for detail. Posts riddled with typos or grammatical errors
reflect badly on the brand.
4
The ability to triage posts, and spot an issue before it becomes a crisis.
5
A skill for quick thinking, and the ability to interpret guidelines and
apply them.
particularly when a crisis hits.
SOCIAL MEDIA
MANAGEMENT AGENCIES
Management of social media is becoming a more strategic
buy for brands, and - like other agency models - is moving
increasingly to an outsourced model. Agencies such as
eModeration work closely with in-house teams, and are used
for brand protection, insight and analysis, moderation, social
listening and day-to-day social media management.
OUTSOURCED AGENCIES
Social media is seeing the traditional skills of agencies
merging, as agencies from all backgrounds diversify and
move into social media (often outsourcing the day-to-day
management to specialist agencies). PR agencies in particular
have strong skills in creating conversations and perhaps sit
more naturally in this area, although high cost-bases mean
that they are more likely to take a strategic, rather than an
implementation role in social media.

15. [ SECTION SIX ]
MODERATION
AND COMMUNITY
MANAGEMENT

16. SECTION SIX
MODERATION AND COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
MODERATION AND COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
As with any group of people, social media communities need managing and nurturing if
they are to succeed. Social media managers and community managers should be active
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
in the community to encourage interaction, discourage bad behaviour from fans, and
This is “front of house” and is focused on that all-important
keep discussions relevant to the page. They will also enforce rules and penalise or block
brand engagement:
consistent rule breakers.
• writing compelling content
Tools such as Conversocial and Adobe Social can be used to automate some parts of the
• creating conversations with consumers
social media management process, including first layer moderation - to filter out spam,
• setting up and managing analytics
obscene or illegal content, or hate speech, for example, that could really damage the
• sharing insight and developing strategy
brand’s reputation. On top of that, you should layer human moderation for more subtle
• identifying influencers and brand champions
or hard-to-discern content, to check potentially harmful content that has been flagged
by the moderation tool, or where you need to apply specific rules (for example in a brand
competition on Facebook).
These automated tools can also be used to manage multiple sites and feeds, create basic
content such as polls or competitions, and to schedule posts.
MODERATION
This is an often overlooked but vital “backstage” role, which
focuses on protecting a brand’s reputation:
• setting up brand-specific guidelines
• using in-house or third-party tools to review content
• emoving obscene, defamatory or otherwise inappropriate
r
content
• reating a brand-friendly environment, particularly for young
c
people
• identifying potential issues and escalating where required

17. [ SECTION SEVEN ]
SOCIAL MEDIA
AND RISK

18. SECTION SEVEN
SOCIAL MEDIA AND RISK
THE RISK TO CORPORATE REPUTATION
CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLANS
CRISIS READINESS
With the explosion in social media, comes potential
Most companies will have a full-scale operational crisis
But brands can control how they respond, and
risk to corporate reputation. One of the most common
plan in place; few include social media. And yet when a
prepare for the worst. You can integrate social
risks is from within the organisation itself: the damage
crisis breaks, it is most likely to be first spotted on Twitter,
media to operational crisis plans, rehearse a crisis
an unthinking or ‘rogue’ employee could do by posting
discussed on Facebook and filmed on a mobile phone
using simulation technology (such as eModeration’s
inappropriate content linked to the company on a personal
before being uploaded to YouTube. The days of being able
simulation technology, Polpeo - www.polpeo.com), and
social media page.
to control a crisis with a corporate press statement are
identify strengths and weaknesses in crisis plans, teams
well and truly over.
and processes.
Every organisation should have clear, enforceable social
media policies for all staff, that lay out the responsibilities
of staff when posting content that could be associated with
the brand. All staff should be trained in social media use
so they understand the potential consequences of posting
inappropriately - whether by accident or deliberately.

19. [ SECTION EIGHT ]
ROI AND ANALYTICS:
WHAT’S MEASURABLE (AND
WHAT’S NOT) ON SOCIAL MEDIA

20. SECTION EIGHT
ROI AND ANALYTICS: WHAT’S MEASUREABLE
(AND WHAT’S NOT) ON SOCIAL MEDIA
WHAT’S MEASUREABLE (AND WHAT’S NOT) ON
SOCIAL MEDIA
However you plan to measure the impact of your campaign you need clearly defined goals
at the outset, against which to measure the results using analytics. What is it that you need
to measure?
ROI is a contentious issue in social media. The majority of companies still measure social
media activity by the obvious numbers: likes, followers and fans. They are a popularity
indicator, but on their own do not demonstrate a financial return on your investment.
1
R
each / awareness (how many people saw information about my
product because of my campaign?)
2
R
ecall (how many people remembered my product because of my
campaign?)
3
S
entiment or emotion (what do people think of my product?)
4
Interaction (how many people shared information about my product
as part of my campaign?)
5
Conversion (how many people bought my product as a result of
my campaign?)
More measurable metrics, although still not a financial ROI, are interactions (shares and
comments), click-throughs and viral reach. These have far more meaning for brands than pure
numbers, as they indicate influence, awareness, appetite for content, increased engagement
with customers and so on. Most social media management tools will help you count the
numbers.
A more quantifiable return – the kind that has a measurable financial impact on your company
– requires you to track sales, subscriptions or other consumer action back to your social media
campaign. This means integrating your social media activity to analytics tools and, importantly,
to CRM databases so you can measure things like lifetime value of a customer, and increased
spend per order.

21. onclusion
C
Since we embarked on this guide, Twitter has announced its IPO, the last of the ‘big four’
social networks (Google+, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter) to go public. As Charlene Li,
founder of Altimeter, says on her blog: “Twitter is going to be the talk of the town into 2014.”
As Twitter finds the revenue model that will define its success, the industry will be watching
closely for the next opportunities for innovation in social media, and the revenue models that
satisfy both advertisers, the networks themselves and, of course, the all-important consumer.
Our focus currently is predominantly in the Western world, where social media take-up has,
to date, been strongest. That will shift in 2014. Watch the BRIC countries. Brazil is already
the second biggest Facebook market after the US; Facebook is only just starting to make real
inroads in Russia; and India’s social media market will change beyond imagination when its
mobile and internet industry takes hold, bringing possibilities of social networking beyond its
cities and towns.
What does the future hold? In 2014 as social media sophistication increases, we expect to
see a big focus on insight and analytics, driven by Big Data, that will help marketers find
the true value of social media to the business. Brands will stop thinking in terms of just the
numbers, and instead focus on business value, revenue growth, research and development,
impact and influence.
And then, of course, we come to China. I started my first business in China in 1994. It
was then - and remains - one of the biggest opportunity markets in the world, seeing
huge economic development and growth driven by demand. Facebook and Twitter are still
strangers in this vast land. It could be that the next big thing in social media is something we
haven’t even dreamed of yet.
SPENCER GREEN,
CEO
G D S I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Our thanks to Tamara Littleton, CEO of eModeration for her
invaluable contribution to this guide

22. EMODERATION
eModeration is a social media management agency which delivers high-quality multi-lingual
community management and moderation services, social media consultancy, and crisis
management training and simulations. With offices in London, Los Angeles and New York, it
works with some of the world’s biggest brands across a wide range of industry sectors. These
include: automotive, kids and entertainment, FMCG, financial services, luxury brands, media,
pharmaceutical, publishing, and telecoms.
The agency works with leading global brands, including BBC Worldwide, HSBC, Mind Candy
(Moshi Monsters), MTV, Sony Mobile, ITV, Hyundai, Smirnoff, the LEGO Group, Sprint and The
Economist.
It also works with a growing roster of agencies, including Starcom MediaVest Group, Wieden
+ Kennedy, Ogilvy, Saatchi Saatchi, DDB Worldwide, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Publicis
Groupe.
Committed to providing a safe and engaging social media experience for children and adults,
TAMARA LITTLETON
CEO AND FOUNDER
Tamara founded eModeration in 2002 to share her passion for making the internet a safer place.
From the early days of online forum moderation to the explosion of Facebook and Twitter,
Tamara has used her experience and expertise to help develop best practice standards for
digital media on branded online channels.
With a background in content management, publishing, consultancy and operations for the
pioneering BBC online communities team and Liberty Media (Chello Broadband), she has
extensive experience in community management, child safety, and social media consultancy
and crisis management. She is a member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS),
advising the British Government on the moderation of communities.
eModeration’s CEO Tamara Littleton has over 11 years’ experience of community and social
media management and moderation. She has also advised the UK government on guidelines
Talk to us today about how we can help protect your brand.
for child safety and was shortlisted for the 2013 First Women Awards in the Business Services
P. (+44) 0203 178 5051
category.
E. info@emoderation.com
eModeration contributes to the development of social media expertise via its white papers,
blogs, sponsorships, and has a strong roster of returning clients who appreciate the quality of
its services and expertise in social media tools and trends.

23. GDS INTERNATIONAL | ACCELERATING THE RIGHT CONVERSATIONS
Business is changing all around us: more meetings, busier, more noise, less time to reflect,
fewer opportunities for perspective.
Underneath this complexity, simplicity: an incredible network of conversations that matter
SPENCER GREEN
CEO GDS INTERNATIONAL
between peers facing similar challenges, between industries that have so much to learn from
I was educated at Clevedon Comprehensive and Millfield School, and studied law at Kings
each other, and between senior executives seeking solutions and the experts that have them.
College, London. In my youth, I represented Wales at rugby and tennis in the UK National
Under-18 teams. And I have been a roadie for the Rolling Stones, which was a lot of fun.
GDS International is a business-to-business media and services company. Our products
include summits, conferences, virtual roundtables, and on-demand business video.
In October 1993, with £30,000 and a telephone, I started GDS International: now a £40 million
client-focussed events company that I remain passionate about to this day.
For 20 years, we have cut through the clutter and hype of business to deliver quality learning
and active networking for over 30,000 senior executives; and qualified one-to-one or one-tomany sales opportunities for over 10,000 sponsor partners.

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