Speaker 7 – Eric Weaver

The Final speaker of the day was Eric Weaver who is the Chief Social Officer at IPG Mediabrands Worldwide. It is his job to help build awareness and loyalty for brands online
.Eric Weaver spoke about the importance of loyal fans. It is not good enough for someone to simply ‘like’ a photo, status or video and never think about it again. Brands need engagement from fans, they need people talking about the brand.
He also stated the importance of content. 95% of fans don’t see new content.
However, some brands tend to go to the extreme and send loads of useless content causing a loss of fans. This happened to a beverage brand in Mexico which saw a 2.3% fan abandon rate.

According to Eric Weaver, in 2014, social requires ACE skills (ads, content, engagement).

An example of a company who used these skills best in relation to their content is ‘Oreo daily twist’ on their 100th birthday in 2012.

I really enjoyed listening to Eric Weaver (not just because of his American accent) because i found the topics which he discussed in relation to the importance of engagement of the fans thought-provoking and captivating.