Here is a transcript generated by otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with Aline Geffroy, global social media director at Saint-Gobain, on showing solidarity in marketing:

Shaheen Samavati 0:13
Hi everyone, I’m Shaheen from The Content Mix and I’m excited to be here with Aline Geffroy , Paris-based global social media director at Saint-Gobain, a leading global provider of construction materials. That’s a mouthful for me. I’m not used to pronouncing French. You can, I mean, Aline, say your name for us the way it should be said!

Aline Geffroy 0:30
So it’s Aline Geffroy, and the company name is Saint-Gobain. Saint-Gobain.

Shaheen Samavati 0:41
Yeah, no, I’ve seen the company name many times written and I’ve heard it, but it’s obviously very different for me, as an English speaker, hard for me to say. Anyway, well, thank you so much for for being on the podcast, Aline.

Aline Geffroy 0:57
Well, thanks for inviting me.

Shaheen Samavati 0:59
So yeah, I’m excited to learn more about your experience in social media. Can we start out just, could you tell us a bit about your background and how you got to your current role?

Aline Geffroy 1:10
Yes. So I started social media, now, a few years ago, almost already nine years, I guess. I stopped counting.

Shaheen Samavati 1:23
So you’re kind of a social media pioneer then because nine years ago social media was a totally different story, right?

Aline Geffroy 1:29
Yeah, I started in a PR agency. Because my first job was to be hired as a moderator on forums. And also, I started working with the first I guess, influencers. And then I slowly move to more marketing approach of social media, as I moved into to values, advertising, digital oriented agencies. So I worked at a company called Isobar, which is from the Dentsu Aegis network group. And then I moved to Sapient. So it was a company more oriented towards was that efficiency, and of course, creativity. And now I’m on the other side of the job, as I’m the the client now, on the the company side.

Shaheen Samavati 2:42
Okay, I know like a lot of times companies say they want people with like past agency experience. So I’m curious, how does it compare working in an agency versus working on the corporate side? And what did you learn from the agency that helps you in your current role?

Aline Geffroy 3:00
So what I know from my past agency experience is really to work in project mode and to, you know, have a kind of methodology. And that’s really helpful to me now. And it’s also really great to have worked with creative teams, because now that I’m on the corporate side, I know how to brief them and I hope that my agencies are also happy to have a client who knows how it works, how producing work, and how to brief them.

Shaheen Samavati 3:45
Absolutely, yeah, that’s very important, having a clear and brief and having a client who’s easy to work with and understands the agency. So could you tell us a bit about about your current role, like what your responsibilities are now, as you’re global social media director?

Aline Geffroy 4:03
Yes. So I’m in terms of the word strategy of the Saint-Gobain across social media networks, and, of course, it extends on the digital content of production. My first part of the job is really to think and create engaging content for the Saint-Gobain group. So it’s really upright content, which I really like because I used to do a lot of more project content. So I think it’s really challenging to do complex communication, to find the right topics, and also to see that we have real potential in terms of growth because we have already a high level of recruitment. Even though we don’t do some paid media on this path, so it’s quite rewarding. So this is the first part of my job, so really content strategy content production, and also managing community managers, so let’s say, the classical part of social media. And the other part of our job is really to help our countries, our teams in our countries to leverage their knowledge in terms of digital and social media content and strategy. Because Saint-Gobain is in 69 countries today. So we have a lot of people working in those countries doing marketing, both internal communication, external communication. So usually, they have a lot to do on their plate. And they’re happy to know that I’m here to help them, to answer their questions. And also, as I’m in charge of social media tools, I also have a task to find and recruit new users, for instance for UX, And make sure that they use it, that they follow our intent on the user tools. So yeah, it’s a pretty diverse role. And, of course, I also have the social paid media to manage. And of course, I have an agency to help me because I would sa that it could would not be possible to do that by myself.

Shaheen Samavati 6:48
Yeah, absolutely. Sounds like you have like a big operation going on. How many pages does the company have–like social media pages?

Aline Geffroy 6:58
So my great intern just finished auditing our great ecosystem and we have, from my memory, 150 accounts on LinkedIn? Kind of the same on Facebook, and Twitter, and almost, 90 accounts on Instagram.

Shaheen Samavati 7:24
Okay, wow. That’s more than I thought.

Aline Geffroy 7:27
Yeah.

Shaheen Samavati 7:28
But is that because different? different business lines and different markets and…?

Aline Geffroy 7:33
Yeah, all of it’s mixed, So the result in end is all those accounts, and one of my jobs is to make sure that all of those touch points are active. Whether it’s a business or the Saint-Gobain brand because I think it really has a negative impact for a company when you have, you know, some social media accounts which are ignored or are let’s say ‘dead’ for years, sometimes. So we have ready a huge work of cleaning and erasing some of those accounts.

Shaheen Samavati 8:17
Yeah, that’s interesting. I think a lot of companies struggle with knowing how many accounts are actually necessary. And so at some point, I think it’s like, oh, let’s open accounts for everything! And then it’s like, do we really need this one? And then having to be strategic about deciding which ones to keep and which ones you can delete.

Aline Geffroy 8:35
Yeah. And usually, what I can see is that, for instance, in one country, they had an intern and they say, “Oh, you’re young. So maybe you can open an Instagram account!” But then after a year the intern leaves and then no one is taking care of the communication on those accounts, so that’s why we have sometimes have a lot of accounts which are like that.

Shaheen Samavati 9:06
I can relate to that. Probably 10 years ago, I was an intern, and I was being asked to open Instagram accounts, or Facebook accounts, more like at the time. So yeah, it’s interesting how that’s evolved. And I was wondering, I mean, it sounds like at Saint-Gobain, you’re putting a lot more, I mean, you’ve become professional and putting emphasis now on really like unifying and having… I mean, your position, for example, how long has it existed for?

Aline Geffroy 9:32
I think it’s quite new. So I may be the second person to do this? So it’s quite new. Yeah.

Shaheen Samavati 9:42
And you’ve been there two years now. And I guess it’s social media even at that point of time…?

Aline Geffroy 9:46
Almost, yeah.

Shaheen Samavati 9:49
So what’s your approach to content at Saint-Gobain? And how do you choose kind of the topics to focus on on your social media channels?

Aline Geffroy 9:58
So we have two layers, in terms of content. So we really have the corporate part, which is about thinking and producing campaigns on specific corperate topics. For instance, at the moment, we are really trying to grow an sustainable construction. So it’s a technical topic. So it’s a challenge to find ways to engage people. on topics which are keys for the company. But also, as I just said, a bit techincal and sometimes quite difficult to understand at the first time. So we have, yeah, three or four main topics techniques like this around the year. And then we have what I call civilian milestone, because we tend to rely on you know, today’s like architecure, or the movie and TV, which are key events on digital. And where we can really try to go dive into. And at the moment, it’s quite, really working for us. So each month we have those events, so it can be really specific events for our market. So for instance, in September, we had a “mobility week,” and also the world green building week. So those two subjects really allow us to create campaigns and to showcase all of our knowledge, our solution. And also to stay in the in the moment, in the news, and to create stories for your own apart from the coporate moments. And we also have, what I would say, entertaining and more fun moments. For instance, when it’s Halloween, we usually try to showcase some of architecture project that we took part in and which sometimes can have a spooky side or things like that. And, yeah, those contents are really appreciated. And sometimes we have great surprises in terms of results and efficiency. Because last month, we published a news about the factory in Poland, it can seem like to be a really b2b and really raw news because it was, of course, a business success. But the picture of we relied on was the picture of a factory. So at first sight you must think that is really unappealing, but we don’t know why, it gained a huge engagement. And people were really interested to the fact that the group was growing in Eastern Europe, and the teams were engaging on LinkedIn with the content. So it ended up with one of our most efficient content of the month. And we never thought of that when we when we built the calendar.

Shaheen Samavati 13:56
Yeah, that’s super interesting. Sometimes it’s what what you least expect. It’s hard to really plan for, like, popular content. It’s like yeah, putting different things out there and kind of trial and error, I suppose, and seeing what people engage with. I wanted to ask you about like, what your approach has been to weighing in on current events, and especially this year, with all of the crazy things that have happened. What has been your approach to–especially dealing with more sensitive topics–maybe that are impacting your clients?

Aline Geffroy 14:25
Yeah, with the COVID-19, we really had to be agile in terms of the messages that we wanted to convey on the external side. But also one of our other challenges is that as we are doing digital communication, we also like to provide some entertainment to our audiences because as everyone around the world, we’re all stuck at home. And in the end, it could feel really anxious to always have content about COVID and things like that. So we really try to incorporate among our messages, some more entertaining content, like, it was a lot of pressure to brand speech. And the way I work with that, every week, I had a key message to convey. So of course, at the beginning of the, of the pandemic, of the sanitary crisis, it was really about how we are helping people, because, we are an industrial group, we have factories, and we also have, and we had masks. So we really started our off communication focusing on solidarity actions. And then we really moved into how we were showing our support to our teams who are working on the field for the clients in factories. And also it was important to show from the beginning, that even people were working, they were working in full security, with the rules applied, with a strong follow up on working conditions. And then we also try to highlight the, let’s say, “unknown heroes,” such as, for instance, our IT teams, because as everybody, as a lot of people who are doing remote working, is so important to me that we highlight the teams which were helping us working. So we produced a dedicated video to show how many people were involved, how we were, it took really all the things really broad to see that their work for highlighted. And also, I know that a lot of collaborators didn’t know what was done on the outside, because as everyone, you just open your computer, you connect to your VPN, and it’s fine. But you never think about what is happening to give you to have everything working. And then we moved ourselves saying thank you, to everyone. We moved to more practical content, like how in the pandemic the fact that you’re in your house every day, how to get the most out of confinement. So a more lifestyle approach was always at the heart of one of experts. So for instance, for the well being at home, and how to, let’s see, too anxious, we have an interview from our company, she’s a doctor, I don’t know the name, but she did an interview where she provided tips to feel good and I turned this interview into a video. So with some more lifestyle, graphic things, and so we ended up having a really diverse communication on the COVID-19 content.

Shaheen Samavati 18:57
And it’s a good point that the importance of engaging like not only your external audience, but also your internal audience, your employees and community.

Aline Geffroy 19:04
Yeah. Because we knew that a lot of our teams were also on the part-time schedule so that they didn’t connect to their professional computer and social media was their link to the company, and especially LinkedIn. So that’s why we needed to also have messages addressing our collaborators.

Shaheen Samavati 19:34
in can you tell us about the Saint-Gobain “With You” campaign?

Aline Geffroy 19:38
Yes, so this was at the beginning of the sanitary crisis. I wanted to gather all of our communication and one hashtag. So we decided to select some for us to do. I did a survey among the team and we voted for the best hashtag. And it’s a tag I asked all the countries to use when they were talking about solidarity actions. Everything could be related. And now it’s also extended to see the redaction at the more global scale. So for instance, when the explosion happened in Beirut, in Lebanon, we sent materials to help rebuild Beirut, and we used with Saint-Gobain the hashtag. So now it’s of kind of like an anchor, an editorial anchor for us when we talk about solidarity.

Shaheen Samavati 20:50
Yeah, that’s a great idea. Well, I wanted to move to the recommendations part of the interview, just ask you for a few of your tips for fellow social media and content marketers. First, I just wanted to ask you about your favorite app at the moment or tool that you use in your job?

Aline Geffroy 21:05
So regarding tools, I’m using the Hootsuite app, because we have Hootsuite, and it’s pretty easy for me to to do the validation, to have a look at whether it’s through the app. And I also have the Google Sheet because we worked a lot on Google Sheets, because it’s quite easy between the agency and me and my team.

Shaheen Samavati 21:35
Yeah, absolutely. I think, yeah, it’s a super important tool for so many of us now. It’s interesting, even I remember, larger companies were like, kind of wary of using Google Suite before. But now it seems more and more are adopting it. So it’s interesting.

Aline Geffroy 21:49
Yeah, it’s easy, you can easily adjust and put your comments. So at the moment I stick to Google.

Shaheen Samavati 22:00
Yeah, great. And then can you tell us one of your favorite publications where you get inspiration?

Aline Geffroy 22:06
So I really love the lifestyle website Refinery29 because they have all this innovative kind of content. And even though it’s really lifestyle and galley stuff, it’s always an inspiration for me, in my job. And it’s the same with the New York Times, especially there are special articles and long reads format, because I don’t know how they do that. But it’s really a massive thing with editorial and video. And yeah, it’s quite impressive, and I don’t know many other websites which do this kind of elaborate content.

Shaheen Samavati 22:58
Yeah, I mean, that’s learning from the best, reading the New York Times, no? The best content out there is great inspiration for creating great content as well. And then I wanted to ask you about like any industry group or resource you recommend?

Aline Geffroy 23:11
So yeah, I really like the Social Media Geek Out. by Matt Navarra on Facebook, and also Twitter, but now mainly on Facebook. And I also like to read The Drum which is a digital and marketing website.

Shaheen Samavati 23:30
Okay, I don’t know The Drum. I’ll have to check that out. I am a member of the Social Media Geek Out. That’s a super interesting resource. Whenever I have a technical question about something on social media.

Aline Geffroy 23:39
Yeah, it’s so impressive!

Shaheen Samavati 23:41
Yeah, definitely. Well, so those are great tips. And just to end off the interview, just wanted to ask if you have any final advice for other social media managers or directors in Europe?

Aline Geffroy 23:54
Oh, yeah, I think, to me, trend-watching is really important to always try to find inspiration, even though sometimes it doesn’t match with your industry appeal. But it’s really important to always be aware of not only the trends, like for instance TikTok and things like that, but I don’t know, when you see some new Instagram account to where the founder, I don’t know, thinks about how to explain art in an original way, for instance, I think it’s very inspiring to see how it’s done and maybe try to redo it in your day to day job. So yeah, always be aware of and try to have inspiration.

Shaheen Samavati 24:55
That’s excellent advice. Well, thank you so much Aline for joining us on the podcast.

Aline Geffroy 25:00
Thank you very much, once again, for inviting me.

Shaheen Samavati 25:04
And thanks everybody for listening in. For more perspectives on the content marketing industry in Europe, check out TheContentMix.com and keep tuning into the podcast for daily interviews. See you next time. Bye bye!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai