Shaheen Samavati recently spoke with Oliver Mott, global social media manager at Grant Thornton International, about his role and the company’s evolving strategy. Grant Thornton is one of the world’s largest professional services networks, with headquarters in London.

Oliver oversees branding, social media and marketing for independent firms in 133 countries, coordinating communication with teams across the world. In this interview, he shares valuable insight into the company’s structure and response to the current global crisis.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above on our YouTube channel, listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify, and read our recap below.

Key takeaways

• Overseeing a global brand is about taking the expertise of the largest and strongest firms, and leveraging it to help the rest of the network.

• A vital part of Grant Thornton’s business model and marketing strategy is giving their people the energy to make connections and build their own personal brands.

• During the current crisis, focusing on people is more important than ever, and the right technology can help transform each employee into a quality content creator. 

• You don’t know which members of your network are going to be confident on digital channels until you train them—but the payoff of this kind of content is far greater than that of corporate accounts.

• Marketing has become an especially vital tool for helping clients solve their problems and thus creating brand value. Everyone feels like a digital marketer now.

• There’s always somebody trying something new—think about how can you learn from it, extend it, and create opportunities and synergies that might not exist otherwise?

Encourage your people to make connections and build their own personal brands online.

Rapid-fire recs

What’s an app or tool that you can’t work without?

Dynamic Signal, an employee advocacy and engagement platform that helps us make the most of our people. And Microsoft Teams is how we communicate—I basically live on Teams.

A marketing influencer in Europe who you follow?

Matt Navarra is fantastic.

See also: 8 inspiring content and marketing influencers to follow

A valuable resource, event or group?

Social Media in Finance does small, bespoke events that I love attending and speaking at. Social Media Week does much bigger, global events where I’ve met some of the best agencies I’ve ever worked with. Both are currently moving online.

Connect with Oliver and Shaheen on LinkedIn.

This post was edited by Melissa Haun, a freelance content creator based in Lisbon.

For more insights from global social media managers, check out:

The art of social media campaigns – Justyna Ludwiniak, global social media manager

Make room for growth – Santiago Garcia Solimei, global social media director at Meliá

To see the full transcript, click on page number 2 below.