Social Champ: Hi Cameron, How are you? It\u2019s an honor to have you here with the Social Champ. Tell us briefly how did you start your career as a communication specialist and how this led you to become such a renowned personality in the field of social media?
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\n\u00a0Moreover, what has been your motivation to become such an extraordinary social media influencer?
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\nCameron:<\/b> I\u2019m doing well. Thanks for inviting me to be here. I\u2019ve always enjoyed writing. When I was a teenager in Sydney, Australia I wrote about music for teen pop magazines. Later I contributed articles as a freelancer for various pop culture publications and trade magazines. After I left high school I did an unpaid internship at a boutique PR firm in the entertainment industry which later led to a full-time job. I was at that firm for five years then traveled around North and Central America as a backpacker for a while.<\/p>\n
Eventually, I resettled back in Sydney at Porter Novelli, a larger global PR agency where Apple was my client. From there I moved to Singapore where I worked in-house for Apple as their head of corporate communications for the Asia Pacific region. A few years later they transferred me to Apple HQ in Cupertino, California. After 10 years with Apple, I\u2019ve since worked with a number of big tech companies including eBay, Yahoo!, PayPal, Visa, and Polycom. Along the way, I\u2019ve built up my social media profile and connections.<\/p>\n
Social Champ: Internet marketing has become an essential field altogether in today\u2019s world. How do you think Internet marketing helps a brand \/product flourish in the market?
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\nCameron:<\/b> It builds a very personal connection between a customer and a brand. Consequently, it raises our expectations of brands. We love them when they do great things and are very vocal when they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Social Champ: How can promotional content play a vital role in drawing the attention of the right kind of audience to the message a brand is trying to signify?
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\nCameron:<\/b> If it\u2019s personal and authentic it can lure the audience in to find out more. If it beats the audience over the head with an overt sales message it will never work.<\/p>\n
Social Champ: Communications specialists take on the responsibility of moderating communications throughout the corporations they serve. Describe how you use social media for corporate communications?
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\nCameron:<\/b> My team at Polycom leverages social media various different ways for corporate communications. If there is a positive customer story or product review in a trade publication we use it to amplify the message and reach more people. We use it to poll our customers on their thoughts on remote working. We leverage it to communicate with media and influencers.<\/p>\n
In fact, Twitter is great for that as it forces you to be very concise with your message and pitch<\/a>. We also enable and encourage employees to get on social media and become authentic brand champions. You will see many photos of Polycom employees on social showing how they collaborate with remote teams through video conferencing. Some of them are really fun. The trick is to keep it light, genuine and conversational. \u00a0The most popular posts are inevitably ones with great images – Polycom products in popular movies and TV shows, video conferencing etiquette tips and a cartoon series we\u2019ve done to name a few examples.<\/p>\n Social Champ: Working with prime companies like Apple, PayPal, eBay, Yahoo and much more, it must have been a great experience, is there any moment that you hold close and cherish? If so it would be gratifying to us if you share some memories or pictures. Related: Creative Ideas To Boost Your Marketing Efforts With Jason Falls<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Social Champ: What are elements of interactive public relations for new businesses and startups? Social Champ: Mentors are the lifelines for success. Who were, or are, your mentors who helped you reach where you are today? Social Champ: What methods can you use for effective internal communications? Share some of your growth and marketing strategies? Social Champ: Describe a time you were successful in delivering the company message to a target audience. What was the key to its success? The story had never been told to a larger audience after all of these years. We quickly took it to Wired, Harvard Business Review, Inc, and Entrepreneur. Jeff now has fans and followers in Silicon Valley and all over the world. In fact, just a few months ago he delivered a keynote address at StartUp Grind alongside the co-founders of What\u2019s App, Waze, and Tinder. He\u2019s proof that a great story always wins.<\/p>\n Thank you so much, Cameron Craig, Social Champ wishes you all the best in your future endeavors. Thanks for enlightening the audience with Marketing Efforts <\/a>which include PR and Branding Strategies.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are honored to have Cameron Craig on board for an interview. Cameron is a communications professionalist with 20+ years\u2019 experience. He has worked with the giants of tech-industry namely Apple, Visa, PayPal, Polycom, eBay, and Yahoo. He has formerly worked as a tour specialist in Johnny Cash. \u00a0He\u2019s one of the contributors at Harvard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[68,58,61,137,138,139],"class_list":["post-790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-branding-strategies","tag-digital-marketing","tag-marketing-efforts","tag-online-marketing-solution","tag-pr-strategies","tag-social-media-management-tool"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333195,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions\/333195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nCameron:<\/b><\/b> I started working with Apple just as Steve Jobs had returned to the company. Apple was going through a really rough few years and its future was uncertain. I know this is hard to believe now but it\u2019s true. As Steve quickly got back in gear it felt like we were changing the world every three to four months with new product categories, and new ways of thinking about music, photography and film and the role of the computer in the home. They were incredibly exciting times and the world was stacked against us<\/p>\n![\"apple-asia-pacific-marketing-team-with-cameron-craig\"](\"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cameron-craig-apple-asia-pacific-marketing-team-300x225.png\" "\\"\\"")
\nI have great memories of this photo. It was my farewell lunch in Singapore with Apple\u2019s Asia Pacific marketing team just before I moved to the US to work at headquarters. They were an awesome team and I learned so much about different cultures in that role. My job kept me on the road traveling throughout the region: India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan – so many places. When I was back in the Singapore office we\u2019d go out for lunch every day at surrounding open-air food centers and have the most amazing food.<\/p>\n![\"apple-hq-communications-cameron-craig\"](\"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cameron-craig-apple-hq-communications-300x203.png\" "\\"\\"")
\nApple\u2019s HQ communications team were a fun bunch too. We worked really hard but we also liked to have fun. This shot was taken at our Halloween party.
\nThe most important and special memory I have from my Apple time is when my parents traveled from Australia to our campus in California and saw where I worked. My boss and team were very kind to them and they were very proud.<\/p>\n![\"yahoo-cofounder-jerry-yang-with-cameron-craig\"](\"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cameron-craig-yahoo-cofounder-jerry-yang-300x199.png\" "\\"\\"")
\nOn a different note, this photo was taken at Luxor, Egypt with Yahoo! Co-founder Jerry Yang. I led communications for Yahoo!\u2019s emerging markets group after I left Apple. I was based in Singapore, again but our team\u2019s scope included Latin America, the Middle East, South East Asia and Eastern Europe. It was another few intense years of being on the road a lot. But I learned so much about business, M&A and communicating internationally.<\/p>\n\n
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\nCameron:<\/b> I recently wrote an article on this titled PR Advice for Startups: Slow Down<\/a>.
\nBefore you chase articles or build your social media followers get your message straight.
\nYour core message is just as important as your engineering framework. If you don\u2019t build it right at the beginning, it will crumble to pieces later on.<\/p>\n
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\nCameron:<\/b> I\u2019ve been fortunate to have worked with some great people over the years that I\u2019ve learned a lot from. I learned a ton at that small boutique firm in Sydney back in the day about how to pitch media and land clients. I learned a ton from my Apple experience which I\u2019ve written extensively on. You can find some of the stories on my website asignaturestory<\/p>\n
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\nCameron:<\/b> The wall between internal and external audiences has not just come down, it has imploded. It\u2019s also clear that yesterday\u2019s approach to high profile, better funded external communications teams and less resourced internal teams will not work. The successful communicator of 2017 must be well-rounded and employ strategies, channels, and audiences across both sides to build a company\u2019s reputation. I just contributed a chapter to a terrific new book on internal communications. You can preview my chapter and download a free copy of the ebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\nCameron:<\/b> I take great pride in delivering the co-founder of Polycom\u2019s story to a wide audience. In my first few days at Polycom, I heard co-founder Jeff Rodman tell this story of how he founded the company to a bunch of 8 and 9-year-old kids at a bring your kids to work day. He bought a 95 cent book from RadioShack on building speakers that eventually led to the creation of the $2B successful 26-year old company.<\/p>\n![\"Steve-jobs-cameron-craig-apple-pr\"](\"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cameron-craig-with-apple-founder-steve-jobs-300x225.png\" "\\"\\"")
\nSocial Champ: What are you working on right now that you\u2019re really excited about?
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\nCameron:<\/b> I\u2019ve developed a keynote address on how communications played a key role in Apple\u2019s turnaround<\/a>. Public speaking is a relatively new thing for me so it has been an exciting project. \u00a0I\u2019ve road tested it in Sydney and New York at a couple of marketing conferences and am about to deliver keynotes in Boston at the PRSA Global Conference<\/a> October 8-10 and the Asia Pacific Communications Summit in Hong Kong November 15-16. If any readers want me to speak at their conference please contact me through my website at asignaturestory.com<\/p>\n