Introduction
This is a summary of the roundtable Webinar “Leveraging Social Media for Business Development in Panama” held on Wednesday 25 September 2024.
The webinar is organized by Digitude Panama in cooperation the Swiss, Spanish & German Chamber of Commerce in Panama and the City of Knowledge Foundation (Ciudad del Saber).
It is aimed at executives of international companies, operating in Panama or interested in Panama.
Panelists & Moderator
- Anna-Sophia Metzel, Digital Marketing Manager, MAERSK LATAM
- Julieta Salinas, Brand & Innovation Manager, Heineken Panama
- Lisette Manavella, Sr. Manager Brand Communication, Adidas LATAM
- Mauricio Ortiz, Chief Marketing Officer, Upfield LATAM
- The session will be moderated by Remco de Bruijn, Managing Director, Digitude Panama.
Social Media Goals
- Remco de Bruijn (Moderator) introduces the topic of company goals, asking the panelists what there goals are.
- Anna-Sophia Metzel (Maersk) emphasizes that their focus is global, not just Panama. They are customer-centric and use social media to drive brand awareness, customer engagement, and lead generation. Maersk has evolved from a shipping company to an integrated logistics company, utilizing various social media channels to promote services.
- Lisette Manavella (Adidas) highlights brand awareness and consumer engagement as primary goals, especially in markets like Panama and the Caribbean. Adidas uses both local and global social media accounts, but local management requires investment and maintaining global standards.
- Julieta Salinas (Heineken) focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns and building awareness for responsible alcohol consumption. Heineken uses social media to enhance brand awareness, drive product trials, and support events. Their strategy depends on the brand’s market stage, with local accounts emerging as the brand grows.
- Mauricio Ortiz (Upfield) explains that social media is used to increase product penetration and usage frequency, especially through showcasing recipes and healthy living tips. Upfield uses platforms like Instagram and Facebook, along with emerging ones like TikTok, to drive consumer engagement.
- Anna-Sophia further notes the importance of using local languages in Latin America for higher engagement, and the potential of Whatsapp as a business communication tool.
Finally, the audience poll shows increasing brand awareness is the top priority, followed by lead generation and boosting sales.
How-to – Locally Resonating Strategies
This section of the webinar discusses the importance of developing a content strategy that resonates locally, considering cultural differences and language barriers. Key points from the panelists include:
- Remco de Bruijn (Moderator) introduces the topic of strategies, asking the panelists how to make a strategy that resonates with a local audience.
- Lisette Manavella (Adidas) shares that Adidas balances global and local content. While global content is adapted through translations, local content is designed based on objectives, local partnerships, and influencers. For effective storytelling, Adidas targets Gen Z with quick, engaging content like Instagram Reels.
- Mauricio Ortiz (Upfield) emphasizes three pillars for local strategies: local relevance, optimized engagement, and conversion-driven content. He stresses the importance of analytics to track engagement and ensure the content leads to conversions.
- Anna-Sophia Metzel (Maersk) explains that Maersk’s strategy includes market insights, event-driven networking, and social media content focused on logistics trends. Despite being a B2B company, they aim for deeper, more personal connections through customer events and market-specific insights.
- Julieta Salinas (Heineken) highlights the need for global brands to adapt their messaging to local customs and culture. She stresses the importance of using influencers and ensuring content reflects local sensitivities, especially in Latin America, where social engagement and family values are key.
A poll of the attendees revealed LinkedIn as the most effective platform, especially for B2B companies, while Instagram followed closely. Despite the popularity of Facebook and TikTok in Panama, they ranked lower in this particular audience’s effectiveness scale.
Tips & Tricks
This portion of the webinar focuses on tips and success stories from the panelists, offering valuable insights into social media best practices for international companies.
The tips the various panelists give and be summarized as follows:
- Know your Audience. Research & Analyze. Know who and where your audience is and tailor your strategy to different demographics and platforms.
- Experiment, Innovate & Come Up with New Ideas. Be open to failure as a learning process.
- Be authentic & stay true to Your Brand. Authenticity is key to building trust and relevance.
- Make it about Brand Awareness, not Sales. Avoid too much sales-driven content
- Use Data-Analysis tools. Leverage data analytics to track performance and engagement effectively.
- Adapt & Localize – message, tone, language. Staying culturally sensitive and using local language is critical to making global campaigns work. Prioritize native content for each social platform instead of reusing the same material across all channels.
- Cherish your Community & User-Generated Content. Encourage user-generated content to foster community engagement and increase credibility.
- Work with Local Influencers. Besides the number of followers, influencers can be selected based on e.g. your goals, their characteristics (e.g. age) and budget. Tools to find, monitor and manage influencers are: Aspire, Traackr, Influencity, HypeAuditor, Modash, CreatorIQ and Heepsy.
The webinar concludes with an invitation for audience questions and a promise of a blog that will showcase the success stories of all the companies featured in the discussion.