Kodak's approach to Social Everywhere

I got a glimpse into Kodak's social media efforts during last week's 140 Conference in Los Angeles, and came away impressed.

Kodak was the primary sponsor of the event, so its presence was impossible to miss. Heck, even name of the conference venue itself -- the Kodak Theatre -- ensured we'd have the brand top of mind.

A couple of key takeaways for me:

* Kodak recognizes that social media engagement by brand helps to create customer evangelists. Case in point: Kodak's contest this past summer to rename its "lame"-sounding Zi8 pocket camera (disclosure: I was so impressed with the camera while testing it at the conference sponsor table for five minutes that I ordered one over the weekend).

CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett (pictured above) explained how the marketing group turned to their -- and his (@JeffreyHayzlett) -- Twitter followers and to the readers of their Thousand Words blog, for suggestions. The response was overwhelming. Kodak received thousands of recommendations and will announce the winning entry and camera renaming during a formal launch in January.

* Kodak's content-and-engagement approach to Social Everywhere is both centralized and distributed.

So what does that actually look like?

Centralized
As part of their corporate website, Kodak publishes four main blogs:
1) A Thousand Words
2) PluggedIn
3) Grow Your Biz
4) The Storyboard.

Here, on Kodak's "home turf," staffers can share their industry insights and "tell [their] story," as chief blogger Jenny Cisney (above) put it to me after the 140 Conference.

External social networks
Cisney and her team then connect to customers and fans on several social sites across the web. Among them:
1) On Twitter: @JeffreyHayzlett and @KodakCB
2) Facebook Page
3) Flickr: photostream and sponsored group
4) YouTube channel

"No longer can you wait for customers to come to your website and come to you," Cisney said. "So that's why we're going to where our customers are. If they're on Facebook, well, we'll have a Facebook page. If they're on Twitter, we're going to have Twitter accounts. That's how we determine where we're going to participate."

Flickr photo of Jeffrey Hayzlett by C.C. Chapman.