Video interview: How Kodak uses Facebook and Twitter to bolster sales

Jeff Hayzlett is not like your regular Chief Marketing Officer. From creating innovative marketing strategies to appearing on NBC’s hit television show, Celebrity Apprentice, Hayzlett knows what it means to think outside the box.

He also recognizes the importance of social media and the very real power that channels such as Facebook and Twitter can harness when it comes to getting your message about a product across to consumers.

In short, says Hayzlett, social media is reversing marketing. Instead of having to reach out to customers, customers are reaching in. And that’s something that Hayzlett knows all about. As an avid user of the site – and largely off the back his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice – Jeff currently has 15,000 followers on Twitter, meaning that he can instantly communicate with thousands of consumers at the click of a button.

In fact, Hayzlett and Kodak have built a strategy that centers around “the four E’s” – Engagement, Education, Excitement, and Evangelism – and as he explains exclusively to MeetTheBoss TV’s Editor-in-Chief Adam Burns, “the key thing is that [we] are listening.”

And Hayzlett’s ear-to-the-ground attitude still shows today, in everything his does, especially as he takes on significant leadership responsibilities at Kodak. Hayzlett, who is responsible for worldwide marketing operations, leads the company's efforts for marketing programs, marketing network operations, brand development and management, business development and corporate sponsorships.

“Social media really allowed you to listen,” he explains. “Twitter [in particular] is a way for me to interact directly without filters and without someone else telling me what they said or how they said it.  I’m directly talking to bloggers.”

“I started Twittering for my family. That’s how I got started.  The only reason I wanted to Twitter was to let them know what I was doing and a way to update my friends on Facebook. That’s how I got started. Then I started noticing all these Kodak families, my extended Kodak family, which I’ve got 27,000 of.  Well, 20 or 30 percent of those are on Facebook. I have almost 100 percent of the employees on Kodak Gallery, but we don’t share in our day-to-day – we don’t share photographs and Kodak moments that way “

“But more than that social media allows me to hear customer suggestions about products, to say, ‘If you did this, I’d buy it.’ To be able to get that insight to the product team and find out how many other people out there want to do the same is really invaluable to us.”

To view the full interview, please click here:  www.meettheboss.tv.