The way companies are involved in social media varies greatly across companies and industries.  And their involvement, in many cases, stems from the culture of the organization that was formed long before social media existed.  This was clearly apparent at a conference my colleagues and I attended a couple weeks ago.  The Useful Social Media Corporate Social Media Summit was a 2 day conference with people who lead social media for a range of companies including Bank of America, Dunkin Brands, Dell, KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), The Gap and Whole Foods.

At the conference, we heard that companies like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, which are in a highly-regulated industry, are focused on gaining involvement in social media internally, setting up governance structures and educating employees.

For KLM, providing service to customers is emphasized in their company culture.  So when the Icelandic volcano crisis occurred in 2010, KLM realized they needed to be more responsive than ever to their customers. They did that by launching an outreach campaign on Twitter and joining Facebook to address customer questions and to provide updates.

At Whole Foods, stores are managed individually so product offerings, etc. can vary per location.  In turn, Whole Foods social media runs similarly.  Individual stores have their own Twitter and Facebook presences for example, with content suggestions provided by the Whole Foods national office.

So for companies that have been around for decades, how they use social media is an extension of their established company culture.  For new businesses that are starting today, company cultures are often times built around the existence of social media.  Will there be a time that “pre social media” companies embrace social media in their culture in the same way “post social media” companies do now?