Online Newsrooms with Toyota’s Internal Communications Head Scott Deyager

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Online newsroom best practices, online newsroom design, and social media communications with Scott Deyager – Head of Internal Communications for Toyota North America – who discusses online newsroom strategy, online newsroom software, online newsrooms and social media, mana/PR agencies, and the future of social media communications.

Schwartzman & Associates is a PR firm of record for Toyota Motor Sales.

Online Newsroom Best Practices

2:48 – Scott shares his experience as a member of the Toyota family and his transition from traditional media relations to the social media communications team.

4:18 – Online newsroom access to the 2010 Pruis reveal at the Detroit Auto show, simulcast live without password protection in Toyota’s online newsroom, and how live video streams are becoming an online newsroom best practice.

5:47 – The importance of maintaining open access as an online newsroom best practice, why Toyota chose not to use password protection for its online newsrooms, and why the loss of password protection has become an online newsroom best practice.

7:55 – How Toyota decides what press releases, press kits, and other press materials go in their online newsroom, what press kits and related content go on their social media sites, and how Toyota uses different channels for different purposes.

9:17 – Toyota Social Media Supervisor Scott Deyager on people and process, how Toyota decides who does what, and how the decisions to post content ensure online newsroom best practices are made.

10:20 – Note: At this point in the interview, the MP3 file ended abruptly, and Scott Deyeger agreed to schedule a second interview, essentially rerecording the second half.

10:53 – How Toyota evaluates online newsroom best practices and the success of its social media outreach efforts.

11:47 – Toyota’s rationale for outsourcing its online newsroom to an online newsroom software provider instead of building a custom content management application or skinning an open source platform and having to instill online newsroom best practices autonomously. He talks about why Toyota selected the iPressroom online newsroom software.

12:57 –Toyota’s experience transitioning to the iPressroom online newsroom service

13:41 – Twitter integration in online newsrooms, Toyota’s communications objectives for Twitter, managing corporate and personal brands responsibly as communicators, and online newsroom best practices for Twitter integration.

16:28 – Putting the Toyota brand first, using signatures in tweets, and Toyota’s Twitter strategy of maintaining branded communications without sacrificing personal transparency.

18:00 – Toyota’s decision to establish branded Flickr and YouTube accounts instead of personal, employee accounts and still maintain the peer-to-peer influencer advantage and integrate these accounts into online newsroom best practices.

20:17 – The rules of engagement for social media interaction at Toyota.

21:10 – Eric Schwartzman brings up his experience with podcasting and thinks having the last word as an interviewer is inappropriate. He asks whether or not Toyota is comfortable letting its critics have the last word in their online pressroom or social media sites.

22:20 – What’s next for Toyota in terms of social media communications? He talks about how the company is now “waking up” to social media technology.

23:01 – Eric asks for Scott’s job-seeking advice to Eric’s intern, Jessica Shu, who wrote and search engine optimized these podcast show notes. Scott Deyager advises job-seekers who would like to secure a position in social media communications at a major organization like Toyota.

24:31 – The future of Toyota hybrids. He talks about the 2010 Toyota Prius and when it will be available. He explains why now is an excellent time to buy a car. 

25:56 – End.

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Photo by Raivis Razgals on Unsplash