Will eBay's New Social Media Hire Improve Seller Engagement?
There's a new social media manager on the eBay "dream team" - does this signal eBay may be focusing more on engaging with sellers across social media?
Anna Chiara Sai joined the company this month after previous stints managing social media and digital PR for the US Consulate in Milan and social media strategy & influencer marketing for Accenture.
I am thrilled to bits to be joining the eBay dream team. One week in, and I already feel right at home in my new office. It’s an enormous privilege to be surrounded by colleagues with so much talent, passion and dedication. It is also exciting to be given…https://t.co/hSoEIgwujX
— Anna Chiara Sai (@chiarasai) July 15, 2022
In those previous roles, Anna's LinkedIn profile says she:
helped clients harness the power of social media and social commerce through a full range of services:
- End-to-end Social Media Strategy
- CEO and Top Executive social media positioning
- Community Engagement
- Social Listening & War Rooms
- Social Customer Care
- Social Selling
- Influencer Activation
- Social Media ADV Campaign Optimization
- Employer Branding
- Employee Advocacy
Top executive social media positioning is something eBay absolutely needs help with - stat!
As one vociferous scrutineer mentioned just yesterday, CEO Jamie Iannone doesn't appear to have a Twitter presence, unlike many of his marketplace peers.
Following a power-play by activist Starboard Value to secure an outside CEO (albeit another eBay retread) today marks 2 years, 2 months, 22 days since Jamie Iannone's appointment as $EBAY CEO
— FidoMaster🇺🇸 (@unsuckEBAY) July 19, 2022
Unlike most marketplace CEO's Jamie doesn't appear to have a Twitter account ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/VvpPc9cseh
Community engagement? eBay definitely needs all the help they can get there too!
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Social customer care - again I think we can all agree customer care in general at eBay needs some "additional coaching."
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Liz Morton ~ Founder
If eBay really is interested in Social Selling, Anna could get an easy early win under her belt by finally rolling out the reduced final value fee social sharing incentive that was promised during last year's eBay Open Online.
Sellers were very excited by the announcement last August and have been eagerly waiting for the feature to be released, but it keeps being pushed back for unspecified reasons and has only had a very limited pilot test in Australia.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Social Listening & War Rooms - we're all keenly aware that eBay does monitor social media and internet chatter, whether they publicly engage or not, but here's a pro tip for you Anna:
When the company you work for has an internal security department plus executive leadership that was mired in scandal and still embroiled in ongoing litigation for cyberstalking and harassing critical commenters and bloggers, you might want to come up with a friendlier sounding name for those operations. 😉
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Personally, I think it's great to see that eBay may be putting a stronger focus on upping their social media game and I wish Anna well in this position.
Hopefully those efforts will extend beyond simply using influencers to push the vertical focus strategy and lead to some real, authentic seller engagement.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
And of course Anna or anyone else at eBay is welcome to follow and hit me up on Twitter any time - dms are always open. @ValueAddedRS
