KPMG partners with social media consultancy SR7

Social media reputation management group SR7 has won a huge deal with accounting giant KPMG, which will sell the company’s services to KPMG clients.

SR7 co-founder James Griffin told SmartCompany this morning the partnership vindicates the hard work he and his team have put into convincing executives that social media is worth their time.

“We started out of the global financial crisis four years ago, and here we are today still doing our bit,” he says. “We’re not selling anything over a counter, but working in an influential area.”

“Securing this strategic alliance vindicates a lot of our hard work.”

SR7 was co-founded by Griffin and works with businesses to monitor what’s being reported about the business on social media. When a client works with the company, SR7 delivers a detailed report on what’s being said about them, whether it’s positive or negative, and what the client can do about it.

Now, they’ll be providing the same type of services to KPMG clients, although Griffin said he can’t name specific companies.

However, he does say the move is encouraging, as it shows larger businesses are starting to see how social media can impact their business in a very real way.

“We’re going to be providing our core services to KPMG clients, and that will be done through their managing consulting practice.”

“We’re trying to educate the c-suite and board level that social media can be more than just advertising and marketing. You need to really understand what’s being said about you in the social media space.”

In a statement, KPMG digital economy lead Malcolm Alder said the same thing, that “the areas where organisations require the most assistance in social media are strategy, processes and policy”.

Griffin says while Australian businesses are keen to learn about social media, there are still many instances where businesses react in the wrong way, or neglect to approach their social media strategy in the most advantageous way.

“What we’re starting to see is that some clients will say there’s a huge conversation about their products on Twitter, but their customer service team doesn’t know how to deal with certain issues on there.”

“I think we’re able to provide a good approach to dealing with that, and the partnership with KPMG really helps us in that goal.”

This article first appeared on SmartCompany.