Managing the Social Media Mix Social networking in BT Ireland

BT Business IrelandLarry Taylor

Social Media and BT

• Bravery

• Reputation managementEducate and reach customers and staff

Recognise the impact of the social cascade

• How we’re doing itListen, Engage and commit a strategy

• What next?

Step 1: Be Brave

Only slightly edited Dilbert

Morning Ireland 14th Sept 2010

• 8:45am Brian Cowen’s radio interview is broadcast• 8:55am Politics.ie members begin posting. 3 days

later, 7 separate discussions, with up to 5,000 views each

• 9:16am Simon Coveney Tweets. Re-tweeted 73 times in 2 days

• 9:46am www.boards.ie begins Cowen discussions. >1,000 posts, viewed over 55,000 times in 2 days.

• Afternoon: Parody songs and video posted on Youtube. 150,000 views in 2 days. 270,000 views in 2 weeks

• 15 hours following the interview, 457 press articles were published in 26 countries.

• Brian Cowen appears on the Six o’clock news, on the 15th.

• 33 hours between radio interview and 6-1 News

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sSocial media cascade

What are BT trying to achieve?1. Exposure The only 24/7 presence we have for BT Ireland. The

fastest growing and most influential medium for influencing customers. Measured by ranking, views and viewers.

2. Credibility Promoting the views of subject matter experts, thought leaders and BT innovation. Measured by response rate, referencing, re-posting, customer engagement

3. Customer satisfaction Answering customer issues, tracking complaints, adding value to services. Measured by reduction in calls, complaints and increase in issue resolution

4. Customer feedback Identifying customer recommendations for improvement. Measured by customer comments and indicates trust

5. Lead generation Since the re-launch of www.btireland.com inbound customer queries have multiplied by a factor of 4. The cumulative impact of the above will generate increased leads and customer conversations

Social media sites BT Ireland

• Republic of Ireland /BTinIreland• Northern Ireland /BTNIreland• BT Young Scientist /BTYSTE

• /btireland/ All Island photos

• /btirelandbusiness All Island Video

• BT Ireland general group• Multiple customer and channel groups  

• BT Young Scientist - CSR

What about a Blog?

Not yet

Dilbert licensed for use from www.thedilbertstore.com. Licence

Taking the plunge – customer service

• Found the most damaging and provocative threads

• Made contact and identified in your username.

• First name terms when responding to messages. • I.e. I said "Thanks for your comments, I am working

on the issue now and will revert tomorrow. Regards, Larry“

• Even if the issue cannot be resolved immediately, comment on what steps are being taken to remedy the issue in general

• Take the issue off-line as a call back, or email. Start a private thread if necessary, to capture customer details.

Dabs and boards.ie

“I read the boards dabs threads so was wary of the time spent on the security checking but I did the verified by visa, payed by paypal and had no checks to contend with. It was shipped via UPS from the UK and I had it within a couple of days, nothing but praise for them from me. “ - ekevosu

“It's refreshing to see a representative on (boards.ie) - it certainly gives the impression that our concerns are being heard.” – Swampthing

“Good to see a representative on here, it's very reassuring. I'll be using dabs again in the future“ – Biro“I’d like to thank Larry for taking the time to post here. it really does show up Dabs in a better light than it was seen previously in my opinion. Bought a Wacom gfx tablet recently off Dabs as a result.:)” – Virgil

“Nice to see some feedback from a dabs employee here. I've got a new build project coming up so I think I'll give Dabs.ie another go and see how it works this time. “ – LoLth (Moderator)

Agree, it's great to see a bit of representation. “ Terrafirmer (Mod)“I went ahead with the dabs.ie order, in fact I made three separate orders. ..each order went through smoothly and they have been amazing. I have no qualms about giving them my highest recommendation!” - Ulic

YouTubeBroadcast: The new corporate dial tone?

BT Thought leadership: • Colm O’Neill CEO BT Ireland• Shay Walsh MD BT Ireland • Young Scientist Exhibition • Customers

Scan: Check for mood and trends. Also possible for 1 customer to wreak huge damage in a creative way

"United breaks guitars" was a song recorded and posted to draw attention to a single customer issue. The negative PR was absorbed by 4 million viewers in a few months. Resulted in a 10% drop in share price, or $180M

Facebook and Twitter

Socialising, not Broadcasting

Proactive, not reactive

TwitterCustomer Service Broadcast - • When in 'emergency', or time-sensitive mode.

E.g. outages. Especially unscheduled outages

• When customer cannot connect and web-based service is impossible http://twitter.com/btcare

• Joining 3rd party tweets - Search for disruptive and damaging tweets. E.g. http://topsy.com

• Respond if possible. Be aware that tweets expect to be short and productive. If the issue cannot be resolved, or constructively responded to, DO NOT TWEET.

LinkedIn: Empowering a small team of experts

1. Schedule timetable of activity for small group of channels/groups

2. Build archive of material from past and present (to use as posts and blogs)

3. Listen and identify opportunities for engagement

4. Alert experts and engage them strategically

Next Steps

1. Identify Blogs and communities of interest -

E.g. For cloud computing Ireland

All cloud groups Ireland

LinkedIn groups Ireland

/continued• Join and contribute to discussion threads - Sales specialists,

product managers and account managers.

• Get some training

• Build confidence and content on intranet

• Use expertise from connected staff:Facebook users

Case study – expertise request

1. Post subject expertise - slides

2. Promote events

3. Get invitations to speakAnd requests for information

In summary: Be Brave

1. Find the right people

2. Build on what’s good

3. Choose one thing:One event, one sector, one target

4. Identify what you want:Visitors, calls, sales?

5. Choose a social network

6. Make (small) mistakes

7. Measure and review

Try it out

Thank you

Larry Taylor, Online Marketing, BT

larry.taylor@bt.comTwitter.com/btinirelandhttp://ie.linkedin.com/in/larrytaylordigital

Suggested read: ‘The New Handshake: Sales meets Social Media’Authors: Curtis and Giamanco

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