The Great British American Tobacco Social Media Experiment

Richard Hare 19th August 2009

Social Media

“Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. It

was an interactive space… people to

people… that was what the Web was supposed

to be all along.”

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, 2006

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/podcast/dwi/cm-int082206.txt

“Connect, collaborate, innovate…”

Social Media at British American Tobacco:

1997: On-line Communities

2004: Blogs

2008: Social Networking

British American Tobacco at a glance

World’s most international tobacco groupBusiness in 180 countries, over 300 brandsGlobal market share approx. 21% Market leadership in more than 50 countries

Over 56,000 employees Most recent performance (2008)

£12.1 bn revenue £ 3.7 bn profit from operations £22.0 bn tax contribution

PICTURE 4

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PICTURE 3

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PICTURE 2

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PICTURE 1

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Fear, uncertainty, doubt

Category 2: Open Minded

13. A 10 39

B 4 * 10 43 *

C 2 * 14 * 37 *

17. A 13 33

B 2 * 13 34 *

C -8 * 13 25 *

31a. A 13 23

B 3 * 13 25 *

C -2 * 15 * 19 *

33. A 7 18

B 1 * 7 19 *

C 1 * 10 * 16 *

(N) indicates 'Disagreeing' is the Favourable Response * indicates a statistically significant difference

Legend

British American TobaccoBAT OVERALL 2006 (38719) vs. 2 BENCHMARKS

Total Favourable

A. BAT OVERALL 2006 (38719)B. BAT OVERALL 2005 (35428)

Total Unfavour-

able

This company has established a climate where: People can challenge our traditional ways of doing things

Differing opinions are openly discussed in reaching decisions in my work team.

?Diff

C. ISR GLOBAL HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPANIES NORM (149193)

It is safe to say what you think in this company.

Little effort is made to get the opinions and thinking of employees in this company. (N)

0 25 50 75 100

51

47

49

65

62

66

54

52

63

75

74

74

Communities: Ten Years, Five Platforms

2004: Workshop: ChangeNet

2005: CommunityBuilder

Timing: 2006 World Cup Forum

Management Trainee Community

Use: June 2003 – July 2009

CommunitySpaceQuarterly Views and Visits

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Tho

usan

ds

Views

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

Visits

Views Visits

2004: “I want to try blogging”

Tom

(Change and Communications Manager, Global Operations and I.T.)

From SiteBuilder… (2005)

…to BlogCentral (2006)

Set expectations

Simple to set up…

…simple to post

Going Live

BlogCentral in 2009 (January – July)

189,611 pages viewed 52,402 visits

7605 readers 3000 readers per month 2 directors have started blogging

3126 comments 2429 posts 255 blogs

BlogCentral: August 2006 – July 2009

BlogCentral Users: Monthly

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

Users

Friendster to Facebook

2003 2005

2007 2007

2008: Connect

A global internal directory

Interact homepage with newsfeed

Connect use: 2008-2009

• Monthly users up from 187 in Jan 2008 to 5831 in Jan 2009

• Q1 users up from 236 in 2008 to 10276 in 2009

• 17,000 users from a potential 26,000

• Visits more than quadrupled

• Page views quintupled

• 120 people update their Connect record every day

Connect: November 2007- July 2009

ConnectSite Visits and Pages Read:

Monthly

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Tho

usan

ds

Views

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

Vis

its

Views Visits

Wider range of pages viewed

Connect users and profiles viewed:Weekly

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

Profiles view ed Users

Questions and discussion

Contact: richard_hare@bat.comrichard@flareconsulting.com

www.twitter.com/richardhare

Blog: www.richardhare.com