Social Media Case Studies

Living the culture

1© Scenario Consulting Private Limited

Zappos

April 7, 2023 © Scenario Consulting Private Limited 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gHlEBU_NSg

Summary

Success of Zappos depends on two elements – Service & culture• Belief – their company culture is unique and it offers them a competitive advantage

They use social media to project their unique culture to the world• Work hard at building emotional connections in the otherwise cold online experience

Honest & transparent approach makes them real

An online retailer, but do not use online to hard sell• Email & telephone – primary ways of engaging customers for sales• Social media – managing culture, engaging & measuring reactions

CEO sets the tone• Tony Hsieh uses social media to communicate his passions• Honest & Transparent

Measures of social media success• Does not measure ROI in terms of revenue or savings• Measures on parameters of service and culture


Who is Zappos? Business – Online retailing Founded – June 1, 1999 Main product – Shoes Ambition – To build a collection of

businesses “powered by customer service.”

2009 listed as one of Fortune magazine's top 25

companies to work for Acquired by Amazon for over $1.2

billion


10 core values of Zappos

1) Deliver WOW Through Service2) Embrace and Drive Change3) Create Fun and A Little Weirdness4) Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded5) Pursue Growth and Learning6) Build Open and Honest Relationships With

Communication7) Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit8) Do More With Less9) Be Passionate and Determined10) Be Humble


Invited every Zappos employee to participate in defining values. Zappos uses social media to live these values.

CEO Tony Hsieh leads from the front

Digitally wired from top

CEO Tony Hsieh has 1,850,862 followers on Twitter

Believes that happy customers help deliver great customer service Fun & exceptional

customer service ingrained in corporate culture

Consciously built a personality for the company that is friendly, helpful, funny & trustworthy



Tony Hsieh talks about how they build brand Zappos using the Happiness mantra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqNIvcJUyzs

Twitter - Building emotional connections & relationships

Most Zappos employees (500 out of 1500) have an active account on Twitter, and the Zappos site has a page that aggregates all the streams Aggregates not just Zappos

related conversations but all conversations by the employees on Twitter

Built initially to help employees get a perspective on each other outside of office

Now a way for customers to get insight into Zappos personality & culture


Talking to Zappos is like talking to a friend that happens to sell shoes

Zappos.tv – Making every employee a micro star Five person AV team

Dedicated full time to conceptualizing, blogging, shooting & editing what goes on at Zappos, at work and play

Cross between comedy improvisation sketch crew and news team

Gets staff to talk extempore and does editing later

Type of content Planned – head-shaving day Spontaneous – ‘what super

power would you like to have’

Latest developments – “bunk” desks

Five person video team profiles Zappos employees & their eccentricities


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D80dhLA3-_Q

Zappos Blog Mix of work and play

CEO & COO Blog− Shares latest updates – update on

projects, new locations, business deals− Periodically posts internal emails

– Email about having to lay off 8% of employees in 2008

– Implications of Amazon’s buying Zappos

Zappos Family− Zapponian Spotlight – fun interview with

employees− Latest events− Team activities

Inside Zappos− Action inside the Zappos office

More than shoes− Latest style, trends, tips

Technology− Latest enhancements on Zappos site− Technology enhancements and

partnershipsApril 7, 2023 © Scenario Consulting Private Limited 10

http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/ceo-and-coo-blog/2008/11/06/update

http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/ceo-and-coo-blog/2008/11/06/update

http://blogs.zappos.com/ceoletter

http://blogs.zappos.com/ceoletter

How Zappos works hard at building culture $2,000 to quit work

The company regularly offers workers $2,000 to quit, "to make sure that employees are here for more than just a paycheck”

Match name with photo of the colleague When Zappos employees log onto their computers, they don't

just enter a login and password. They also have to try to match a name with a photo of a randomly selected colleague. The company keeps a record of everyone's score

Ask Anything newsletter Employees are invited to post questions for the monthly

newsletter Zappos culture book

Describes the ethos of the company Features 100- to 500-word essays by current employees


How do they measure success?

Zappos measures social media on the parameters of culture & service

They don’t calculate its ROI on sales; they don’t consider it a traditional marketing channel


The journey from a shaky start to, process integration globally


How it all started

Early 2005 “DELL SUCKS.DELL LIES.

Put that in your Google andsmoke it,”

- Jeff Jarvis on his blog, BuzzMachine

Core issue – bad customer service


Company policy to not respond meant that Dell remained silent despite bad online press and negative blogs. The negative outage hurt their stock price and reputation. Michael Dell returned to run the company after 3 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIZOW7mIVsk

Finally, Dell responded

April 7, 2023 © Scenario Consulting Private Limited 15Launched Direct2Dell blog to respond to and engage customers.


Source: Embracing & Sustaining Your Community Ecosystem by Dell Social Media

http://www.slideshare.net/dellsocialmedia/embracing-sustaining-your-community-ecosystem


Today


Ranked #1 most social brand in ranking of top 100 brands in a study by Headstream in 2011


Source: Embracing & Sustaining Your Community Ecosystem by Dell Social Media



Social Media Use Cases as defined by Dell


Framework for mapping presence


Source: Embracing & sustaining your community ecosystem by Dell Inc


Mapping Dell’s presence


Dell.com

Support Forums

Blogs

Groups

Corporate Blog

(Direct2Dell)

• Dell Software News• Dell Shares• Education Blog• Enterprise• Healthcare

Studio Dell

IdeaStorm

EmployeeStorm

External Communities(Networking)

Facebook

LinkedInTwitter

External Communities

(Content)

YouTube

SlideshareFlickr

Blogs

Hosted Communities

Support

• Dell - Support Forums

• Twitter - @DellCares

• Facebook Support

Mastery & Use

• Groups• Dell Blogs• Studio Dell

Affinity

• Direct2Dell• Facebook for

Small Business

Ideation

• IdeaStorm• EmployeeStorm


Key Programs for Community- Listening- Management & Moderation- Advocacy- Reputation Management

Dell’s framework – Listen, Engage, Act


Community – Customer-ideation


Dell Ideastorm Launched in Feb

2007 Objective

To encourage ideas, feedback, input and dialog from customers

Results 15,000 ideas

generated by the community

750,000 promotion of ideas

84,000 comments 400 ideas

implemented by Dell

Learnings from IdeaStorm for Dell Spike of ideas occurred in the first few days

Dell received 2,000 ideas in first 2 weeks Community expected immediate

response/engagement Beginning – their updates were sporadic Today – they have a dedicated blog with updates every 2

weeks Expectations of two key stakeholders & addressing

them Customers

− Positive experience – timely feedback− Action taken on ideas – clear status updates− Recognition – thank you mechanisms

Business partners− Positive experience – timely/accurate reporting− Executive support – alignment with strategy− Defined process – communication supportApril 7, 2023 © Scenario Consulting Private Limited 25

Source: IdeaStorm Overview by Dell Inc

http://www.slideshare.net/Dell/ideastorm-overview


Challenges faced by Dell & proposed solutions Type of entries recieved

Understanding the ideas posted Poorly formulated ideas Ambiguity about scope of its

proposed application, Volume of entries

Determining the best ideas Voting mechanism

Duplicate ideas splintered votes Excessive influence of

unrepresentative minority Bottlenecks in engagement

Transparency vs Business confidentiality Presenting ideas “accurately” on the

community Limited resources and confidentiality

concern hindered engagement

© Scenario Consulting Private Limited 26

Create a User Toolkit – Do’s and Don’ts

Tools for developing consensus – Vote up and

down, Comments

Respond Quickly, Ask Questions

If You Let Them Vote, Make It Count

Present Your Progress Clearly and Openly to

the Community

Solu

tion

s

Ideas breakdown

Breakdown of ideas received 12% unusable – no

action needed 4% innovative –

possible game changing ideas

80% improvements − Incremental ideas

for next gen products & improvements for existing products & services


Source: IdeaStorm Overview by Dell Inc



Promotions

Integration with social networks as Facebook Interacting with people in their own environment Encouraging friends to participate in ideas


Similarly, ideation community for employees Launched in June

2007 Objective

Encourage ideas, feedback, input and dialogue from employees

Results 4,800 ideas

generated 250,000 promotions

of ideas 22,000 comments 150 ideas

implemented by Dell


Key Learning – Building Advocates

1% advocates will drive 90% content & engagement




Dell on Twitter

2007 Exploratory

2010 Formalised


Source: The Evolution of Dell on Twitter by Dell Inc

http://www.slideshare.net/Dell/i-strategy-dell-social-media-case-study-the-evolution-of-dell-on-twitter

Dell on Facebook


Dell has several pages on Facebook spanning several geographies and business functions. Use it to lend support to the community and build affinity.

Internal - Embedding Social Media into fabric of the company

Councils

SMaC Council

Community Leadership

Council

Communication

Weekly Smac Digest

Listening

Social Media Command Centre

Internal Social Media

Blogs

Chatter

EmployeeStorm

Sharepoint

Training & Events

SMaC university

SMaC Talk Unconferences


Dell’s journey on Social Listening


Learning – With 4,000-5,000 online conversations everyday, there was need to scale up beyond centralised social media efforts

Launch of Social Media Command Centre in December 2010


Role – Support listeners and responders across Dell. Contain viral issues, coordinate on-boarding, maintain standards, share best practices

Training & Events – SMaC University

Established Social Media & Community team (SMaC) in 2010 Governance Setting infrastructure Training

SMaC University Over 10 training

modules Community,

Facebook, Twitter Outcome

Certified: 2357 5000 unique

members trained by end of year



Established Social Media & Community team (SMaC) established in 2010 Governance Setting infrastructure Training

Certified: 2357 5000 unique

members trained by end of year

Training & Events – SMaC Talk Unconferences

Impact of Social Media on Dell’s customer lifecycle


Source: Paving the way to social business by Dell Inc

http://www.slideshare.net/dellsocialmedia/paving-the-way-to-social-business

Dell’s thoughts on ROI





Source: Paving the way to social business by Dell Inc

http://www.slideshare.net/dellsocialmedia/paving-the-way-to-social-business

Metrics for tracking performance Business Value (examples)

Brand: Net promoter score, sentiment, satisfaction, advocacy Support: Questions, answers, time to answer, % answered by

you, views of answered content Content: Content created, views of content, comments Web Traffic: Pageviews, uniques, referrers, domains Innovation: ideas

Community Health Velocity of Change: Registrations, content creation, content

consumption Population Segmentation: 90/9/1 Creators: posts, answers, comments Watchers: views, page depth, time on site, bounce rate Global

Marketing




Strengthening Corporate Reputation using Social Media


Major SM interventions; 3 key segments

Enterprise Collaboration

SupportCentral• Internal wikis• Blogs

Corporate Reputation

GE Reports

GE Expert network

GE Show

Consumer Marketing

Ecomagination

Healthymagination

Community

Ecomagination Challenge


#1 Enterprise Collaboration – A Leader


Enterprise Collaboration at GE

1999, built an internal network called SupportCentral which hosts

− 100,000 wikis− 30 million documents− 40,000 blogs

Employee usage− 25 million web hits everyday − 5 million page views− 500,000 downloads everyday


#2 Corporate Reputation – had more than a few glitches


Key challenges

Early 2000 Strongly associated with its lighting and appliance products

which formed only a small percentage of the company business

Stakeholders were unaware of the diversified portfolio at GE− Understood in parts but not as a complete whole

Late 2000 Negative stories by mainstream media on the future of the

company− Financial difficulties in 2008-09 started casting aspersion on the

future outlook


Repositioned from ‘We bring good things to life’ to ‘Imagination at work’ in January 2003.


In 2008-09 front page stories in national business publications questioning viability of the company. Profits at GE Capital had dropped by 80% in Q2


Gary Sheffer, GE’s head of corporate communications realized they needed to communicate their story better.

Solution?


GE Reports


“This is a tough environment, a lot of misinformation in the market place. This is just a fast and simple way to punch through it and to make sure that you tell your story in a simple and engaging way.”

- Gary Sheffer on launch of GE Reports

Widely heralded as a new form of communicating with the investors on the Wall Street.

GE Reports – Current Scenario

Format Is an online blog that gives

viewers an inside glimpse at personalities, breakthroughs and technology

serves as a news channel blog

Audience Mainstream media Bloggers - news and

financial sites/blogs Investors Employees – current &

potential Tech & Science enthusiasts


GE Reports – What works Content configuration

Breakthroughs & science Applied technology People behind innovation Big and small stories

− Steady stream of interesting news

− Showcases a diversified portfolio

Customised consumption Content can be accessed

basis reader’s preferred channel

Distinct personality Passion for cool technology Unearthing lost stories Making big stories accessible Humor occasionally


Showcasing GE


Edison’s Desk launched in 2005


Showcasing the best of R&D work led by the Global Research Centre. Giving promising PhD candidates a view into work happening at GE labs

GE Show


Showcasing the GE product portfolio in an informal, friendly and conversational tone. Users can share feedback in the comments section.

Aggregating the expert network


Over 40 experts across 8 businesses are showcased as part of the expert network on Innovation.

#3 Consumer marketing


GE Healthymagination campaign with YouTube influencers in 2010


Activity - Reached out to six YouTube stars to make videos about healthy living as part of its Healthymagination programme

GE Healthymagination campaign with YouTube influencers


Outcome Combined the clips received over 12 million views

Value Delivered corporate message in an authentic voice

that’s more powerful than traditional advertising Leveraged their built-in distribution network

− Message percolated other networks as Facebook, Twitter via devoted subscribers

Helped reach a younger audience When traditional advertising stopped, this campaign

lived and continued to grow

Replicated the same programme for GE Ecomagination with 15 YouTube stars. Brief – challenge people to lead a greener life.

“Get Fit” campaign by GE Healthcare on Twitter

Global competition Encouraging people to

“Get Fit” and join the fight against cancer Share their healthy lifestyle

choices on Twitter Each country to have its

own hash tag. E.g. #GetFit_IND

$20,000 donation from GE healthcare to be given to Red Cross in the winning country

Over 700 participants from 55 countries generated 5,500 GetFit tweetsApril 7, 2023 © Scenario Consulting Private Limited 61

Innovative campaign at a global scale but did the different hashtag for each country approach really work?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As6H4xXAFZ0

#4 Community


Ecomagination Challenge Invited businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and students from around

the world to join the $200 million challenge and share solutions for world's energy problems

Tied up with 4 well-known venture capital firms to fund the winning ideas 3 categories

Create - Renewable Energy Connect - Grid Efficiency Use - EcoHomes/EcoBuildings

Selected winners offered opportunity to develop commercial relationship with GE Investment, Strategy, Development, Distribution and Growth

Selection Public vote but final decision to be made by the jury Cash award of $50,000 for entry with most user-submitted votes

Participation 70,000 visits 800 ideas submitted 10,000 comments 1,500 established companies participated -- 25 percent of which already

generate at least $2 million in annual revenue


Unlike Dell Ideastorm, community involved in sharing ideas. Selection done by the experts.


Why chose the vicious cycle, when you can chose the virtuous one

http://saynotoairtel.com


The importance of Har Friend Zaroori Hota Hai


The lack of story telling opportunities


The cost of “faking it”


Pantene fakes an interview


Pantene published questions, NOT, coined by Naina


Twitter and blogs abuzz with posts


Annexure


Framework for Social Business objectives & KPIs


Business Objective

Key Performance Indicators

Foster Dialog Share of Voice

Audience Engagement

Conversation Reach

Promote Advocacy Active Advocates

Advocate Influence

Advocacy Impact

Facilitate Support Resolution Rate

Resolution Time

Satisfaction Score

Spur Innovation Topic Trends

Sentiment Ratio

Idea ImpactSource: Altimeter Group and Web Analytics Demystified

Fostering Dialogue – measuring


Promoting Advocacy


Facilitating Support


Spurring Innovation


Measuring customer value in social age

Traditional scenarioLifetime value of the

customer(LVC) metric – a financial measure

Products &services bought by Customer X – cost of servicing Customer X = value added by the customer X on the company bottom line

Those who spend more =

A-list customers

New-age scenarioLifetime social influence anactivity of the customer

- Level of influence in context of our products, services, competitors or overall industry

- Participation in customer support communities, knowledge shared to resolve tier one issues (lowering service costs)


Role of social influence and activity on customer valuation


Thank you!

Social Media Case Studies

Business

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