ROI of Listening
NTC Presentation Notes
3.20.2008
Slide 1
Introduction: Even liberal arts kids can measure. It’s not all about math. You can measure stories and connections through documentation, too.
Slide 2
American Red Cross background: Post Katrina, ARC knew there were negative blog posts about it but had no capacity to respond or even monitor. Hired social media integrator to “combat” bloggers and to increase organizational transparency.
Slide 3
Listening is the What: First order of business to get handle on existing conversation. Hundreds of mentions across social media platforms each day. Exponential increase in times of disaster, nature, man-made and PR varieties. We monitor and track all of it, and respond to a lot of it.
Slide 4
Why We Listen : ARC wanted to correct misinformation, to be informed about public opinion, to track conversation trends, to identify influencers, to create relationships.
Slide 5
Outcome of Listening:
Successfully correcting misinformation
Able to track conversation trends (for example, know that most people who post about blood donation also mention type of cookie they receive afterwords – this informs advertising, PR outreach to increase blood donations)
Instead of “combating” bloggers, found most are passionate and positive and want to help, so now engaging them and giving them tools to tell their stories on big platform.
Slide 6
Outcome of Listening:
ADOPTION: Sharing social media mentions internally is increasing ARC employee social media adoption
CUSTOMER SERVICE: Compiled data for each line of service (Blood, Disaster Response, International Services, Health & Safety, Service to Armed Forces, Preparedness) with info regarding various aspects of customer service and the “end user experience.”
STRATEGY: Able to inform PR strategy example: J&J sues ARC for trademark infringement, monitoring real time mentions informed immediate strategy.
Slide 7
Listening Process Step 1: The search
Not rocket science – just keyword search across social media platforms, lots of em (Technorati for blogs, Flickr, YouTube, Terraminds, Facebook, etc).
If have special circumstance, use special additional keywords to track. For example, did lots of J&J searches during first days of trademark lawsuit.
Slide 8
Listening Process Step 2: Blog Update
Cull all of the daily mentions into a daily update email that’s distributed widely to internal ARC audience.
Compile by line of service and/or subject matter, depending on day’s news.
Note which posts I need help answering, consult with subject matter experts.
Generally keeps everyone abreast of daily conversation.
Slide 9
Listening Process Step 3: Response
Determine who will get a response, whether it’s a thanks or something that needs fixing/addressing.
Spend time reading, watching, or looking at the other content before responding.
Use judgment in avenue of response: email, comment, or leave it alone.
Slide 10
Listening Process Step 4: Tagging
Tag all posts mentioned in the Daily Blog Update by line of service and other appropriate keywords
Over time, evaluate areas where people find their intersection with the Red Cross to be compelling enough to post about publicly.
Good for tracking past outreach
Slide 11
Listening Process Step 5: Reporting
Send monthly update of aggregated conversation data categorized by line of service or disaster or big event
J&J example: We watched mentions to determine where various industries stood so we’d know whether to back off or continue our aggressive PR push to shame them into dropping the suit.
Slide 12
Listening Metric: Authority
Use # of readers and tools like Technorati authority to determine influence of mentions.
Authority matters but is not everything. Sometimes most compelling story or most pressing issue comes from social media user with smallest influence.
Slide 13
Listening Metric: Anecdotal Evidence
Internal Feedback
“The blog update helps me do my job better.”
“Makes me feel more connected to our stakeholders.”
“Helped me understand the power of social media.”
External Feedback
Most one-on-one outreach results in positive public response
“I’m glad to see you here”
“Thanks for reading!”
“You really helped me.”
“Great to interact with a human being over there.”
Write it down!
Document all of the anecdotal evidence of return on investment and keep it in one spot so you can easily grab it when questioned.
Slide 14
Challenges to Measuring ROI of Listening
ARC is stodgy and slow to change. Lots of baby steps are necessary for organization-wide adoption of social media.
Culture shift is huge for this organization. It is happening, but slowly.
Slide 15
Challenges to Measuring ROI of Listening
Firewall. Only a handful of employees are able to access ANY social media sites.
If more employees were able to view and interact, impact of listening would be MUCH broader.
BUT – with some of the evidence here, I’ve nearly convinced senior leadership of need for opening access.
Slide 16
Successes in Measuring ROI of Listening
By documenting the conversation, created value. Everyone wants the feedback now.
Documenting successful one-on-one outreach with stakeholders lays groundwork for future social media campaigns.
Taking the baby step of listening has made the case for integrating appropriate social media tools in all ARC communications – opening the door to 2 way communications department instead of one way.
Slide 17
Successes in Measuring ROI of Listening
By reading and reaching out, created external value as a listener. Send message that you matter as a stakeholder by taking time to listen and incorporate your ideas.
Achieving higher degree of transparency.
Slide 18
Key Learnings in Measuring ROI of Listening
Listening is a gateway drug to increased social media adoption
Easy to aggregate conversations into data to recommend systemic change and to inform organization of trends and possible strategies.
Don’t forget the little guys – they can become passionate influencers with continued relationship building.
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