Fed exsocialmediastudy findingsreport_final

The 2010 FedEx/Ketchum Social
Media Benchmarking Study

A Note from FedEx and Ketchum
Dear Colleague,

We are excited to present you with our findings and insights from the 2010 FedEx/Ketchum
Social Media Benchmarking Study—a comprehensive exploration of how social media
impacts today’s communications landscape. This document reflects the input of leaders
from over 60 top global organizations across most major industries.!

Study participants answered the social media related questions keeping many of us up at
night: How do we leverage social media to drive internal culture, brand performance, and
reputation management? What is the appropriate budget allocation to support social
media programming? How should we adapt internal structures to develop and roll out
social media strategies? What is the best way to measure the ROI of social media spend?

It is our sincere hope that you find the trends and best practices we uncovered as helpful
as we do, and that we will continue to build our collective strength in this new
communications frontier together. Thanks to all those organizations who committed their
time to this effort. This study would not have happened without your enthusiastic
participation.

Best,

Bill Margaritis David B. Rockland, Ph.D.
SVP, Global Communications Partner
& Investor Relations Ketchum, Inc.
FedEx Corporation 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Motivation & Methodology
FedEx and Ketchum initiated this study to benchmark best
practices in leveraging social media to drive internal culture,
brand performance, and reputation management.
Both organizations recognized a lack of in-depth
research regarding how social media impacts the
way companies program, budget, and set up their
teams.
Ketchum used a standardized interview protocol to
guide 30 minute conversations with Chief
Communications Officers or their Social Media Leads
at 62 leading companies across most major industries.
Interviews occurred between August and October
2010.

5

Participating Companies

6

Demographics:
a Wide Range of Industries

6% 3% 3%
Airline

15% 13% Consumer Products
Energy
Financial Services
12% Food & Beverage

7% Healthcare
Manufacturing
Other
3%
Professional Services
Retail
8% 9% Technology
Telecommunication
6%
15%
7

Executive Summary (1/2)
The way the world 100% of companies reported some degree of social
communicates is media engagement regardless of industry.
changing. You can Participants agreed that social media is a channel (not a
either adapt or strategy) that should be part of a holistic communication
become irrelevant. and marketing approach tied to business goals.
Companies recognized that social media is distinct from
traditional channels in its interactivity, transparency, and
embrace of informality. These characteristics demand
unparalleled degrees of collaboration across businesses and
functions including Communications, Marketing,
Legal/Compliance, and IT.
Participants repeatedly stressed the necessity for transparency and
authenticity in every social media program, no matter its simplicity
or sophistication.
Social media leaders argue that the voice and tone that works in traditional

means credible.

seven distinct phases: Listening, Reclaiming, Collaborating, Strategy &
Planning, Experimenting, Assessing, and Refining.

Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are the dominant social media platforms,
but participants repeatedly conveyed the need to stay on top of emerging
tools and technology in order to remain relevant.
8

Executive Summary (2/2)
Organizations recognized the rise of citizen journalism
to feedback, and the need to engage bloggers to support brand
development and reputation management.
play. Participants conveyed significantly greater focus on
external rather than internal social media applications, but
expressed strong interest in ramping up capabilities
primarily via enhanced intranets in 2011 and beyond.
Participants most frequently estimated spending between five
and fifteen percent of their overall communications budgets on
social media programming in 2010.
Organizations are trending towards more formal collaborative social
media oversight models that are inclusive of diverse business units and
functions.
Most organizations do not have formal internal learning programs
established to promote the development of social media expertise.
Companies continue to see the value in partnering with third parties to
develop and execute social media programming.

9

Defining Terms:
Social Media vs. Digital Assets
Participants agreed that social media and digital assets are equally
important, fundamentally different, and often complementary.
Social media is most commonly characterized as a means for two-
way dialogue with internal and external stakeholders.
Digital Assets are most commonly described as owned properties,
tools, or rich media content (e.g., websites, apps, or video) that
companies create to support online programming.
Companies use digital assets to enrich the conversations they
participate in via social media forums.
Externally, the most commonly leveraged social media
platforms include:

Digital assets and
social media go hand-

tools that power the
social web.
11

100% of study participants reported some degree
of social media presence.
The most common external objectives included:
Generating word of mouth advocacy
Developing brand loyalty and closer
relationships with customers
Addressing customer care issues
Educating costumers and media about
company-related issues
Supporting product/service launch/sales
Each major channel (Twitter, Facebook, and
YouTube) serves its own purpose and participants
were hesitant to compare effectiveness across
mediums.
Twitter is the favored channel supporting
customer care and media relations.
Facebook and YouTube are most frequently
leveraged to develop brand loyalty and closer
relationships with customers, and to share
product/service information.

ignoring it.

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Leadership, Participation, and Observation
Participants fell into three distinct categories based on their degree of social media
engagement. Current social media leaders are mostly B2C companies.

Leadership
Engrain social media in every aspect of communication.
Identify and integrate new social media tools on an ongoing basis. 10%
Employ in-house team of three or more social media specialists.

Participation

75%
Engrain social media in some aspects of communication.
Explore integration of new social media tools following validation from
businesses leading in the social space.
Hire 1 specialist and/or expand responsibilities of communicators to include
social media competence and rely on agency support for expert counsel.
Observation
Engrain social media in few aspects of communication.
Seek to build awareness of the social media landscape and
how to play effectively.
15%
Expand responsibilities of communicators to include social media
competence and rely on agency support for expert counsel. have to be a leader.

*Note: Percentages
reflect estimates
be a close follower. It
based on evaluation all depends what
of participant profiles
developed via
interviews.
achieve.
13

We found a strong social What About Companies in
media advocate on the
Compliance team, and Regulated Industries?
that made all the Companies in regulated industries
difference in the world (healthcare, financial services, energy,
in terms of selling our
etc.) reported social media participation
ideas in to
leadership. despite clear legal hurdles.

Participant Insights
4 ideas for social media success in
regulated industries
1. Research the rules regarding disclosure and
reporting.
2. Manage internal stakeholder expectations and
identify internal champions from across the
enterprise.
3. Establish a business case and ongoing
management plan with Legal/Compliance teams.
4. In particularly risk-averse cultures, consider
focusing social media outreach on a specific
theme like Corporate Responsibility efforts.
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B2C companies are
The B2B Opportunity leading the social
B2B companies also reported significant social
media programming across the major channels. B2Bs are just waking
up to these tools and
B2B participants lagged behind their B2C the best will learn
counterparts in terms of the depth and sophistication
of programming, but shared plans for ramping up how to leverage
participation. them to win.

3 ideas driving B2B social media trends

1. Even if buyers are senior and less likely to care
about social media, the managers who influence
them do.
2. As the prevalence of e-commerce continues to
grow, so does the opportunity to drive traffic to
websites through digital and social media
programming.
3. Video trumps words when it comes to explaining
products and services in simple, visually
compelling ways.
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External Social Media Programming

I realize everyone is
Strategy vs. Channel telling you social
media is a unicorn,
Participants agreed that social media is a
channel, not a strategy
horse?
Social media programming should be part of a
holistic communication and marketing approach
tied to business goals.

There was wide-spread agreement that social media is not a
Jay Baer,
Independent Social
Media Strategist
Companies recognized that social media is distinct from
traditional channels in its interactivity, transparency, and
embrace of informality.

These characteristics demand unparalleled degrees of
collaboration across businesses and functions including
Communications, Marketing, Legal/Compliance, and IT.

17

Crawl . Walk. Run. Be
Getting Started very deliberate about

very conscious along
media programs revealed seven distinct phases
the way.

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Nail the Fundamentals:
Participation & Planning

Two ways to crash and burn out of the gate (and how to avoid them)
LACK OF
ONGOING demands ongoing
PARTICIPATION participation the dialogue

LACK OF A
CRISIS RESPONSE media-oriented crisis
STRATEGY management plan to protect
against the risk of viral

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The Twin Pillars of
Transparency & Authenticity
Participants repeatedly stressed the necessity for transparency and
authenticity in every social media program, no matter its simplicity or
sophistication.
Social media leaders argue that the voice and tone that works in

CONVERSATIONAL = CREDIBLE

-up organizations
brands a matter of

for the company and its customers.
Organizations also expressed awareness of the online
-promotional.
You have to be Before launching any new social endeavor, ask yourself:
genuine online
same as the real WHAT VALUE ARE WE ADDING TO THE
world. People realize COMMUNITIES WE SEEK TO ENGAGE?

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Content is king the Participating companies characterized
tools are important but the content that is most often shared
they are only tools. among target audiences in two ways:
Authentic messaging is
ENTERTAINING OR HELPFUL

What makes content entertaining depends on the

highly regarded content.
Helpful content provides information about products or
services that enhances the customer experience.

shared via social media channels received
positive responses among customers.

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Using the Big Three: Twitter, Facebook,
and YouTube
The social media space is rapidly evolving and new technologies and
tools are consistently emerging. Even if companies are not using the
latest platforms, (e.g., Foursquare, Gowalla, Tumblr) most agree that

At present Twitter, Facebook, and
YouTube are the dominant platforms,
and in the following slides we feature
three celebrated programs from
participating companies.

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Tackling Twitter with GM
GM tackles reputation management using
multiple social media channels including Twitter.
Training employees to send a mix of both
personal and professional tweets and status
human side even through times of crisis.
To begin, GM developed an online social media
training portal for novice users and offered
advanced in-person courses for more web savvy
team members. About 2,000 employees
completed the online introduction in its first two
months alone and thousands more have
participated since. GM is currently updating its
social media policy and training approach to
require all employees to go through training
while creating two distinct groups of users
those who are authorized to speak on behalf of
GM and everyone else. GM social media training portal

Employee driven social media programming
bankruptcy and brand building efforts.
Employee tweet examples include:
Repaying taxpayers ahead of
schedule because we are designing,
Great weather for the building, and selling the best cars and
trucks ever.

Source: Miller, Lindsay. Can GM employees woo the country back through social media?
www.ragan.com. May 3, 2010.
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Facebook Fantasy with PepsiCo and Doritos

Doritos Canada leveraged Facebook
to promote a contest where users were asked to
name a mysterious new chip flavor and create a
30-second video commercial advertising it.

Doritos offered $25,000 and 1% of future consumer
sales to the winning commercial and name.

The contest drew over 75,000 participants, 14.5
million page views, and 2.1 million video views.

More than 900,000 consumers visited the Doritos
Facebook page over the course of the two-month
campaign.

Doritos' sales in Canada doubled during that time.

Source: Wood, Cara. Creative solutions from Doritos, Club ABC Tours, Meg Whitman.
Direct Marketing News. October 12, 2009.
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Utilizing YouTube with Ford

Ford gave away 100 Ford Fiestas for six months
complete with free gas, insurance, parking and a
concierge service to 100 lucky recipients.
Each one was sent
documented for public consumption and shared
across major social media platforms.
Official Fiesta Movement content has drawn 6.5
million YouTube views and 3.7 million Twitter
impressions.
The program has elicited the interest of about 50,000
currently drive a
Ford. Ford sold 10,000 units in the first six days of
sales.
Source: McCracken, George. How Ford Got Social Marketing Right. Harvard Business Review.
January 7, 20110.
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Navigating the Blogosphere
Organizations recognized the rise of citizen journalism and
the need to engage bloggers to support brand development everywhere.
and reputation management.
Concentrate on
where your
general media relations strategies.
consumers are.
Most companies stressed the need to differentiate between bloggers
with real influence versus those with relatively small followings leveraging
monitoring services to determine the appropriate level of engagement.

3 ideas supporting stronger
blogger relationships
1. Invite bloggers to on-site events and give them
special access to products and services.
2. Be transparent about relevant business goals and
ensure bloggers disclose their association with the
company.
3.

press releases to enable them to better use their
unique voices in posts.
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Internal Social Media Programming

Growing Interest in Internal Social Media
Applications
Participants conveyed significantly greater focus on external rather than internal social
media applications, but expressed strong interest in ramping up capabilities primarily
via social media equipped intranets in 2011 and beyond. The most frequently
referenced intranet features included leadership blogs, wikis, and -
interfaces.

40% of study participants already have social media equipped intranets

50% of study participants plan to redesign their intranets in the next one
to two years to include greater social media capabilities

of study participants do not have significant social

10% media intranet capability and do not plan to add
tools in the next one to two years
These tools
present a whole
*Note: Percentages new way of
reflect estimates
based on evaluation
collaborating
of participant profiles
developed via
across the
interviews. enterprise.
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Adding Value Inside the Enterprise
The most common internal social media objectives were:
Enhancing knowledge management
Supporting collaboration within and across teams,
functions, and geographies
Developing culture and community
Participants reported that investment in internal social
media applications is most strongly tied to tool
purchase and development. Upkeep and ongoing
management is not a major cost.
Organizations use intranet
analytics (blog development,
Employees are comments, discussion board
using social media activity, etc.) and broader
all the time at engagement and
communications survey results to
using the tools monitor and measure the impact
of internal social media
with in the programming.
workplace.
29

Three Keys to Effective
Intranet Management
Participants agreed on three critical steps guiding effective intranet
development and ongoing management:
1. Ensure proper leadership and employee buy-in.
Create a business case to build executive support.
Begin and end development with employee needs in mind not a
corporate vision.
Engage employees throughout the design process to develop a
user-centric experience.

2. Establish strategic roll-out plans including pilot programs.
Leverage formal internal communications channels and
informal influencers to drive awareness and adoption.
Ensure opportunities for training and dialogue about
how to leverage new tools. Be patient and
develop thick
3. Build ongoing governance and
moderation plans.
skin. It takes a
Establish clear roles and responsibilities to while to get an
ensure effective content management at effective intranet
corporate and local levels. off the ground.

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Developing Social Media Policies
4 themes regarding employee social media policy
development:
1. Most companies either have, or plan to develop social media policies in the

2. Effective policies are natural extensions of existing codes of
conduct. For example:
Keep confidential information private
Only speak on behalf of the company if authorized
Identify yourself as an employee if endorsing a
product/service

3. Strong policy development is the result of:
External benchmarking many policies are published
Cross-functional collaboration typically Comms/
Marketing, Legal/Compliance, and HR play leading roles

4. Employee buy-in and adoption of policies is driven by clear
internal communication and relevant learning opportunities.
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Operational
Implications
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Cracking the Code on Monitoring
& Measurement
Companies are distinguishing between monitoring of online mentions
and activity versus measuring the ROI of social media spend.
Participants cited Radian6 as the paid monitoring partner of choice,
but competitors such as BuzzMetrics, Evolve24, Focus, Symphony,
and Sysomos (among others) were also mentioned.
The most common free services include TweetDeck and Google
Alerts.
Participants generally agreed that there is no consistent,
reliable approach to measurement and determining ROI.
There is widespread agreement that looking solely at

sufficient.
Companies expressed the desire to improve the
Everyone is struggling way they assess quality of online interaction,
to figure out how you level of user engagement, and ultimately
determine the impact impact on business performance.
on the business. It
might not be a
dollar figure.
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Measurement Progress:
The Barcelona Principles
Top experts from the Association for Measurement and the Evaluation
of Communication (AMEC), the Public Relations Society of America
(PRSA), and other major industry organizations have established a set
of seven principles to guide communications measurement.

and outlines the following agreements to inform future social media
measurement efforts:

Organizations need clearly defined goals and outcomes for social media.
Media content analysis should be supplemented by web and search analytics, sales and
CRM data, survey data and other methods.
Evaluating quality and quantity is critical, just as it is with conventional media.

Understanding reach and influence is important, but existing sources are not accessible,
transparent or consistent enough to be reliable;; experimentation and testing are key to
success.

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How Much Does it Cost?
-
Money is allocated on a project by project basis by different functions,
divisions, or sub-brands, depending on type and need.
Participants most frequently estimated spending between five and fifteen
percent of their overall external communications budgets on social media
programming in 2010.
Most organizations predicted budget increases in social media spending
in 2011, but participants were hesitant to quantify growth estimates.
Social media programming budgets may be off-set by investment in
talent (FTEs) with specific social media-related roles (salary is a
fixed cost).
Typically, there is more budget allocated
to digital assets than social media
programming
more established, better understood,
and easier to measure.
on investment
you have to put
in to get out.

35

The Evolution of the
Social media is forcing
Communications Team business units to
Structure collaborate in ways
they never have
Communications tends to oversee social media programming before. You really have
and execution, but Marketing also plays a leading role to be aligned across
particularly when social media programming is oriented around
product launch and promotion. Legal/Compliance teams are more the enterprise.
integrally involved in social media programming in regulated industries.

Organizations are trending towards more formal collaborative social
media oversight models that are inclusive of diverse business units and
functions (Comms, Marketing, Legal/Compliance, Business Leaders).

There are disparate approaches to evolving team structures. Some organizations
have created new groups of 1-10 people focused exclusively on social media.
Others rely on current staff to expand their expertise. The direction of choice

content to be participants.

Most organizations are either already including or plan to include a degree of
social media competency in job descriptions.

36

Building Social Media Capabilities
Most organizations do not have formal internal learning programs
established to promote the development of social media expertise.
Participants leverage the following learning solutions to support social
media competence building among communications team members:
Peer-to-peer training: Many companies identified internal social
media experts and empowered them to bring colleagues up to
speed.
Reverse mentoring: Younger professionals are frequently
tapped to onboard more experienced team members.
One-off courses provided by agencies: Most participants
mentioned leveraging agency-sponsored workshops to
build social media knowledge.
Many participants advocated attending
social media conferences, but works great to have
highlighted that many cover familiar a peer lead training
territory and the most effective ones sessions. People are
are targeted at their particular more receptive to
industries. new ideas from
someone they
37
know.

You need an expert Agencies & Vendors
whether in-house or
agency-based to Most organizations continue to see value in
really make the most partnering with third parties to develop and execute
of social media. social media programming.

Participants reported that PR and Advertising firms both
have significant influence as social media counselors.

Boutique digital and social media shops also provide valuable
insight to a smaller portion of study participants.

Most companies did not share plans to significantly shift the
nature or scope of agency engagement.

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Concluding Thoughts & Contact Details
Social media is disrupting the way the world communicates and
companies must continue to evolve how they interact with people to
remain relevant.

The pace and scope of change as new tools and technology emerge
demands an unparalleled degree of organizational nimbleness.

As digital and social tools become the go-to resources for everything
from news and information to friendship and love, smart brands will
continue to figure out better ways to add value to the online
experience internally and externally.

We look forward to addressing your feedback, questions, or comments.

Renee Horne Daniel Dworkin
Director, Digital & Social Media Engagement Senior Consultant
FedEx Corporation Ketchum Pleon Change
rlhorne@fedex.com daniel.dworkin@ketchum.com

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