BlogWell Seattle 2010 Takeaways – Board Game Edition

• May 6th, 2010
• Posted by Grant
• Posted in BlogWell, Boeing, Case Studies, Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, Social Media, Social Media Events, Starbucks

Have you ever played the game Taboo? Your partner picks a card with a specific word on it. They try to get you to guess the word without using five “taboo” words, which would likely give away the answer, while an hourglass quickly empties.

BlogWell may be the “Taboo” of social media conferences. In a series of “lightning round” case study presentations, speakers had 20 minutes to boil down multi-million-dollar global integrated marketing campaigns into actionable takeaways for an audience comprised of marcom consultants, agencies and brand managers from companies like Cisco, McDonald’s, TiVo and Kraft.  Each presenter shared their success stories, all without giving away the secret sauce (those “taboo” words).  After 20 minutes, the audience left feeling like either winners or losers, depending on their ability to guess the key takeaways from all the content.

For those with “140-character” attention spans, the model was likely a refreshing change of pace compared to conferences where PowerPoints feel more like Monopoly than War. I left the conference wondering what key messages attendees would bring back to their companies.  Here’s what I heard:

• Read the directions to everyone. Whether you like it or not, your social media presence is touching every person at your company in some fashion, turning everyone into a potential spokesperson, evangelist or fire-starter. So, while social media is often “owned” by some sort of marketing team, infusing best practices into the broader culture is key.  At one end of the spectrum, Frank Shaw from Microsoft discussed the simple advice his company gives employees:  “Be smart.” On the other end, Bryan Rhoads from Intel described a robust employee training program with a series of 100-400-level course videos followed by a formal certification. Regardless, instituting a social media policy and sharing it company-wide is imperative.

• Decide how to keep score. Todd Blecher from Boeing noted that while he has no idea whether they should have 800 or 800,000 Twitter followers, he does know that Boeing’s overall reputation is what he needs to measure success against. On the other side, Molly Schonthal from Nokia said they have more than 10 metrics that they break into categories of success: 1) Fostering Dialogue, 2) Promoting Advocacy, 3) Facilitating Support, and 4) Spurring Innovation. You can make up your own scoring system, but at least make sure everyone on your team knows it.

• Don’t play Solitaire. Integration across the marketing mix is key. We all talk about it, but getting multiple business groups, agencies and a cross-section of paid-owned-earned media marketers at one table is as easy as guessing the killer-weapon-room combo during a rousing game of Clue. Alex Wheeler’s presentation of Starbucks’ social media efforts demonstrated a uniquely integrated approach, which Alex attributed to two critical things:  1) integration among senior executives and their buy-in that an integrated approach is imperative, and 2) putting the customer at the center and looking at social media from their point of view, vs. planning and making decisions based on an org chart.

• Win at a losing game. Viral videos! Likes! Deals! Mayors! Don’t forget about the not-so-fun online conversations that are impacting your brand perception. Audiences have taken the customer service issues away from the call center and plastered them all over the internet – and away from your owned properties, no less!  These conversations have changed the customer service game entirely, because now the whole world can watch the issue unfold (if they care). Suddenly, a small issue has evolved into a Jenga tower, teetering on the verge of collapse. Nestor Portillo of Microsoft’s customer service org described how they have a team of social media agents, escalation processes and listening tools in place to track customer service issues across the internet.

Surprisingly, common hot topics at most recent social media conferences like mobile, geo-location, and measurement tools weren’t really discussed at BlogWell…perhaps because of time limitations?

Thanks to GasPedal, the Social Media Business Council and Microsoft for putting on an interesting and unique conference.

What did you think of BlogWell?