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Social media has revolutionised media
consumption and consumer behaviour. In Germany, 60% of people
online already use social media sites like studiVZ, Twitter and
Facebook.
This transformation has challenged
conventional communication models. Marketers know they need to be
where consumers are but many struggle to generate real
benefits.
A recent survey - conducted by Social
Media Examiner - found that 92% of marketers in Germany cited
Facebook as their number one social media tool with 84% saying
Twitter was of high importance for their company.
But it's not just the marketing
department that's had to get to grips with a revolution. The range
of company functions that can profit from social media extends from
marketing to sales to customer support and beyond.
One brand that does seem to be
thriving on these complex platforms is Deutsche Telekom, Germany's
leading telecommunications provider. It's using social media to
build both brand equity and benefit customers.
Two new initiatives in particular
highlight the company's attempts to get to grips with the real
benefits of social media.
A recent campaign entitled "Telekom
Million Voices", featuring German singer Thomas D, invited everyone
to join the biggest online choir in history. Launched using TV
advertising as well as radio and social media it encouraged
consumers to film themselves, with selected performances used as
part of the campaign.
Another example of Telekom's ambitions
in this area is new customer service channel @Telekom_hilft. This
enables the company to interact via Twitter, Facebook as well as
via http://www.telekom-hilft.de and more
traditional call centres. Consumers can write their questions and
opinions on Telekom_hilft-channels and get near real-time feedback
from Deutsche Telekom's social media team.
We sat down with the initiators of
Million Voices, Jürgen Wermuth, Head of Online Marketing and Social
Media Telekom Deutschland, Volker Krön, Senior Manager Online and
Social Media Marketing Telekom Deutschland, and the leader of the
Telekom_hilft strategy, Andreas Bock, Head of Social Media
Management Sales and Service Telekom Deutschland, to ask them about
their approach to social media.
Q: How do you think
communications has changed with the rise of social media
platforms?
Jürgen Wermuth: With
social media communication has become more direct. Both parties -
companies and customers - gain a lot of advantages. Not only can
customers and companies talk to each other in a more direct way,
but companies can also learn more about what customers think of
their products. If a company learns to use this information in the
right way, it can be of great value.
Q: How do you utilise
social media as a gateway to consumers?
Andreas Bock: We
chose a multichannel strategy to address our different target
groups in the most appropriate way. Our Million Voices campaign and
our customer service via "Telekom hilft" are good examples for
this. While the customers can experience professional customer
support via "Telekom hilft" channels, they can experience the
brand, as well as quality of our products and network via the
Million Voices campaign.
Q: How do you value
social media benefits across different departments?
Volker Krön: We have
established different information circles to align activities
internally, share our experience and co-ordinate our communication.
The idea is to ensure that all the company's messages work
together.
Q: How are you
spreading social media expertise through your company?
JW: Deutsche Telekom
has established a company-wide Enterprise 2.0 project, controlled
by an office called Center of Excellence. Within this project we
implement the company's social media strategy, develop social media
guidelines and share best practice efforts. Included on the working
group are representatives from all departments that are engaged in
2.0 activities such as marketing, communications, HR, customer
service and IT.
Q: What is the
long-term impact of social media campaigns like Million Voices for
Deutsche Telekom?
JW: The Million
Voices campaign was designed to demonstrate the high quality of
Deutsche Telekom's mobile and fixed line network whilst giving
consumer a chance to experience this quality in a highly emotional
way. In general, social media and participatory campaigns perfectly
express our brand claim "Life is for sharing" and create a
dialogue, not only between Deutsche Telekom and our customers, but
also between customers. Successful campaigns therefore have the
potential to turn customers into long-term brand ambassadors.
Q: How do you assess
the value of a social media campaign like Million Voices for
Telekom?
VK: The assessment of
social media campaigns takes into account two main factors. On the
one hand, we have a lot of quantitative data such as fan numbers,
video views or uploads, comments, likes, tweets and blog entries
that can be measured quite precisely. This data expresses coverage
and a degree of interactivity. On the other hand we also monitor
the tonality of comments as a qualitative factor. In combination
these two measures give us a very good picture how successful
campaigns are.
Q: What metric is
used as a benchmark for social media campaigns? Do you put a value
on each fan?
JW: There is no
comprehensive and widely accepted model for benchmarking owned and
earned media in the social web. We expect such models to be
developed in the next 12 months. Until then, we are using media
equivalence calculations to define our Social Media ROI .
Q: How would you
describe Telekom`s engagement in social media? Is Telekom just a
sender brand or is it even more than that?
AB: We want to
improve our customers' experience. Therefore we are trying to
establish a dialogue with our customers and prospects to develop
sustainable and valuable relationships. We also want to empower our
existing customers to become loyal customers and brand
advocates.
Q: How many people
are responsible for customer support via Twitter and Facebook?
AB: We have 13
full-time employees who translate into 34 "faces to the customer",
because the team members work across several teams to facilitate
the exchange of knowledge and experience.
Q: What are the
crucial skills you need to be part of Telekom`s Twitter and
Facebook team?
AB: The core
competency is an excellent knowledge of our products and services
and the enthusiasm to explore this new kind of conversation with
customers. Customer service colleagues must be able to express
themselves adequately in the context of Twitter and Facebook.