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Social media case study from Suraya Bliss and Dave Tovar of Walmart

October 7, 2009

Come to BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media on November 10 in Atlanta to hear Coca-Cola, UPS, SunGard, Orange Business Services, ConAgra Foods, Turner Broadcast System, Newell Rubbermaid, and The Home Depot share case studies in corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal — in one afternoon, for just $250.

You’ll get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans. You’ll ask questions, discover new ideas, and get answers from people who have been there, done that — all in four hours.

Walmart’s Suraya Bliss, Sr. Director of Corporate Web Properties and Digital Technologies, along with Dave Tovar, Sr. Director of Digital Communications and PR, shared how they’re seeing success using social media internally in their BlogWell presentation, “Engaging with Massive Audiences,” including how 90% of Walmart’s associates are returning to their internal community, “mywalmart.com,” every 10 days.

In addition to how they’re using social media internally, Suraya and Dave also discussed the impressive results they’ve seen since allowing comments and reviews on Walmart.com, how they’re using social media to engage journalists and stakeholders at shareholder meetings, and how their Check Out blog has been able to share some of the unique stories about Walmart and the products they carry.

(Special thanks to our lead sponsor, Globalpark, for help making BlogWell Minneapolis possible.)

BlogWell Minneapolis Social Media Case Study: Walmart, presented by Suraya Bliss and Dave Tovar

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Tweets from BlogWell (and a big thanks to everyone who helped make the event a huge success)

August 17, 2009

BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media in Minneapolis on August 13, hosted by General Mills, was a fantastic sell-out event that featured some great social media case studies from McDonald’s, Mayo Clinic, Progressive, General Mills, Ford, Walmart, CME Group, and AccuQuote.

We’d like to extend a big thanks to lead sponsor Globalpark, as well as sponsors Jive, Visible Technologies, Biz360, Compendium Blogware, and Zocalo Group for help making BlogWell possible, as well as a thanks to local partners the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association, the Minnesota Chapter of the American Marketing Association, i612, and the Social Media Breakfast – Twin Cities who also provided significant support in bringing BlogWell to Minneapolis.

And a big thanks to all the folks that helped share the event via Twitter. If you missed it, here’s a few of the great tweets we saw:

Tweets from Mark Addicks of General Mills’ presentation: “Using Social Media to Reach Online Influencers”

hughweber: It is fascinating to just listen to execs from General Mills ask for insights from execs from McDonald’s…this is great #blogwell

fleurword: RT @halvorson: General Mills CMO: “Nothing is more fundamentally social than recipes.” Simple insight; somehow blowing my mind. #blogwell

gz_: General Mills CMO Mark Addicks: Brands move from creators to curators. #blogwell

chelseafanjj: RT @robbinphillips: #blogwell being social is not a department its a point of view: general mills #blogwell

cmortensen: RT @scottyhendo: General Mills used Pssst (150k influential consumers) to launch Progresso Chicken Broth – no trade, print, etc #blogwell

Tweets from Lee Aase of Mayo Clinic’s presentation: “Mixing Traditional Communications with New Tools”

gialyons: Flip recorder has changed how Mayo Clinic presents itself online – interviews of medical folks working on diseases, etc. #BlogWell

swaynewilson: Mayo clinic now “syndicating” their weekly radio broadcast via mp3 podcast. Will save $250K per year in syndication costs #blogwell

johnfschneider: Don’t just pitch the media, be the media. @gaspedal #blogwell Rock on Mayo Clinic!

tcar: Mayo Clinic’s Employee Social Media Guidelines. http://bit.ly/LL4t #blogwell

MegCanada: Interesting to hear Mayo talk about privacy concerns (sounds like what we do @hclib) #blogwell

Tweets from Matthew Lehman of Progressive’s presentation: “Social Media in ‘Unsocial’ Industries”

chavoen: RT @spikejones: Progressive used Twitter to monitor water levels in SD floods to know where to send their people. #blogwell

CraigPladson: Progressive understands how to articulate the business value of social media. Props to Matthew Lehman (@mattcleveland). #blogwell

almostthor: Progressive on social media “We need to be there because out customers are there.” #blogwell @gaspedal

ColleMcVoy: Progressive working with The Customer Respect Group to measure how well their brand is being “received” on Twitter & Facebook. #blogwell

deluxecorp: @progressive uses Twitter trends to determine what kind of content is on website and facebook page #blogwell

Tweets from Heather Oldani and Steve Wilson of McDonald’s presentation: “Social Media at Local, Regional, and Global Scales”

DigiLunch: McDonalds working on how 2 get employees 2 leverage their own Social Networks and become Brand Ambassadors RT @ryanestis #Blogwell

chelseafanjj: RT @wtongen: McDonalds put all social media efforts under national control not the 21 regions. #blogwell

copenhaver: listen, participate, lead …sound strategy by McDonalds #blogwell (via @chrscarpenter)

LadyRiposter: Estimated McDonalds is talked about every five seconds. Huge opportunity for them. 27 mil visit/day in the US alone. #blogwell

rickmahn: Looking at social media as another way to cultivate relationships with customers long term – McDonalds #blogwell

Tweets from Allan Schoenberg of CME Group’s presentation: “Finding Your Audience Online”

danmandle: After May Clinic and CME Group presos I’m convinced old media is not dead. It’s too great a partner for new/social media. #blogwell

deluxecorp: CME social media started on facebook and evolved from a page started by a fan in Norway. #blogwell

eBob: The CME wants to turn customers into fans. Brand enthusism. #blogwell

deluxecorp: CME using Twitter for customer service as well as news sharing for their customers. #blogwell

craigsanatomy: 3 things the CME uses SM: 1) Brand Enthusiasm: Turn customers into “fans” #blogwell

Tweets from Suraya Bliss and Dave Tovar of Walmart’s presentation: “Engaging with Massive Audiences”

bethkathan: @Walmart, 90 percent of employees log on to mywalmart.com every 10 days from HOME! #yam #blogwell

homedepot: Good ideas from Walmart about connecting customers, employees #blogwell

nathanschock: Corp Comms of Walmart: using Twitter as an early-warning system for conversations about their brand #blogwell

bethkathan: Walmart twitters from major meetings such as the shareholders’ meeting #yam #blogwell

chavoen: Walmart says “more loyal community when you move from transactional interactions to collaborative or engaged #BlogWell (via @infogroup)

Tweets from Scott Monty of Ford’s presentation: “Supporting Positive Online Word of Mouth”

GraemeThickins: MP3 of my interview with Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford, yesterday at #Blogwell Minneapolis: http://bit.ly/1f7CRA

mikemost: RT @spikejones: “We’re not measuring social media on sales. It’s not a 1-to-1 kind of thing.” @scottmonty of Ford #blogwell

LadyRiposter: What’s next for @Ford? Humanizing the company. Cross-training comm. staff, connection w/ enthusiasts, online training, etc. #blogwell

moria: Scott Monty at Ford “Its not what where saying about ourselves, it’s what other people are saying about us.” #blogwell

jesseengle: RT @LadyRiposter: Must-see video of Ford CEO Alan Mulally on Twitter. http://bit.ly/lyWfj #blogwell

Tweets from Sean Cheyney of AccuQuote’s presentation: “Social Media for the Analytic Marketer”

johnwernz: “(Social Media) We are able to track how many leads are generated, how much revenue we generate. ” @scheyney – Accuquote #Blogwell

deluxecorp: Love that AccuQuote is using Omniture to track leads and measure roi of blog, Twitter, facebook, YouTube. Great resource for me #blogwell

ColleenMick: Both @progressive and Accuquote claim they have the most boring product around. Still have successful social media. #blogwell

deluxecorp: AccuQuote is a life insurance company. Social media makes sense. They already communicate with every single client/prospect #blogwell

gaspedal: The diff uses of social media for AccuQuote: Lead generation, life insurance education, recruiting, PR, strategic partner promos. #blogwell

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Walmart: "Engaging with Massive Audiences" -- Live from BlogWell

August 13, 2009

2:10 — Andy Sernovitz introduces Suraya Bliss, Sr. Director of Corporate Web Properties and Digital Technologies, and Dave Tovar, Sr. Director of Digital Communications and PR.

2:12 — Suraya: One of the challenges we all face is how to make social media relevant to leadership and decision makers. What we did at Walmart was create a narrative of what challenges we faced, and what opportunities social media represented.

2:13 — Dave: 78% of our associates want to connect in some way online.

2:13 — Suraya: Another number that’s pretty relevant to us is that 22% of Americans know someone that works at Walmart or Sam’s Club — that’s more than 65 million people. That’s a huge reach.

2:14 — Dave talks about the latest Edelman Trust Barometer and how it showed that traditional media “trust” is on the decline, and the only category that’s increasing is “people like me.”

2:15 — Dave shares a couple of quotes from Walmart founder Sam Walton on how their brand is built on working together and keeping up on change.

2:17 — Suraya: We look at everything we do through that “purpose filter.”

2:20 — Dave explains how many touch points the company is focused on online: Blogs, Twitter, their corporate website… and how there are 100’s more.

2:21 — Suraya describes how Walmart is focused on delivering a consistent brand experience and message, every time.

2:22 — Suray: On July of 2007, Walmart.com launched their sharing and review components to their site. Since launch, they’ve gotten over a million reviews and comments, and more than 10,000 people that have submitted more than 20 reviews.

2:24 — Dave describes Walmart’s Check Out blog and how today they have 16 experts that share their experiences in dealing in buying things such as wine, videogames, etc. for Walmart.

2:27 — Suraya describes how Walmart is engaging journalists, investors and stakeholders by using social media to share live updates of their shareholder’s meetings.

2:28 — Dave: We are looking at Twitter, but one of the questions we always ask is: “What’s the point?” Dave shares an example of musician Chris Daughtry tweeting the brand, and how while they think it’s great, they’re still working to define the value of engaging in that channel.

2:30 — Suraya explains “mywalmart” — their internal community to communicate with associates. They began with forums, the ability to friend people, “sharing your story,” and chatting capabilities. The site launched in April, and they’ve found that 90% of associates are returning to the site every 10 days.

2:31 — Suraya shares an example of press releases and how they’re working to share those in plain English for associates. To do so, they’ve found success posting the release as a forum topic and simply letting associates comment and share thoughts — all without pre-editing the comments.

Q&A

Q: Are you reaching out to moms online?

A: Clearly it’s an important audience we’re looking to reach out to. We just had a big presence at BlogHer. But we’re still looking on where to go with those relationships.

Q: Did your employee website replace anything existing, such as a newsletter or magazine?

A: We have a corporate magazine, which is still in existence. We have editorial meetings to ensure the content is very consistent. There was another website that existed — walmartbenefits.com — we partnered with that team to create one URL to clearly tell associates ‘this is the place to go’ to get everything they needed about their company.

Q: How does competitors’ activities play in your strategies?

A: Obviously we follow our competitors. I think Best Buy is doing some interesting things. We pay attention to that, but we have a different business model, and different customers we’re trying to reach out to. For each category we have, we only have specific competitors we follow.

Q: Do you have any unique data that you collect on your most active users?

A: I don’t have the answer to that question, but we do have a team that follows our community and measures how active members are.

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Dell's Lionel Menchaca: Blending community and e-commerce

August 5, 2009

As we gear up for BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media in Minneapolis — hosted by General Mills — on August 13 featuring case studies from Walmart, McDonald’s, H&R Block, Mayo Clinic, General Mills, Ford, CME Group, and Progressive, we’re sharing case studies from our latest BlogWell event in San Francisco.

At BlogWell, you’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal — in one afternoon, for just $250. You’ll get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans. You’ll ask questions, discover new ideas, and get answers from people who have been there, done that — all in four hours.

Special thanks to our lead sponsor, Globalpark, for help making BlogWell possible.

In his BlogWell San Francisco case study presentation, “Blending Community and E-Commerce,” Dell’s Chief Blogger, Lionel Menchaca, explains how the company is working to share its community and forum content with more of Dell’s online audience.

In his presentation, Lionel shares how Dell is moving toward using single user ID’s across its many sites, how they’re looking to syndicate content across multiple channels, and how Dell is merging all blogs, forums, wikis, and media galleries onto a single platform.

BlogWell San Francisco Social Media Case Study: Dell, presented by Lionel Menchaca

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