The quarterly journal of social business thought leadership, published by Dachis Group.

1. THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL
THE A-TEAM.
ISSUE 02 · Q1 2013
IT’s the advocacy era — and ADVOCATES ARE THE SUPERHEROEs PLUS: CREATE AN
advocacy PROGRAM
in tHE FAST-PACED WORLD OF Performance Brand Marketing P10 IN 7 steps P13

2. 2 THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL ISSUE 02 Q1 2013 3
THE ADVOCATES ARE BETTER
SOCIAL + CONTACT US
MARKETERS THAN YOU.
BUSINESS
DACHIS GROUP And Dachis Group’s Advocate Insight identifies and ranks a brand’s advocates
515 Congress Avenue based on their affinity to and interaction with specific social accounts of the brand.
Suite 2420
Austin, Texas 78701
JOURNAL
USA
AMERICAS: +1 512 275 7825
EUROPE: +44 0 20 7357 7358
www.dachisgroup.com
sbj@dachisgroup.com
+ DEPARTMENTS + ISSUE 02 · Q1 2013
PUBLISHER CONTRIBUTORS
4
BY DAVE GRAY Jeffrey Dachis Adam Clark Estes
EDITOR'S NOTE EDITOR IN CHIEF
Dave Gray
Claire Gaul
Jacob Heberlie
Peter Kim
Social is about authentic engagement, promising unprecedented access
6 to customers (900M Facebook users) and insights (350M tweets/day).
THE BEST OF OUR BLOG
Brian Kotlyar
THE COLLABORATORY MANAGING EDITOR
Lara Hendrickson
Olga Kozanecka
Kelly Kriegshauser
James Macanufo But how do you reach your audience with just a handful of community managers?
8
THE SOCIAL BUSINESS INDEX
CREATIVE DIRECTOR W. Scott Matthews
ON THE MOVE IN SBI Bill Keaggy Ted May
Rachel Meyerson To scale social engagement, smart brands are mobilizing advocates, partners,
30
SENIOR ILLUSTRATOR Lauren Picarello
UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE WITH EMPATHY MAPS
Chris Roettger Ray Renteria and employees to engage with their audience and spread their message.
VIsual THINKING SCHOOL PROJECT MANAGER
Carly Roye
Susan Scrupski
35
BY SUSAN SCRUPSKI Krystal Spitz Allison Squires
SOCial BIZ INSIDER Rick Vlaha
90 to be the
% of internetmost credible form of advertising.
PRINT MANAGER David Vordtriede
Lisa Vorst Jeff Wilson users consider consumer recommendations
[Emarketer, 2011]
PRINTER COVER ILLUSTRATION
+ FEATURES Stolze Printing David Vordtriede
67 an online
% of shopperscommunity of friends. recommendations from
spend more online after
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
10
BY Brian Kotlyar, Rachel Meyerson, & Lauren Picarello
THE ADVOCACY A TEAM ISSN 2166-3742 [Gannett and The Etailing Group, 2009 ]
14
ISSUE HASHTAG #SBJ02
ADVOCATE INSIGHT
ADVOCACY AT VODAFONE UK: olga kozanecka interviews...
JAKub Hrabovsky + ABOUT DG & SBJ
18
a book excerpt BY DION HINCHCLIFFE & PETER KIM
Dachis Group helps improve your brand perfor-
ADVOCACY & SOCIAL CRM mance by measuring and managing your social
engagement via a powerful suite of SaaS tools Advocates are a more scalable — and more trusted — source for spreading
and services. The Social Business Journal is a
your story to the market. It all comes down to trust and money.
22
a timeline by carly roye, bill keaggy, & chris roettger
free quarterly publication by Dachis Group. No
milestones in social biz part of this publication can be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
To learn more, sign up for a 1:1 tour at dachisgroup.com/tour
by any means (electronic, photocopy, etc.), except
24
a book excerpt BY DAVE GRAY
as permitted by the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act,
THE CONNECTED customer without permission of the publisher. Requests
can be submitted at sbj@dachisgroup.com.
Any comments? Questions? Suggestions? Visit
32
DATA VISUALIZATION by jacob heberlie
dach.is/02-sbj to let us know what you think.
DISNEY's TWITTERVERSE Copyright 2012 by Dachis Corporation. All rights reserved.

3. 4 THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL ISSUE 02 Q1 2013 5
For global brands, social brings both the promise of
CONNECTING WITH
MILLIONS OF CUSTOMERS.
+ EDITOR’S NOTE: DAVE GRAY
Welcome to the advocacy era
Social Business makes engagement a necessity
I n this quarter’s issue we focus on
advocates — the genuine fans who
spread positive word of mouth for
by earning the energy and loyalty of
advocates, both inside and outside
their organizations. True advocates
and the challenge of how to
SCALE YOUR ENGAGEMENT
your brand. cannot be bought. Their energy and
As customers adopt social network loyalty must be earned. In this issue
technologies, word of mouth has in- of The Social Business Journal, we
AND MEASURE BUSINESS IMPACT.
creased in importance to the point that highlight some stories, strategies,
today, customers can make or break and tactics* that will help you create
a brand by spreading their satisfac- strong social advocacy programs for
tion, delight or dismay to thousands your brand.
of people instantaneously. With digital They expect you to respond quickly Enjoy the issue — your feedback is
publishing and search engine index- to their opinions, messages, and encouraged and appreciated. n
ing, one consumer opinion may rapidly complaints. Unfortunately, most Best,
reach over two billion people online. brands are woefully understaffed
Today, brand marketers truly have and under-budgeted to engage at
no choice — customers increasingly scale successfully. But some brands
expect you to be in social channels. have succeeded, and even excelled, Dave Gray | @davegray
“ Customers increasingly expect you to be in social
channels. They expect you to respond quickly to Faced with a limited staff, many brands are turning to their
their opinions, messages, and complaints.” constituents — including advocates, employees, and partners —
to scale their engagement across customers, fans, and followers.
* THE ADVOCACY ISSUE: WHAT ’S INSIDE
EMPLOYEE INSIGHT
is a subscription software service that helps you mobilize
and measure your comapany’s staff to spread your message
across social channels and measure brand impact.
To learn more, sign up for a 1:1 tour at socialbusinessindex.com/employeeinsight
STORIES | Imagine what you’d do if your STRATEGIES | Jakub Hrabovsky talks about TACTICS | Dion Hinchcliffe & Peter Kim
Facebook wall gets overrun with negative completely changing social strategy, from mar- explain the four minimum capabilities a
comments. Got advocates? PAGE 10 keting messages to true engagement. PAGE 14 social CRM solution should have. PAGE 18

4. 6 THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL ISSUE 02 Q1 2013 7
+ B L O G R O U N D U P : D A C H I S G R O U P. C O M / B L O G
The best of the Collaboratory
EDITED BY CARLY ROYE & LARA HENDRICKSON
ILLUSTRATIONS by CHRIS ROETTGER
Accelerate using Be curious, Five keys to great European diversity Building successful SAP’s slow start
employee advocates not furious employee advocacy makes social difficult advocacy programs in social
By Dion Hinchcliffe By Peter Kim By Brian Kotlyar By Olga Kozanecka By Kate Rush Sheehy By Susan Scrupski
EVP Strategy Former CSO Senior Strategist Consultant Former Strategist Founder, SBC
Washington D.C. Austin Austin London Austin Austin
@dhinchcliffe @peterkim @bkotlyar @olga_nk @katerushsheehy @ITSinsider
O ne of the most under appreciated
components of social business is P ublic forums are open doors for de-
tractors. Whether online or offline, C onsumers don’t trust companies
— they trust other consumers.
Brands around the world are realizing
If European consumers are among
the world’s most connected, why are
their brands known for being so so-
I t’s no news that creating a major
advocacy program takes plenty of F or the past five years, there has
been a reoccurring theme of SAP
actually your most accessible re- there will always be individuals who time and money, but could that be giving social the cold shoulder. We’re
source for achieving social success. try to build themselves up by belittling that customer advocates are essential cially clueless? DG London Consultant the understatement of the year? DG starting to see them embrace the
Employee advocacy happens when others, and the Internet is their favor- in turning prospects into buyers, but Olga Kozanecka explores the reasons Managing Strategist Kate Rush Sheehy principles of social business, but
a business carefully cultivates their ite playground. From bloggers looking could their most valuable advocates why most European brands are falling recently attended a crash course for could they be doing it all wrong? For
employees, and turns them into effec- to get hired after publicly insulting a be right in the mirror? Employee short of engaging their socially savvy marketers hosted by WordOfMouth.org, starters, SAP has chosen to begin
tive, empowered participants. Having brand’s social media campaign, to advocates are the untapped support customers, and how one company is where she learned just how much time their social journey with two sub-par
a small group of social managers to online fans who turn against a com- system that companies are missing out doing it right. Because these brands and money it can take. Brands tend to social platforms that have seen little
engage, interact, and help millions pany that won’t hire them, there is on. Not only are employees experts haven’t invested the time or resources get discouraged when time passes and traction in large enterprises. Social is
of customers just isn’t feasible, and no shortage of virtual jerks. Peter Kim on the company’s products, but they into social, they haven’t found a way they don’t see immediate results, but about reinventing the way we work,
automated engagement tools practi- has seen it all and offers his advise for represent a trustworthy relationship to capture the linguistic and cultural some of the most successful ambas- and until SAP grasps that, they will
cally kill all previous efforts. Not only dealing with the noise: don’t get furi- between employer and company to the differences of Europe’s diverse geog- sador programs have taken years to ac- never capture the human potential of
are your employees experts on your ous, get curious. rest of the world. DG Senior Strategist raphy. Only when you blend central complish, not to mention huge chunks social media.
business, but they are also a plentiful Brian Kotlyar explores five key factors and local efforts can brands capture of marketing budgets. Don’t give up! A
resource made up of people who have to successfully running an employee an audience as connected and social successful advocacy program is always
vested interest in seeing your com- advocacy program, and determining as Europe’s. worth the hard work.
pany succeed. whether or not your company is ready.
Read the entire blog post at dach.is/QPr24S Read the entire blog post at dach.is/QPrjoe Read the entire blog post at dach.is/QPqT16 Read the entire blog post at dach.is/QPqBr4 Read the entire blog post at dach.is/QPrGPG Read the entire blog post at dach.is/QPrpwh

5. 8 THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL ISSUE 02 Q1 2013 9
+ SOCIALBUSINESSINDEX.COM: A SNAPSHOT OF MOVERS
Social successes on SBI
BY ALLISON SQUIRES & ADAM CLARK ESTES
GRAPHICS by RICK VLAHA & JEFF WILSON
+ W H AT W E ’ R E R E A D I N G :
BOOKS & BLOGS
Good to Great: Why
As the world becomes an increasingly noisy space, brands continue to look for Picarello. One post featuring colored
Starbucks Some Companies
dresses earned 10,000 likes and over Make the Leap...
ways to scale their social engagement and measure performance. The Social 300 comments, in part thanks to the and Others Don’t
Business Index, a free site run by Dachis Group, has quickly become an industry brands expanding global presence. Pi- By Jim Collins
carello added, “We expect to see Forever
benchmark for Social Business performance, measuring and ranking the social 21 continue gaining traction in the sum-
Cynthia Pflaum (@cpflaum)
Strategist, New York
conversations across 30,000 companies and 100 million social accounts. mer months across social platforms as
the engaging content stream continues
its shift from colored denim to colored A Hologram
E ach week, The Atlantic Wire and Da-
chis Group take a look at who’s making
a move in social, how they’re engaging
WWE videos and retweets of WWE wrestlers’
content — and updates its Facebook page
at least half a dozen times a day. The
bikinis.”
Did you know that the Frappuccino
Facebook page has 9.3 million fans?
for the King
By Dave Eggers
and why it matters. This article showcases frequency and well balanced variety end It’s true, and they’re active. Starbucks Zoë Scharf (@zoescharf)
a few brands highlighted in the weekly up giving voracious fans just the excite- broke back into the top 10 this week Designer, St. Louis
“Top 20 in Social Media” series, which ment they crave. Wendy’s thanks to a well executed Frappuccino
can be found at dach.is/PpuHM7. promotion and a community service
Over the past few months, we saw campaign. For the former, Starbucks
brands swing up and down on the Social invited its customers to post Twitter and “I frequent Thedaily
Business Index. From riding the coattails Instagram images of their favorite frozen wh.at & adweek.com/
of the Instagram announcement to the Remember wrestling? The fake sport Forever 21 coffee treat during a weeklong Frappuc- adfreak for industry
excitement of a brand announcing new company WWE (formerly WWF) that cino Half Price Happy Hour promotion, and cultural news.”
products or events, spring brought some hit its peak popularity in the 1990s is and those that added the hashtag #frap- Nate Custard (@natecustard)
interesting shifts in the social sphere. surging in social media in April thanks to puccinohappyhour had the chance to Associate Creative Director,
A few common takeaways from brands innovative uses of the theatrical elements This was the week of Instagram and Lincoln
win prizes. There was also the chance
making big moves: that make wrestling entertaining in the Wendy’s managed to get a boost in
to create your own Frappuccino mixes
1. A diligent and effective social media first place. WWE jumped 16 spots on the the rankings thanks to a single photo. The Art of the Start
online and share them with friends.
team that responds quickly and con- Social Business Index and entered the top Zooming up 14 ranks to No. 103, the By Guy Kawasaki
“Starbucks takes deliberate measures to
sistently shows fans they can reach ten. “The lift was catalyzed by two televi- fast food chain simply put an Insta-
create social components for many Joe Pinaire (@joeknowsjoe)
the brand via social sion events (Wrestlemania and Monday Forever 21 is creeping towards the top gram photo of fries dunked in a Frosty
investments in their marketing portfolio, Associate, Austin
2. Providing fans with interesting and Night Raw), but what really caused the 100 having boosted itself 22 spots on Facebook, and fans responded in
a lesson all companies should learn,”
relevant content inspires influencers to rankings shift was the interplay of current in the ranks this week landing at No. droves. Nearly 7,000 of them in fact.
says David Mastronardi of Dachis
syndicate content to their friends and past wrestling legends on the screen 136. Believe it or not, it was all about What really helped is posting the photo
on Wendy’s subsidiary Frosty page for Group. In addition to Starbucks
3. Leveraging multi-media content related combined with an online content blitz,” the weather for the fast-fashion retailer.
its two million fans to see. It wasn’t so employees launching local projects, the
to a current event engages and excites said Dachis Group strategist Brian Kotlyar. Rather than simply adding updates to
Vote Give Grow program used online The Age of Spiritual
a brand’s audience And blitz is a perfect word to use, as Facebook, Forever 21 takes it a step much that the picture was pretty, Dachis
ballots to help give out $4 million in Machines: When
4. Adding a social component to a brand WWE didn’t necessarily do anything par- further and provides its fans with useful analyst Allison Squires explained: “Both Computers Exceed
ticularly innovative in order to build buzz content like fashion tips and notices the Wendy’s and the Frosty Facebook funding to 124 non-profits. Because
campaign greatly amplifies marketing Human Intelligence
around their events. Their social media about sales. “Whether it’s colored denim pages appealed to their audience the ballots were shareable, the program
efforts in the online space By Ray Kurzweil
team was just plain diligent and efficient. or colored hair chalk, fashion followers through this picture by sparking a play- drummed up some good chatter across
The following excerpts were written by Jed Singer (@jedsinger)
The company tweets roughly once an have a lot to dive into on Forever 21’s fully delicious debate.” But seriously social media platforms. And all for a
Adam Clark Estes (@adamclarkestes) at Engagement Manager,
hour — a mix of links back to photos and Facebook page,” says Dachis’s Lauren have you ever tried it? good cause! n
The Atlantic Wire. Philadelphia n

6. 10 THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL ISSUE 02 Q1 2013 11
THE A-TEAM.
IT’s the advocacy era — and ADVOCATES ARE the SUPERHEROEs
in tHE FAST-PACED WORLD OF Performance Brand Marketing.
BY Brian Kotlyar, Rachel Meyerson, & Lauren Picarello
ILLUSTRATIONS BY DAVID VORDTRIEDE
Imagine this scenario: It’s 8:00 a.m. on January 12, 2012 and the half dozen social
media staff members at a company called Triple T Teas wake up to find the brand’s
Facebook page overrun with negative comments. The usual positive conversation
has been replaced by curiosity and outrage. Fans are engaged in a back and forth
debate — are Triple T Teas unhealthy? While some are questioning the basic ingre-
dients of Triple T Teas, many more are watching from the sidelines. How does a
staff of six begin to systematically address this public relations issue taking root on
a social platform in front of such an enormous audience?

7. 12 THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL ISSUE 02 Q1 2013 13
risks and opportunities what is advocacy? nutrition debaters ensue. Triple T Teas to business as usual in a matter of hours.
in a social age Credibility of CEOs and government officials plummet while For brands, advocacy is the activation follows a steady drumbeat of carefully Companies that have endured far worse
Many companies, like Triple T Teas,
have embraced social media as a place to
peers and regular employees see dramatic rise of people who are, or could be, pas- written broadcast communications and crises in recent months — Chapstick,
sionate enough to engage on behalf of feeds a steady diet of trustworthy, ac- Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase to
interact with customers, prospects and
the brand and ultimately expand the curate talking points and insider updates name a few — could stand to learn a thing
interested bystanders in novel ways. Over
customer base. to its advocacy community. or two from Triple T Teas’ tactics.
eight million brands have established
Advocacy goes beyond the idea of The result? A rapid decline in crisis con- How can other organizations leverage
pages on Facebook alone. With such
influencer outreach and beyond even versation and a calm exit from crisis mode advocacy to obtain similar results?
unprecedented access, however, come
word of mouth as a driver of commercial
challenges. How can an organization
transactions. Advocacy in the age of social
authentically engage with such a large
audience? What happens when internal
media encompasses the full gamut of HERE’S HOW — AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE ON HOW TO
UTILIZE advocacy in 7 steps:
potential positive outcomes that could be
business process breaks down? Or a crisis
driven by a passionate and empowered
occurs? The rules are changing and large
individual. These outcomes range from
organizations must change with them.
word of mouth referrals, new product
ideas, to crisis management and most DEFINE OBJECTIVES > identify > Recruit > ACTIVATE > amplify > MEASURE > learn & OPTIMIZE
why we need advocates importantly — brand building.
10:00 a.m.
Triple T Teas’ marketing decision mak-
ers hold an emergency meeting. What
what advocates do
For some, advocacy is very narrowly
W ith social business, we now have the ability to see the true value of ad-
vocacy and to use it as a lever to drive performance. At Dachis Group,
we’ve broken down advocacy programs into a seven stage maturity curve
is happening on the Facebook page and
defined as a source of referrals, a way to that enables us to quickly implement advocacy programs and prove business
most importantly, what do we do about it?
distribute samples, or a source of product outcomes at large organizations.
The typical social media PR playbook is
recommendations. Each of these is The creation of an advocacy program is a seven step process: define objec-
quickly activated with a variety of tactics
measured for its direct ability to influ- tives, identify, recruit, activate, amplify, measure and learn and optimize.
employed, ranging from a press release
ence sales. This is the wrong way to look
and influencer outreach tactics to direct
at advocacy. Others include research as
social media communications.
a potential value of advocacy. Companies 1. define objectives In identifying advocates, we recom-
However, there is an underlying is- mend that organizations cast a broad net
like Communispace and Drillteam pio-
sue with all of these tactics — scale. If and consider every possible advocate that
neered the use of large communities of
a small team of community managers could be beneficial to the organization.
The Edelman 2012 Trust Barometer report shows huge changes in spokesperson credibility in just users as a viable platform for product and
attempts to engage with thousands of Given the myriad forms advocacy can
the last year. SOURCE: EDELMAN DIGITAL · DATA ©EDELMAN DIGITAL · CHART BY TED MAY marketing research at large brands.
outraged individuals, their efforts are take, it rarely makes sense to limit the
A new era of advocacy has begun.
quickly overwhelmed. Realizing this, scope of the search at the start.
None of the previous roles of advocates
Triple T Teas turns to their community frightening trend for large organizations people are turning to their peers for It is also important to remember that
have been discarded. Sampling still
of advocates known as the Triple T Teas — consumers no longer view traditional trusted information. A “person like me” advocates don’t exist solely outside the
matters. Referral programs still matter.
Ambassadors. Identified and recruited sources of information as trustworthy. saw the biggest increase in credibility walls of the organization. The rise in
Research communities remain critical.
by Triple T Teas for their passion and Edelman Digital, an agency specializing since 2004 in the most recent study. credibility of regular employees is one of
Nonetheless, the era of advocates as
loyalty for the brand, this group of in public relations, has conducted a trust A similar rise in credibility was found Advocacy programs often suffer from a the single most important findings from
brand builders and reputation manag-
individuals holds the key to an authentic study every year for the past 12 years, among regular company employees, lack of clear objectives at the outset and the 2012 Trust Barometer study. Employ-
ers has arrived. As individuals live their
and scalable response to the crisis. Each and it is now clear that the world has now featured as fourth on the Trust a lack of solid measurement throughout ees can create influence online with cred-
lives online — sharing content, liking
Ambassador is briefed and empowered passed an inflection point in the nature Barometer list. their lifecycle. Setting clear brand and ible expertise, and a direct relationship to
brands, or listening to music — they are
to spread accurate, credible messages to of trusted communications. Trusted communications also impact business outcomes that frame what the brand. Dell, for instance, has enabled
also engaging in the endorsement and
the wider community. According to the 2012 Edelman business results. E-Tailing Group precisely the program is expected to thousands of employee advocates to help
co-creation of brands. This is both an op-
Advocates are critical to the modern Trust Barometer, international attitudes recently noted that six percent of online influence will do two critical things: first, engage with consumers, build trust, and
portunity and a threat for most brands.
organization’s marketing mix for two about trust have shifted dramatically. shoppers spend more after receiving rec- it informs the strategy of the program. If produce results.
The best way to grapple with this trend
primary reasons. The first we’ve already For example, CEOs are now considered ommendations from friends. In another you understand your Key Performance A few common sources of advocate
is through advocacy programs. These pro-
outlined using the story of Triple T Teas. among the least credible spokespeople study, Nielsen Global found that 90% of Indicators, you can plan your activities to candidates are NPS surveys, loyalty
grams marshal individuals into groups
To get the outcomes that organizations in the world — the largest drop in Trust consumers said recommendations from influence them efficiently. Second, it en- program databases, look-alike targeting,
and systematically activates them on be-
desire, marketers must design programs Barometer history. Experts and aca- friends were the most trusted form of ables ongoing optimization. If an activity frontline employee referrals and primary
half of the brand to serve business needs.
and tactics that have the ability to scale demics have seen a drop as well. The advertising. Coming in second (at 70%) isn’t affecting your goals, then you can research on social media outlets. An
This could be for something as simple as
to serve the needs of social media. message is clear — the general popula- were consumer opinions shared online. make adjustments much more rapidly. emerging means of finding advocates,
‘liking’ brand content, as difficult as aid-
The second reason for the ascen- tion no longer trusts business leaders All of this points to consumer and em- is to employ software-based aids. Dachis
ing in customer service, or as essential as
dancy of advocacy is the simple issue of to tell the truth. As CEOs become less ployee advocacy as the necessary levers
responding during a brand crisis.
2. identify advocates Group offers a SaaS application called
trust. Studies in recent years highlight a of a source of credible information for brands’ success online today. Advocate Insight that helps organizations
11:00 a.m.
identify a pool of potential advocates
Triple T Teas sends a message to its
based on big data processing of social
Data captured by Dachis Group’s Social advocate community asking for help
media activity. This application can jump-
Performance Index SaaS product makes combating the spreading social media
clear a dramatic rise in negative market start the creation of an advocacy program
crisis on its Facebook page. Moments
signals (the debate’s emergence) and the by streamlining the “identifying” stage of
later the Triple T Tea Ambassadors
significant drop immediately afterward the advocacy process.
spring into action. Acknowledging their
(the advocates’ swift action).
CHART BY TED MAY
high sugar and calorie content, dozens
of conversations between advocates and Continued on page 31

8. 14 THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL ISSUE 02 Q1 2013 15
+ SOCIAL BUSINESS PROFILE: JAKUB HRABOVSKY
Anytime,
anywhere
advocacy
As head of Social Media and Web Relations at
Vodafone UK, Jakub Hrabovsky is responsible
for digital and social media reputation management,
online communities, and customer care. Dachis
Group’s Olga Kozanecka met with him in London
to discuss the importance of customer advocacy.
INTERVIEW BY OLGA KOZANECKA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Claire Gaul

9. 16 THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL ISSUE 02 Q1 2013 17
Olga Kozanecka: How do you define face, etc. What is different nowa- The influence they have can be within Vodafone or more generally networks. Their Facebook page half years has resulted in 20% call
advocacy? days is that we can have conversa- positive for a brand, or negative. within the European market? literally went from a couple of hun- deflection, which literally means
Jakub Hrabovsky: I see advocacy as tions with our advocates wherever By general rule, influencers have I think Costa Coffee is a great dred people to over 500,000 in a saving millions of pounds for the
the way our customers and employ- they are, and in real time, as those a large following on social chan- example of an advocacy program in very short time. I see this as a tre- brand. In terms of community
ees are talking about and promoting conversations are taking place out nels — precisely because what they the UK market. The company has mendous success for the brand and building and advocates cultivation,
our brand and services. in the open. And of course those share is seen as interesting and completely changed their strategy a sign that they’ve done something the return on investment is clearly
advocacy messages spread much relevant. Advocates on the other when it comes to social media very right in terms of activating visible. What we’ve been doing all
Do you think advocacy has evolved more easily now across the social hand are your brand loyalists — engagement, in particular through their customers and turning them this time is using advocacy outreach
alongside the digital and social universe, in effect making advo- people who are passionate about Facebook. Whereas in the begin- into advocates. tactics on our own forum and across
landscape? cates more powerful. your brand and your products, and ning they were trying to engage all available social media channels
I think advocacy as a phenomenon who at free will spread a good word with customers by communicating So how have advocates played a where we’re continually nurturing
has always been around, regard- How do you see the relationship about your brand, albeit often at marketing messages on their social role for Vodafone? our super-users and influencers who
less whether we’ve been commu- between advocates and influencers? a smaller scale. Both advocates channels, they went to create a Where we are finding social me- are providing expert advice to the
nicating offline or online. People I think that in the social media and influencers can also help you real online haven for coffee lovers, dia particularly beneficial is call Vodafone community by offering
have always been expressing their world any customer interacting with identify issues you might have not focusing on great content and the deflection and the ability to utilize knowledge and hands on expertise.
opinions especially about topics your brand could potentially be an known about, because social media feeling of enjoyment that good cof- peer-to-peer help and community So our focus lies in making sure the
they feel strongly about — that’s influencer. It really depends on how give them the opportunity to share fee brings. The social element and advocacy. We are in a place right super-users feel appreciated and
why successful brands could’ve interesting their story is. Social instant feedback. It’s important to joy of having a coffee with a friend now where we can quite comfort- recognized for the great work that
been successful long before the media is all about the quality of listen and learn. were crucial. What resulted was ably say that, and this is based on they’re doing simply out of their
internet existed. Social media is a the content you share. This I think an online community of fans, who a thorough internal study as much passion for our brand and their
new channel but brand related con- drives people’s online credentials What types of advocacy behaviors became well equipped to act as as on phone surveys, that our Web interest in technical matters.
versations have always been taking and authority they get, and makes do you see exhibited among advocates of the brand and share relations approach that we’ve been
place — over the phone, face-to- them influential in a particular area. consumers? the Costa story throughout their practicing for the last three-and-a- Continued on page 31
For a telecommunications organiza-
Our web relations
tion like Vodafone, when it comes
to social media, around 90% of
all the incoming traffic is customer
service related, either reporting
approach that we’ve
a problem or an issue or asking
for help. The positive feedback
comes when your brand recognizes
been practicing for the
there is a conversation happen-
ing, engages if appropriate and
delivers against customers needs.
So whilst the initial contact that a
last three and a half
customer makes with us through
social media might bear negative
connotation or sentiment, we see
years has resulted in
a great opportunity to turn the
negative into a positive response.
Reacting in real time, leading with
support and help, is the main op-
20% call deflection,
portunity to convert a detractor into
a potential advocate. I think social
media as a channel is particularly
which literally means
suitable for this purpose because
more often than not people will
reward you and spread good word,
which strengthens [a] company’s
saving millions of
reputation. The more traditional of-
fline channels don’t enable similar
real-time feedback.
pounds for the brand. Can you think of a successful exam-
ple of an advocacy program, either
Jakub Hrabovsky: “Reacting in real time, leading with support and help, is the main opportunity to convert a detractor into a potential
advocate. I think social media as a channel is particularly suitable for this purpose.” PHOTO BY Claire Gaul

10. Building advocacy
18 THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL ISSUE 02 Q1 2013 19
Say goodbye to rigid processes.
SOCIAL CRM
via Say hello to Social CRM.
by DION HINCHCLIFFE & PETER KIM A social ve
VISUAL EXPLANATION by chris roettger Customer
nue Excerpted from the
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as the co customer able to
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s SUPPORT Innovation and
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multiple platforms, accessible
when & how the customer likes.
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s!
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reall
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ad Surveys provide limited feedback even as
customers share experiences via word of
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Gets amplified to thousands —
even millions — online while
BIG negative sentiment is quickly Conversati
onal scale
AD
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