In his BlogWell Dallas presentation, Level 3's Digital & Social Media Manager, Ben Bacon, shares how they took the "blah" out of corporate blogging.
Watch the video of this presentation here: https://vimeo.com/38791245
3. Starting social media from scratch
January 2011
What are we going to say? What tone should we say it in? Where should we say it?
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4. Step #1 – Look at our business and how we compete
 What do we do?
 B2B Telecom
 Internet access, VPNs, phone
service to companies
 How do we compete?
 Intimate customer experience
 Collaborate/2-way dialogue
 Challenge the status quo
 Enjoyable to do business with
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5. Step #2 – Listen to customers and how they speak
 Who do we sell to?
 Network engineers
 Telecom managers
 Solution architects
 IT organizations
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6. Step #2 – Listen to customers and how they speak
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7. Step #2 – Listen to customers and how they speak
 Who do we sell to?
 Network engineers
 Telecom managers
 Solution architects
 IT organizations
 What are they like?
 Mostly male
 Self-identified “geeks”
 Eclectic, super opinionated
 Contrarian viewpoints
 Great BS detectors
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8. Step #3: Let the sum of those things set your tone and
content
 How do we compete?
 Intimate customer experience Human
 Collaborate/2-way dialogue Not “Telecomplicated”
 Challenge the status quo Approachable/Inquisitive
 Enjoyable to do business with Friendly/Humorous
 What are they like?
 Mostly male
Quirky
 Self-identified “geeks” Self-Deprecating
 Eclectic, super opinionated Edgy
 Contrarian viewpoints Transparent
 Great BS detectors
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9. Step #4: Find employees that embody that tone and can
create that content
 Search for storytellers not titles
 Go way beyond product…who
talks to customers and who does
what our customers do
 Look for long articulate emails,
people that tell great stories at
happy hours
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10. Step #5: Help train and empower them to do it
 We had engineers…not bloggers
 Blogging not a skillset, weekly emails with tips
on how to write blog content
 Long leadup time – Jan to June to find and
train folks
 Leverage listening tool, twitter feed, VOC
research to find potential stories
 Avoid brochure speak like the plague
 Short, punchy > long, technical
 Would someone share this?
 They write…then we do the rest - titles,
punch it up, legal approval and post on
their behalf
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11. Beyond Bandwidth – blog.level3.com
Launched June 2011
~100 posts
~20 writers
~20 categories
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12. Things that have worked for us in blogging
 Analogies – How can we help engineers communicate XYZ solution?
 Network = lawnmowing, teenage girls, learning languages, kitchen renovations
 Uncomplicating telecom
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13. Things that have worked for us in blogging
 Global Events/Current News
 Overpopulation, Borders closing, cord cutting, Arab Spring
 You can’t have thought leadership without readership
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14. Things that have worked for us in blogging
 Group Posts
 # Things That Take You Beyond Bandwidth
 Showcases our diverse thinking, easy to assemble
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15. Things that have worked for us in blogging
 Nostalgia/Company History
 Help customers build an emotional/personal connection to Level 3
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16. Things that have worked for us in blogging
 Look in the Mirror Posts
 How can we be as transparent as possible?
 What have we done wrong? Can we pass those learnings to customers?
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17. Things that have worked for us in blogging
 Talk about the Taboo
 Death, taxes…fiber cuts; How can we educate our customers on outages?
 Single tweet picked up by Telecom News…then GigaOm and Gizmodo…then
Yahoo News and The Atlantic…the Der Spiegel, etc etc.
• This article rocks. I’m the guy that says “well, according to the traceroute, it’s the ISP’s
sh*t.” Thoroughly enjoyed it.
• Dude. I fricking love you. Level3 is my world. Everything I use, I know where
the pingtrace runs. Without level3, I have no internet. Level3 is the sh*t.
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18. Fun has spread across all social media
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19. Light content, serious results
 Blog Traffic
 100,000 page views by 3rd month
 Readers from 178 different countries
 YouTube
 #1 organic result for “Data Center Networking”
 Top 3 for “Unified Communications”
 Top 5 for “SIP Trunking”
 Twitter
 From 0 to 8,000 followers
 Klout score – from 0 to 50+
• Influential in Broadband, Video, Cloud Computing, etc.
 Google – 3,000 different keyword combos driving blog visits
 CDN architecture, why Ethernet better, concurrent call paths, culture at Level 3
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20. Blog management tips
 Monthly recaps in the form of a blog
 Assignments – not editorial calendars
 Find self-motivated bloggers
 Get up, walk around the office and always carry a camera phone
 Don’t be afraid of the red pen, especially on the title and first 2
paragraphs
 Roll up your sleeves and write some yourself
 Everyone thinks a.) their job is boring and b.) they’d be awful bloggers -
you need to get people out of their comfort zones
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21. Come see us in Colorado!
 Ben Bacon - @benjaminbacon
 Ben.Bacon@level3.com
 Twitter - @level3
 Facebook.com/level3
 Blog.level3.com
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Launching a blogB2B and/or technology marketersChallenger brandsTone seekersLooking for ways to inject fun into social
Year ago last January – we had nothing. No Facebook, no Twitter, no blog, no YouTube,Social listening tool – Level 3 sex offenders, Level 3 angry birdsThis scared people when I showed them. Gotta get out there and get out there fast!Lots of questions - what do we write about, in what tone, etc.
Launched in June 2011 – 7 months in
Conversational: Analogies (SIP Trunking = lawnmowing, learning a language)Thought leadership: Current news (overpopulation, Borders closing…as it relates to bandwidth)Collaborative: Group posts (Oprah Book Club, etc.)Enjoyable to do business with: Nostalgia, How Tos
Conversational: Analogies (SIP Trunking = lawnmowing, learning a language)Thought leadership: Current news (overpopulation, Borders closing…as it relates to bandwidth)Collaborative: Group posts (Oprah Book Club, etc.)Enjoyable to do business with: Nostalgia, How Tos
Conversational: Analogies (SIP Trunking = lawnmowing, learning a language)Thought leadership: Current news (overpopulation, Borders closing…as it relates to bandwidth)Collaborative: Group posts (Oprah Book Club, etc.)Enjoyable to do business with: Nostalgia, How Tos
Conversational: Analogies (SIP Trunking = lawnmowing, learning a language)Thought leadership: Current news (overpopulation, Borders closing…as it relates to bandwidth)Collaborative: Group posts (Oprah Book Club, etc.)Enjoyable to do business with: Nostalgia, How Tos
Conversational: Analogies (SIP Trunking = lawnmowing, learning a language)Thought leadership: Current news (overpopulation, Borders closing…as it relates to bandwidth)Collaborative: Group posts (Oprah Book Club, etc.)Enjoyable to do business with: Nostalgia, How Tos
Noticed we were getting a lot of clicks on our Network categoryTwitter complaints – big red buttonEmployees battling the elementsHonest disclosureInvited readers in to be part of the solutionComments