How Level3 Took the "Blah

How Level3
Communications
Took the “Blah”
WE TEACH WORD OF
MOUTH MARKETING Out of Corporate
Blogging

Ben Bacon

More ideas!
www.wordofmouth.org

@level3
@benjaminbacon
blog.level3.com

How We Took the “Blah” Out of Corporate Blogging
BlogWell Dallas – January 24th, 2012

© Level 3 Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Level 3, Level 3 Communications and the Level 3 Communications Logo are either registered service marks or service marks of Level 3 Communications, LLC and/or one of
its Affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Level 3 services are provided by wholly owned subsidiaries of Level 3 Communications, Inc. Any other service names, product names, company names or logos included
herein are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

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?

 Level 3 Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 3

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


Step #2 – Listen to customers and how they speak

 Who do we sell to?
 Network engineers
 Telecom managers
 Solution architects
 IT organizations



 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


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


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


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

Beyond Bandwidth – blog.level3.com
Launched June 2011
~100 posts
~20 writers
~20 categories


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


 Global Events/Current News
 Overpopulation, Borders closing, cord cutting, Arab Spring
 You can’t have thought leadership without readership


 Group Posts
 # Things That Take You Beyond Bandwidth
 Showcases our diverse thinking, easy to assemble


 Nostalgia/Company History
 Help customers build an emotional/personal connection to Level 3


 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?


 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.


Fun has spread across all social media


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

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


Come see us in Colorado!
 Ben Bacon - @benjaminbacon
 Ben.Bacon@level3.com
 Twitter - @level3
 Facebook.com/level3
 Blog.level3.com


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