The 2010 FedEx/Ketchum Social

Media Benchmarking Study

A Note from FedEx and KetchumDear Colleague,

We are excited to present you with our findings and insights from the 2010 FedEx/Ketchum Social Media Benchmarking Study—a comprehensive exploration of how social media impacts today’s communications landscape. This document reflects the input of leaders from over 60 top global organizations across most major industries.

Study participants answered the social media related questions keeping many of us up at night: How do we leverage social media to drive internal culture, brand performance, and reputation management? What is the appropriate budget allocation to support social media programming? How should we adapt internal structures to develop and roll out

social media strategies? What is the best way to measure the ROI of social media spend?

It is our sincere hope that you find the trends and best practices we uncovered as helpful as we do, and that we will continue to build our collective strength in this new communications frontier together. Thanks to all those organizations who committed their time to this effort. This study would not have happened without your enthusiastic

participation.

Best,

Bill Margaritis David B. Rockland, Ph.D.

SVP, Global Communications PartnerFedEx Corporation Ketchum, Inc.

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TABLE OF CONTENTSStudy Background………………………………………………...……...

Executive Summary…………………………………………………..….

Defining Terms and Players…………………………………….………

External Social Media Programming………………………………...

Internal Social Media Programming………………………………...

Operational Implications………………………………………………

Measurement……………………………………………….………

Budgeting…………………………………………………………...

Team Evolution & Agency Support…………………………….

Concluding Thoughts & Contact Details……………………….…..

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Study Background

Motivation & Methodology

FedEx and Ketchum initiated this study to benchmark best

practices in leveraging social media to drive internal culture,

brand performance, and reputation management.

Both organizations recognized a lack of in-depth

research regarding how social media impacts the

way companies program, budget, and set up their

teams.

Ketchum used a standardized interview protocol to

guide 30 minute conversations with Chief

Communications Officers or their Social Media Leads

at 62 leading companies across most major industries.

Interviews occurred between August and October

2010.

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Participating Companies

Demographics:

a Wide Range of Industries

3% 3%

13%

12%

9%

15%6%

8%

3%

7%

15%

6%Airline

Consumer Products

Energy

Financial Services

Food & Beverage

Healthcare

Manufacturing

Other

Professional Services

Retail

Technology

Telecommunication

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Executive Summary (1/2)• 100% of companies reported some degree of social

media engagement regardless of industry.

The way the world

communicates is

changing. You can

either adapt or

become irrelevant.

• Participants agreed that social media is a channel (not a

strategy) that should be part of a holistic communication

and marketing approach tied to business goals.

• Participants repeatedly stressed the necessity for transparency and

authenticity in every social media program, no matter its simplicity

or sophistication.

• Social media leaders argue that the voice and tone that works in traditional

corporate communications doesn’t work on the social web. Conversational

means credible.

• Evaluation of participants’ steps to develop social media programs revealed

seven distinct phases: Listening, Reclaiming, Collaborating, Strategy &

Planning, Experimenting, Assessing, and Refining.

• Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are the dominant social media platforms,

but participants repeatedly conveyed the need to stay on top of emerging

tools and technology in order to remain relevant.

• Companies recognized that social media is distinct from

traditional channels in its interactivity, transparency, and

embrace of informality. These characteristics demand

unparalleled degrees of collaboration across businesses and

functions including Communications, Marketing,

Legal/Compliance, and IT.

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Executive Summary (2/2)If you’re not open

to feedback,

you’re not ready to

play.

• Organizations recognized the rise of citizen journalism

and the need to engage bloggers to support brand

development and reputation management.

• Participants conveyed significantly greater focus on

external rather than internal social media applications, but

expressed strong interest in ramping up capabilities—

primarily via enhanced intranets—in 2011 and beyond.

• Organizations are trending towards more formal collaborative social

media oversight models that are inclusive of diverse business units and

functions.

• Most organizations do not have formal internal learning programs

established to promote the development of social media expertise.

• Companies continue to see the value in partnering with third parties to

develop and execute social media programming.

• Participants most frequently estimated spending between five

and fifteen percent of their overall communications budgets on

social media programming in 2010.

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Defining

Terms & Players

Defining Terms:

Social Media vs. Digital Assets

l Participants agreed that social media and digital assets are equally important, fundamentally different, and often complementary.

l Social media is most commonly characterized as a means for two-way dialogue with internal and external stakeholders.

l Digital Assets are most commonly described as owned properties, tools, or rich media content (e.g., websites, apps, or video) that companies create to support online programming.

l Companies use digital assets to enrich the conversations they

participate in via social media forums.

l Externally, the most commonly leveraged social media platforms include:

Digital assets and

social media go hand-

in hand. They’re the tools that power the

social web.11

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Who’s Playing and Why?l 100% of study participants reported some degree

of social media presence.

l The most common external objectives included:

Generating word of mouth advocacy

Developing brand loyalty and closer relationships with customers

Addressing customer care issues

Educating costumers and media about company-related issues

Supporting product/service launch/sales

l Each major channel (Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube) serves its own purpose and participants were hesitant to compare effectiveness across mediums.

l Twitter is the favored channel supporting customer care and media relations.

l Facebook and YouTube are most frequently leveraged to develop brand loyalty and closer relationships with customers, and to share product/service information.

If you’re not there,

you’re noticeably

absent. It’s here to stay

and there’s no use

ignoring it.

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“ “

Leadership, Participation, and ObservationParticipants fell into three distinct categories based on their degree of social media engagement. Current social media leaders are mostly B2C companies.

You don’t always

have to be a leader.

Sometimes it’s okay to

be a close follower. It

all depends what

you’re trying to

achieve.

Leadership

Participation

Observation

• Engrain social media in every aspect of communication.

• Identify and integrate new social media tools on an ongoing basis.

• Employ in-house team of three or more social media specialists.

• Engrain social media in some aspects of communication.

• Explore integration of new social media tools following validation from

businesses leading in the social space.

• Hire 1 specialist and/or expand responsibilities of communicators to include

social media competence and rely on agency support for expert counsel.

• Engrain social media in few aspects of communication.

• Seek to build awareness of the social media landscape and

how to play effectively.

• Expand responsibilities of communicators to include social media

competence and rely on agency support for expert counsel.

10%

75%

15%

*Note: Percentages

reflect estimates

based on evaluation

of participant profiles

developed via

interviews.

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“ “

What About Companies in

Regulated Industries?Companies in regulated industries

(healthcare, financial services, energy,

etc.) reported social media participation

despite clear legal hurdles.

Participant Insights

1. Research the rules regarding disclosure and

reporting.

2. Manage internal stakeholder expectations and

identify internal champions from across the

enterprise.

3. Establish a business case and ongoing

management plan with Legal/Compliance teams.

4. In particularly risk-averse cultures, consider

focusing social media outreach on a specific

theme like Corporate Responsibility efforts.

ideas for social media success in regulated industries

We found a strong social

media advocate on the

Compliance team, and

that made all the

difference in the world

in terms of selling our

ideas in to

leadership.

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The B2B OpportunityB2B companies also reported significant social media programming across the major channels.

B2B participants lagged behind their B2C counterparts in terms of the depth and sophistication of programming, but shared plans for ramping up participation.

Participant Insights

1. Even if buyers are senior and less likely to care

about social media, the managers who influence

them do.

2. As the prevalence of e-commerce continues to

grow, so does the opportunity to drive traffic to

websites through digital and social media

programming.

3. Video trumps words when it comes to explaining

products and services in simple, visually

compelling ways.

ideas driving B2B social media trends

B2C companies are

leading the social

space now… but

B2Bs are just waking

up to these tools and

the best will learn

how to leverage

them to win.

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External Social Media Programming

Strategy vs. Channel

Participants agreed that social media is a

channel, not a strategy

Social media programming should be part of a

holistic communication and marketing approach

tied to business goals.

There was wide-spread agreement that social media is not a

―silver bullet‖ for communication and marketing effectiveness.

I realize everyone is

telling you social

media is a unicorn, but maybe it’s just a

horse?

– Jay Baer, Independent Social

Media StrategistCompanies recognized that social media is distinct from

traditional channels in its interactivity, transparency, and

embrace of informality.

These characteristics demand unparalleled degrees of

collaboration across businesses and functions including

Communications, Marketing, Legal/Compliance, and IT.

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Getting StartedCrawl . Walk. Run. Be

very deliberate about

what you’re doing, and

very conscious along

the way.

Evaluation of participants’ steps to develop social

media programs revealed seven distinct phases.

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Nail the Fundamentals:

Participation & Planning

LACK OF

ONGOING

PARTICIPATION

―Engaging in social media demands ongoing participation—the dialogue doesn’t start or stop around a

crisis or product launch.‖

LACK OF A

CRISIS RESPONSE STRATEGY

―You’ve got to have a social media-oriented crisis

management plan to protect against the risk of viral reputation challenges.‖

Participant InsightsTwo ways to crash and burn out of the gate (and how to avoid them)

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The Twin Pillars of

Transparency & Authenticity

l Participants repeatedly stressed the necessity for transparency and

authenticity in every social media program, no matter its simplicity or

sophistication.

l Social media leaders argue that the voice and tone that works in

traditional corporate communications doesn’t work on the social web.

CONVERSATIONAL = CREDIBLE

WHAT VALUE ARE WE ADDING TO THE

COMMUNITIES WE SEEK TO ENGAGE?

You have to be

genuine online—

same as the real

world. People realize

when you’re faking it.

That doesn’t mean more buttoned-up organizations

shouldn’t be true to their brands— it’s a matter of

establishing a tone that’s comfortable and authentic

for the company and its customers.

Organizations also expressed awareness of the online

public’s aversion for the overly-promotional.

Before launching any new social endeavor, ask yourself:

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What’s Shareable?

l What makes content entertaining depends on the audience. ―Funny‖ and ―cute‖ were often used to describe

highly regarded content.

l Helpful content provides information about products or services that enhances the customer experience.

Participants reported that ―breaking news‖ or

―sneak peaks‖ of new products or services shared via social media channels received positive responses among customers.

ENTERTAINING OR HELPFUL

Content is king—the

tools are important but

they are only tools.

Authentic messaging is

what’s important.

l Participating companies characterized

the content that is most often shared

among target audiences in two ways:

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Using the Big Three: Twitter, Facebook,

and YouTubeThe social media space is rapidly evolving and new technologies and

tools are consistently emerging. Even if companies are not using the

latest platforms, (e.g., Foursquare, Gowalla, Tumblr) most agree that keeping up with what’s trending is important.

At present Twitter, Facebook, and

YouTube are the dominant platforms,

and in the following slides we feature three celebrated programs from

participating companies.

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Tackling Twitter with GM

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GM tackles reputation management using multiple social media channels including Twitter.

Training employees to send a mix of both personal and professional tweets and status updates builds perceptions of GM’s softer, more human side even through times of crisis.

To begin, GM developed an online social media training portal for novice users and offered advanced in-person courses for more web savvy team members. About 2,000 employees completed the online introduction in its first two months alone and thousands more have participated since. GM is currently updating its social media policy and training approach to require all employees to go through training while creating two distinct groups of users –those who are authorized to speak on behalf of GM and everyone else.

Employee driven social media programming continues to support GM’s emergence from bankruptcy and brand building efforts.

Employee tweet examples include:

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Great weather for the

bike commute today!‖

Repaying taxpayers ahead of

schedule because we are designing,

building, and selling the best cars and

trucks ever.

GM social media training portal

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Source: Miller, Lindsay. Can GM employees woo the country back through social media?

www.ragan.com. May 3, 2010.

PepsiCo’s Doritos Canada leveraged Facebook

to promote a contest where users were asked to

name a mysterious new chip flavor and create a

30-second video commercial advertising it.

Doritos offered $25,000 and 1% of future consumer

sales to the winning commercial and name.

The contest drew over 75,000 participants, 14.5

million page views, and 2.1 million video views.

More than 900,000 consumers visited the Doritos

Facebook page over the course of the two-month

campaign.

Doritos' sales in Canada doubled during that time.

Facebook Fantasy with PepsiCo and Doritos

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Source: Wood, Cara. Creative solutions from Doritos, Club ABC Tours, Meg Whitman.

Direct Marketing News. October 12, 2009.

Utilizing YouTube with Ford

Ford gave away 100 Ford Fiestas for six months complete with free gas, insurance, parking and a concierge service to 100 lucky recipients.

Each one was sent on ―monthly missions‖ which were documented for public consumption and shared across major social media platforms.

Official Fiesta Movement content has drawn 6.5 million YouTube views and 3.7 million Twitter

impressions.

The program has elicited the interest of about 50,000 potential buyers, 97% of which don’t currently drive a Ford. Ford sold 10,000 units in the first six days of

sales.

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Source: McCracken, George. How Ford Got Social Marketing Right. Harvard Business Review.

January 7, 20110.

Participant Insights

Navigating the BlogosphereOrganizations recognized the rise of citizen journalism and

the need to engage bloggers to support brand development and reputation management.

Blogger outreach is now part of most participating companies’ general media relations strategies.

Most companies stressed the need to differentiate between bloggers with real influence versus those with relatively small followings leveraging monitoring services to determine the appropriate level of engagement.

1. Invite bloggers to on-site events and give them

special access to products and services.

2. Be transparent about relevant business goals and

ensure bloggers disclose their association with the

company.

3. Consider providing bloggers “deconstructed

content” (key facts and links) rather than traditional

press releases to enable them to better use their

unique voices in posts.

ideas supporting stronger

blogger relationships

You can’t be

everywhere.

Concentrate on

where your

consumers are.

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Internal Social Media Programming

Growing Interest in Internal Social Media

ApplicationsParticipants conveyed significantly greater focus on external rather than internal social media applications, but expressed strong interest in ramping up capabilities—primarily via social media equipped intranets—in 2011 and beyond. The most frequently referenced intranet features included leadership blogs, wikis, and “Facebook-like” interfaces.

These tools

present a whole

new way of

collaborating

across the

enterprise.

of study participants already have social media equipped intranets 40%

*Note: Percentages

reflect estimates

based on evaluation

of participant profiles

developed via

interviews.

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50% of study participants plan to redesign their intranets in the next one to two years to include greater social media capabilities

10%of study participants do not have significant social media intranet capability and do not plan to add tools in the next one to two years

l The most common internal social media objectives were:

• Enhancing knowledge management

• Supporting collaboration within and across teams,

functions, and geographies

• Developing culture and community

l Participants reported that investment in internal social media applications is most strongly tied to tool

purchase and development. Upkeep and ongoing management is not a major cost.

l Organizations use intranet analytics (blog development,

comments, discussion board activity, etc.) and broader engagement and communications survey results to monitor and measure the impact

of internal social media programming.

Adding Value Inside the Enterprise

Employees are

using social media

all the time at

home. Now, we’re

using the tools

they’re familiar

with in the

workplace.29

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Three Keys to Effective

Intranet Management Participants agreed on three critical steps guiding effective intranet development and ongoing management:

Be patient and

develop thick

skin. It takes a

while to get an

effective intranet

off the ground.

1. Ensure proper leadership and employee buy-in.

•Create a business case to build executive support.

•Begin and end development with employee needs in mind—not a corporate vision.

•Engage employees throughout the design process to develop a user-centric experience.

2. Establish strategic roll-out plans including pilot programs.

• Leverage formal internal communications channels andinformal influencers to drive awareness and adoption.

• Ensure opportunities for training and dialogue about how to leverage new tools.

3. Build ongoing governance and

moderation plans.• Establish clear roles and responsibilities to

ensure effective content management at corporate and local levels.

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“ “

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Developing Social Media Policies

1. Most companies either have, or plan to develop social media policies in the

next year, citing social media’s popularity and the need to manage risk.

2. Effective policies are natural extensions of existing codes of

conduct. For example:• Keep confidential information private

• Only speak on behalf of the company if authorized

• Identify yourself as an employee if endorsing a

product/service

3. Strong policy development is the result of:• External benchmarking—many policies are published

• Cross-functional collaboration —typically Comms/

Marketing, Legal/Compliance, and HR play leading roles

4. Employee buy-in and adoption of policies is driven by clear

internal communication and relevant learning opportunities.

Participant Insightsthemes regarding employee social media policy

development:

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Operational

Implications32

Cracking the Code on Monitoring

& MeasurementCompanies are distinguishing between monitoring of online mentions and activity versus measuring the ROI of social media spend.

Participants cited Radian6 as the paid monitoring partner of choice, but competitors such as BuzzMetrics, Evolve24, Focus, Symphony, and Sysomos (among others) were also mentioned.

The most common free services include TweetDeck and Google Alerts.

Participants generally agreed that there is no consistent, reliable approach to measurement and determining ROI.

There is widespread agreement that looking solely at metrics like ―followers‖, ―friends‖, or ―views‖ is not

sufficient.

Companies expressed the desire to improve the way they assess quality of online interaction, level of user engagement, and ultimately

impact on business performance.

Everyone is struggling

to figure out how you

determine the impact

on the business. It

might not be a

dollar figure.

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Measurement Progress:

The Barcelona Principles

l Top experts from the Association for Measurement and the Evaluation

of Communication (AMEC), the Public Relations Society of America

(PRSA), and other major industry organizations have established a set

of seven principles to guide communications measurement.

l Principle six states that ―social media can and should be measured‖

and outlines the following agreements to inform future social media

measurement efforts:

• Social media measurement is a discipline, not a tool; but there is no “single metric”.

• Organizations need clearly defined goals and outcomes for social media.

• Media content analysis should be supplemented by web and search analytics, sales and

CRM data, survey data and other methods.

• Evaluating quality and quantity is critical, just as it is with conventional media.

• Measurement must focus on “conversation” and “communities” not just “coverage”.

• Understanding reach and influence is important, but existing sources are not accessible, transparent or consistent enough to be reliable; experimentation and testing are key to

success.

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How Much Does it Cost?

Most participants don’t line-item ―social media‖ in annual budgets.

Money is allocated on a project by project basis by different functions,

divisions, or sub-brands, depending on type and need.

Participants most frequently estimated spending between five and fifteen

percent of their overall external communications budgets on social media

programming in 2010.

Most organizations predicted budget increases in social media spending

in 2011, but participants were hesitant to quantify growth estimates.

Social media programming budgets may be off-set by investment in

talent (FTEs) with specific social media-related roles (salary is a

fixed cost).

Typically, there is more budget allocated

to digital assets than social media

programming—they’re costly, but also

more established, better understood,

and easier to measure.

There’s a reason

it’s called return

on investment—

you have to put

in to get out.

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The Evolution of the

Communications Team

Structurel Communications tends to oversee social media programming

and execution, but Marketing also plays a leading role—particularly when social media programming is oriented aroundproduct launch and promotion. Legal/Compliance teams are more integrally involved in social media programming in regulated industries.

l Organizations are trending towards more formal collaborative social

media oversight models that are inclusive of diverse business units and functions (Comms, Marketing, Legal/Compliance, Business Leaders).

l There are disparate approaches to evolving team structures. Some organizations have created new groups of 1-10 people focused exclusively on social media. Others rely on current staff to expand their expertise. The direction of choice

depends on whether organizations see value in leading in this space or if they’re content to be participants.

l Most organizations are either already including or plan to include a degree of social media competency in job descriptions.

Social media is forcing

business units to

collaborate in ways

they never have

before. You really have

to be aligned across

the enterprise.

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Building Social Media CapabilitiesMost organizations do not have formal internal learning programs

established to promote the development of social media expertise.

Participants leverage the following learning solutions to support social

media competence building among communications team members:

Peer-to-peer training: Many companies identified internal social

media experts and empowered them to bring colleagues up to

speed.

Reverse mentoring: Younger professionals are frequently

tapped to onboard more experienced team members.

One-off courses provided by agencies: Most participants

mentioned leveraging agency-sponsored workshops to

build social media knowledge.

Many participants advocated attending

social media conferences, but

highlighted that many cover familiar

territory and the most effective ones

are targeted at their particular

industries.

We’ve found it

works great to have

a peer lead training

sessions. People are

more receptive to

new ideas from

someone they

know.37

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Agencies & VendorsYou need an expert—

whether in-house or

agency-based—to

really make the most

of social media.

Most organizations continue to see value in partnering with third parties to develop and execute

social media programming.

Participants reported that PR and Advertising firms both

have significant influence as social media counselors.

Boutique digital and social media shops also provide valuable insight to a smaller portion of study participants.

Most companies did not share plans to significantly shift the nature or scope of agency engagement.

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Concluding Thoughts & Contact Details

l Social media is disrupting the way the world communicates and companies must continue to evolve how they interact with people to

remain relevant.

l The pace and scope of change as new tools and technology emerge demands an unparalleled degree of organizational nimbleness.

l As digital and social tools become the go-to resources for everything from news and information to friendship and love, smart brands will continue to figure out better ways to add value to the online experience—internally and externally.

We look forward to addressing your feedback, questions, or comments.

Disclaimer: FedEx and Ketchum are providing this summary for informational purposes only.

We are not providing advice, legal or otherwise.

Renee HorneDirector, Digital & Social Media EngagementFedEx Corporationrlhorne@fedex.com

Daniel DworkinSenior ConsultantKetchum Pleon Changedaniel.dworkin@ketchum.com

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