Brands-Only Summit Social Media Case Study: United Airlines, presented by Lora O'Riordan and Karin Moan

SOCIALMEDIA.ORG/SUMMIT2013ORLANDO

United social media

LORA O’RIORDAN & KARIN MOANUNITED AIRLINES

DECEMBER 9–11, 2013

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United Social Media Dec 10, 2013

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Introductions

Karin Moan Director, Social Media

Lora O’Riordan Manager, Social Media Operations (formerly one woman social team)

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This is how United Social Media started over again

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v  Monitoring nearly 25,000 incoming messages per week v  24/7 operations v  Responding to customers within 1.5 hrs v  12 Reservation agents supporting ticket based service needs v  Managing and escalating critical issues v  Controlling and tracking conversations v  Engaging customers with product and services updates

UNITED SOCIAL MEDIA @A GLANCE

Blogs Forums News

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First Back to Basics 1.  Organization – Created a larger team to support social (More

than 2)

2.  Customer focus – talked to our most active but frustrated followers about our social presence gaps

3.  Company wide alignment – brought teams together across the organization behind a social focused path

4.  Data and insights – used heavily to plan and justify the path forward

5.  Defined our marketing strategy and plan for social channels

6.  Prioritized - Set schedules and milestones and empowered the team to move quickly

7.  Identified key technology needs

Without responding and listening at a scale and level matched to our volume of posts, no campaign, proactive post, offer or deal would be effective. Priority #1 was responding to our fans and followers then we could focus on marketing effectively in the channels.

Let’s begin…

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Operations / Reactive Marketing

/ Proactive

The Operations and Marketing team is under one umbrella and work side by side

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The United Social ecosystem

*

*United Owned Channel

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We asked some key questions -- §  Who are the customers we’ll be talking with? §  Where are they connecting with us? §  How many people do we need? §  How do we get the people and who do we need? §  What will we gain from investing in this? §  How do we manage this day-to-day?

Focused on Priority #1 -- Responding to our fans/followers

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Who are our fans/followers requesting support? Surprising findings?

46%

16%

10%

10%

16%

2%

Premier Levels of Social Media Customers

General Member

Premier Silver

Premier Gold

Premier Platinum

Premier 1K

Global Services

44%

12%

11%

10%

7%

5% 4%

3%

3% 1%

Behavioral Segments of Social Media Customers

Road Warriors

Mile Maximizers

Almost Elite

Bargain Hunter

Schedule Sensitive

Too New To Score

Unscored

Non-Flying Earners Globe Trotter

§  Our best customers were tweeting and posting – so we had to change course   46% of MileagePlus members identified as General, 56% Premiers   More than 45% of members fell in to “Road Warrior”/”Luxury Seeker” segment

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§  Which social channels to connect?   Twitter and Facebook – these were their preferred places to

connect. But Instagram and LinkedIn were also of interest. §  How many people do we need?

  We looked at data to tell us how many people we needed to respond in 1.5 hours or less

§  How do we get the people and who do we need?   We partnered across the organization. We needed people who

help in the moment. §  What will we gain from investing in this?

  Customer satisfaction, loyalty, revenue, very happy travelers and great tweets/posts

§  How do we manage this day-to-day?   We defined shift schedules, technology needs, training, goals

and what to do when things don’t go as planned

Knowing who we were talking with we could answer all of the questions

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0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

8-‐Dec

15-‐Dec

22-‐Dec

29-‐Dec

5-‐Jan

12-‐Jan

19-‐Jan

26-‐Jan

Respon

se Rate

Messages

Total Inbound Messages Messages Requiring Responses

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

8-‐Dec

15-‐Dec

22-‐Dec

29-‐Dec

5-‐Jan

12-‐Jan

19-‐Jan

26-‐Jan

Respon

se Rate

Messages

Total Inbound Messages Messages Requiring Responses Messages Not Requiring Response (NRR) Response Rate

Social Media Support Facebook Twi>er Facebook Twitter

•  Strong partnership with Reservations enabled us to build the support team we needed to assist customers

•  Close monitoring and reporting of our progress, the volume of conversations, and sentiment

•  Identification of our customers in social channels – getting to know them even better

•  Tools help responses flow from community managers to our social agents and helped establish a baseline for reporting and tracking

•  Focus on the core community – those we talk with the most •  Reaching out quickly when faced with crises or issues

The foundation of a top shelf response operation is in place

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Tweetchats at #unitedplanechat

574,306 accounts reached 3,726,454 impressions Advertising Sept ‘13

Also testing Google+ hangouts! Hangout on Air with the App team November ‘13

260,137 accounts reached 3,450,552 impressions Winter Ops Feb ‘13

235,139 accounts reached 4,366,344 impressions Bag services June ‘13

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Fly the Friendly Skies

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United Progress – p.s.

§  The coast to coast domestic premium service with International amenities.

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United Social Media Growth in 2013

Month (# of Posts)

Source: Facebook Insights, SocialEngage, Google Analytics, YouTube Analytics * Facebook Positive Interactions are a combination of user likes, comments, shares, clicks and video plays ** Tweets are Outbound @united tweets (not replies or DMs)

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

450,000

500,000

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

Feb(40) Mar (54) Apr(72) May(81) Jun(94) Jul(67) Aug(86) Sep(102) Oct(96)

Posi

tive

Scor

e

Page

Lik

es

Facebook Page Likes and Interactions

Page Likes Positive Score Linear (Page Likes) Linear (Positive Score)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13

New

Vis

itor %

Visi

ts

Hub Visits and New Visitor %

Visits New Visitor % Linear (Visits) Linear (New Visitor %)

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000


Twee

ts

Follo

wer

s

Twitter Followers and Tweets

Followers Tweets Linear (Followers) Linear (Tweets)

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000


View

s

YouTube Views

Views Linear (Views)

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United Social Media Growth in 2013 (Cont.)

Source: LinkedIn Insights , Statigram * LinkedIn Engagement Rate is Engaged Users divided by Reach )

0.00%

0.20%

0.40%

0.60%

0.80%

1.00%

1.20%

1.40%

1.60%

1.80%

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13

Enga

gem

ent R

ate

Follo

wer

s

LinkedIn Followers and Engagement Rate

Followers Engagement Rate Linear (Followers) Linear (Engagement Rate)

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000


Posi

tive

Scor

e

Page

Lik

es

Instagram Followers and Likes Per Post

Followers Likes Per Post Linear (Followers) Linear (Likes Per Post)

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§  Looking back to 2012 and earlier, one would hardly recognize the United brand from a social media perspective

§  The increased focus on social media, particularly from a customer service perspective, has been transformative

§  The focus on foundational quality in customer service and responding in general – versus simply increasing the volume of brand content pushed out – has been strategically beneficial

§  The “black hole” is no longer there

§  It wasn’t too late for United

§  Our customers have benefited greatly

We will continue to evolve, grow, optimize and improve our social presence; deepen alignment across the company; bridge our digital ecosystems and focus on providing a flyer friendly experience for our fans and followers

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Then vs. Now Summary

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Thank You *

Karin Moan Director, Social Media [email protected] @united facebook.com/united www.unitedhub.com youtube.com/united instagram.com/united linkedin.com

Lora O’Riordan Manager, Social Media Operations [email protected] @united facebook.com/united www.unitedhub.com youtube.com/united intagram.com/united linkedin.com

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