BlogWell Social Media Case Study: Graco, presented by Lindsay Lebresco

Welcome to BlogWell! Graco Social Media Strategy gy October 28, 2008

Social Media - Goals • Enable Advocacy • Capitalize on pervasive word-of-mouth between moms and first-time expectant moms • Enable conversations about the brand and our products to happen online, at get-togethers and on our blog • Humanize the Brand • Instill trust i the b d I till t t in th brand • Highlight the fact that the people behind the brand/company are parents too. • Connect and Educate • Reach 1 000 000 parents and expectant parents online 1,000,000 We will do all of this through building RELATIONSHIPS with bl ith bloggers and our d consumers. * Traffic to the blog is not a goal!

Social Media- Strategies • Listen to the conversation online • Engage with our consumers (parents and first-time expectants) and online influencers • Participate in the conversation by giving the brand a voice through the launch of the corporate blog

Strategy - Listening Listening • Conversation Mining C ti Mi i • Gauge public sentiment of brand • Strategic planning • Helps to set measurements and goals • Provide information for product teams • Staying informed- knowing what’s going on in the space & among competitors • Utilize during issues for reactive communications

Strategy – Listening Conversation Mining results showed: • The volume of the online conversation for the Graco Brand nearly doubled, doubled • The polarity of online mentions rose from 68% positive in 2007 to 83% positive in 2008 • Amongst this shift, 100% of posts sparked by proactive outreach have been positive • A significant increase in positive recommendations/ reviews - this desirable topic became the most common discussion for the Graco brand

To Graco’s Strategy - Listening credit, they are at least listening. I have had customer service nightmares with other baby companies and many of my comments fell on deaf ears. I’ve read some comments about how J&J blew it, while companies like Graco have made the effort to understand bloggers and earned great marks for their PR activities.

Strategy - Engaging Engaging • Personal engagement through the Graco Get-Together program (regional blogger meet-ups) meet ups) • Joining online communities like BlogHer, CafeMom, Facebook, Twitter, TwitterMoms, MomSpace, etc • Adding to the conversation by commenting on parenting blogs- Graco blogs contributors have made over 450 comments on others’ blogs • Doing various giveaways and product reviews with bloggers • g g Recognizing bloggers with “Monthly Nods” – 55 given out to date gg y g • Using Flickr to post events and celebrity pics • 275 posts by bloggers spurred by our social media efforts, which in turn recieved1,952 comments (Sept. 08)

Strategy - Engaging • Joining the community g y

Strategy - Engaging • Graco Get-Togethers g

Highlights & quick facts about the Graco Get-Togethers: -Hosted 9 Get Togethers to date with over 125 influentials in Hosted Get-Togethers attendance and 2 more scheduled for 2008 - Received close to 55 posts talking about our parties and products - Beth Blecherman at SVM recommended that we present at BlogHer on successful blogger outreach - The G aco relationship with t e S co Valley Moms b og got e Graco e at o s p t the Silicon a ey o s blog the brand on the Today Show - We mirrored this program to sponsor a BlogHer book tour called “Sleep is for the Weak” for the blogging contributors

Strategy - Engaging • Graco Monthly Nod y 55 Monthly Nods given out to date

Strategy - Participating Participating • Launching the Graco corporate blog and participating in the parenting conversation that is already happening online y pp g • The Graco blog is a corporate blog by name only – it is much more of a parenting blog mirroring the blogs of our consumers. • Posts include Parenting topics, Picture posts (Wondrous Wednesday), Office Talk, Talk Celebrity Parenting & guest posts and Product News and information • The blog gives the brand and it’s employees a voice that represents who the company really is - a voice that consumers can really connect with • This voice helps to build trust in the brand by giving a “face” to the brand • Strategic content generation yields positive results for SEO • Use blog to post answers to frequently asked customer service questions • Post information/POVs on issues or during a crisis

Strategy - Participating • Launching the Graco blog g g

Highlights & quick facts about the blog: - We’ve made over 1,000,000 impressions with engaged parents through out use of social media - Close to 52,000 visits to the blog since launch (over 40,000 of those are unique visitors) - 212 blog posts to date – 5 posts a week - W currently have 9 contributors ( ddi more soon) We tl h t ib t (adding ) - The Graco blog has received over 700 comments on our blog - The Graco blog has been linked to over 300 times - The Graco blog is the #5 listing on Google for the search term “Graco” Graco - In just 6 months is ranked as the 59th top parenting blog on the hundreds strong Parent Power Index - The Graco blog has gotten a lot of media attention through our use of social media and our blog has had a lot of positive reviews as well

What are these relationships doing for the us? •Bloggers •Creating relationships for future outreach (Graco Nation) •Laying the groundwork for “permissions” in this space •Retailers •Viewing Graco as a leader in this space- want to learn from us since we are their only vendor engaging with social media •Media/Trade •Social media is driving mainstream media (multiple media opportunities) •Opportunity to be recognized among peers as a good example of social media outreach •Consumers •“I kind of thought of you guys as a stodgy old brand. I would never expected you all to be doing this!” • Graco sounds like a great place to work! Are you hiring? I am trained in spying, I raised teenagers, lol. That was a great post. Keep up the great work. • I recently discovered your blog. It’s so much fun to read all of your experiences and stories! Thank you for welcoming all of us (your customers) into your personal lives and opening your hearts to our families, too.

BlogWell Social Media Case Study: Graco, presented by Lindsay Lebresco

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