Corporate Case Study IMS

EMBARQ Residential Profile PAGE

Home Phone, Local and Long Distance

High-Speed Internet

Satellite TV from DISH Network

Home Computer & Technical Support

Servicing 3.5M HHs across 18 states

Listening

In the beginning…

Google Alerts (Yahoo)

Google Blog searches

BlogPulse

DSLReports.com

Complaint boards

Technorati

Later…

Collective Intellect

All of the above

Addictomatic

Now…

Radian6

All of the above

Social Media Roadmap

Corporate Social Media Mission:

Develop, implement and cultivate social media strategies with an evolving tool kit to enhance communications and brand perceptions among employees, customers, prospects, shareholders and the media – aka: “multi-influencers.”

- November 17, 2007

Social Media Strategies

Delivering on our Practical Ingenuity brand promise, we will leverage social media to communicate with our multi-influencers with the following:

EDUCATE : Train to create breadth and depth in our employee base to give them the tools and opportunity to actively engage in social and emerging media.

SEEK & CULTIVATE: New employee talent and corporate resources to better position EQ as a “thought-leader” in this emerging space while tapping external influencers.

3) INTEGRATE: Listen to and become part of conversations that are media agnostic and evergreen; ensure all marketing and communication strategies are interwoven to create consistent messaging.

4) RESEARCH: Invest in socmed-specific research to identify emerging trends, shifting EQ from followers to leaders; monitor brand perceptions to identify opportunities and gaps.

5) MEASURE : Use media appropriate metrics to evaluate performance against best-in-class examples.

6) INNOVATE & EXPERIENTAL: Utilize the socmed opportunity to evolve the brand into one that is dynamic, interactive and relevant; leverage opportunities via conversations to position the brand for future growth.

Social Media Strategies Engaging in online conversations to improve: Customer Experience, Brand Perception & Employee Morale

CS Online Outreach (12/07)

Twitter (2/08)

YouTube (10/08)

INNOVATE & EXPERIENTIAL Care & Brand MEASURE Brand RESEARCH Care & Brand INTEGRATE Internal stakeholders SEEK & CULTIVATE Online communication policy EDUCATE Accomplished Strategy

4Q07 1Q08 2-3Q08 Still Have Customers Who Won’t Recommend Embarq

Executives and employees increasingly concerned with negative Customer posts and no Embarq response.

Passion for Customer care drives initiative to ignite with a grass-roots Customer care effort:

Update/publish the Online Communication policy

Pool resources from front-line to get in on ground floor to develop a sustainable, no-cost process.

Discovery

Assessment

Recommendations

Implementation

Integrate Strategy redefined to focus on a Customer care concern.

Customers Definitely Recommend Customers Likely to Recommend

Our performance and success

Built a listening infrastructure/process within a couple of weeks and continue to keep abreast of best practices to engage where others are engaged.

66% Success Rate (Dec. ’07 through Jun ’09)

Tracked ~1,770 initial inquiries.

Able to communicate with >1160 people who both accepted the communication and were satisfied at the end.

Responsiveness

Total Responded Response time Total Responded Response time 1.3% 1.3% 97.5% 72+ hours 48 - 72 hours 24 - 48 hours 0 - 24 hours 48 - 72 hours 24 - 48 hours 0 - 24 hours 0%

Examples of Customer Impact http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/technical-diving- specialties/225381-thank-you-embarq.html “ Our phones are down today, thanks to Embarq!” “Embarq screwed up something and now my phone lines are dead!!!” “ Wowzers Batman! that's a first. I do have to say that they were right on top of things and got it resolved within a few hours. Their customer service is almost as good and efficient as mine!” http://chezchani.blogspot.com/2008/10/customer-dissatisfaction.html “ Wondering if a switch to something else will save me money. .. last week I had a problem with my DSL. It took just a phone call to get it resolved, Embarq made some changes, got me back online and promptly sent me a new modem. A small mention of this in my blog led to a comment by an Embarq customer service rep, letting me know to contact them if there is any problem. Then, an Embarq guy started following me on Twitter, also telling me to let them know if there is any problem. And you know what? As a result, I will not even consider leaving Embarq. Why? CUSTOMER SERVICE ! ” http://www.bethjbates.com/index.php/2009/02/04/why-embarq-rocks-aka-why-you-should-use-twitter/ “ It just so happens that Embarq is on Twitter (who knew?) and had come across my complaints. I told him my DSL saga and within 24 hours I had an Extended Reach DSL installation scheduled on 2/27. Amazing! He was helpful, did what he said he would do and followed up. He also went on to help my mom get DSL that had just been added to her rural area last week. And my mom was ready to ditch Embarq altogether .” Negative Positive Neutral Positive Negative Positive

Reaching prospects…reaching us…

Customer conducts a Google search and finds @Embarq_Joey on Twitter…

From: Willie XXXXX [ mailto:xxxxxx@yahoo.com ]

Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 2:20 PM

To: Embarq_Joey

Subject: extended reach dsl

Joey,

I hope you can help me, My neighbors on either side of me are able to sign up for DSL service but I am not. I have recieved serveral different explanations for this but I still think there is something that can be done to get service to my home. My home number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. Can you please explore this matter, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Willie XXXXX

Highlights 1Q08 2-3Q08

Connecting customers becomes advocates for Embarq to other customer and prospects

Customers find virtual walkthroughs helpful

Launch of YouTube How-to videos by brand team

DSLReports.com Forum

DSL Forum Moderators trust us

Moderator thanked us for being available

We manage the FAQs

We can post promotional “information”

Forum participants self-correcting negative/misleading posts

Building positive sentiment

Begin participating on Twitter

Customers Definitely Recommend Customers Likely to Recommend

Brand Marketing Objectives

Build brand awareness

Create a presence in an online community where customers & prospects are already engaged

Go where our target is- bring our brand to them

Promote customer and prospect engagement and interactivity

Expand positive sentiment built through online customer outreach

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4 th largest US site: Larger than eBay, Amazon, MySpace or Facebook

65M unique visitors/month

420 hrs of content uploaded/hr- Represents 42.9% of online video views*

1:4 Fortune 500s

1:4 Searches – YouTube is the 2 nd most popular search engine.*

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Customers Seek Product Information on YouTube 2008 YouTube Engagement Study Base: Tech-Decision-Makers Who Visited YouTube in Past 6 Months and Have Viewed, Uploaded or Shared Tech-Related Videos Q: Which types of technology or electronics-related videos have you viewed, uploaded or shared?

Type of Technology Videos Watched

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Technology Videos on YouTube Prompt Action 67% Have taken action as result of seeing technology or electronics-related content on YouTube . 21% Told someone about a product or service 13% Bought a technology or electronics-related product or service 47% Gathered more information about a product or service 2008 YouTube Engagement Study Base: Past 6 Month YouTube Visitors Who Watch Technology or Electronics-Related Videos. Q: Which of these actions, if any, have you taken as a result of seeing a video about technology or electronics content (e.g., videos, user comments or reviews) on YouTube? 27% Thought more favorably toward a product, brand or service 34% Considered buying a technology product or service PAGE

Take the time to test, validate gut PAGE

Content Strategy

Short-term: Contest

HSI focus

Long-term: How-to Videos

Top 10 Customer Service issues

Online Outreach

Call Centers

Continue to interact/use feedback loop

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Content Strategy PAGE “ This is not a campaign, this channel is a strong extension of our brand promise – practical ingenuity. It’s a practical communication’s vehicle helping us build relationships, continue conversations, and form deeper ties in an innovative format.”

Objectives Sync with Brand Promise

Channel Objectives

Build brand awareness through engagement

Increase EMBARQ core services awareness

Leverage and support EQ online initiatives

Contest Objectives

Drive traffic to the channel

Engage customers and prospects with the brand

Build EQ HSI awareness and preference

Customer Focus Simple & Easy to Do Business With

Getting the word out

Integrated online media campaign/communication plan to meet all marketing objectives

Interact & Engage: Channel & Display

Drive Traffic: Search & Display

Social Media Outreach:

Online socmed press release

Blogger outreach (Industry & Video-enthusiasts)

Twitter

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What can you do in 48 seconds????? www.youtube.com/embarq PAGE

Generating BUZZ PAGE

Generating BUZZ - How-To Videos “ Now a great example, I think one of the best examples of how-to videos, is done by Embarq… some of the videos have been, have really decent view counts considering, you know, where it comes from, that it’s coming from a brand. That makes sense because its helped get this company’s name out to a broader consumer base, and if you just Google, you know, “How to install a blank, blank, a T1 line or a DSL line”, or whatever it is, there’s a good chance that you might come across those videos and then you know about this company and its services.” - Daisy Whitney on Dishymix Podcast Episode 90 PAGE “ They’re all trying to figure out how to tap YouTube’s mass appeal for their own gain. Embarq’s twist on it is interesting. I didn’t do an exhaustive search, but I didn’t see other service provider examples of a customer service angle. Most are using it strictly for promotional purposes. Of course Embarq is too, but using the customer service hook seems to be unique…” Telecompetitor, October 06, 2008

Positive sentiment Comments Cloud PAGE

Compared to similar online initiatives, we kicked it! Percentile Ranking of Delta (  ) AdIndex Score: Normative Benchmarking of Brand Metric Deltas* ^ NOTE: Metrics benchmarked against Purchase Intent norms * MarketNorms Q3/08 (Category: Telecommunications - Other, Last 3 years Baseline Unadjusted, N=43 campaigns) Avg Delta 4.1 4.5 3.1 2.3 0.6 0.6 PAGE Below Average Average Above Average Excellent Aided Brand Awareness Online Ad Awareness Brand Favorability Sign-Up/Switch Intent^ Recommend Intent^ Message Association

How’s it going?