Chris Catania of Walgreens presented on how the company used community management strategies to build relationships, support culture change, and engage employees. Walgreens launched an internal social network and employee communities to connect employees, demonstrate business value, and support company objectives. Through strategic community management including roadshows, meetups, and active community participation, Walgreens saw over 1000 conversations in their first year, with 50% of employees joining. Moving forward, they aim to further rollout the social network and refine their strategies using new community data and research.

1. Using Community Management
Strategies to Build Relationships,
Support Culture Change, and
Engage Employees
CHRIS CATANIA
WALGREENS
DECEMBER 9–11, 2013
ORLANDO
SOCIALMEDIA.ORG/SUMMIT

2. Using Community Management
Strategies to Build Relationships,
Support Culture Change and Engage
Employees
Chris Catania, Online Community Manager
12/10/13
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.

3. As We Travel Down The Path

How we got started

What we’ve learned during
the first miles of our
internal social journey

How we’re evolving our
communities and social
eco-system through
strategic community
management
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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4. Our Challenge

Analyze, understand and organize the current Walgreens internal
social eco-system

Develop and manage the existing employee communities while
preparing for a social intranet rollout

Begin demonstrating the business value of employee communities

Live out the Walgreens Corporate Communications charter: “Connect
people to the business and each other”
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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5. Keys To Overcoming The Challenge
Raising The Bar: Measure with Data and Get Smarter with Strategy
“Without mastering data, you’re simply working in the dark. Without
data, you’re not a professional. Without data, you will never become
better than you are right now. You can’t optimize your activities. You
can’t proactively develop your community.”
“Strategy is, by far, the most important and most high-value work.
People who strategize well combine profound understanding of
community development with advanced project management skills...”
- Rich Millington, Buzzing Communities
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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6. Our Vision: Communities With A Purpose
 To produce tangible examples, stories and business
use cases that achieve the goals and objectives of our
Social Playbook.
 To develop, test and evolve the social intranet user
experience and community management strategy
 To continually demonstrate how our Social Playbook
and community management strategy supports the
Walgreens Growth Objectives.
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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7. How We Got Started
Executing Our Community Management
Strategy
 Started small: created a “1-9-90” pilot community to test
and experiment with social strategy
 Listened and then engaged with the “1-9-90” within
current community ecosystem
 Asked for their “3 interests”
 Hosted one-on-one meetings and offline community
meetups
 Modeled desired community behaviors within internal
social ecosystem
 Connected members within the community and during
mini-meetups
 Conducted internal divisional and department road tours
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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8. Other Important Stuff We Did Along The Way

Continued to refine our Social
Playbook, and align it with our
external social media policy

Created community editorial content
calendar and connected each piece
of content to company strategy

Focused on champions, built on wins

Regular reporting and meeting with
executive sponsors

Engaged business units and created
cross-functional work stream teams

Began creating framework for Center
of Excellence and Social Media
Council
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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9. Then…We Launched The Wall: Our New
Social Intranet
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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10. Success Stories

11. Connecting Team Members To The Business
Our communities are helping team members to feel more
connected to the company
“This experience has shown me how our community gives us the
opportunity to be more engaged and motivated while at work.
Contributing to discussions about product ideas and customer
experience has made me think more about how what I do every day
is connected to and impacts company strategy.”
- Help Center team member, shared during community Meetup
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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12. Solving Problems & Saving Resources
Our communities are helping team members save
resources and quickly find subject matter experts
“This year, I was able to post my macro problem and
leverage the community to solve our annual macro problem.
Had I not had access to the community, it would have had
cost implications for our division as well as the company.
Our community allowed me to connect with an expert
community, allowing my problem to be solved much more
quickly and cost effectively.”
- Finance Team Member
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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13. The Value of SMEs & Timely Feedback

287 comments on blog post about new
Paid Time Off policy

Overwhelming positive feedback from
community on quality and timeliness of
responses

Educating employees before the official
PTO announcement was made

Created Benefits Enrollment community
group to:

Answer enrollment questions

Share relevant news and updates
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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14. Our Results
So far during journey we’ve…
 Utilized pilot phases to successfully test and refine our content, engagement and
measurement strategy
 Identified 50+ additional business use cases and strategic community opportunities

Launched to corporate audience and field leadership
 Completed social intranet rollout phase 1
 Community Guiding Principles being adopted, self-moderating emerging
 Over 1000 unique conversations (80% business, 20% social related)
 Demonstrated business value of employee communities for connecting,
recognition, asking questions, getting answers, identifying SMEs
 50% have joined the community and created a social profile
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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15. Keys To Success
:
 Established clear business goals for
communities and social intranet rollout
 Hosted one-on-one pilot member meetings,
offline meetups and divisional road tours
 Modeled and highlighted desired community
behaviors
 Consistent and compelling business-value
storytelling
 Close partnership between IT,
Communications and other key
stakeholders
 Practice “strategic experimentation”
 Walgreens News Center group
 Webinars, Live blogging, real-time live
updates for town halls, store openings
 Hashtags with a purpose
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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16. What We’re Aiming For Next
Our Goal: demonstrate the business value of employee
communities and strategic community management.
Key actions we’re taking:

Continue social intranet companywide rollout

Develop formal training and onboarding programs

Ongoing executive and stakeholder education

Refine strategy using new internal community
management data and research: SOCM 2013

Regular reporting and business value storytelling

Continue to align our community goals with company
cultural beliefs
©2013 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.
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17. Thanks!
Chris Catania
chris.catania@walgreens.com

18. Learn more about past and
upcoming events
SOCIALMEDIA.ORG/EVENTS
DECEMBER 9–11, 2013
ORLANDO
SOCIALMEDIA.ORG/SUMMIT