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ACTIVATING CONNECTED INNOVATION VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

MNIFT Presentation 11/17/2009Don Smith, General Mills Twitter: @djsmith4

"We are working around the clock to restore Eggo store inventories to normal levels as quickly as possible," Kellogg's spokeswoman Kris Charles wrote in an e-mail to ABC News. "In the meantime, we're allocating available product to customers based on historical percentage of business. We estimate that store freezer inventory shortfalls will continue on Eggo products through the first half of 2010."

Overview

What is Social Media?

Social Media Framework – Groundswell

General Mills leverages Social Media with

consumers

General Mills leverages Social Media to

support Innovation

Thought starters

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

Even Wikipedia has trouble defining it

Social media are media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

Social media is a new communication model

An increase in consumer adoption from 2007-2008

It’s where your consumers are

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3 out of 4 people use social technologyForrester, The Growth of Social Technology Adoption, 2008

2/3 of the global internet population visit social networksNielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009

Time spent on social networks is growing at 3x the overall internet rate, accounting for 10% of all internet timeNielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009

Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity, ahead of personal emailNielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009

Why listen online?

Business Context: Consumers are online speaking their minds and influencing others.

Online is where our consumers

are.

Expressing what is on their minds.

Influencing the messaging around

our products.

SOCIAL MEDIA FRAMEWORKGROUNDSWELL

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A Simple Four-Step Approach

PeopleAssess your people’s social technology abilities

ObjectivesDecide what you want to accomplish

StrategyPlan for how relationship with customers will change

TechnologyDecide what social technologies to use

Groundswell Strategies

Talking – Using social media to talk about subjects that matter to the brand or deliver the brand message

Listening – Using social media to monitor consumer discussions; Get closer to your consumers

Energizing – Activating the community to take action: share, talk, review, etc.

Support – Using social media to support and service consumers; Help them accomplish goals or solve problems

Embracing – Actively collaborating with consumers using social media

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16

ListeningUsing social media to monitor consumer discussions; Get closer to your consumers

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TalkingUsing social media to talk about subjects that matter to the brand or deliver the brand message

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EnergizingActivating the community to take action: share, talk, review, etc.

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SupportingUsing social media to support and service consumers; Help them accomplish goals or solve problems

EmbracingActively collaborating with consumers using social media

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A Social Brand in Action

Whole Foods example: Talking

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List of different voices (local stores) on Twitter

• Multiple voices, organized and localized

• Supplements master brand• Promotes community on a more

personal level

Whole Foods example: Listening

Prominent positioning of social media destinations to talk directly to the brand

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Whole Foods example: Listening in action

Using social media to monitor social discussionsGain consumer insightsGather new ideasGet alerts faster than traditional channelsIdentify trending needs as they are happening

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Whole Foods example: Energizing

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Multiple promotions on customer-focused topics (“Your Health: Boost your Omega 3’s”) that coordinate to sales on foods high in Omega 3’s.

Facebook Whole Foods’ blog

Home page promo

0

Whole Foods example: Supporting

Using social media to support consumers and help fix issues• Identify problems with products•Responding to one = a response to many

Whole Foods example: Embracing

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Finding common passions with their consumers and collaborating with them through social media.

Facebook pages

Whole Foods’ “Values” page on corp. siteCo-branded (with Whole Foods) foundation page

0

HOW DOES GENERAL MILLS LEVERAGE SOCIAL MEDIA?

Listening and Responding

Finding 1: Large, but brief, spike in online buzz on day of recall.Talk predominantly negative. Recall updates generate lesser spikes in talk.

Number of Posts

Net Sentiment

6/15

/200

9

6/17

/200

9

6/19

/200

9

6/21

/200

9

6/23

/200

9

6/25

/200

9

6/27

/200

9

6/29

/200

9

7/1/

2009

7/3/

2009

7/5/

2009

7/7/

2009

7/9/

2009

-1500

-1000

-500

0

500

1000

1500

15

1319

388277

75 36

1

-930

-330

-215

-41-21

Nestlé Toll House: Total Activity vs Net Sentiment

Activity Net Sentiment

Recall date

Government announces new safety standards to reduce salmonella and E. coli outbreaks.

Nestlé cookie dough sample tests positive for E. coli.

Recall talk – lawsuits filed, retailers pulling product off shelf, FDA stumped about source.

FDA announces that E. coli found in cookie dough does not match strain linked to 30-state outbreak.

Implication: Listening enables us to assess and respond to adverse situations quickly and effectively.

No recall-related themes surfaced for Pillsbury.The four most popular topics remained consistent overtime.

PillsburyThemes

Nestlé Toll House

Themes

Recipes

Coupons

Doughboy

ContestGiveaways

E Coli

Food Illness

Cookie dough

Communities

LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR INNOVATION

The Case for Connections

MIT research shows that… “40% of creative teams productivity is

directly explained by the amount of communication they have with others to discover, gather, and internalize information.”

“Employees with the most extensive digital networks are 7% more productive than their colleagues.”

“Employees with the most cohesive face-to-face networks are 30% more productive.”

Pentland, A. 2009. How Social Networks Network Best. Harvard Business Review, Feb, p 37. Aral, Brynjolfsson & Van Alstyne. 2007. Productivity Effects of Information Diffusion in Networks.

Figure 1. Four Types of Social Network Relationships

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THOUGHT STARTERS

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Connecting

Consuming

Creating

SharingCollaborati

ng

5key consumer

behaviors in social media

Get Inside your consumer’s head

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Thought Starters:

What values, beliefs and interestsdo you share with the people whobuy your products and/or services?

Where are those people alreadyspending time that you couldconnect with them through thosethings?

How can you connect people toother people and things that willhelp them accomplish their goals?

Connecting

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Creating

Thought Starters:

What can you create that people will benefit from?

What can you give to people that will help them create more interesting content to spread?

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Collaborating

Thought Starters:

How can you collaborate with people in a meaningful way?

How can you help people collaborate with each other more easily?

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Sharing

Thought Starters:

What can you share that will make the community better?

How can you help others sharethings more easily?

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Thought Starters:

What can you teach people that will help them achieve their goals?

What can you learn from people that will help you be a better marketer or help you make better products?

How can you reward people forconsuming and sharing yourcontent?

Consuming

Connect with me:

Twitter: @djsmith4LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldjsmithmplsEmail: donald.smith@generalmills.com

Credits:

Video - Did You Know Series

Thanks to MNIFT!