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about me
Hi, I'm William and I head up the WEB Team (Web Engagement & Banking) at Vancity, Canada's largest credit union.

My opinions and views are just that, and don't reflect the views of my employer (or, perhaps, anyone else).

I can be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Monitoring your brand health - part one.

I have been wanting to tackle this idea again for a little while now, and recently a few thoughts have come together into this two-part blog post. This post, part one, is about listening and responding to bloggers. My next part will be about the free tools you can use to monitor the web and how to put them together in an interesting way.

Part one: listening.
Many people say that the first step to getting your brand involved with social media is listening. In other words, listen to what people are saying about you or your company in blogs, on Twitter, Facebook or any other social media applications. I agree; listening will help you understand how people perceive you in a qualitative way, and will inevitably lead you to social media opportunities organically, rather than trying to blindly decide where your first opportunity exists while sitting in a corporate boardroom.

I first spoke about this topic over a year ago at the Washington Credit Union League annual convention in Spokane in 2007. Almost a year ago I addressed it again at a Net.Finance conference in New York. Here is my slide deck from that conference:


What makes a post worthy of a response?
In my view it's really simple:

If someone puts some thought and effort into their post, it deserves a response.

This means that Vancity sucks! and Vancity rules! don't merit a response. But someone who has something to say (positive or negative) deserves, at the very least, to know we heard them (for obvious reasons, I still haven't run across a middle of the road post that demonstrates great thoughtfulness). In a perfect world, we'd further the discussion with our response.

How do we respond?
I always like to respond with a comment from the most appropriate person in our organization directly on the bloggers' post about us. The appropriate person in this case is determined by a combination of expertise, business unit and the amount they "get" social media and would be willing to respond authentically. I have taken on the role of gatekeeper and sometimes coach our staff on how to respond so it sounds natural and not too sales-y or formal.

The response can also take the form of an email (many bloggers have their email addresses visible somewhere on their blog) or a phone call. It depends on the sensitivity of what's being discussed.

A recent example.
Recently, we had a blogger join Vancity. Or rather try to join Vancity. This one meant a lot to me because the blogger does PR 2.0 and joined partially because of the social media initiatives I've helped to create, like ChangeEverything.ca. But upon trying to join Vancity, she didn't have the experience that she (or we) would have liked. You can see the original post here: The social media disconnect: let's not change everything.

Ouch!

We have a wonderful guy as our Director of Operations in our Business Banking division named Bill Corbett. He responded on her blog and emailed her privately. The next day they spoke on the phone. Bill's very genuine, he didn't try to sell her to come back and give Vancity another try. He just talked about what happened and some things we're working on internally to address exactly what happened to her. He didn't over-promise or give her a better rate. He was just a person talking to another person about what happened. It wasn't about blame or getting to an instant resolution. But he treated her with respect and humility and authenticity (as I said, Bill's amazing).

What can happen.
This is a great example, because the next day, after Bill spoke to this blogger, she posted this: The power of listening: Vancity steps up to the plate. This is a textbook example of what you want to have happen. We all make mistakes, and what happened was unfortunate, but we were authentic and listened and spoke to her as an equal and turned this public detractor into a potential future member, and maybe even an advocate.

Why respond at all?
If someone emails or phones us, we respond to their issue immediately. And yet these are private communications. Not responding, in many cases, may well have no impact beyond the individual member. But a blog post is public and becomes part of your record as people Google about your company to see if they want to bring their business to you.

I'm not advocating not responding to emails or phone calls, I'm saying we need to add blogs into the mix. Because this is new and unfamiliar territory, I have taken on this role as gatekeeper and wrangler of responses. If you're reading this, maybe you play a similar role in your organization. Or maybe this is an opportunity to become even more invaluable to your company. Or maybe you can identify the right person to act as gatekeeper, and help them get up to speed.

Who should do it?
The more senior I get, I still feel it's important for me to play this role. I know the internal players in our organization, and they respond to me and take me seriously. Getting the right person to respond (like Bill in this last case) is part of getting it right, like the job of a director casting the right actors in suitable roles, it takes a smart, sometimes senior player. It also gives me a strong sense of our brand health, and how we deliver on our brand promise.

More recent blog posts about Vancity:It's about community.
It's gratifying that most posts about us are positive, and the response can be a simple thanks. When a blog post isn't positive, often they are constructive and helpful and are about things we need to improve upon. They can be challenging to read, because they touch a nerve, but they are incredibly helpful to us. I recommend taking them with that kind of attitude and avoid getting defensive and resistant. That isn't productive.

We're a community-based organization, and the blogoshere is a community we joined when we started ChangeEverything.ca. Getting to this point where I have a lot of allies at Vancity who see the value in responding to bloggers is the result of a soft, slow effort, but it is paying off. It takes a while to get the organization to this point, but trust me, it's amazing and heartening when you get there.

In the next part, which I'll publish next week, I'll share how I've changed the free blog monitoring tools I use to more effectively get a sense of what's being written about us online. Stay tuned, and Happy New Year!

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posted on Wednesday, January 07, 2009

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16 comments
I agree Bill handled the situation very well, and I enjoyed our conversation. Having done a fair bit of community and stakeholder consultation, I learned a long time ago that you don't need to agree with your critics, but you do have to give them a hearing. Listening in and of itself goes so far to defusing situations rather than allowing them to escalate.

I must say, I'm glad I've had a lot of crisis communications training: applying the concern, action, perspective formula to my own responses when dealing with customer service issues has been very helpful.

And now I'm looking forward to viewing your PowerPoint. :)
comment from Anonymous Ruth Seeley on January 07, 2009  
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Hi Ruth, thanks so much for your comment. So happy you read the post.

I hope the PowerPoint makes sense without my narration. Slideshare doesn't do it justice without transitions.
comment from Blogger wazaroff on January 07, 2009  
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It's one of the best PowerPoints I've ever seen although the first two slides, with no text, are a little puzzling. The MarketingProfs webinar by David Merman Scott Lose Control of your Marketing: The NEW New Rule of Marketing & PR is starting in 20 minutes: http://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/online-seminars/187/?adref=mpt119
comment from Anonymous Ruth Seeley on January 07, 2009  
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Wow, thanks Ruth! The first two slides definitely need my narration, and the transitions built into PowerPoint.

The first slide talks about our moving from an industrial age to a communications age and now into a social age. All you see is the final state of that slide.

The second one talks about the decentralized nature of the blogosphere and the web.

Thanks for the link, I'll check that out.
comment from Blogger wazaroff on January 07, 2009  
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Hi William,
Great post, and as a Vancity colleague this is inspiring to read about. And to your point as to "who should respond", I agree - communicating with members directly is extremely valuable in terms of understanding how your brand is being experienced. It also reinforces to me as an employee and to the member that we are part of a community-based organization where these kinds of conversations can (and should) take place.
comment from Anonymous Patrick on January 07, 2009  
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Thanks for the comment, Patrick!
comment from Blogger wazaroff on January 07, 2009  
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Hey William

I've been following Vancity's blog for over a year now-and it's great. You guys were one of the reasons that we started blogging.

I love this post-it's exactly the points I've been trying to get across to everyone I meet when I talk about why we blog. Social Networking gets bigger by the minute-and it's always good to keep tabs on what folks are saying, the good, the bad and the ugly!

Can't wait to see the next post.

-Cammie Morrow
Marketing Director
comment from OpenID HFCU on January 08, 2009  
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Thanks Cammie, I'm so glad you joined the discussion!

Better to know what people are saying instead of staying in the dark. An article in Enterprise Magazine from a few months back had this great quote:

"If a member of your credit union was standing in the middle of a town square in front of a rapt crowd, praising or criticizing your service or products, would you go outside and listen?"

So true...
comment from Blogger wazaroff on January 08, 2009  
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nice. now i'm eagerly awaiting part II, William!
comment from Blogger kate dugas on January 08, 2009  
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Thanks Kate!
comment from Blogger wazaroff on January 08, 2009  
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That is the first power point presentation that hasn't bored me to tears. Informative and interesting even to those outside the FI world.
comment from Blogger Tiven on January 09, 2009  
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Thanks Tiven!
comment from Blogger wazaroff on January 09, 2009  
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That was a great slide deck William. Great stuff in there.
comment from Anonymous Doug van Spronsen on January 09, 2009  
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Thanks Doug, glad we connected yesterday.
comment from Blogger wazaroff on January 09, 2009  
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Hey William -- I'm one of the people you linked to in your post, and I just wanted to say thanks for "getting it". As a blogger of over ten years now I really love it when I see things like this from people in positions that matter. :)

I was really, really impressed when Phelan posted on my site, and it just cemented the fact that I'd made the right decision for switching my banking over. Best I ever got from my experiences with RBC & TD was constant phone calls trying to sell me services I didn't want. This is MUCH better!
comment from Blogger Donna on January 15, 2009  
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Thanks Donna, you just made my day!
comment from Blogger wazaroff on January 15, 2009  
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