blogwell cincinnatti social media case study: graco, presented by kelly voelker

Social Media’s Role in Issue ManagementBlogwell CincinnatiApril 7, 2010

Kelly VoelkerPR & Social Media Manager

@gracobaby@gracoKelly

7:00 a.m. January 20, 2010

• 1.5 million strollers worldwide; seven injuries reported• Widespread media coverage in nearly every major national outlet• Very specific design & model = mass confusion

6:59 a.m. January 20, 2010

• Graco went live with proactive, specific communication through the Graco blog, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook & dedicated Web page

• Reached out to influencers to help spread the word

Doubled our monthly traffic in five days

3000+ tweets in 9 hours

Site traffic +10X

Dealing with negative feedback

• Get ahead of the news• Proactively search for and respond to conversations

• Work closely with customer service• Prepare the team in advance and loop in with most senior person• Flag negative feedback in real time• Deal with concerns on a case-by-case basis and get permission to act

• Start building a relationship before a problem exists• There will be times when the community will chime in – give them

something positive to say

• If it’s something the community can benefit from, try to start in public; if not -- take it offline

One example: Michelle

“Fix it or I’m taking it to YouTube to show

everyone what your products are really like.”

A turnaround

“I will ALWAYS continue to buy and use Graco

products thanks to the way this was handled.”

And a little positive news

What we learned

• Legal Collaboration• Become a legal go-to inside your organization• Prepare messages in advance (both word-for-word & message “types”)• Make sure your legal team understands social media

• Executive Communication• Held twice-daily calls leading up to and for the week following with top

company leadership worldwide• Sent daily e-mail updates on coverage, red flags

• Global Integration• Clarify the meaning of a recall outside of the US• Treat all consumers the same

Kelly Voelker – Graco Children’s Products@gracobaby · @gracoKelly

kelly.voelker@gracobaby.comwww.blog.gracobaby.com

http://gracobaby.comhttp://facebook.com/graco

THANK YOU