The social media opportunity is here and now. It may seem like a jungle out there. However, as a service provider, the question is not whether you will do something about it, but what you plan to navigate it and when you will embark on your expedition. This eBook guides service providers through what is required to navigate the social media jungle and reap the rewards.

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1

2. Navigating the Social Media Jungle
Social Media for Service Providers
Contents
1 Before Starting......................................................................................................... 3
.
2 Start by Listening. .................................................................................................... 5
.
2.1 What Are You Listening For?............................................................................ 6
.
2.2 Why Should You Care?. ................................................................................... 6
.
2.3 Trends.............................................................................................................. 7
2.4 A New Value System........................................................................................ 8
3 Connect the (Customer Identity) Dots....................................................................... 10
3.1 Identity Coupling.............................................................................................. 11
.
4 Social Care............................................................................................................... 13
4.1 Social Central Station....................................................................................... 14
4.2 Crisis Management – Have a Plan.................................................................... 15
4.3 Build a Community........................................................................................... 16
5 Spread the Word...................................................................................................... 17
5.1 Business Case Example – Customer Service.................................................... 18
6 Summary.................................................................................................................. 19
7 About the Authors.................................................................................................... 20
2

3. 1.Before
starting
Before leaping into our discussion about social media for service Social media is NOT the point. Your business IS.
providers, we want to take a moment to outline an important point - one
we feel is often overshadowed by the hype of social media. Social media simply creates new opportunities for you to communicate with
your customers outside of company websites, support/care systems, and
retail stores.
Used correctly, social media can enable your business goals in terms of:
whats Brand – maintaining and building your brand perception so as to differentiate
the ROI
and increase value.
customer
satisfaction
brand Customer Satisfaction – creating customer loyalty reduces churn and
promotes brand advocacy, which in turn attracts more customers.
Profitability – finding new revenue streams, monetizing assets and
increasing operational efficiency.
Navigating the social media jungle
This eBook guides service providers through what is required to navigate the
social media jungle and reap the rewards.
Let’s go.
www.TheCommCouch.com
3
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 3

4. 1.Before
Starting
The Myths of Social Media
Myth 1: Social media is free Myth 3: social media is easy
Unfortunately, social media is NOT free. Like any campaign or This is perhaps the worst myth of all. Jumping into to social
care/support channels, social media requires a strategy and media, without taking the time to listen, learn and plan results
careful planning, resources, people and the right tools. in blunders that can seriously hurt your brand.
Myth 2: Social media is fast Myth 4: social media cannot be measured
While individual interactions across social media channels Not everything in social media can be measured. The same is
are fast (sometimes too fast), establishing a social media true for most campaigns in marketing and customer service.
presence, regardless of the specific platform, requires There are many things that can be measured.
consistent effort over time.
4
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 4

5. 2.Start by
listening
Almost every eBook, paper and discussion
about social media begins with one piece of Grow bigger ears!
advice – Start by listening a.k.a “grow bigger
ears”. This is correct. Listening provides the
insights and understanding you require to build
the best strategy for your organization.
www.TheCommCouch.com
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Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 5

6. 2.1. What are you listening for?
Share of Voice
Are people talking about you? Share of Voice is the measurement of Nili Cohen NiliCo
“how much” or to “what degree” people are talking about you. Heya John...RT @TweetingJohn: Bad phone service out
here in Cali... sorry I can barely hear anyone. Hopefully u
What if no one is talking? Then you need to take action to increase your see this tweet cos I've bn tryna tweet allday.
8 Jul
presence. In the following chapters we will discuss ways of increasing
your share of voice.
Tereza Havier TerezaHa
And yet they cuss out! Lol --->> RT @TweetingJohn: Bad
phone service out here in Cali... sorry I can barely hear
Tone of Voice anyone. Hopefully u see this tweet cos I've bn tryna tweet
allday.
What are people saying about you? Is the conversation largely positive 8 Jul
or negative? If the sentiment is positive, reward those who speak well
of you – this may encourage them to do even more. If the tone is largely John Johnson TweetingJohn
negative, try to get to the root of the issue - fast. Is there a real problem Bad phone service out here in Cali... sorry I can barely
hear anyone. Hopefully u see this tweet cos I've bn tryna
of misinformation? You may want to take the conversation offline in order tweet allday.
to deal with the issue – the resolution, however, should be publicized in 8 Jul
the channel in which it first arose.
2.2. Why should you care? If this was your network, here is an indication that
something may be wrong. It could be a network
We ran a search in Twitter for “bad phone service”. Among the first element malfunction, abnormal congestion or a
results, we found this thread: specific area with faulty coverage. Regardless of the
cause, this customer is having a bad experience – you
need to find out why.
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 6

7. 2.3. Trends
It is important to monitor both “share of voice” and “tone of voice” over
the course of time and correlate the data with your advertising, marketing Your social media platform
and PR efforts to measure their effectiveness. should provide a single,
comprehensive solution
Monitor over time a wide variety of channels; blogs, Twitter,
Facebook, forums etc.
Collect data for multiple search terms; your brand, services,
competition
Analyze the general sentiment and support a “zoom” into the
specifics when needed
Track performance over time and allow comparison-based analysis
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 7

8. 2.4. A New Value System
Customer retention is a key goal for service providers, particularly in the
case of a valuable customer. In traditional systems, the two main factors
used to rate a user are their ARPU (average revenue per user) and their
risk of churning. That was before social media changed the rules of the
game.
Social media changed the rules
Pre-Facebook or Twitter, it was common for a person to share a good
experience with three other people and a bad one with 14.
In the Twitter chat highlighted in the previous chapter, the tweeter who
started the thread has over 41,000 followers. The complaint’s reach
was then expanded by the three responses in the thread. Exposing one
simple complaint to tens of thousands of eyes – this type of adverse
publicity has the power to hurt your business.
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Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 4
8

9. 2.4. A New Value System
Social networks have introduced a new value system based on An influence path is the set of connections of a certain person, on which
connections. Facebook calls them “friends”, LinkedIn “connections” and their messages disseminate. A strong influence path occurs when
Twitter “followers”, but they all describe a complex mesh of connections messages are repeated again and again and cause an actual action
between people. When analyzed correctly, these mesh graphs, together (for example, influencing someone to buy a certain product or browse
with the content associated with each user and their type of influence, a website). A score can be used to calculate each person’s level of
may provide insights as to each user’s influence path. This refers to the influence based on the number of people in their network, number of
level and scope of influence a person has on their network and their repeated messages, speed of message spread, and more.
ability to drive them into action.
ARPU=$130 ARPU=$45
SocialASPU Social ARSU= 160
Text ARPU=$160 Social ARPU=$900 A value system that
incorporates traditional
and social media value
parameters includes:
ARPU
Risk of churning
Influence score
Influence path
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Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 9

10. 3.Connect the (customer identity)
dots
Service providers have been collecting vast amounts of information
regarding their subscribers. As a result, they are able to do much more
than “just” listen. With a long-term, personalized relationship with
subscribers, service providers can use their consumer data to take social CallingJohn
media monitoring to the next level.
In this chapter we will illustrate how successful integration of all
information streams can become an invaluable business asset. Failing to John 1
234 John56
unify can have a direct harmful impact. 78
Let’s take a look at the example below.
tweet! tweet!
tweet!
Frustrated, he d
John spends tweets "can't find any John's Wor Tweetin
30 minuites searching for gJohn
information about the new
a device on a service [device] on [SP] service portal
provider's portal
the IVR identifies John John calls [SP] customer
service and listens to the
IVR instructions
05-5858
58 The fundamental problem is that the process we have just discussed is a
tweet! single flow for the customer AKA John. But for the service provider, these
Darn!!!
tweet! are separate interactions with no information flow between the social
tweet!
media application and the customer service platform.
the IVR proceeds Annoyed, John tells
to tell John that all everyone who is listening on
information can be found Twitter what he thinks To resolve this gap you need “identity coupling”.
on the service portal about [SP] 10
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 10

11. 3.1. Identity Coupling
Identity coupling connects the dots between a social media persona and
a real-world person. As a result, you can “see” who’s talking to you on a
social media channel and respond effectively.
Who are you talking to?
At the basic level, identity coupling is performed manually. In the example
on the right, a customer care representative (CSR) responds to a
customer complaint on Facebook. In the response, the CSR asks the
customer to provide his real name and Facebook identity to create the
match.
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 11

12. 3.1. Identity Coupling
More advanced identity coupling systems are able to collect online
information and offer statistical matches to personal profiles. This
automated approach provides a big step towards building a foundation
of coupled identities. Additional manual processes, direct interactions
and approval from the customer may be required to complete the match.
Now, John’s interaction may look more like this:
IVR: your call is being Additional information business process:
the IVR identifies John forwarded to CSR in the system: Complaints should go
Customer complaint directly to CSR
Having a complete picture of the customer’s
interactions is the first step to delivering good
customer service.
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 12

13. 4.Social
Care
Social Care is the use of social media channels for the customer.
The problem for the service provider is that there is a multitude
of social media channels. Without an integrated solution, which
streamlines and unifies customer service business processes, your
customer care representatives will be lost in a jungle of chatter and be # FAIL CommCouch
powerless to respond in a timely and effective manner.
An effective social care solution should have the following
capabilities:
Integrated listening across all multimedia channels
www.TheCommCouch.com
Single/integrated view of the customer
High-level sentiment
Oh so quiet down here
Ability to drill down to single interactions
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Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 13

14. 4.1. Social Central Station
Let’s take a broader look at the social care solution – your Social Central
Station.
This is a centralized program that brings together your social media
expertise to provide resources, training and strategy throughout your
organization, across different business units that are deploying social
media. Social Central will help you reduce costs and increase efficiency
by having a single, expertise hub that provides the required resources
and training for everyone embarking on a Social Media expedition. It
also ensures that your social media activities are driven by business
processes and are “up to standard”.
Your Social Central needs to establish the standards and basis for all of
your customer service. To deliver a consistent customer experience, all
of your representatives should deliver the same quality of care and the
same services and messages.
www.TheCommCouch.com
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 14

15. 4.2. Crisis Management - Have a Plan
The fast pace of social media means that storm clouds can turn into a some cases, we strongly recommend that you take the conversation to
full-blown media storm within hours. You do not have the time to start private communication channels. Once you have reached a satisfactory
planning your response after receiving a complaint. Your entire team resolution – please, share it with everyone else.
must be well trained and able to monitor the activity, pick up on warning
signs and provide timely responses on an ongoing basis. You also need
a crisis management business process – ready to go as soon as the
alarm bells go off.
Who is who?
A crisis is the right time to leverage the knowledge gained through
identity coupling, which connects the dots between a social media
persona and a real-world person.
What is the complaint source?
An online VIP (influencer)
A subscriber
A competitor
With the combined knowledge of the social media arena and the real-
world person who voiced the complaint, you are in a better position
to quickly and effectively manage the situation.Word of caution: while
www.TheCommCouch.com
transparency is important to building trust in social media channels. In 15
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 15

16. 4.3. Build a Community
Communities are one of the most fascinating aspects of social media. Community
Community members help each other and provide information; especially
when there is a lapse in the official response from the service provider. The
community can become a valuable extension of your customer service
efforts. And since the voices are evangelists, rather than employees, they
are often more passionate and perceived to be more credible. This is one of
the benefits you may gain as a company if you spend time fostering a loyal Community Showcase
community around your brand.
GifGaff is a UK-based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) and
Does this mean that social media communities can a part of the Telefonica group.
replace customer service?
The company chose an unconventional way to compete with
In some cases it has. However in most cases, social media will not replace large telco companies. Where traditional operators have huge call
you customer service department. Instead, look for it to increase your centers, GiffGaff has only 14 employees.
overall customer satisfaction. All of GiffGaff’s customer service is online. They pro-actively push
information out to their notice boards,publish customer-generated
Communities also enable the service provider to form direct and personal tips and tricks and FAQs. GiffGaff relys on their community forum
connections to the subscribers. for peer-to-peer support (supported by intervention and moderation
by GiffGaff employees when required). In return, GiffGaff rewards
This is a unique opportunity to gain understanding of their needs and pains. members for helping with Kudos points which can either be
You can incorporate the community into your product launches for both redeemed for pre pay credit, or donated to charity (of course a
support and promotional purposes, by providing this group access to pre- charity of the community’s choice!).
release information and products.
The result is impressive. With the help of their community,
Make your community an active participant in you product development. GiffGaff customer questions are answered within 3 minutes. The
CASE STUDY
brand enjoys a very high net promoter score (NPS) and, at the
Mitigate any issues at the earliest stages and test your assumptions. Then,
same time, the community has radically cut customer support
when you are ready to go to market, give your community early information costs.
and access to products. They will spread the word to the world. 16
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 16

17. 5. Spread
the word
Social media channels provide the means and opportunity for targeted
marketing and promotions.
Word-of-mouth Showcase
Instead of buying a traditional advertising space, create friendly and
compelling applications and plugins; offer presents and discounts,
and hold contests and viral campaigns. Your success will be amplified BT Race to Infinity
through sharing and the viral nature of social media channels – BT Infinity is a broadband service in the United Kingdom provided
expanding your visibility to new potential clients and customers. Your by BT Retail, the consumer sales arm of the BT Group. BT Retail
community will really come into play here. ran a competition called "Race to Infinity”, for communities to vote
for their area to be one of the next to be upgraded to super-fast
broadband.
Entire communities rallied to the cause, campaigning intensively,
Putting deals in motion raising donations and gathering votes. As Gavin Patterson, CEO
of BT Retail, said: “The Race to Infinity really captured people’s
One key strategy to grow your social media presence and revenues
imagination. We’ve been so impressed by the passion and
is to offer special offers exclusively available through a specific social commitment of the people who signed up to campaign for their
media channel. While still in early stages, social commerce - where the areas up and down the country.”
actual purchase is handled through the social media channel - can be an At the end of the competition, more than 360,000 votes were cast
effective addition to your channel portfolio. right across the UK in the three-month long Race to Infinity survey.
17
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 17

18. 5.1. Business case example-
customer service
Let’s revisit the “bad service” complaint from an ROI analysis:
ROI point of view
One interaction with complainer – reduce customer service
JohnyJohn John Johnson
Bad phone service out here in Cali... sorry I can barely hear resources
anyone. Hopefully u see thid tweet cos I've bn tryna tweet allday. Prevention of overload on customer service centers – customer
8 Jul
service resources
Reduce time in identification and resolution of network problem –
CommCouch service representative sees the complaint
prevent revenue loss and customer churn
and does 2 things:
Prevent negative comments on social media channels – enhance
1 2
brand perception and trust
Responds: thank you, we are checking the Issues an alert
network status and will update in the to the network team.
next hour.
CommCouch network team verifies that there is a network
issue and gets to work on it.
CommCouch communications:
1 2 3
Updates the IVRs Update the Provide a specific thank you Building the business case and ROI for social media needs to take into
and website – communities to the complainer – thanks
account a variety of factors that are impacted by the new communication
there is a problem regarding the for letting us know about
problem to help the problem – we hope it channels.
in this area. We
are working on field comments will be fixed in the next 3
fixing it. hours.
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: SocialService for Service ProvidersShamirShai Shamir & Oren Agassy
Social Media Expedition: Social Media for Media Providers / by Shai / by & Oren Agassy 18

19. 6. Summary
The social media opportunity is here and now. As a service provider, the
question is not whether you will do something about it, but what you plan
to do and when.
Listen and learn – take the time to study the social media arena.
Learn from both mistakes and successes.
Strategize and plan – design a social media strategy that promotes
your business goals
Implement – use the tools, business processes and resources to
execute your social media plan and campaigns
Measure and build your business case – make sure that you are
continuously measuring and evaluating your strategy over time
Refine and repeat – We are always learning and striving to
improve. This is true for all activities, and especially so for new
areas such as social media.
Don’t be afraid to try – this is the only way to
improve and succeed.
19
Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy
19

20. 8. About the
Authors
Shai Shamir Oren Agassy
Shai Shamir is a creative technology advocate During more than 15 years in the telecommunications
with more than 10 years of experience in the industry, Oren Agassy has built up extensive
telecommunications industry - working with service experience in networks, as well as business
providers and software solution vendors. He brings support and customer experience systems. In
a strong technical background and business his current role at Amdocs, Oren focuses on the
experience to his current role at Amdocs, Shai challenges (and opportunities) that service providers
leads the marketing activities for business process are facing in the social media space, and leads a
management, social media and customer experience management. He is team responsible for the ideation, strategy, roadmap, partnerships and
also responsible for defining and aligning corporate strategy, positioning, customer engagements of the Amdocs Social Media Solutions suite. In his
generating market awareness and briefing analysts. Shai has been leading role, Oren identifies and seeks partnerships with startup companies and
TM Forum’s Managing Customer Experience group for the last two years, technologies that complement Amdocs products to create new, innovative
contributes to TM Forum Insight reports on both the customer experience solutions based on joint-value propositions.
and social media and regularly blogs about the customer experience.
e-mail: shai.shamir@amdocs.com e-mail: oren.agassy@amdocs.com
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Navigating the Social Media Jungle: Social Media for Service Providers / by Shai Shamir & Oren Agassy 20

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About Amdocs jNetX are the exclusive property of Amdocs, and may
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Amdocs is the market leader in customer experience systems
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