My presentation from the Social Media Strategies Summit in Las Vegas. February 2012.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA AND
REGULATED
INDUSTRIES
How to Have Fun AND Stay Out of Trouble

2. About Me
2
 Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager,
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
 Twitter: @ShannonPaul
 Blog: http://VeryOfficialBlog.com
 Experience managing social media for health
care, financial services and professional sports
organizations
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

3. 3 Challenge #1: Confusion
Social Media is Not Well Understood in
Regulated Industries
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

4. 4 Love/Hate Relationship with Social Media
70% of All Companies Ban Access
to Social Networking Sites

5. BUT, Demand for Social Skills is
5
Skyrocketing
Demand for social media skills is
up 94 percent since 2010

6. Social Media is Inevitable
6
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

7. 7 Challenge #2: Rules
Planning and Approval Processes Deter
Real-Time Communication
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

8. 8 Is Social Media Worth the Effort?
When plans align and support existing business
initiatives, the effort makes sense and the rewards
are apparent

9. Activity vs Impact?
9
 How much work goes into a single tweet or
status update?
 Does engagement pose additional risks?
 Does your activity create more work for
others?
 Do approval requests contain enough context?
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

10. 10 Solution #1: Plan
Helping Others Understand EXACTLY What
You Would Like to do with Social Media
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

11. Real Strategies Align & Accrue
11
Your social
media
strategy
should align
with parent
business
strategies
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

12. Look Inward
12
 Know thyself:
 Operational alignment or one-off experiment?
 Hint: Without operational alignment, you have a one-off
experiment
 One-off experiments often grow up into programs that align and
accrue to business goals
 Who’s your daddy?
 Get clear on overarching business goals and objectives
 Understand the parent strategy you wish to support with social
media activity
 Competitive Analysis
 Where are your competitors?
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

13. Build a Scope of Conversation
13
 What is the role of your brand in each social
network: Who you will/won’t be
 Are you a facilitator or a participator?
 Will you be instructive or simply share a “behind
the scenes” experience
 Will you be proactive – create content for social
audiences to interact with? Or reactive –
responding only to customer complaints or
mentions?
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

14. 14 Solution #3: Get Permission
Using Your Plan to Articulate the Risks
and Rewards of Your Proposed Social
Media Engagement Strategy or
Campaign
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

15. How Lawyers Often Think
15
Articulate
the risks and
rewards of
your social
media
engagement
strategy

16. Recipe for Success: Precision
16
 Explain exactly what you want to do and how you plan
to do it
 This does not mean telling legal you want to “get the
company on Facebook” – this is not a plan
 Explain exactly what you need from them
 Disclaimer for known risks
 Terms and conditions
 Research and identify potential risks
 Explain the strategic goal for your activity in terms of
your parent strategy and how your social media
tactics align
 Explain the opportunity risk of NOT doing what you
propose
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

17. CASE STUDY
How Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Uses Social Media

18. BCBSM’s Approach to Social
18
Media
 Ecosystem approach to social content
focused on:
• Strengthening relationships with
community stakeholders,
• Building trust and authority on issues of
health and wellness for all Michigan
residents
• Extending brand and value proposition
to social networks (go where the people
are)
• Twitter:
• @BCBSM
• @BCBSMnews
• @HealthierMI
• Facebook
• Facebook.com/BCBSM
• Facebook.com/HealthierMI
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

19. Make Internal Expertise
19
“Social”
Our blog, A
Healthier
Michigan
grew from
9,000 page
views in
January
2011 to
more than
58,000 page
views in
January
2012
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

20. 20 Find the FUN!
Looking for Opportunities to Align
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

21. Event Sponsorships
21
Increased
broadcast
media
exposure for
company
sponsorship
of a local
festival at no
additional cost
Great boost to
employee
morale
More than
5,000 views
on YouTube
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

22. Sports and Cause Marketing
22
Monday Night
Football Breast
Cancer Awareness
PSA with Matthew
Stafford linked to
aHealthierMichigan.
org
aHealthierMichigan.
org profiled breast
cancer survivors
who accompanied
BCBSM CEO Dan
Loepp onto the field
for ACS donation
“Curable Towels”
passed out to fans
at the game, and
given to
@HealthierMI
followers as trivia
prizes after the
game
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

23. Press Conferences
23
Social media
influencers
and bloggers
(including
those from
other
downtown
Detroit
businesses)
were invited
to our
ribbon-
cutting press
event at
Detroit’s
iconic
Renaissance
Center Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Shannon
Michigan

24. Loyalty Programs
24
Holiday
promotion for
Healthy Blue
Xtras –
BCBSM’s
member
discount
program
leveraged
social media
content to
drive interest
and
engagement
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

25. 25 Bringing it Home
Why “fun” matters
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

26. “Fun” Can Bring Value to Your
26
Business
 Looking for external opportunities to use social
media to boost outcomes helps:
 Establish business processes to support effective
social media engagement with relatively few risks to
the organization
 Build internal relationships you need to support a
sustainable social media presence
 Build external online relationships before you need
them
 Humanize the organization
 “Normalize” social media as a business tool
 Rationalizes the need for a budget to become a
functional area of your business
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan

27. THANK YOU!
27
 Q&A
 Shannon Paul
 Twitter:@ShannonPaul
 Blog: http://VeryOfficialBlog.com
 Email: shannonpaul5@gmail.com
Shannon Paul, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan