Western Digital snapshot

social media snapshot
30-Day View

June 2012

Preface
The social media analysis was conducted with public data and insight collected
over a 30-day period. An automated and manual approach, using a premium data
analysis tool (Radian6) combined with readily available freemium tools along with
human analysis, was used to collect a small base data sampling from June 1
through to June 30, 2012. The data collected was studied, analyzed and measured
to produce the quantitative and qualitative benchmarks found in the following
analysis.

Throughout the process, deeper background research was conducted to add
additional data points to complement the 30-day findings and to better represent a
more accurate picture of social performance. From the research conducted, the
observations identified best practices with drawn conclusions to serve as a first
step to identify deeper analysis needs.

The initial data modeling and measurement frameworks used in this analysis were
based on the following key project parameters.

Objective: Analysis should study, analyze and extract
observations on Western Digital’s social media
activity and performance over a recent 30-day
time period.

Brands (inclusions) Western Digital (Brand)
Seagate (competitor)
Hitachi (competitor)
Iomega (competitor)
LaCie (competitor)

Focus: Conversations, engagements, brand execution
Depth: Broad general study
Duration: 30 days (June 1 - 30, 2012)
Geography: USA
Language: English

Final Note: This study was conducted to observe Western Digital’s recent
performance across three fundamental social platforms and should serve as an
informational tool only and is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis to
develop strategic direction without additional deeper analyses based on corporate
discovery and insight.

For more information, please contact Daniel McKean, 949 338 4762, or via email
at danielmckean@gmail.com.

Social Benchmarks 4

WD Performance
Twitter 7
 Overview 8
 Social Index Score 9
 Strengths & Weaknesses 11
 Best Practices 13
 Sample Tweet Tips

Facebook 15
 Overview 16
 Sample Post Tips

YouTube 22
 Overview 23
 Sample Tweet Tips
28
Conclusions

Appendices 29
Social Index Scoring 30
Research Filters

Share of Voice (Select Competitive Peers)

Geography: United States
Social Properties: Blogs, Mainstream Media, Facebook, Twitter, Video (YouTube), Images (Flickr)

Language Filter: English
Data Sampling Size: 19,962 references
Sample Date: June 1 - 30, 2011

Observation: Reviewing select industry peers based on a set of defined keyword filters, Western
Digital and Seagate clearly have more of a social media presence and share a larger volume of the
active conversation related to storage and complementary products over other select industry peers.

This offers considerable opportunity for Western Digital, with an already substantial active social
presence, to leverage the Brand discussion into Brand building campaigns and programs to exert
influence into social communities. Initial observations reveal Western Digital’s use of social media
has been largely sharing information, product and news -- resulting in marginal success for building
and engaging with communities. As one step to move to the next level of influence, Western Digital
may consider developing a Brand voice with richer content, which should seek to personify and
humanize the Brand for greater community appeal and engagement.

Data Source: Radian6 (Chosen Filters)

4

Share of Voice (Select Competitive Peers vs. Industry Discussion)



Observation: There is an active and robust community discussion re: storage related topics across
the social landscape. Collectively, Western Digital and the four competitive peer brands account for a
very small percentage within the overall discussion. However, it should be noted that much of the
industry discussion is casual where the conversation uses industry nomenclature related to personal
computing experiences and needs without including Brand references.

Strategically, an opportunity may exist to monitor
and listen to the active industry discussion to broaden
community reach and Brand appeal by selectively engaging
in the casual ‘storage’ conversation. Of more important
note, listening could offer the ability to periodically
mine consumer market and product development
intelligence as to preferences, likes, issues and uses.

It appears that news sites and blogs are the primary
social platforms which would offer the most value in
a monitoring and listening exercise. The discussion
within these channels moves beyond the random
and casual nature of other social platforms to topics
and discussions of deeper industry relevance.

5

Social Reach / Community Congregation



Observation: Analyzing where the social conversation is taking place, Western Digital appears to
mirror the industry discussion trend on a platform by platform basis with some minor variations.

Reinforcing the strategic value for a monitoring and listening initiative, either on an industry or
Brand level basis, Western Digital is presented with
the opportunity and mechanism to capture
Brand insights, solve problems, learn from
recurring themes, and engage customers and
prospects. Monitoring would provide the means
to aggregate data over periodic cycles (metrics,
measurement, sentiments, analytics) to ensure
relevant real-time performance is analyzed against
KPIs. Listening would ensure Western Digital
conversations are processed and examined to aid
in enterprise-wide learning as well as to identify
cross-functional community engagement
opportunities.

In combination, such an initiative would offer the ability to continuously help shape, focus and refine
overall strategic directions via actionable intelligence.

6

T W I T T E R

Active Since: 10/27/08
Tweets: (4,066)
Daily Avg: (5)
Following: (7,203)
Followers: (19,231)
Favorites: (7)
Lists: (4)
TWITTER

Global Regional Accounts
@WD_ES (Spain), @WD_Fr (France), @WD_IN (India), @WD_Korea (Korea), @WD@Deutschland
(Germany), @WD_Turkiye (Turkey), @WD_RU (Russia), @WD_MEast (Middle East), WD_Hungary
(inactive), @WDMalyasia (Maylasia)

Online Commerce
@WDStoreUS, @WDStoreNL, @WDStoreCanada, @WDStoreAU, @WDStoreFrance, @WDStoreES,
@WDStoreUK, @WDStoreItalia, @WDStoreDE

Misc Accounts
@WDTVLive (WD TV Live), @WD_UniRelations (University Recruiting), @WDCteam (inactive)

7

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE
35
Strategic Execution Frequency Engaged Rescinded Social Admin
Content
Intent & Focus Amplitude Followers Engagement Integration Mgm’t
Appeal (15)
(15) (15) (15) (15) (15) (5) (5)

SCORE 5 5 10 3 3 5 2 2

MAX SOCIAL INDEX SCORE 100

Twitter Scorecard Overview
Strategic Intent: Information / news sharing with a degree for building brand loyalty using contests
and giveaways.
Execution & Focus: Good general overall execution – consistent with clear focus based on current
strategic direction. Global accounts have small follower, following and engagement counts. Tweet
counts vary per account (some more active than others).
Frequency & Amplitude: Average 5 tweets per day. Active community discussion related to Brand
and products. Approximate 300+ community Brand tweets per day covering topics ranging from
casual conversational brand mentions, product news, service and product questions, product
opinions (loyalties and dissatisfaction), financial performance, and contest / promotion participation.
Engaged Followers: Few RTs, @replies, discussions and likes, which requires a higher degree of
cultivating the community discussion to stimulate engagement using Twitter posting tips referenced.
TWITTER

Tweet sentiments vary with negative sentiments typically related to product failures and poor
consumer education re: need to backup.
Rescinded Engagement: Little engagement to rescind, but WD does respond as engagement
develops and reasonably quickly to customer care issues. (No technical support Twitter account.)
Content Appeal: Primarily news and product information sharing as typical within storage industry –
lacks richer variety for greater community building and appeal.
Social Integration: Frequent cross promotion with Facebook profile and links to online WD Support
Knowledge Base to assist in customer care issues.
Administrative Management: Community manager is active and involved, but with visible signs of
non-real-time responses. Reasonably rapid responses to customer care issues.

8

Strengths
 Consistent daily tweeting with use of hashtags, links, contests, promotions, tech support
responses (links to tech support Knowledge Base).
 Consistent cross promotion (and back linking) with other social properties (Facebook) to editorial
/ reviews, but minimal integration with other content and assets.
 General engagement attempts include Twitter Chats (TechTea), casual polling
(#MusicMonday), and contests & promotions.
 Follower growth is steady, but slow - with no growth in following.
 Excellent promotional use for partnering with tech blogger Techlicious for a TechTea Twitter
chat. Continual steady follower growth (flat following growth).

Weaknesses
TWITTER

 Strategic purpose not visibly evident with execution primarily pushing information out without
strong commitment for community building – may need strategic purpose and use reviewed and
re-validated.
 Resources may be lacking for a community manager to monitor the daily conversation and to
foster a higher degree of engagement.
 Brand persona not revealing itself or evident (personality to tweets).
 Few RTs or RTs by community (exception: contest promotions).
 Minimal conversational starters or conversations initiated.
 Small number of click-thrus per the ratio of followers for Tweets using links (typically in low
double digits).
 Hashtag selections may not be unique with too many choices and without consistent use.
• Consider goals to easily isolate WD social conversations for community members to
find, and to rapidly track and conduct Brand engagement (examples - marginal:
#WD, #MyNet – good: #WDsupport – (too) specific: #WDSentinel – inconsistencies:
#WDMyNet, #MyNet).

9

Weaknesses (continued)

 Contests and giveaways may generate Brand awareness with interest and participation, and
increase the amplitude (and on occasion reach) of the Twitter conversation, but may lack a
higher degree of strategic value in brand building (preference, conversion, loyalty).
 Contests may be offered too frequently where WD contest participants are Twitter professional
contest ‘stalkers’ always seeking the next free product giveaway (recent contests:
Buy.com, phrasethatpays, TechTea, SnapDealQuiz, 7DaysofSling, World Backup Day Sweeps).
• May elect to avoid the #win or #giveaway hashtag in contests to reward more Brand
loyalists and community members who are active in the ‘Western Digital’ and ‘storage’
social discussion.
 Occasional misinterpretation of contest and promotional rules and winner selection (SlingBox).
 Support responses tend to be grouped into daily time cycles as opposed to real-time or near-
real-time responses.

Focus / Content Direction
 News and information sharing with large focus on product promotions.

Online / Offline
 Occasional cross promotion with online commerce, which reinforces building a community /
following for the @WDstore as the origination source.
TWITTER

• Could be more proactive with occasional tweets/posts promoting WDstore online
outlet links in advance of actual sale and promotion events to build the destination as a
‘must’ visit in the buying cycle.

Customer Loyalty, Rewards, Customer Support
 Liberal and consistent use of contests, giveaways and promotions.
 Frequent re-direction of consumer support problems to WD Support technical team.

10

Sampled Best Practices Defined
 Periodically conduct branding exercises to review and refine purpose and use (goals and
objectives) for each Twitter account – modify accounts and their use based on continual review
and best practices.
 Experiment with Tweet schedules according to the best times to tweet each day when followers
are most active (various tools are available to analyze community activity).
 Identify existing key influencers already following to develop Influencer Marketing campaigns –
identify, cultivate and build relationships with other industry key influencers as well as programs
for Brand Ambassadors. Re-purpose, produce and publish content according to a master
programming schedule.
 Frequently cross promote new and existing (re-purpose) social assets across all social properties
leading to greater content volume, appeal and engagement.
 Stimulate conversations with an assortment of unique, daily content
(informational, educational, promotional, and entertainment) – keep the conversation fresh and
appealing.

Posting links to
Twitter between
the hours of
1:00 p.m. and
3:00 p.m. ET (or
10:00 a.m. to
1:00 p.m. PT)
potentially
TWITTER

offers the
highest click
rate – bit.ly
research

Historic Western Digital Tweet Activity (source:TweetStats)

11

 Engage the community by further stimulating the conversation with frequent @replies, RTs and
DMs.
 Favorite all tweets and conversations that positively represent the Brand so they are easily
discoverable. Limit use of commerce accounts. These accounts should serve as a destination and
source of information for pure product listing specials, sales, promotions, new products
announcements to maintain a clear purpose and use.
 Use bit.lys in contest tweets to link contest rules and parameters to avoid misinterpretations
without sacrificing character count and to overcome perceptions of ill-explained contest rules.
 Use and re-use unique custom Western Digital domain and tracking domain Bit.ly URL
shorteners to better brand and identify content and destinations
(e.g., WDsupp.rt, WstnDig.tl, WDrevi.ew, etc.)
 Build Lists for community value, easy reference and as value-added resources (official Twitter
profiles, WD commerce stores, top-tier editorial, key industry influencers, industry news
outlets, channel partners, etc.)
 Mine tweets in periodic cycles to identify topical themes, which require a higher degree of
product education to provide a mechanism for advance consumer product support to build
greater loyalty and product satisfaction.
• Develop linkable assets for inclusion into the WD Support Knowledge Base or other
online depository, which can be referenced by WD and community members in times of
need (tutorial setups, configuration videos, protect your data with backups, etc.)
 Consider creating an account reserved for consumers to exchange ideas for product
design, specs, needs, ideas – similar to the WD Community Ideas forum. Give the community an
opportunity to get closer to WD.
TWITTER

 Move technical support inquiries to a Twitter support account to offer more real-time rapid
response.
• Humanize the account with a face(s) and name(s) (brand persona)
• Redirect all incoming tech support issues on the corporate account to a support
account, and begin to educate and promote to the community the available resource to
minimize public exposure to product issues and concerns on the corporate account
which is a larger public forum.
• Measure over time end-user appeal and calculate and measure ROI against the impact
made against support traffic and satisfaction via traditional support channels.
 Develop KPIs and metrics for consumer engagement, experience and resulting change
sentiments based on implementing identified ‘best practices’.
• Track and measure change and continually refine for higher benchmarks.
 Continually research, analyze and define industry best practices.
• Potential B2C Tech Twitter aspirational brands: Dell, Intel, KodakCB.
• Potential pure-play Consumer aspirational brands: Coca-Cola, H&M.

12

Sampled Twitter Posting Tips
Twitter is about sharing content. Often times more interest, engagement and community perceived
value can be derived from tweets that are not marketing oriented (company and/or product
specific). Use the opportunity to be a valued resource of information as well as a conduit to company
news, products and services.
 Programming calendar – pre-plan as much of the twitter content as possible and publish
according to a master programming calendar.
 Post interesting articles – to build interest and a stronger community following, curate relevant
and interesting industry content from third parties.
 Share useful resources – share tools, resources and/or services which would be of value to the
customer base and be used with Western Digital products.
 Share Western Digital blog posts – stimulate clicks to blog content and occasionally share older
blog posts to keep posts fresh based on community value and/or to reinforce good end-user
practices, e.g., backing up.
 Post inspirational industry related quotes – research shows quotes are typically well received;
find interesting quotes that speak to and are of value to the community without using them as
content filler.
 Build anticipation into tweet schedules with replicable ‘Tent Pole’
events, programs, campaigns – continue to develop replicable activities on a daily, weekly or
monthly basis that build anticipation and engagement such as prior examples used
#MusicMonday, #TechTea, #WDWin, etc. Continually measure and refine based on community
engagement and receptance levels. (!deation: #BackupFriday).
 Highlight staff members – occasionally take the opportunity to talk about members of the staff
to personalize the company and reinforce the Brand persona that WD is comprised of real
TWITTER

people.
 Share breaking news related to industry – stay on top of industry news and tweet it as it breaks
to demonstrate that Western Digital is a valued resource for news.
 Continue to announce upcoming events – tweet to stimulate attendance, add a human aspect
to Western Digital, and provide goodwill to other event participants through added exposure.
 Offer frequent, consistent useful tips for using Western Digital and related category products –
adds community value, while reinforcing company’s expertise.
 Provide real-time updates of behind the scenes activities – used on occasion, provide casual
‘behind the scenes’ updates on staff, events, products, causes to offer a glimpse inside Western
Digital.
 Stimulate commerce – tweet frequent directed tweets promoting @WDStore accounts.
 Promote partnerships – reinforce loyalty among partners by sharing websites, content and links
to generate new followers and build goodwill – over time they may reciprocate the gesture
further expanding the WD community.

13

 Continue to build the brand persona – take opportunities to humanize the Brand whenever
possible by searching for interesting and inspirational internal stories such as personal
accomplishments (running a marathon) or new births, promotions and more.
 As part of List building, suggest who to follow (e.g., channel partners, blogs, RSS feeds) –
provide added value to the community to direct followers to sources of industry-related
information.
 Ask relevant questions – to stimulate engagement and to mine intelligence, frequently ask
followers to provide opinions and insight via @replies responses or taking a poll – and then
reach out for each engagement to acknowledge them as a valued consumer and follower.
 Reinforce Western Digital’s Twitter contests with exclusives – reward followers with exclusive
contests, discount offers or giveaways that are structured so contest ‘stalkers’ are minimized.
 Thank and respond to followers – as a step in community building, take every opportunity to
thank followers for something they shared, commented or simply for following to demonstrate
WD appreciation on an individual, personalized level.
• Often times questions that may be asked are applicable to more than one inquirer and
others could benefit from the response.
 Continue to share pictures of staff members, contest winners, events and more – tweeting
more pictures and visual content adds to the interest and appeal of individual tweets and keeps
routine tweeting fresh and interesting.
• Could even tweet pictures and visual content of end users using WD product.
 Be thankful to handle unhappiness, complaints and issues – consumers who express
dissatisfaction often times just need to be heard and to have their concerns handled quickly and
effectively.
TWITTER

• Take the opportunity with each inquiry to showcase the Western Digital customer
service with prompt, courteous replies and service.
 Find opportunities to entertain – people enjoy entertaining content and taking the opportunity
on occasion to tweet about amusing or entertaining content can be well received if offered in
good taste, and which does not detract from the Brand and/or its image.
 #FF – be an active and good community member by using the Twitter community practice of
#FollowFriday to occasionally recommend people to follow.
 Curate, publish and promote a weekly social media Brand Page (online newspaper) – capture
the most relevant social media news, events and activity of each week to share an easy-to-read
encapsulated view for community members who may have missed various tweets and posts in
their individual news and Twitter feeds throughout the week.
• Share via social channels, website and email and RSS subscriptions
(Twylah, Paper.li, Flipboard).

14

f a c e b o o k

Fans: 41,382
Last 7 days: 238
(+0.58%)
Last 30 days: 1,261
(+3.14%)

Daily Posts: 2-3
Most Pop. Wk: 3/25/12
Most Pop. Age: 18-34
FA C E B O O K

Post Engagement (30 day sample)

Likes: 446 Comments: 87 Shares: 65 -
compared against most popular week of
3/25/12 with tallied approximately 175
likes

Global Regional Accounts
Middle
East, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines, Pola
nd, Italy, Indonesia, Turkey, New
Zealand, Germany, Australia, Czech
Republic, Hong
Kong, France, India, Japan

Abandoned, Unsanctioned or Hijacked
Brand Impersonator Accounts
Examples: Western-Digital, Western
Digital, WESTERN DIGITAL

15

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE
36
Content
Appeal (15)
(15) (15) (15) (15) (15) (5) (5)

SCORE 5 5 5 3 10 3 2 3


Facebook Scorecard Overview

Strategic Intent: Information / news sharing without consistency to experiment with posting a
variety of content to build a more engaged community.
Execution & Focus: Evolving with good overall basic execution with mix of informational and news
content including editorial, reviews, product highlight features. There is the occasional pinning of
positive Fan comments, community greetings, random post polling (Music Monday), official app
polling, weekly promo specials, and random event videos. Various tabs and apps are used, but may
FA C E B O O K

be better leveraged (notes app, tab app, video app).
A higher engagement level was observed with photos and images such as the random ‘what’s your
favorite WD product?’ photo image polling and photo albums such as (My Net Event 2012).
Frequency & Amplitude: Consistent frequency of posts, but marginal community engagement with
posts (likes, comments, shares).
Engaged Followers: Consistent level of low engagement with likes, shares and comments to WD
posts. On average, there are 10 or fewer daily Fan posts, mostly with questions related to support
issues (small number of inquiries coming via international destinations).
Rescinded Engagement: Timely, reasonable, professional and helpful responses to Fan inquiries and
posts (typically within a 24-hour period – some near-real-time response, some weekend responses
over 24 hours), occasional missed opportunity to respond to all comments.
Content Appeal: Aligned with current strategic direction; however, more appealing and engaging
content is needed to build community involvement.
Social Integration: Frequent and consistent cross promotion with Twitter account. No integration
with other social properties, including YouTube account where videos are separately uploaded onto
Facebook.
Administrative Management: Community manager present, active and involved during weekday
business hours.

16

Strengths
 Good rotation (updates) of Timeline photo.
 Consistent frequency of posts using a variety of content, but with heavy emphasis on editorial
and product information.
 Cross promotion leveraging content across both Facebook and Twitter.
 Some experimentation with developing higher engagement levels through polling and occasional
photo and images.
 Typically good response times to daily customer care issues with professional, courteous
responses.
 Continual, steady Fan (Like) growth.

Weaknesses
 Common with Twitter, strategy appears to be sharing news and product information with little
emphasis on community building and greater engagement – lack of Brand persona.
 Potential limitations exist with the Page setup as a ‘local’ business as opposed to a company or
product / brand Page (e.g., Expansive Contact information limitations (social profile
links, websites, commerce, WD community forums) - or the Recommendations box associated
FA C E B O O K

with local businesses takes up real estate on the Page but offers minimal benefit).
 No promotion or links in the ‘About’ section for Western Digital’s other social properties with
the exception of a Twitter tab on the profile page.
 Twitter feeds could be incorporated onto the Brand Page and be used as additional content
while promoting the WD Twitter account.
 Completed event Tab pages exist with less than appealing content – if they remain, tabs should
be redesigned to capture the spirit, goodwill and outcome of each event as a showcase of past
WD events, charitable causes, contest winners and other related activities.
 Other Tab issues: Poll App Tab does not display properly and presents a negative impression –
Events Tab has not been used since Feb. 2010.
 Overall low engagement (likes, comments, shares, Fan posts) with average daily engagement in
the low double digits.
 Minimal conversational starters or conversations initiated.

 Heavy emphasis on news, editorial and information sharing.

17

Online / Offline
 Weekly promotions do offer cross promotion with online WD Store commerce.
• As with Twitter, could be more proactive with occasional posts promoting the online
store reminding Fans of its existence in advance of actual sale and promotion events to
build the destination as a ‘must’ visit in the buying cycle.

 Frequent re-direction of consumer support problems to WD Support technical team.

 Periodically, conduct branding exercises to review strategic use and objectives of global regional
accounts, which could be serviced from the corporate Facebook account using language and
location filters.
• Potentially would strengthen Facebook Brand presence through one centralized
destination.
 Experiment with Post schedules, content and frequency of posts according to when and how
often each day (similar to Twitter) to measure the average lifespan (post impressions in the news
FA C E B O O K

feed) of a single post (tools such as PageLever and methodologies exist to analyze peak
performance of posts).
• According to research conducted by Bit.ly, Facebook’s optimal posting times are slightly
different than Twitter. Links sent between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. get the most
traction, with Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. being the best time to post on Facebook all
week.
 Identify key influencers who like to share on Facebook and cultivate relationships to develop
exclusive advance content which they can share with their own networks ahead of public
sharing.
• Convert the small number of Super Influencers into Brand ambassadors with more
exclusivity, appreciation gestures and VIP status to support all Branding efforts.
 Re-purpose, produce, curate and publish content according to a master programming schedule.
 Produce content according to specifications to display well for all media, including mobile.
 Frequently cross promote new and existing (re-purpose) social assets across all social properties
leading to greater content volume, appeal and engagement.
 Bit.lys used should be customized to Brand and track Western Digital activity – avoid using
generic or source URL shorteners.
 Add more interest in the historic timeline by tracking down interesting visuals supporting the
milestones.

18

 Stimulate conversations with a variety of unique daily content
(informational, educational, promotional, and entertainment) – keep the conversation fresh and
appealing.
 Be responsive to all community Entertainment and passing time are
likes, comments, shares and Fan posts to motivators for Facebook engagement.
acknowledge engagement on a personal level to
build and reinforce the community.
 Offer Facebook Fans exclusive rewards for
feedback, purchases and referrals. Rewards are
ranked second for building Brand loyalty (US
Internet Users study, Mar 2012).
 Become an active community denizen by ‘Liking’
and sharing more relevant industry news, partner
news, events and resources. Categorize ‘Likes” for
easy Fan discovery (Springpad).
 Consider an app to engage consumers who have
input on product design, specs, needs, ideas similar
to the WD Community Ideas forum.
 Build an App or use a tool (e.g., NorthSocial) to
organize the Facebook videos into topical categories
to allow Fans to find videos of interest more easily.
FA C E B O O K

Use this approach to keep content fresh and re- Seagate and Iomega frequently post
promote by selectively adding videos into the content which is both visually appealing
master programming (publishing) schedule. and entertaining to strengthen community
 With almost half of all online customers expecting bonds & engagement.
to receive customer support on Facebook - consider
building a custom, easy-to-use Support Tab to filter
inquiries and concerns directly into WD Support.
Alternatively, as a measure to enhance customer
service, personalize customer care responses (if
initial technical support inquiries are directed to and
handled by someone within WD Support) via
humanizing the Brand persona by allowing support
personnel to comment using their name and
gravitar.
 Continually research, analyze and define industry
best practices.
• Potential Tech Facebook aspirational
brands: Dell, Intel, Nokia.
• Potential pure-play Consumer aspirational
brands: Coca-Cola, Starbucks.

Fans expect to receive customer support
on a Brand’s Facebook Page.
19

Sampled Facebook Posting Tips
Some best practices apply to all social media platforms , but the new Facebook Timeline is much more
image-focused than earlier iterations of Brand Pages, and therefore should leverage appealing visual
elements as often as possible.
 Programming calendar – pre-plan as much of the Facebook content as possible and publish
according to a master programming schedule.
 Timeline cover photo – a recent eye-tracking study revealed consumers pay far more attention to
the cover photo than any other post on the wall. Always carefully design and use eye-
popping, high-res Branded images and photos for timeline photos.
• Studies also show the timeline cover photo should be swapped out frequently for
sustaining interest and appeal.
• The second most viewed area on the new Timeline format is the App windows where
order and selection of the Apps displayed is almost as equally as important as the cover
photo.
 Keep Posts Short and Timely -- keeping the post length to less than 250 characters generates the
most interaction and engagement. According to Facebook, posts of this length generate 60%
more likes, comments and shares than posts greater than 250 characters.
 Post photos, video and quotes – high definition photos and videos in graphic detail and vivid
FA C E B O O K

color provide engagement levels that far exceed plain and simple text.
• Visual elements for other content related posts are equally as important as the visual
appeal of the content is likely to generate more interest and engagement in news feeds.
 Post consistently – educational or entertaining content will not be seen as over sharing or too
promoting using a good rule of thumb based on having one marketing message for every nine to
ten informational posts.
 Ask for Fan opinions – aside from conveying to consumers their opinions count and are
welcome, crowd sourcing product tech specifications and features may go a long way in Brand
loyalty and new product introductions.
 Ask questions using the FB Questions App – using the native questions app that is very easy to
use (a vote can be one click) in place of a Polling App can be used for a host of entertainment or
business intelligence purposes.
 Experiment with Fill-In-The-Blank posts – the approach offers a very simple way for Fans to
engage with a post by asking them to finish a sentence, Fill-in-the-blank posts generate about 90%
more engagement than the average post.
 Highlight and Pin the best weekly posts – pin to the top one post per week and highlight several
others posts each week for maximum exposure.
 Give Fans access to exclusive information – reinforcing why a Fan should be a ‘Fan’, this
technique is used by either breaking news first on Facebook or providing special content such as a
video or an article when they “like” your page.

20

 Reward Fans with deals and perks – increase Brand loyalty with frequent offers exclusive to the
Facebook community.
 Localize posts relevant to specific audiences – to get closer to targeted community
audiences, posts can be directed to a subset of Fans, or geographies and languages using available
posting and geo-targeting filters.
 Put a face on the Western Digital customer – showcase once a month (or more frequently), a
consumer and an application story for a select product or product line for greater Brand appeal.
 Experiment with Facebook’s suite of new Ad tools – a study by All Facebook in January revealed
that a post on a Brand Page is seen by just 17% of Fans, new Ad tools such as Reach Generator
and Sponsored Stories manipulate the news feed algorithm to expose fans to content when they
otherwise would have missed it with visibility results increasing into high double digit
percentages.

Common Cross Platform Tips
 Provide real-time updates of behind the scenes activities – used on occasion but not too
frequently, staff, events, products, causes all serve as content to offer a glimpse inside Western
Digital.
 Offer frequent, consistent useful tips for using Western Digital and related category products –
FA C E B O O K

posting product-related tips adds community value, while reinforcing WD’s expertise.
 Promote partnerships – reinforce loyalty among partners by sharing websites, content and links
to generate new followers and build goodwill – over time they may reciprocate the gesture.
 Thank Fans – as a step in community building, take every opportunity to thank Fans for something
they shared, commented or simply for ‘liking’ to demonstrate that you appreciate them.
 Continue to share pictures of staff members, contest winners, events and more.
 Curate, publish and promote a weekly social media Brand Page (online newspaper) – capture
the most relevant social media news, events and activity of each week to share an easy-to-read
encapsulated view for community members who may have missed various tweets and posts in
news and Twitter feeds throughout the week.
• Share via social channels, website and email and RSS subscriptions
(Twylah, Paper.li, Flipboard).

21

Yo u Tu b e

Subscribers: 1,004
Videos: 103
Video Views: 2,011,576

Playlists: 6
Favorite Videos: 19
YOUTUBE

Other YouTube Properties
The Power of Choice by WD (South Pacific) YouTube – 12/09
39 subscribers – 850K video views – 34 uploaded videos

Western Digital India YouTube (India) – 12/09
34 subscribers – 10K video views – 11 uploaded videos

(YouTube Auto Generated WD Channels) – Past Year
small # subscribers – aggregated video view counts – 1,000s uploaded videos – wide range of
topical WD channels

22

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE
31
Content
Appeal (15)
(15) (15) (15) (15) (15) (5) (5)

SCORE 5 5 5 5 3 5 1 2

YouTube Scorecard Overview

Strategic Intent: Used as a social destination to visually showcase product, tutorials and
promotions, while serving as a host depository for reference-able assets.
Execution & Focus: Minimally branded channel with frequent fresh content garners reasonable and
moderate view counts. Assortment of video ranging from pure product promotions and product
demonstrations to a mix of special event / activity videos such as the recent productions of the
World Backup Day series. No CTAs (call to actions) in videos.
Tutorial videos are more appealing and are receiving higher view counts over other types of videos.
Frequency & Amplitude: Consistent frequency of uploads with average amplitude (view counts), but
dropping in view counts over the last six months.
YOUTUBE

Engaged Followers: Consistent level of low engagement with likes, shares, playlist adds and
comments.
Rescinded Engagement: YouTube is historically a channel with little user engagement beyond the
video view. Comments, shares remain low. However there appears to be no monitoring of the
comments when they do appear to provide a timely response.
Content Appeal: Aligned with industry norms for storage, but videos could be produced for larger
audience appeal. Video production is evolving to be more creative and up-tempo with the
opportunity to ‘push the envelope’ further.
Social Integration: Little to no observed cross promotion or CTAs with other corporate social
properties and assets. No linking to or mention of the social properties in the profile information or
within videos.
Administrative Management: Community manager present without visible evidence of growing the
community.

23

Strengths
 Good consistent uploading of videos.
 Nice balance and assortment of video content with tutorials receiving a lot of play (interest).
• Product intros / product reviews / product promos / product tutorials / street
interviews / user app stories (creative Master series).
 Consistent tag and metadata use, but tags may be used inconsistently.
 Use of playlists to favorite third-party product reviews.
 Appealing video production techniques (action music oriented application storyboards: Team
Tempest).
 Recent experimentation with multi-language video versions.

Weaknesses
 Stronger Brand channel could be developed.
 Video library has no organization and is random based on date uploaded (with exception of
video playlists, which groups some videos together).
 No cross promotion with other social properties in profile or as a CTA (call to action) in videos.
 Low video engagement counts and interaction with likes, shares, playlist adds and comments.
 No leverage for CTAs in videos for further community building or Brand engagement
YOUTUBE

(subscribe, like, share, comment, follow or Fan).
 Recent video view counts are down possibly representing analysis is needed to gauge popular
content, production techniques, posting practices.

 Heavy emphasis on product and promo videos.

Online / Offline
 No online / offline incentives offered. Could be offered as CTAs in videos.

 Product tutorial videos offer advance customer care support.

24

Branding
 Visually Re-Brand the Channel as a “Brand
Channel” for greater visual appeal and for
cross promotion of links and calls to actions /
clicks to other online content, assets and
social properties.
 Optimize videos by experimenting with and
refining
tags, descriptions, thumbnails, titles, subtitles
for easy discovery within the YouTube
community (use terminology YouTube
members would use to search).
 Produce video content with emphasis on
reinforcing latest umbrella marketing themes
/ taglines such as “Put Your Life On It”.

Content & Production
 Value, not promotion – produce videos to tell
the Brand / Product story using consumer
touch points: pains, challenges, and/or
aspirations.
YOUTUBE

 Quality over quantity – maintain a high Branded Channels Examples
production value to reinforce Brand image.
 Create a balance of content that is
unique, compelling, entertaining and
informative
(brand, product, educational, entertainment).
 Create and upload eye-catching, high-
resolution thumbnails to attract video
viewers.
 Optimize the first 15 seconds of each video to
create immediate interest and appeal. Take
the opportunity to include CTAs (call to action)
in each video – experiment with annotations.
 Offer a good balance of variety and
assortment of content to create community
appeal. Produce videos to be leveraged and
re-purposed across multi-channels and
consumer devices.

25

 Use video series vs. longer length productions to maintain interest and appeal.
 Experiment and use latest video production techniques such as Interactive Video
(branching story lines, interactive scenes, overlay information) to increase viewer appeal
and engagement.
• Samsung video production example:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoOCiaxIZF4&feature=player_embedded)
 Leverage and isolate interesting and compelling video frame images into a series of images
to cross promote (with a shelf life) on other social channels linking images back to
YouTube channel for higher view and engagement counts.

Community Engagement
 Explore the YouTube community and engage, subscribe, like, comment on related videos
and topics (participate with others and make friends).
 Cross promote across other online properties (web and social) – create a video blog.
 Design a click path to always include call or click to action within videos for cross
promotion.
 Track, measure, identify and continually refine best practices using the Insights analytic
tool – replicate.

Analytics, Metadata and More
YOUTUBE

 Use Analytics to better understand the audience, improve content and to aid in developing
or refining effective programming and production strategies.
 Write detailed and comprehensive metadata following proper formatting and guidelines
optimizing titles, tags, and descriptions for content (think what community members
would use in searches) in order for YouTube to index the content which is critical to
building views from YouTube’s search and suggested videos algorithm.
 Explore aspirational brands to glean compelling techniques and uses as a source of
stimulating continual creative and approaches.
 Potential Tech YouTube aspirational brands: Sony Pocket TV, HP You on You.
 Potential pure-play Consumer aspirational brands: Air New Zealand, Starbucks.

26

Sampled YouTube Posting / Content Tips
YouTube offers a comprehensive strategy for showcasing WD videos. Although videos can be
easily uploaded to Facebook, YouTube remains the social destination for most online
consumers when they are searching for video content on topics of interest.
 Programming calendar – pre-plan as much of the YouTube content as possible and publish
according to a master programming calendar.
 Increase productions targeted at younger consumer demographics using up tempo, high
energy, music video style action shorts, teasers and series (Team Tempest style).
• Ideal for video, music, photo, image consumer applications.
 Increase productions targeted at family demographics relative to a warm, heart-felt
family oriented series (Brilliant Moments).
 Increase productions targeted at creative professional demographics surrounding the
Creative Master series (photography) with consideration for expanding series to include
video and music pro apps.
 Showcase more real life (tutorial) examples (WD TV Live videos were well received) to
introduce, educate, teach consumers re: product installation, features and tech benefits.
 Find opportunities to document Freedom Quest style contests with similar video
production.
 Continue productions of product promos / ad shorts historically producing high view
counts – use opportunity to entertain as well as to educate.
YOUTUBE

 Increase productions of entertaining short Brand teaser videos with unusual visual
content used to entertain as well as to inform (Before you Lose It, Back It Up animal
series).
 Identify channels with similar or complementary content and/or relevant audiences to
cultivate cross promotion and collaborative opportunities.
 Organize content using playlists into video sets to show separation of themed or curate
content to improve navigation and increase the number of views.
 ‘Like’ and ‘favorite’ WD videos on the WD channel several times in timely increments
within the first 24 hours after uploading to have the activity appear in Western Digital’s
subscriber news feeds.

27

Strategic Execution Frequency Engaged Rescinded Content Social Admin
Intent & Focus Amplitude Followers Engagement Appeal Integration Mgm’t
(15) (15) (15) (15) (15) (15) (5) (5)

FACEBOOK
5 5 5 3 10 3 2 3
(36)

TWITTER
5 5 10 3 3 5 2 2
(35)

YOUTUBE
5 5 5 5 3 5 1 2
(31)
CONCLUSIONS

The opportunities are endless for Western Digital to reach a new level of performance in Social
Media. The company to date has gone through a stage many large companies have
experienced – namely making the initial commitment , establishing a presence, learning while
experimenting, and actively becoming part of the conversation.

Observations throughout this preliminary analysis reveals a number of Best Practices, which
can be deployed immediately. However, either as the next step or one taken in tandem with
exploring Best Practices, a deeper, expanded analysis is warranted to identify greater
opportunities for community building at a deeper level.

If the commitment is made, Western Digital is positioned well to move beyond its peers within
the storage industry to cultivate and strengthen a more respected Brand image with
magnitudes of greater influence and appeal among consumers. However, this approach will
require a top / down effort re-assessing and evaluating goals and objectives, systems and
processes, KPIs, measurement metrics, support needs and allocations, and more – along with a
steady stream of intelligence mining to more deeply engage with the active Western Digital
community in social media.

28

APPENDICES

Represents whether a social property has an identified purpose. Does not
Strategic Intent
represent the degree or sophistication of strategic alignment.

Execution / Content Represents whether a social property has some level of advance thought prior to
Focus execution including content developed and posted.

Consistent Represents whether a social property is active in the use of the social property
Frequency with consistent, frequent posts.

Engaged Fans / Represents whether a social property is succeeding in stimulating fan / follower
Followers engagement at any level.

Rescinded Represents whether the social property and its administrator is actively engaging
Engagement with its fans / followers via responses and conversations.

Represents whether a social property has adequate appeal to stimulate fan /
Content Appeal
follower engagement at any level.

Represents whether a social property and its execution efforts are integrated with
Social Integration
any other social property.

Assigned Represents whether a social property has an assigned administrator to manage
Administrator the efforts on an ongoing, consistent basis.

29

DISK DRIVE INDUSTRY

Category Keywords

Topical (all):
hard drive(s), USB drive(s), FireWire drives, Ethernet drives, hdd, hd, dual band
drives, network drive(s), external drive(s), internal drive(s), desktop drive(s), portable
drive(s), laptop drive(s), notebook drive(s), pocket size drive(s), slim drive(s), thin
drive(s), mini drive(s), mobile drive(s), self encrypting drive(s), media
drive(s), performance drive(s), solid state drive(s), wireless drive(s), data backup
drive(s), backup drive(s), digital drive(s), home entertainment drive(s), dual drive(s)

hard disk(s), disk drive(s), disk storage

external disk storage, internal disk storage, network storage, network server
storage, workstation storage, desktop storage, laptop storage, notebook
APPENDICES

storage, portable storage, pocket size storage, dual-drive storage, media storage, digital
storage, cloud storage, DVR storage, low power disk storage

network router(s), network switch(es), network hub(s), data protection, data
recovery, data backup, media player(s), network storage server(s), storage array

IPTV

30

Brand Category Keywords

Roots: Western Digital, WesternDigital

Product Brands (External): Brand name roots: [WD] [&] [My Book], [My Passport], [Elements], [Nomad]
My Book Essential, WD Elements Desktop, My Book for Mac, My Book Studio, My Book Thunderbolt
Duo, My Book Studio II, My Passport, My Passport Essential SE, My Passport Essential, WD Elements, My
Passport for Mac, My Passport Studio, WD Nomad

Product Brands (Network): Brand name roots: [WD] [&] [Sentinel], [My Book], [My Net], [Livewire]
WD Sentinel DX4000, My Book Live, My Book Live Duo, My Net N900 Central, My Net N900, My Net
N750, My Net N600, My Net Switch, WD Livewire

Product Brands (Home Entertainment): Brand name roots: [WD] [&] [TV Live], [My Book], [My
Passport], [Elements]

WD TV Live Hub, WD TV Live Plus, WD TV Live, My Book AV, My Passport AV, WD Elements Play
APPENDICES

Product Brands (Internal): Brand name roots: [WD] [&] [Caviar], [Scorpio], [VelociRaptor], [WD XE], [WD
RE], [WD AV]

WD Caviar Blue, WD Caviar Green, WD Caviar Black, WD VelociRaptor, WD Scorpio Blue, WD Scorpio
Black, WD XE, WD RE SAS, WD RE4, WD AV-GP, WD AV-25,

Tagline: Put Your Life On It

Category Keywords

Topical (all):
[WD] [&] [drive(s)] - hard drive(s), USB drive(s), network drive(s), external drive(s), internal
drive(s), desktop drive(s), portable drive(s), laptop drive(s), notebook drive(s), pocket size drive(s), slim
drive(s), thin drive(s), mini drive(s), mobile drive(s), self encrypting drive(s), media drive(s), performance
drive(s), solid state drive(s), wireless drive(s), data backup drive(s), backup drive(s), digital drive(s), home
entertainment drive(s)

[WD] [&] [disk(s)] - hard disk(s), disk drive(s), disk storage

[WD] [&] [storage] - external storage, network storage, small business storage, server
storage, workstation storage, desktop storage, laptop storage, notebook storage, portable
storage, pocket size storage, dual drive storage, media storage, digital storage, cloud storage, DVR
storage, low power storage
[WD] [&] router(s), switch(es), hub(s), powerline AV network (kit), data protection, guardian
services, data recovery, data backup, backup, media player(s), network storage server(s), solid
state, storage array, IPTV, USB, FireWire, Ethernet, hdd, dual band, dual drive(s), home entertainment

Misc (all):
[WD] service, warranty(ies), support

31


Roots: Seagate

Product Brands (External): Brand name roots: [Seagate] [&] [GoFlex], [Backup Plus], [Seagate
Slim], [BlackArmor]
 Portable External Hard Drives: GoFlex Turbo Performance Drive, GoFlex Pro Ultra
Portable, GoFlex Pro for Mac Ultra Portable, Backup Plus Portable Drive, Backup Plus Portable
Drive for Mac, Seagate Slim Portable Drive, Seagate Slim Portable Drive for Mac, Expansion
Portable Hard Drive, GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage
 Desktop External Hard Drives: Backup Plus Desktop Drive, Backup Plus Desktop Drive for
Mac, Expansion External, GoFlex Home Network Storage System
 NAS Hard Drives: BlackArmor NAS (440, 400, 220, 110)

Product Brands (Internal): Brand name roots: [Seagate] [&]
[Momentus], [Barracuda], [Pulsar], [Savvio], [Constellation], [Cheetah], [Pipeline HD], [SV35]
 Laptop Hard Drives: Momentus XT, Momentus Laptop, Momentus Thin
 Desktop Hard Drives: Barracuda
 Solid State / Hybrid Hard Drives: Momentus XT, Pulsar
APPENDICES

 Enterprise Hard Drives: Barracuda: Pulsar, Savvio (15K, 10K), Constellation, Constellation
ES, Cheetah 15K
 Video Storage Hard Drives: Pipeline HD, SV35 Series

Product Brands (Home Entertainment): Brand name roots: [Seagate] [&] [GoFlex]
 Digital Media Players: GoFlex TV HD Media Player

Category Keywords

Topical (all):
[Seagate] [&] [drive(s)] - hard drive(s), USB drive(s), network drive(s), external drive(s), internal
drive(s), thin drive(s), mini drive(s), mobile drive(s), self encrypting drive(s), media drive(s), performance
drive(s), solid state drive(s), wireless drive(s), data backup drive(s), backup drive(s), digital drive(s), home
entertainment drive(s)

[Seagate] [&] [disk(s)] - hard disk(s), disk drive(s), disk storage

[Seagate] [&] [storage] - external storage, network storage, small business storage, server
storage, pocket size storage, dual-drive storage, media storage, digital storage, cloud storage, DVR

[Seagate] [&] router(s), switch(es), hub(s), powerline AV network (kit), data protection, guardian

Misc (all):
[Seagate] [&] service, warranty(ies), support / www.seagate.com, seagate.com
32


Roots: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Hitachi Global Storage, Hitachi Storage, HGST

Product Brands (External): Brand name roots: [Hitachi] [&] [Touro], [G-Technology], [G-RAID (G
RAID)], [G-Speed Q (G Speed)], [G-Connect (G Connect)], [G-Drive (G Drive)]

 External Mobile Hard Drives: Touro Mobile, Touro Mobile Pro
 External Desktop Hard Drives: Touro Desk, Touro Desk Pro

Product Brands (Internal): Brand name roots: [Hitachi] [&]
[Travelstar], [Deskstar], [Ultrastar], [Cinemastar], [Endurastar]

 Mobile Hard Drives: Travelstar (series) / Desktop Hard Drives: Deskstar (series)
 Enterprise Hard Drives: Ultrastar (series) / Consumer Electronics Hard Drives: Cinemastar
(series) Automotive / Industrial Hard Drives: Endurastar (series)
 Self Encrypting Hard Drives: Travelstar (series), Ultrastar (series)
APPENDICES

Product Brands (Solid State): Brand name roots: [Hitachi] [&] [Ultrastar] (MLC NAND, SLC NAND series)
- [HGST] [&] [Ultrastar]

Category Keywords

Topical (all):
[Hitachi] [&] [drive(s)] - hard drive(s), USB drive(s), network drive(s), external drive(s), internal
drive(s), thin drive(s), mini drive(s), mobile drive(s), self encrypting drive(s), media
drive(s), performance drive(s), solid state drive(s), wireless drive(s), data backup drive(s), backup
drive(s), digital drive(s), home entertainment drive(s)

[Hitachi] [&] [disk(s)] - hard disk(s), disk drive(s), disk storage

[Hitachi] [&] [storage] - external storage, network storage, small business storage, server

[Hitachi] [&] router(s), switch(es), hub(s), powerline AV network (kit), data protection, guardian

Misc (all):
[Hitachi] [&] service, warranty(ies), support / www.hgst.com, hgst.com

33


Roots: Iomega

Product Brands (Network Storage): Brand name roots: [Iomega] [&] [StorCenter]

Product Brands (Home Network): Brand name roots: [Iomega] [&] [Home Media], [EZ
Media], [StorCenter]

Product Brands (Multimedia): Brand name roots: [Iomega] [&] [ScreenPlay], [EZ Media]

Product Brands (Desktop): Brand name roots: [Iomega] [&] [Prestige], [eGo], [Mac
Companion], [UltraMax], [MiniMax]

Product Brands (Portable): Brand name roots: [Iomega] [&] [Prestige], [eGo]

Product Brands (iPhone): Brand name roots: [Iomega] [&] [SuperHero]
APPENDICES

Category Keywords

Topical (all):
[Iomega] [&] [drive(s)] - hard drive(s), USB drive(s), network drive(s), external drive(s), internal

[Iomega] [&] [disk(s)] - hard disk(s), disk drive(s), disk storage

[Iomega] [&] [storage] - external storage, network storage, small business storage, server

[Iomega] [&] router(s), switch(es), hub(s), powerline AV network (kit), data protection, guardian

Misc (all):
[Iomega] [&] service, warranty(ies), support /
www.goiomega.com, goiomega.com, www.iomega.com, iomega.com

34


Roots: LaCie

Product Brands (Desktop): Brand name roots: [LaCie] [&] [Porsche
Design], [Porsche], [Minimus], [Starck], [Rugged XL], [eSATA Hub], [Quadra], [Hard Disk Max]

Product Brands (Mobile): Brand name roots: [LaCie] [&] [Rugged Safe], [Little Big Disk], [Porsche
Design], [Rugged Mini], [Rugged Triple], [Rikiki]

Product Brands (Network Storage): Brand name roots: [LaCie] [&] [Network
Space], [CloudBox], [LaPlug], [Wireless Space], [d2 Network], [2big], [5big], [4big], [12big]

Product Brands (RAID): Brand name roots: [LaCie] [&] [2big], [4big], [12big]

Product Brands (Multimedia): Brand name roots: [LaCie] [&] [LaCinema]

Category Keywords
APPENDICES

Topical (all):
[LaCie] [&] [drive(s)] - hard drive(s), USB drive(s), network drive(s), external drive(s), internal

[LaCie] [&] [disk(s)] - hard disk(s), disk drive(s), disk storage

[LaCie] [&] [storage] - external storage, network storage, small business storage, server

[LaCie] [&] router(s), switch(es), hub(s), powerline AV network (kit), data protection, guardian

Misc (all):
[LaCie] service, warranty(ies), support / www.LaCie.com, LaCie.com

35

Western Digital snapshot

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (20)

En vedette

En vedette (6)

Similaire à Western Digital snapshot

Similaire à Western Digital snapshot (20)

Plus de Daniel McKean

Plus de Daniel McKean (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Western Digital snapshot