1. 10 10 LESSONS IN SOCIAL MEDIA I
LEARNT THE HARD WAY.
(So you don’t have to.)
Ali bullock
Head of Communications – WWF Hong
Kong

2. 2
-
THINGS ABOUT ME YOU MAY
KNOW
I work for WWF Hong Kong as Head of Communications
- Previously worked for Cathay Pacific as global digital
marketing manager, and worked on digital strategy for
companies such as KMPG, Kellogg’s, Samsung and
Motorola

3. 2
-
THINGS ABOUT ME YOU MAY NOT KNOW
“Asia’s foremost charity wildlife photographer” - CNN Go
- My dog has more friends (917) than I do on FaceBook (662)

4. 1 # KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON.

5. Social media is like play
school. People will say
mean things about you.
Listen. Respond if
appropriate and then
move on.

6. AT CATHAY PACIFIC
Average views for a CX ad on the
official Youtube channel - 40,000
views

7. CENSORED
6 million + views 8 million + views 500,000 + views

8. NO MATTER YOUR ORGANISATION’S SIZE WE NOW
WORK AND LIVE IN A MULTI-CONNECTED 24 / 7
WORLD.
HOW WOULD YOU COPE?

9. Call: “ali, we need you in the crisis comms
center. NOW.”
(… It wasn’t ever going to be a good day)

10. CENSORED
From images captured by
professional photographers
and sent to the media for
print the next day to -
Images captured on an
Iphone and shared to the
world’s media in minutes

11. FROM “BRAND HIJACKS”

12. … TO YOUR OWN EMPLOYEES
“Great day, shooting Elephants for 8
hours”- ali bullock, Head of comms
WWF

13. … IN CONTEXT:
“Great day, photographing
Elephants for 8 hours”- ali bullock,
Head of comms WWF

14. 1 SOLUTION: MONITOR, RESPOND, ANALYSE &
REPEAT:
MONITOR: Your posts and the conversations online
WORK: your biggest fans and posters, cultivate these relationships
FACTS: Check your facts and know the details of the situation
SPEED: Post quickly and frequently (where suitable)
MONITOR (AGAIN): What is the message and flow of the conversation
ADAPT: Apologise, say nothing, address issues as the situation develops and be
flexible to this environment.

15. IT’S NOT THE MISTAKES MADE USING SOCIAL
MEDIA THAT CAUSE BRANDS THE BIGGEST
PROBLEMS, IT’S HOW POORLY OR SLOWLY THEY
DEAL WITH THEM.

16. 2 # SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS MANAGEMENT -
HOURS NOT DAYS

17. SEA SHEPHERD VS
CATHAY PACIFIC

18. …BUT THE STORY WASN’T TRUE:
WE LEARNT:
From picking up the story to posting on Facebook over 24 hours passed - this was too
long
We didn’t inform staff around the network, several of whom were verbally assaulted
at our airports by people angry over the story
More posts were needed on our own Facebook properties
We should have posted on the Sea Shepherd page

19. 2 SOLUTION: PLAN AND EXECUTE QUICKLY. DOING
NOTHING = MISTAKE:
Monitoring is key to social media and crisis management

20. 3 # DON’T HIRE A SOCIAL MEDIA AGENCY. HIRE
YOURSELF FIRST.

21. IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN SOCIAL MEDIA DON’T DO
IT… THAT’S VERY DIFFERENT TO NOT
UNDERSTANDING IT.

22. 3 SOLUTION: THE ONLY BARRIER TO SOCIAL MEDIA IS
YOU:
Making mistakes is part of the process – I didn’t get CX to a fan of fan reach of 36
million people without dropping a few balls along the way
No single person makes a social media success. You need a good team around
you and the management belief to try new ideas

23. 4 # FINALLY REALISING EVERY COMPANY IS A MEDIA
COMPANY

24. 4 COMPANIES AS PUBLISHERS
Blogs, Facebook feeds, Twitter and Sina-Weibo: Every company now has
the ability to be a publisher
Media and stories are becoming multi-threaded conversations across
multiple platforms

25. 4 SOLUTION: MORE CONTENT VS LESS CONTENT
Our challenge in marketing, PR and comms is how to find balance in a world
where there is more content than ever before and where people have less then
time than ever before to consume that media.
(If you find someone who has the answer to this let me know…)

26. ENGAGEMENT:
Simple to talk about but that will be the key to success moving forward.
FOCUS:
Simple to talk about but that will be the key to success moving forward.
TARGETING:
Simple to talk about but that will be the key to success moving forward.
MONITORING:
Know what is being said, by whom and engage where appropriate

27. 5 # SOMETIMES (ALWAYS) YOUR BRAND IS IN THE
HANDS OF SOMEONE ELSE

28. SOCIAL CAMPAIGN
PUBLIC ISSUE MEDIA CANCELLED

29. 5 SOLUTION: YOU NO LONGER “CONTROL” YOUR
BRAND AND THE MESSAGE:
… MOVE ON.

30. 6 # HOW DO YOU AVERT A SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS?

31. SIMPLE ANSWER IS YOU CAN’T…
It’s how you react and manage the issue that matters. A crisis will only get better
or worse as you manage it.

32. 6 SOLUTION: BUILD YOUR CONSTITUENCY. AND BUILD
IT NOW:
Simple steps to increase engagement:
Don’t oversell on social media. Special offers and promotions are all well and
good, but use them sparingly

33. 6 SOLUTION: GOOD BUSINESS WORKS ON SOCIAL
MEDIA
103 likes 606 likes

34. SOCIAL GOOD WORKS FOR YOU, YOUR EMPLOYEES, SOCIETY
AND FOR SOCIAL PR / ENGAGEMENT (MOST IMPORTANTLY.)
IT’S A WIN FOR EVERYONE.
EVERYONE CAN DONATE A SMALL AMOUNT OF TIME. TALK
TO CAROLINE@HANDSONHONGKONG.ORG
*
* Caroline is my wife and she is awesome

35. 7 # EVERY EMPLOYEE FROM THE CEO TO THE
RECEPTIONIST CAN B YOUR BRAND AMBASSADOR.

36. THE GOOD: A Great example of a very
low cost but effective social media
strategy.

37. 7 … AND THE BAD.

38. This is Tatiana Kozlenko, a flight
attendant for Russian airline Aeroflot.
In October 2011, she apparently posted
this photo to the social networking site
Vkonttakte.
She was fired Monday after the photo
began circulating on Twitter.

39. … And sometimes people make silly
mistakes.
REMEMBER: What you put on social
media, stays EVERYWHERE.

40. 7 SOLUTION: SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES:
Guidelines: Any organisation that is big enough to have HR guidelines will need to
have social media guidelines

41. REMEMBER, FEW “SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS”
INCIDENTS HAVE ENDED THE COMPANY.
(So that’s a relief then.)
Wait, the bad news is they can cost a lot of money, time and effort to re-build the
brands reputation…

42. 8
# BE REALISTIC. BE FOCUSED. KNOW YOUR
AUDIENCE AND CUSTOMERS

43. 8 SOLUTION: IS SOCIAL MEDIA RIGHT FOR YOUR
ORGANISATION…?

44. 9
# GIVING AWAY FREE STUFF WILL GET YOU
EXACTLY WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

45. IF YOU GIVE AWAY SOMETHING FOR FREE, WHAT
DO YOU EXPECT IN RETURN…?
LOYALTY?

46. 9 SOLUTION: FAN ACQUISITION VS CUSTOMER
ACQUISITION:
Fan acquisition means doing something to get the attention of users on a social
network so they will opt in to your messaging. Customer acquisition is doing
something to convince a person to purchase something.

47. 10 # SIZE IS NO BARRIER TO SOCIAL MEDIA

48. I STARTED OF THE CX FAN PAGE WITH ONE FAN.
(Social media can be a very cold, lonely place in the beginning.)

49. SOCIAL MEDIA FOUND THIS PUPPY A HOME *
* (OK, that’s not strictly true as I adopted her the day of this photo-shoot, but she
would so have been adopted through social media.)

50. ONE PERSON STARTED A FACEBOOK PAGE
ABOUT THE ORANGUTANS IN BORNEO.
RESULT: A FULL CHANGE IN PALM OIL BUYING
POLICY AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS LOST IN
NEGATIVE PR.

51. 10 CONCLUSION: SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT A SILVER
BULLET FOR YOUR BRAND:
Social Media is something that is too important to ignore
Social media does not and will not ever work on its own, it has to be
integrated into a bigger comms / marketing plan.
It’s going to get more complex – If I post a photo on Twitter through my
mobile phone, is that mobile marketing or social media marketing?
Social media will change the face of advertising, just as TV did 50 years
ago. But it’s still about people and word of mouth and that has not
changed.

52. * NOTE: # EVERY TITLE WAS LESS THAN 140 CHARACTERS (MEANING IT
WOULD FIT NICELY INTO YOUR TWITTER FEED.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME
YOU CAN FIND A COPY OF THIS PRESENTATION HERE:
www.slideshare.net/alibullock/presentations
ali bullock
abullock@wwf.org.hk / alibullock@gmail.com
www.alibullock.com