Findings and insights from the 2010 FedEx/Ketchum Social Media Benchmarking Study—a comprehensive exploration of how social media impacts today’s communications landscape. This document reflects the input of leaders from over 60 top global organizations across most major industries.

1. The 2010 FedEx/Ketchum Social
Media Benchmarking Study

2. A Note from FedEx and Ketchum
Dear Colleague,
We are excited to present you with our findings and insights from the 2010 FedEx/Ketchum
Social Media Benchmarking Study—a comprehensive exploration of how social media
impacts today’s communications landscape. This document reflects the input of leaders
from over 60 top global organizations across most major industries.
Study participants answered the social media related questions keeping many of us up at
night: How do we leverage social media to drive internal culture, brand performance, and
reputation management? What is the appropriate budget allocation to support social
media programming? How should we adapt internal structures to develop and roll out
social media strategies? What is the best way to measure the ROI of social media spend?
It is our sincere hope that you find the trends and best practices we uncovered as helpful
as we do, and that we will continue to build our collective strength in this new
communications frontier together. Thanks to all those organizations who committed their
time to this effort. This study would not have happened without your enthusiastic
participation.
Best,
Bill Margaritis David B. Rockland, Ph.D.
SVP, Global Communications Partner
FedEx Corporation Ketchum, Inc.
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3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Study Background………………………………………………...……...
Executive Summary…………………………………………………..….
Defining Terms and Players…………………………………….………
External Social Media Programming………………………………...
Internal Social Media Programming………………………………...
Operational Implications………………………………………………
Measurement……………………………………………….………
Budgeting…………………………………………………………...
Team Evolution & Agency Support…………………………….
Concluding Thoughts & Contact Details……………………….…..
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8
10
16
27
32
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35
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4. Study Background

5. Motivation & Methodology
FedEx and Ketchum initiated this study to benchmark best
practices in leveraging social media to drive internal culture,
brand performance, and reputation management.
Both organizations recognized a lack of in-depth
research regarding how social media impacts the
way companies program, budget, and set up their
teams.
Ketchum used a standardized interview protocol to
guide 30 minute conversations with Chief
Communications Officers or their Social Media Leads
at 62 leading companies across most major industries.
Interviews occurred between August and October
2010.
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6. 6
Participating Companies

7. Demographics:
a Wide Range of Industries
3% 3%
13%
12%
9%
15%
6%
8%
3%
7%
15%
6%
Airline
Consumer Products
Energy
Financial Services
Food & Beverage
Healthcare
Manufacturing
Other
Professional Services
Retail
Technology
Telecommunication
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8. Executive Summary (1/2)
• 100% of companies reported some degree of social
media engagement regardless of industry.
The way the world
communicates is
changing. You can
either adapt or
become irrelevant.
• Participants agreed that social media is a channel (not a
strategy) that should be part of a holistic communication
and marketing approach tied to business goals.
• Participants repeatedly stressed the necessity for transparency and
authenticity in every social media program, no matter its simplicity
or sophistication.
• Social media leaders argue that the voice and tone that works in traditional
corporate communications doesn’t work on the social web. Conversational
means credible.
• Evaluation of participants’ steps to develop social media programs revealed
seven distinct phases: Listening, Reclaiming, Collaborating, Strategy &
Planning, Experimenting, Assessing, and Refining.
• Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are the dominant social media platforms,
but participants repeatedly conveyed the need to stay on top of emerging
tools and technology in order to remain relevant.
• Companies recognized that social media is distinct from
traditional channels in its interactivity, transparency, and
embrace of informality. These characteristics demand
unparalleled degrees of collaboration across businesses and
functions including Communications, Marketing,
Legal/Compliance, and IT.
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“ “

9. Executive Summary (2/2)
If you’re not open
to feedback,
you’re not ready to
play.
• Organizations recognized the rise of citizen journalism
and the need to engage bloggers to support brand
development and reputation management.
• Participants conveyed significantly greater focus on
external rather than internal social media applications, but
expressed strong interest in ramping up capabilities—
primarily via enhanced intranets—in 2011 and beyond.
• Organizations are trending towards more formal collaborative social
media oversight models that are inclusive of diverse business units and
functions.
• Most organizations do not have formal internal learning programs
established to promote the development of social media expertise.
• Companies continue to see the value in partnering with third parties to
develop and execute social media programming.
• Participants most frequently estimated spending between five
and fifteen percent of their overall communications budgets on
social media programming in 2010.
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“
“

10. Defining
Terms & Players

11. Defining Terms:
Social Media vs. Digital Assets
l Participants agreed that social media and digital assets are equally
important, fundamentally different, and often complementary.
l Social media is most commonly characterized as a means for two-
way dialogue with internal and external stakeholders.
l Digital Assets are most commonly described as owned properties,
tools, or rich media content (e.g., websites, apps, or video) that
companies create to support online programming.
l Companies use digital assets to enrich the conversations they
participate in via social media forums.
l Externally, the most commonly leveraged social media
platforms include:
Digital assets and
social media go hand-
in hand. They’re the
tools that power the
social web.
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“ “

12. Who’s Playing and Why?
l 100% of study participants reported some degree
of social media presence.
l The most common external objectives included:
 Generating word of mouth advocacy
 Developing brand loyalty and closer
relationships with customers
 Addressing customer care issues
 Educating costumers and media about
company-related issues
 Supporting product/service launch/sales
l Each major channel (Twitter, Facebook, and
YouTube) serves its own purpose and participants
were hesitant to compare effectiveness across
mediums.
l Twitter is the favored channel supporting
customer care and media relations.
l Facebook and YouTube are most frequently
leveraged to develop brand loyalty and closer
relationships with customers, and to share
product/service information.
If you’re not there,
you’re noticeably
absent. It’s here to stay
and there’s no use
ignoring it.
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“ “

13. Leadership, Participation, and Observation
Participants fell into three distinct categories based on their degree of social media
engagement. Current social media leaders are mostly B2C companies.
You don’t always
have to be a leader.
Sometimes it’s okay to
be a close follower. It
all depends what
you’re trying to
achieve.
Leadership
Participation
Observation
• Engrain social media in every aspect of communication.
• Identify and integrate new social media tools on an ongoing basis.
• Employ in-house team of three or more social media specialists.
• Engrain social media in some aspects of communication.
• Explore integration of new social media tools following validation from
businesses leading in the social space.
• Hire 1 specialist and/or expand responsibilities of communicators to include
social media competence and rely on agency support for expert counsel.
• Engrain social media in few aspects of communication.
• Seek to build awareness of the social media landscape and
how to play effectively.
• Expand responsibilities of communicators to include social media
competence and rely on agency support for expert counsel.
10%
75%
15%
*Note: Percentages
reflect estimates
based on evaluation
of participant profiles
developed via
interviews.
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“ “

14. What About Companies in
Regulated Industries?
Companies in regulated industries
(healthcare, financial services, energy,
etc.) reported social media participation
despite clear legal hurdles.
Participant Insights
1. Research the rules regarding disclosure and
reporting.
2. Manage internal stakeholder expectations and
identify internal champions from across the
enterprise.
3. Establish a business case and ongoing
management plan with Legal/Compliance teams.
4. In particularly risk-averse cultures, consider
focusing social media outreach on a specific
theme like Corporate Responsibility efforts.
ideas for social media success in
regulated industries
We found a strong social
media advocate on the
Compliance team, and
that made all the
difference in the world
in terms of selling our
ideas in to
leadership.
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“
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15. The B2B Opportunity
B2B companies also reported significant social
media programming across the major channels.
B2B participants lagged behind their B2C
counterparts in terms of the depth and sophistication
of programming, but shared plans for ramping up
participation.
Participant Insights
1. Even if buyers are senior and less likely to care
about social media, the managers who influence
them do.
2. As the prevalence of e-commerce continues to
grow, so does the opportunity to drive traffic to
websites through digital and social media
programming.
3. Video trumps words when it comes to explaining
products and services in simple, visually
compelling ways.
ideas driving B2B social media trends
B2C companies are
leading the social
space now… but
B2Bs are just waking
up to these tools and
the best will learn
how to leverage
them to win.
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“
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16. External Social Media Programming

17. Strategy vs. Channel
Participants agreed that social media is a
channel, not a strategy
Social media programming should be part of a
holistic communication and marketing approach
tied to business goals.
There was wide-spread agreement that social media is not a
―silver bullet‖ for communication and marketing effectiveness.
I realize everyone is
telling you social
media is a unicorn,
but maybe it’s just a
horse?
– Jay Baer,
Independent Social
Media Strategist
Companies recognized that social media is distinct from
traditional channels in its interactivity, transparency, and
embrace of informality.
These characteristics demand unparalleled degrees of
collaboration across businesses and functions including
Communications, Marketing, Legal/Compliance, and IT.
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“ “

18. Getting Started
Crawl . Walk. Run. Be
very deliberate about
what you’re doing, and
very conscious along
the way.
Evaluation of participants’ steps to develop social
media programs revealed seven distinct phases.
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.
“ “

19. Nail the Fundamentals:
Participation & Planning
LACK OF
ONGOING
PARTICIPATION
―Engaging in social media
demands ongoing
participation—the dialogue
doesn’t start or stop around a
crisis or product launch.‖
LACK OF A
CRISIS RESPONSE
STRATEGY
―You’ve got to have a social
media-oriented crisis
management plan to protect
against the risk of viral
reputation challenges.‖
Participant Insights
Two ways to crash and burn out of the gate (and how to avoid them)
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20. The Twin Pillars of
Transparency & Authenticity
l Participants repeatedly stressed the necessity for transparency and
authenticity in every social media program, no matter its simplicity or
sophistication.
l Social media leaders argue that the voice and tone that works in
traditional corporate communications doesn’t work on the social web.
CONVERSATIONAL = CREDIBLE
WHAT VALUE ARE WE ADDING TO THE
COMMUNITIES WE SEEK TO ENGAGE?
You have to be
genuine online—
same as the real
world. People realize
when you’re faking it.
That doesn’t mean more buttoned-up organizations
shouldn’t be true to their brands— it’s a matter of
establishing a tone that’s comfortable and authentic
for the company and its customers.
Organizations also expressed awareness of the online
public’s aversion for the overly-promotional.
Before launching any new social endeavor, ask yourself:
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“ “

21. What’s Shareable?
l What makes content entertaining depends on the
audience. ―Funny‖ and ―cute‖ were often used to describe
highly regarded content.
l Helpful content provides information about products or
services that enhances the customer experience.
Participants reported that ―breaking news‖ or
―sneak peaks‖ of new products or services
shared via social media channels received
positive responses among customers.
ENTERTAINING OR HELPFUL
Content is king—the
tools are important but
they are only tools.
Authentic messaging is
what’s important.
l Participating companies characterized
the content that is most often shared
among target audiences in two ways:
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“ “

22. Using the Big Three: Twitter, Facebook,
and YouTube
The social media space is rapidly evolving and new technologies and
tools are consistently emerging. Even if companies are not using the
latest platforms, (e.g., Foursquare, Gowalla, Tumblr) most agree that
keeping up with what’s trending is important.
At present Twitter, Facebook, and
YouTube are the dominant platforms,
and in the following slides we feature
three celebrated programs from
participating companies.
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23. Tackling Twitter with GM
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GM tackles reputation management using
multiple social media channels including Twitter.
Training employees to send a mix of both
personal and professional tweets and status
updates builds perceptions of GM’s softer, more
human side even through times of crisis.
To begin, GM developed an online social media
training portal for novice users and offered
advanced in-person courses for more web savvy
team members. About 2,000 employees
completed the online introduction in its first two
months alone and thousands more have
participated since. GM is currently updating its
social media policy and training approach to
require all employees to go through training
while creating two distinct groups of users –
those who are authorized to speak on behalf of
GM and everyone else.
Employee driven social media programming
continues to support GM’s emergence from
bankruptcy and brand building efforts.
Employee tweet examples include:
“
“
Great weather for the
bike commute today!‖
Repaying taxpayers ahead of
schedule because we are designing,
building, and selling the best cars and
trucks ever.
GM social media training portal
“ “
Source: Miller, Lindsay. Can GM employees woo the country back through social media?
www.ragan.com. May 3, 2010.

24. PepsiCo’s Doritos Canada leveraged Facebook
to promote a contest where users were asked to
name a mysterious new chip flavor and create a
30-second video commercial advertising it.
Doritos offered $25,000 and 1% of future consumer
sales to the winning commercial and name.
The contest drew over 75,000 participants, 14.5
million page views, and 2.1 million video views.
More than 900,000 consumers visited the Doritos
Facebook page over the course of the two-month
campaign.
Doritos' sales in Canada doubled during that time.
Facebook Fantasy with PepsiCo and Doritos
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Source: Wood, Cara. Creative solutions from Doritos, Club ABC Tours, Meg Whitman.
Direct Marketing News. October 12, 2009.

25. Utilizing YouTube with Ford
Ford gave away 100 Ford Fiestas for six months
complete with free gas, insurance, parking and a
concierge service to 100 lucky recipients.
Each one was sent on ―monthly missions‖ which were
documented for public consumption and shared
across major social media platforms.
Official Fiesta Movement content has drawn 6.5
million YouTube views and 3.7 million Twitter
impressions.
The program has elicited the interest of about 50,000
potential buyers, 97% of which don’t currently drive a
Ford. Ford sold 10,000 units in the first six days of
sales.
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Source: McCracken, George. How Ford Got Social Marketing Right. Harvard Business Review.
January 7, 20110.

26. Participant Insights
Navigating the Blogosphere
Organizations recognized the rise of citizen journalism and
the need to engage bloggers to support brand development
and reputation management.
Blogger outreach is now part of most participating companies’
general media relations strategies.
Most companies stressed the need to differentiate between bloggers
with real influence versus those with relatively small followings leveraging
monitoring services to determine the appropriate level of engagement.
1. Invite bloggers to on-site events and give them
special access to products and services.
2. Be transparent about relevant business goals and
ensure bloggers disclose their association with the
company.
3. Consider providing bloggers “deconstructed
content” (key facts and links) rather than traditional
press releases to enable them to better use their
unique voices in posts.
ideas supporting stronger
blogger relationships
You can’t be
everywhere.
Concentrate on
where your
consumers are.
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27. Internal Social Media Programming

28. Growing Interest in Internal Social Media
Applications
Participants conveyed significantly greater focus on external rather than internal social
media applications, but expressed strong interest in ramping up capabilities—primarily
via social media equipped intranets—in 2011 and beyond. The most frequently
referenced intranet features included leadership blogs, wikis, and “Facebook-like”
interfaces.
These tools
present a whole
new way of
collaborating
across the
enterprise.
of study participants already have social media equipped intranets40%
*Note: Percentages
reflect estimates
based on evaluation
of participant profiles
developed via
interviews.
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“ “
50% of study participants plan to redesign their intranets in the next one
to two years to include greater social media capabilities
10%
of study participants do not have significant social
media intranet capability and do not plan to add
tools in the next one to two years

29. l The most common internal social media objectives were:
• Enhancing knowledge management
• Supporting collaboration within and across teams,
functions, and geographies
• Developing culture and community
l Participants reported that investment in internal social
media applications is most strongly tied to tool
purchase and development. Upkeep and ongoing
management is not a major cost.
l Organizations use intranet
analytics (blog development,
comments, discussion board
activity, etc.) and broader
engagement and
communications survey results to
monitor and measure the impact
of internal social media
programming.
Adding Value Inside the Enterprise
Employees are
using social media
all the time at
home. Now, we’re
using the tools
they’re familiar
with in the
workplace.
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“
“

30. Three Keys to Effective
Intranet Management
Participants agreed on three critical steps guiding effective intranet
development and ongoing management:
Be patient and
develop thick
skin. It takes a
while to get an
effective intranet
off the ground.
1. Ensure proper leadership and employee buy-in.
•Create a business case to build executive support.
•Begin and end development with employee needs in mind—not a
corporate vision.
•Engage employees throughout the design process to develop a
user-centric experience.
2. Establish strategic roll-out plans including pilot programs.
• Leverage formal internal communications channels and
informal influencers to drive awareness and adoption.
• Ensure opportunities for training and dialogue about
how to leverage new tools.
3. Build ongoing governance and
moderation plans.
• Establish clear roles and responsibilities to
ensure effective content management at
corporate and local levels.
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31. 4
Developing Social Media Policies
1. Most companies either have, or plan to develop social media policies in the
next year, citing social media’s popularity and the need to manage risk.
2. Effective policies are natural extensions of existing codes of
conduct. For example:
• Keep confidential information private
• Only speak on behalf of the company if authorized
• Identify yourself as an employee if endorsing a
product/service
3. Strong policy development is the result of:
• External benchmarking—many policies are published
• Cross-functional collaboration —typically Comms/
Marketing, Legal/Compliance, and HR play leading roles
4. Employee buy-in and adoption of policies is driven by clear
internal communication and relevant learning opportunities.
Participant Insights
themes regarding employee social media policy
development:
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32. Operational
Implications
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33. Cracking the Code on Monitoring
& Measurement
Companies are distinguishing between monitoring of online mentions
and activity versus measuring the ROI of social media spend.
Participants cited Radian6 as the paid monitoring partner of choice,
but competitors such as BuzzMetrics, Evolve24, Focus, Symphony,
and Sysomos (among others) were also mentioned.
The most common free services include TweetDeck and Google
Alerts.
Participants generally agreed that there is no consistent,
reliable approach to measurement and determining ROI.
There is widespread agreement that looking solely at
metrics like ―followers‖, ―friends‖, or ―views‖ is not
sufficient.
Companies expressed the desire to improve the
way they assess quality of online interaction,
level of user engagement, and ultimately
impact on business performance.
Everyone is struggling
to figure out how you
determine the impact
on the business. It
might not be a
dollar figure.
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“ “

34. Measurement Progress:
The Barcelona Principles
l Top experts from the Association for Measurement and the Evaluation
of Communication (AMEC), the Public Relations Society of America
(PRSA), and other major industry organizations have established a set
of seven principles to guide communications measurement.
l Principle six states that ―social media can and should be measured‖
and outlines the following agreements to inform future social media
measurement efforts:
• Social media measurement is a discipline, not a tool; but there is no “single metric”.
• Organizations need clearly defined goals and outcomes for social media.
• Media content analysis should be supplemented by web and search analytics, sales and
CRM data, survey data and other methods.
• Evaluating quality and quantity is critical, just as it is with conventional media.
• Measurement must focus on “conversation” and “communities” not just “coverage”.
• Understanding reach and influence is important, but existing sources are not accessible,
transparent or consistent enough to be reliable; experimentation and testing are key to
success.
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35. How Much Does it Cost?
Most participants don’t line-item ―social media‖ in annual budgets.
Money is allocated on a project by project basis by different functions,
divisions, or sub-brands, depending on type and need.
Participants most frequently estimated spending between five and fifteen
percent of their overall external communications budgets on social media
programming in 2010.
Most organizations predicted budget increases in social media spending
in 2011, but participants were hesitant to quantify growth estimates.
Social media programming budgets may be off-set by investment in
talent (FTEs) with specific social media-related roles (salary is a
fixed cost).
Typically, there is more budget allocated
to digital assets than social media
programming—they’re costly, but also
more established, better understood,
and easier to measure.
There’s a reason
it’s called return
on investment—
you have to put
in to get out.
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“ “

36. The Evolution of the
Communications Team
Structure
l Communications tends to oversee social media programming
and execution, but Marketing also plays a leading role—
particularly when social media programming is oriented around
product launch and promotion. Legal/Compliance teams are more
integrally involved in social media programming in regulated industries.
l Organizations are trending towards more formal collaborative social
media oversight models that are inclusive of diverse business units and
functions (Comms, Marketing, Legal/Compliance, Business Leaders).
l There are disparate approaches to evolving team structures. Some organizations
have created new groups of 1-10 people focused exclusively on social media.
Others rely on current staff to expand their expertise. The direction of choice
depends on whether organizations see value in leading in this space or if they’re
content to be participants.
l Most organizations are either already including or plan to include a degree of
social media competency in job descriptions.
Social media is forcing
business units to
collaborate in ways
they never have
before. You really have
to be aligned across
the enterprise.
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“

37. Building Social Media Capabilities
Most organizations do not have formal internal learning programs
established to promote the development of social media expertise.
Participants leverage the following learning solutions to support social
media competence building among communications team members:
Peer-to-peer training: Many companies identified internal social
media experts and empowered them to bring colleagues up to
speed.
Reverse mentoring: Younger professionals are frequently
tapped to onboard more experienced team members.
One-off courses provided by agencies: Most participants
mentioned leveraging agency-sponsored workshops to
build social media knowledge.
Many participants advocated attending
social media conferences, but
highlighted that many cover familiar
territory and the most effective ones
are targeted at their particular
industries.
We’ve found it
works great to have
a peer lead training
sessions. People are
more receptive to
new ideas from
someone they
know.37
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38. Agencies & VendorsYou need an expert—
whether in-house or
agency-based—to
really make the most
of social media.
Most organizations continue to see value in
partnering with third parties to develop and execute
social media programming.
Participants reported that PR and Advertising firms both
have significant influence as social media counselors.
Boutique digital and social media shops also provide valuable
insight to a smaller portion of study participants.
Most companies did not share plans to significantly shift the
nature or scope of agency engagement.
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“ “

39. Concluding Thoughts & Contact Details
l Social media is disrupting the way the world communicates and
companies must continue to evolve how they interact with people to
remain relevant.
l The pace and scope of change as new tools and technology emerge
demands an unparalleled degree of organizational nimbleness.
l As digital and social tools become the go-to resources for everything
from news and information to friendship and love, smart brands will
continue to figure out better ways to add value to the online
experience—internally and externally.
We look forward to addressing your feedback, questions, or comments.
Disclaimer: FedEx and Ketchum are providing this summary for informational purposes only.
We are not providing advice, legal or otherwise.
Renee Horne
Director, Digital & Social Media Engagement
FedEx Corporation
rlhorne@fedex.com
Daniel Dworkin
Senior Consultant
Ketchum Pleon Change
daniel.dworkin@ketchum.com
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