Rogers is Canada’s largest provider of wireless voice and data communications services and one of Canada’s leading providers of cable television, high-speed Internet and telephone services. Through Rogers Media we are engaged in radio and television broadcasting, televised shopping, magazines and trade publications, and sports entertainment. With this many lines of business, the Rogers brand has multiple audiences and communities that require equal attention in social media. Social media is all about community and that involves interaction. It’s a true opportunity to have a conversation both with your customers – learning about what they like, don’t like, want to see more of! A social media manager needs to not only manage these online communities and the messages that are shared within them, but also the team who is engaging on behalf of the brand. Mary Pretotto, Senior Manager, Social Media Community otherwise known as @RogersMary, successfully manages these areas, all while maintaining professionalism and exhibiting a fun-loving attitude. Manage a team Each member of the social media team is an active participant in the online space. The goal of the social media team is to build community and help customers whenever possible and making it easy for our customers to do business with Rogers. As the lead of the social media Community team, Mary’s best attribute is her ability to give each member of the team the tools and coaching they need to socialize the brand messages without dictating a required tone, verbiage or style. This allows each member of the team to have their own voice which gives Rogers, a large corporation, a ‘face’ to its online community members. Customers appreciate that @RogersChris responds in his own way, the same that @RogersMelanie will respond in hers. Manage the community A good social media manager needs to know how much detail to share with the community in order to strike a balance between what a customer is looking for and the interests of the company. In the telecommunications industry, there are occasions where the key messages need to be broad and unspecific, potentially giving the statement a corporate tone. A good social media manager must be able to respond in a way that gives the community peace of mind that they are being heard, even if the response they were looking for is not possible. Being able to do this can make the road to acceptance within a community a much smoother path. Today, Mary and the members of her team; are now frequently asked for their opinions on situations and we have even see other community members weighing in on conversations in support of the team! A notable example is Rogers' involvement in the Android community. In late 2009, Rogers launched the first two Android devices in Canada. Quickly, Rogers realized that there was a lot about the new OS that was very different from iOS and BlackBerry OS and the Android community had concerns with how Rogers was handling the new platform. One Android influencer started a blog titled “Hey Rogers – I want my 1.6", which spoke of his negative experiences with Rogers’ first Android OS update. Mary spent 2010 and most of 2011 working to build relationships within the Android community including launching a customer panel dedicated to Android users. These efforts have paid off, in early December 2011, this same influencer reached out to Mary letting her know that he is letting the “Hey Rogers – I want my 1.6" URL expire as he is satisfied with how Rogers has been working with the Android community. If the removal of the blog isn’t enough to show how the social media team shifted this particular bloggers view below is a snapshot of the conversation dating back to 2009 and finishing with his final comments in 2011. • Don’t forget to make as much noise as possible in the multiple Android and Cellphone forums around the web! • Sorry @RogersMary, but I’m calling BS on this line of thinking • Rogers, this is NOT acceptable! You continue to treat us like second-rate citizens next to your beloved f*^#ing iPhone lusers! • Many thanks go to Mary Pretotto (aka RogersMary) for all her help, and to the management of Rogers for actually listening to us • Their social media team is a genius idea, something Telus and Bell haven’t cottoned on to yet. The fact that were able to engage with people like @RogersMary and @RogersMIranda and actually have our needs make it through to management who really did something about it proves its value Because of her continued dedication to these online communities, Mary has won three quarterly and one yearly Customer First awards, which is an internal recognition for significant contributions to business objectives and customer impacting issues. Whether it’s responding on Twitter, Rogers' corporate blog, RedBoard, or hosting an internal team meeting, Mary exhibits all the qualities of a superior social media manager.
