A lot of people involved in social media happenings around Kansas City will recognize the name Justin Goldsborough. Justin is the social media communications manager at Sprint. We took some time to talk to Justin about his work in the social media space.

How did you come about getting interested in social media?

I’ve always been interested in technology and the role it plays in communications. My first communications jobs were working on corporate portals, Web 1.0-style. In my previous role at Applebee’s, I got to experiment with employee blogging and other two-way communications tools. We were opening the first ever Applebee’s in Shanghai and the project manager brought a handheld camera over to film the restaurant as it was being built. Then he brought the handheld back and we uploaded the video internally and gave employees a chance to comment. Employees submitted a ton of comments and e-mails about the video and a light bulb sort of went off in my head — this is how people want to communicate.

That was only about 18 months ago. A few months later I interviewed at Sprint and they brought me in to see Shel Holtz (@Shel), a social media SME who helps show companies how Web 2.0 can revolutionize their communications. I won’t go into the whole presentation, but everything he said just made sense to me. More specifically, I remember his story about a bad experience he had with an airport parking company – Park ‘N Fly. He was so annoyed he went straight home and posted a blog entry bashing the lack of service he’d received. A day later, one of the company’s employees posted to his blog apologizing and asking is she could give him some free parking. Shel explained how that totally changed the story he told about Park ‘N Fly. I remember the stat he gave…customers are 10 times more likely to stay with a brand that messes up but then engages them and apologizes.

The other point I remember Shel making was that customers don’t trust “traditional institutions” like corporations, government, etc. anymore. Instead, they trust “someone like me.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used that example when explaining to people the power of word of mouth.

Have you been asked by Sprint expressly to do this extended customer outreach?

I haven’t been asked to do the customer outreach I’m doing on Twitter, but my efforts have been supported. Social media and its benefits are on our PR team’s radar screen and my boss encourages any internal or external efforts that promote open communications.

It’s no secret that Sprint has had our share of customer service problems. One of the services our Customer Experience team came up with to help employees impact on service issues is a program called “Employees Helping Customers (EHC).” Basically, if you and I meet, you find out I work for Sprint and you have a complaint – this happens to our employees all the time, as you can probably imagine – now I can do something about it. Any of our employees can get the details of a customer’s issue and open an EHC ticket. The EHC team is amazing to work with and they often respond to issues within 24 hours. Whether it was intended or not, in EHC, Sprint has created a safe outlet for employees to engage customers online and “join the conversation.” If I don’t know how to solve your problem, at least I can refer you to EHC.

In addition to EHC, we have several PR folks who are on Twitter talking to customers. I signed on just a few months ago to post alerts about our devices and services. But a few weeks later, I read about Frank Eliason at Comcast (or Twitter folks may know him as @comcastcares). Not sure if your readers have heard the story, but basically Frank and a team of Comcast reps started engaging customers on Twitter a few months back. Comcast is another company that has struggled with customer service issues in the past.

The story I heard – from Shel Holtz, no less — was a guy’s cable went out during the Super Bowl and he tweeted complaining about how he was going to miss the rest of the game. Within minutes, Frank responded to him and asked how he could help. As someone who, like most of our 56,000 employees, is wondering how I can make an impact on our brand reputation, this story really struck a chord. And since I found Summize.com, I’ve been searching “sprint” and responding to anyone who complains about our customer service. Btw, if you ever have an issue with Sprint, don’t hesitate to contact me on Twitter — @JGoldsborough.

Have you gotten any feedback from your efforts? If so what was it?

The feedback I’ve received so far has been 99 percent positive. People are almost always thankful for the inquiry, even if they don’t want or need my help. One customer I ran across about a month ago – Darryl Ohrt, @darrylohrt — had used Sprint broadband cards for his business on a brief trip to Canada. When he got his bill, the international roaming charges showed he owed more than $1,000. He tweeted about the incident, I asked if I could help and in a day or so, his bill was resolved to his satisfaction. I remember this example because when Darryl e-mailed me his issue he explained that he was preparing a blistering blog post ripping Sprint, but that if I could help he would change the tune of the post. Talk about a marketing opportunity. You can’t flip on your DVR and fast forward through a blog post. Darryl posted a blog entry praising Sprint for listening on Twitter and it was picked up by another blog. That’s how these things travel…word of mouth. I can’t say it enough times. Now if only I could quantify how much money turning Darryl’s story from a negative one to a positive one meant for Sprint.

Another notable type of feedback I’ve seen is community endorsement. Think about the last time you needed work done on your house. Didn’t you ask your friends and family members for recommendations on whom to use? On Twitter, it’s the exact same idea. I’m starting to see people post about a Sprint service problem and one of their followers who I or a colleague has helped in the past will recommend the person contact us for help solving the issue. That type of credibility in an online community is huge; it’s a whole bunch of “someone like me’s” basically endorsing your subject matter expertise. Pretty hard to put a price tag on that type of reputation building.

What can companies gain by using emerging technologies?

Measurement is a big topic for us at Sprint right now. In other words, how can I quantify the benefits of social media in numbers – because we know execs like numbers. I’ve posed this question on Twitter a few times and have gotten the same answer from multiple sources. To sum it up, there are varying opinions on the actual ROI of using emerging technologies. But we all know the ROI on not using them…ZERO. And any ROI at all is better than that.

Companies can gain so much from utilizing social media. I’d say the biggest thing would be credibility. This goes two ways: 1) Credibility in your brand’s relationship with customers because you’re actually willing to go online, talk to people and listen to what they have to say about you, whether it’s positive or negative, 2) Credibility that you understand how people communicate. This is the bigger of the two for me. I have a credo I try to deliver as often as I can to anyone at Sprint who will listen – the Internet was Web 1.0 and social media is Web 2.0. They are on the same level. And if someone told you the Internet was just a fad or something “tech geeks” use you’d call them crazy, wouldn’t you? Companies that don’t adopt social media are in danger of being seen as just that…crazy. Or worse, irrelevant.

There’s this guy, Don Tapscott, who wrote Wikinomics, Growing Up Digital and Grown Up Digital. He talks a lot about the Digital Generation, which is the generation of folks under 30 who are entering the workforce now and have been using social media technologies at least since they were in college, if not high school or middle school. Facebook, Twitter, blogs aren’t something they do for fun. The Digital Generation uses these tools to communicate on a daily basis. And since younger generations traditionally drive technology adoption – why else would my 72-year-old stepmother have a Facebook account but to keep up with her kids and grandkids – companies better get on board and embrace social media or they’ll find that it’s not only consumers who don’t feel a connection with their brand, but prospective employees as well.

What are some of your goals in your work on behalf of Sprint?

My boss and I talk about our goals all the time:
Change the way people at Sprint communicate and how they think about communications. Part of our role is to help employees understand how social media is altering the way people communicate today and how that can be applied to our everyday jobs (e.g. engaging customers online and offering to help them with service issues). This is a big culture shift and won’t happen overnight. Employees shouldn’t be scared to speak their minds or talk to customers about our brand. And executives and managers should welcome the feedback. We’ve made strides in this area, but still have a ways to go. There’s still a large percentage of our employee base at all levels that sees social media as “extracurricular” or “fun with technology” and just “doesn’t get” all the potential applications.

Make it easier to tell the Sprint story. Every successful brand has a story behind it. At a company as big as Sprint, it’s hard for employees to keep track of the story and understand why we do what we do. One of our jobs is to help employees connect the dots through online conversations so they have access to all the information necessary to tell the Sprint story. For instance, we have a group of employees that serve as product ambassadors. They blog about their experiences using our products and share tips about them. And employees post questions or tips of their own on the product ambassadors’ blog site. When an ambassador posts about the new HTC Touch Pro device, the information sharing that takes place as a result of the conversation completely changes the story Sprint employees have to tell about the Touch Pro. Employees Helping Customers is another example. Now instead of having to tell customers “yeah, I’ve heard other people complain about that same issue,” or “sorry, I wish I could help,” our employees can act on a customer issue and refer people to EHC.

Understand the impact of word of mouth and content sharing (e.g. videos, podcasts, widgets). Most people’s first inclination is to keep content “secure” or “behind the firewall.” We need to be more transparent and understand that sharing content is how people communicate online today. You don’t have to look any further than the way Barack Obama’s campaign team employed social media to get him and his messages out there. It doesn’t matter who you voted for, the tactics his campaign used, especially the ability to share video and applications across social networks, are something every corporate executive could learn from. Ad Age named him and his technology team “Marketers of the Year” for a reason. They put their candidates’ story out there, then gave up control of the communication and allowed people to plaster the story all over the Internet. I’ve seen President Bush online or on TV maybe 10 times in the past year. Whether it was a YouTube video, Facebook app, text message or mobile Web site, I’ve seen or heard from Barack Obama a lot more than 10 times. When else in history has America had this type of access to a presidential candidate? And isn’t that the same type of access most employees hope to have to their CEO and executive teams?

Build a social network. The social part of social media always gets left out in the cold when it comes to corporations. But we shouldn’t be so quick to turn it away. Don’t we encourage our employees to network and take advantage of professional development opportunities? That’s exactly what they’re doing on sites like Sprint Space, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Ok, maybe they’re playing a little bit too. But work should be fun. Think about it this way…the more friends I have at work, the more I like my job…the more I like my job, the more loyal I am to my company…the more loyal I am to my company the better story I tell about it as a brand ambassador. See the chain reaction?

Why do you think Kansas City is a good place for companies looking to get into social media?

I think any city is a good place for companies looking to get into social media because more and more people use social media as their primary form of communication every day. All companies need to communicate with their customers and employees, hence the existence of TV commercials, radio spots, external Web sites, company portals, etc. If you’re trying to get your brand message out there, wouldn’t you want to use the communications platforms the most people are using? It’s not TV commercials anymore. With my DVR, I can fast forward right through those messages. Social media is what companies should be using to spread the word.

I have seen a lot of interest in social media in Kansas City. There are several folks on Twitter sharing best practices and emerging technologies. And area companies, including Sprint, are beginning to experiment with social media and understand the power of word of mouth. People in Kansas City are just like people everywhere else…they want open and honest communications from companies, they want to get that communication using a variety of different online mediums and they want that info now.

How difficult has it been for people like yourself and your boss who seem so “on board” to encourage transparent and genuine conversation in a big corporate structure that by its nature doesn’t jive well with the spirit of social media.

If I told you it hasn’t been difficult, I’d be lying. But it’s been fun too. We still haven’t done an enterprise-wide marketing campaign on social media or Sprint Space. And we just recently started promoting it via our company Intranet. Yet, we have almost 1,500 blogs on the site and our page views have gone from 134,028 in June (we started promoting Sprint Space blogs via links from our portal home page in May) to 240,204 page views in October. If that isn’t evidence that people want to communicate via social media, I don’t know what is. Plus we’ve seen several qualitative examples of success — employees getting questions answered, sharing knowledge, unprecedented access to execs.

The biggest struggle for me has been trying to help people see the immense ROI Sprint could gain from engaging employees and customers via social media. We have tried some different strategies – being social media evangelists, leading by example – and I know we’ll try a lot more. One of the reasons change is difficult is because it doesn’t happen immediately. It takes some time to change the mindset of a company. Old habits die hard, right?

So do I wish that every employee and every exec was blogging, uploading YouTube videos about Sprint and engaging customers online to help solve their issues? Absolutely. But that’s not realistic, even though I will keep working toward that goal. I am encouraged by the fact that social media is on Sprint’s radar and a large number of employees across the company seem to recognize its value. There are a lot of companies that would tell employees that can’t blog internally or they can’t talk to customers online. I even have a friend who recently was “punished” by his HR team for trying to help customers via a discussion forum. Talk about difficult.

So we are making progress. As long as we keep making progress, I’ll remain optimistic. Sprint is a technology company. We should be on the forefront of emerging technologies showing what they can do and enabling people to use them on our devices. We’ve go to buy, use what we’re selling. And I think we’re getting there.

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