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Category: Best Community ROI Usecase
Community: Verizon
Submitted by: Verizon Community Project Manager Hollyb
The Verizon forums http://forums.verizon.com/ has quickly evolved into something much more than a technical support forum. In fact, the forums are now touching many parts of the company in some way and are rapidly becoming more and more integrated into the overall communication strategy. In 2009, the media relations team began blogging in the community, using the Verizon blogs as a tool to release company updates, information and press releases.
The blogs serve as a primary touch point to the media as well as conversation portals with our customers about important topics such as how Verizon as a company is helping local communities, or the latest advancements in wireless technologies.
More specifically, the Verizon at Home blog is now one of the first places consumers and media can look for news of upgrades to existing services or announcements of new Verizon products and services.
The Responsibility Blog is a place for Verizon to showcase our corporate responsibility and share how the company has contributed to foster improvements in education, the environment, health care, accessibility and Internet safety.
The Verizon Small Business blog provides relevant news, trends and service information aimed at helping small businesses increase their bottom-line. In addition to the blog, The Verizon Small Business group is also taking advantage of the forums by starting small business discussions and providing more ways for small businesses to promote themselves through the forums.
The forums have also become a center point of other social media activity happening online. In addition to the linkages between Facebook and YouTube, Verzion has implemented a Twitter integration which lets members interact with Twitter directly from the forums. This integration allows Verizon’s technical support team to actually find customer questions and problems happening on the social web, and pull them back into the forums for discussion and resolution.
In 2010, a customer Advisory Panel was formed with the use of the forums. This panel serves as a private focus group so Verizon can get real feedback from our customers on products, services and ideas.
The Verizon forums have become a place where Verizon managers and executives can have two way conversations with customers, understand needs, and respond quickly. It has evolved beyond a technical help forum and become integrated into a core piece of Verizon's communication strategy with its customers.