Project: EE Social Hub (2012)
Position: Senior Social Strategy Manager, EE
Role: Project Lead
Following the merger of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK in 2012, a new brand was born – EE. During this time I was responsible for setting the strategic direction for social media at the company. The mobile phone network serviced more than half of the UK population, and social media was becoming a primary channel for customer engagement, both in terms of marketing and service. Recognising the importance of this, I established a new team that would manage various social stakeholders from all around the company – the EE Social Hub.
The EE Social Hub was a hi-tech physical space, and state-of-the-art social media command centre that enabled the company to understand what customers were saying about our brand in real-time. We identified trends, challenges and opportunities, helping various teams make smarter and faster decisions. The Hub comprised of social data analysts and community managers, who under my leadership provided updates to all areas of the business including the CEO’s office, sales, service, marketing, customer service and retail.
The Social Hub managed all of EE’s social accounts, and our Facebook page became the second fastest-growing in the UK in the year of launch.
The Social Hub played a pivotal part in the launch of EE, where we introduced the new brand to the public through social channels six weeks before the new 4G network went live, or any retail space opened. The adoption of a ‘social first’ strategy successfully established our new brand in a way that broadcast media could not do alone. Instead of being a peripheral, the Social Hub proved that social media needed to be at the heart of the new brand, and the ability to react to social issues and opportunities right across the company, not just the marketing team, became critical to our success.
Highlights from EE social launch in 2012:
363k follows (second fastest growing Facebook page that year)
4.4m YouTube views (most viewed YouTube ad that year)
58k likes (2nd most shared images on Facebook UK)
81k retweets (No.1 promoted Twitter campaign)
The brand was ranked 6th ‘Most Socially Devoted Brand' in the UK for 2012 by SocialBakers (the only telco to place in the top 10, and this in the first three months of the brand’s existence).
