Research In Motion

Social Media Technology Consultants

Gobind Brar
Yong He
Nehal Adhikary
 Agenda
• RIM - Introduction & Social Media History
• Strategic Issues
• Root Cause Analysis
• Social Media Strategy Framework
• Solution / Recommendation
• Implementation
• Summary
 Research in Motion History
• Founded 1984
• 1996 - Introduces the RIM 900
Inter@ctivePager
• 1999 - Launches BlackBerry service

• 2004 - 1 million BlackBerry subscribers Blackberry Subscribers

• 2007 - 10 million subscribers

• 2010 Revenue: $14.9 billion

• 2010 Net Income: $3.46 billion

RIM Revenue and Net Income

 RIM’s Social Media History
2008
• First Facebook page and customer support forum
2009
• Launch of the official BlackBerry blog  Inside BlackBerry
• Twitter accounts for @blackberry and @blackberryhelp
2010
• BlackBerry Help Blog, BlackBerry Developer Zone
2011
• Promotion of PlayBook launch through Social Media
 RIM’s Social Media Presence
• @blackberryhelp followers: 352,009 (as of 2nd April 2011)

• Over 700 Direct Messages on Twitter per day

• Over 30 Facebook pages

• Around 10 Twitter accounts in total

• About 400 mentions at Blog World

• Upwards of 200 hours per month logged on forum users

RIM – Owned, Earned, Paid
• Official Website
• YouTube Channel
• Facebook fan page
• Twitter Account
• Blackberry support community
OWNED • Blogs
• Helper Blog
• Official Blog
• Business Blog • Blackberry Support sites and
• Developers Blog forums
• Crackberry
• Blackberry cool
• Berry Review
EARNED • Unofficial Blackberry Twitter
accounts
• Blackberry King
• BB hacker
• BB Rocks

• Google pages search results

PAID • Online Advertisements
• Sponsored Links
RIM vs. Google vs. Apple Twitter Stats

Followers

Following

Tweets
Social Media Comparison

14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
RIM Apple Google
Company Brand Phone Brand
 RIM in News
• Keith Pardy (CMO) quit before launch of Playbook
• 2011 Q4: - Shares Price plunged 11%
Strategic Issues Ahead

 Operating Performance Declined

 Lost Product Innovation
 Changing Business Environment
 Increasing Competition
Operating Performance Declined
New Subscribers Per Quarter
turn down

New Subscribers Added Per

Unit Sold continue drop

Device Gross Margin

Percentage get thinner

Revenue Per BlackBerry

Device Sold declined
 Lost Product innovation

Full Qwerty Touch screen Playbook

– Classical BB Strength – response to iPhone – response to iPad2

 Changing Environment
 Mobile Trends
1/3rd of Americans access mobile browser and social
networking sites on mobile phones
Mobile Application
Touch User Experience

Web Trends:
Email  Social Media
Traditional portals Online leisure Activities

 Changing Customers
 Enterprise  Mass market

Shifting Age Profile

 Twitter
 Facebook
Increasing Competition
beat old competitor or address new comer
Increasing Competition – cont`d
Mobile App Store
Strategic Issues Analysis

RIM

Operating
Innovation Competition Environment
Performance

Device User
Subscriber Talent New Trend Customer
Margin Experience
Root Cause Analysis
Business MatricesPerformance
Operating

Device Profit
Key Performance
Subscriber Indicators (KPIs)
Margin

New User
InternalOld&Customer
Customers External factorsNewTrend
Experience
Mobile
Innovation Competition

Shift Ageing Web Experience Recruit Touch Screen

Customer
Root Causes Mobile
Activities
Satisfaction Shift Email to Social
Mobile App
Talent
Corp Culture
Pricing
Strategy

Market Mix Promotion Place Product Price

Developer
Target Market Customer
(Ecosystem)
Employee Competitor
 RIM SWOT
Strengths Weaknesses
• Strong Brand Presence in Enterprise • Weak Position in Consumer Mobile
Markets Device Market
• Strong Wireless E-Mail and Qwerty • Weak Touch User Interface
Products • Limited Consumer Applications,
• Healthy Financial Performance Immature Application Store

Opportunities Threats
• Growth in Emerging Markets for • Increased Competition from
Smart phones Smartphone Vendors
• Success Of Integrated, End-To-End • Competition and Commoditization in
Mobile Solutions With Consumers Smartphone Market
• Availability of Multi-Tiered Pricing and • Free Open Smart phone platform
More Affordable Data Plans
 Social Media Strategies Framework
Role metrics Action
Internal
Business Revenue &
Business Metrics Reputation of the
Executives
Brand

Social Media Tweets, retweets,

Stakeholders social mention,
Analytics
turn around time

Managers Social Clicks, fans,

Engagement followers, reviews
External media Dept
 Solution - Customers
• Objective:
– Improve customer satisfaction
– Gather customer requirements and feedback
– Increase awareness and adoption of Blackberry
Products

• Activities:
– Enable customers help each other: Empower
BlackBerry brand evangelists to support each other
and help others in the community.
– Create Superusers
– Create online info through Helpsblogs
– Measure ROI in viral marketing campaigns to
illustrate its cost effectiveness

• Results:
• Measurement Metrics:
– Increase in number of app downloads
– Accepted Solutions: How many people actually got
– Improvement in JD Power customer satisfaction
helped from the support forums
ranking
– User Engagements: # of re-tweets, # of questions asked
Solution – Employees/Developers
• Objective:
– first prepare and align internal roles, processes, policies
and stakeholders with their business objectives.
– engage employees to use social media.
– Spur App development to combat Apple and Android

• Recent Developments:
– An Ad platform for application developers and
was initiated in Sept 2010
– Robust tools, technologies and business services to
assist developers in creating and marketing even
more powerful and useful applications
– Opportunity to monetize developed apps
– On 24th March 2011 RIM announced that Playbook will
be able to run Android apps

• Next Steps
– Hold webinars and upload tutorials • Other Initiatives
– Use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to reach out to – BlackBerry Academic Program
potential developers – BlackBerry Theme Studio
– Provide real-time support to developers via Social
– BlackBerry Widgets
Media
Solution - Competitors
• Objective:
– Differentiate Blackberry products and brand by learning industry best practices and attracting talents
– Promote Blackberry product and attract 3rd party developer

• Activities:
– Monitor: evaluate how competitors build their brand and product image  Identify target social
media/influencers  differentiate RIM by effectively engaging with social media
– Promotion: Youtube, Blog, Dev Forum, Facebook, Twitter
– “RIM is changing” champion – delivery message across social sites and targeted influencers.
– “RIM Value you” champion – promote influencers and attract developers
– “DIY Blackberry” champion – encourage innovation and attract Enterprise User and developers
– Insight : use Social Media as design source and drive internal change
– Use social media to drive product direction and improve product design process.
– Collect and package real-time feedback to product team to make product better.
Summary & Implementation Plan
Involve:
Build a loyal community
Create:
Relevant content for the communities of
interest
Discuss:
Issues of customers and developers
Promote:
The products and features
Measure:
The effectiveness of online social media
channels, respond to queries and address
concerns
Questions?
Appendices
Owned Social Media Benefits
• Announce new product or service
developments
• Listen to the problems by engaging with
Blackberry customers and provide them with
technical support
• Run promotions and competitions
 RIM’s Social Media Metrics
Accepted Solution
• How many people actually got helped from the support
forums

User Registration
• # of Followers

User Engagements
• # of re-tweets, # of questions asked
 Channel Proliferation
Offline (Historically) Online
• TV + Display
• Print/Radio + Internet Radio
• Outdoor + Mobile
• Direct Mail + E-Mail
• Word of Mouth + Peer to Peer
• Trusted advisor + UGC generally – Blogs, Wikis etc.
• In Store + Social Networking specifically
• Directories + Search
• Conferences and Events + IPTV
• Loyalty programs + RSS
• Product Placement + In game
Tablet War
Developers Matter
OS share 2009-2014 (Projected)
RIM’s Sociable Index