BIG DATA VS. BIG REGULATION #NewhouseGLDSM

Tonight, I got the luxury of attending an @NewhouseSU lecture by Andrew Hetzel, Vice President of Corporate Communications at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Hetzel was a part of the Newhouse Global Leaders in Digital and Social Media Speaker & SUPRSSA series. The topic of discussion was: "Big Data vs. Big Regulation in the Quest for Consumer Loyalty" How digital media can achieve health and marketing outcomes in a highly regulated environment. Audience members were encouraged to #livetweet using the hashtag #NewhouseGLDSM and the Herg was so thrilled to hear that we ended up nationally trending our event on Twitter. Oh, the power of Social Media!

Guest Speaker: R. Andrew Hetzel, 
Vice President of Corporate Communications, Blue 

Cross Blue Shield of Michigan 

Below follow my @Storify recap of the event: 

How #Social Are You?

This is a question that I’ve pondered for the last few months as I begin my job-hunt process to be an aspiring digital professional.

Well… I’ve always considered myself EXTREMELY social. I mean I’m on all the main platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) I use them daily. I have a lot of followers. But does that actually make you social? I had a recent epiphany with social impact during the detrimental Hurricane Sandy late last year.

My brother had made plans to visit me that weekend and I’d be lying if I said I wasn't completely devastated about the possibility that his flight would not departing. At 5 pm Wednesday evening (the day before his planned departure) Jet Blue Airways confirmed the cancellation of his flight. 50% of the flights would not be departing from JFK that day.

Being an obsessive marketing and digital communication fanatic and one of the lucky individuals who had power, I reached out to Jet Blue via Twitter Direct Message for help. Jet Blue's site was down due to the power outage and was communicating their travel information via tweets. Jet Blue strategically came up with a system where one could DM a confirmation code along with a telephone number to call and their crew members would respond as soon as possible. I did just that! 

Jet Blue responded two hours later and switched the flight free of charge. Jet Blue's strategic in the moment planning to take advantage of the digital sphere during crisis mode in order to communicate with customers was one that will definitely not go unnoticed. I will forever be a Jet Blue loyalist and certainly appreciate the helpfulness. I aspire to be as strategic as Jet Blue management responded during Hurricane Sandy.

So what have I learned? You are only as #social as your influence, your content, your following AKA you are only as social as what you can give back to the community and make a difference. Just retweeting someone else’s content does not make you social, it actually makes them social! Get me? So, I ask you to think… how #social are you?

Thank you for JETTING!

    (photos are my own)



Check out some of my favorite #SocialMedia Case Studies Below:


Samsung #WeAllShare (via BrandChannel)

Axe Apollo (via Adverblog)

Hasbro (via CNN)