Social Media snapshot for:

Introduction

T-Mobile Sidekick Social Media Snapshot Assessing the social media landscape

With a focus on data loss event Customer sentiment Longevity Recovery

Overview: Posts by Daily Volume

Date range: 10/1/09-10/13/09

Total Results: 15,172

*Spike Dates: 10/3-10/4, 10/11-10/13

*Most mentions on Twitter

*Most mentions in CA

*Impactful sites:

forums.t-mobile.com poweredbydanger.com/forums mashable.com gizmodo.com engadget.com 10/3: Conversations about the outage grew rapidly.

10/12: Official $100 credit is announced.

Overview: Demographics

Top 5 States:

CA – 607TX – 248NY – 186WA – 117FL - 114

22% - Male 6% - Female

Keyword Cloud:

*The following keywords have the highest number of mentions with “sidekick” on social media (10/1/09-10/13/09):

Share of Voice: Overview

The daily volume of tweets consistently correlates with the total number of mentions

81% of conversations occurred on Twitter

Sentiment: Twitter

Engagement Opportunity:

@perezhiltonName: Perez HiltonLocation: Hollywood, CACelebrity gossip writerFollowers: 1,556,625

Tweeted many negative comments about the data loss which were then replied to or RT many times.Bloggers also mentioned his tweetabout not being able to do his job.

@OfficialTMobile being contacted without any online response.

@TmobileOfficial (UK) also getting tweets about the outage.

Very influential reporter, blogger and Twitter user. – Must engage directly.

Daily Volume: One Month Credit/$100

10/13 –$100 offer announced

Neg: “T-mo offering $100 for lost Sidekick contacts in cloud snafu. Hardly pays for the cost of acquiring good contacts at conferences etc.”

Pos: “Hooray to the additional free $100 dollar giftcards to all tmobile sidekick users!! I can pay my phone bill with it too!!! =)”

10/3 – Many tweets directing people to get a $34.99 credit by calling and complaining to T-Mobile --Active forum thread (w/ 434 replies) at Niketalk.yuku.com* that also mentions people to call and complain until T-Mobile gives $35 credit.

*Need to manually research threads.

Sentiment: Forums

Poweredbydanger.com/forums:

22 threads about outage, including one that had 1,275 replies.

$100 offer was actively discussed in athread with 157 replies.

POS: “I'm very thankful for the way T-Mobile is handling the situation. In reality, it should be MS giving us money or something due to it was them that lost our data; not t-mobile.”

NEG: “this is wild, wow a 100 dollar card .... r u serious so ur telling me that a person that lost 645 contacts that's worth thousands of dollars is only worth 100? U can't even get me to work a day for 100 dollars more less offer me that amount for ur sorrow pfff .They can either come correct or pay by losing thousands of customers!!!!!!”

***Many Neutral posts consisted of confusion over who gets the $100 credit.***

Significant opportunity to engage partner Microsoft directly

Sentiment: Forums

Forums.t-mobile.com:

30 threads about outage, including one that had 4,421 replies.

$100 offer was actively discussed in athread with 1,859 replies.

*Based on most popular thread discussing $100 offer (first 100)

NEG: “C'mon TMOBILE, What kind of BS are you trying to pull. It's been 11 days and services have not been fully restored and all you can do is put out an update which further angers your already angry customers…. Now I will have to wait 14 days to see if I qualify for this $100 dollar slap in the face.”

NEG: “$100 is NOT enough. I paid $327.00 for my sidekick, and I want a $327.00 phone that I can trust. They should give us new phones.”

QUESTION: “T-Mobile It would be great if we could learn what "significant" data loss is..... To us everything is significant, we just need clarification on what that means to T-mobile as a whole.”

Share of Voice: Blogs

Mashable.com: Site ranks 589 that reaches over 4.0 million monthly people, of which 2.2 million (54%) are in the U.S.

5 blogs about the outage.

Some people felt the blame should go to T-Mobilefor trusting information totally on Microsoft. *However, most people felt that this was a Microsoft problem.

*Based on most commented blog post about outage

Gizmodo.com: An online review dedicated to gadgets, gizmos and cutting-edge consumer electronics. Site ranks 204 that reaches 4.9 million people monthly in the U.S.

11 blogs about the outage.

The Cause of the Great Sidekick Fiasco? “All Signs Point to Sabotage”(14 Oct): 20,101 views, 82 commentsThe Great Sidekick Data Outage of 2009: T-Mobile Offers $100 in Apology Money(12 Oct): 8,253views, 43 commentsT-Mobile Lets Furious Sidekick Users Ditch Their Contracts for Free (12 Oct): 21,042 views, 57 commentsT-Mobile Sidekick Out(r)age: Your Data's Probably Gone Forever (10 Oct): 47,108 views, 154 comments

Opportunity to bring the partner in early as 77% of people blame them for the outage.

Share of Voice: Blogs

Engadget.com: Technology gadget tips and reviews Sites linking in: 32,484

10 blogs about the outage.

T-Mobile offers Sidekick users olive branch, $100 (update: not for everyone): 99 comments

T-Mobile 'considering additional measures' to compensate Sidekick owners: 128 comments

Sidekick failure rumors point fingers at outsourcing, lack of backups: 130 comments

T-Mobile: we probably lost all your Sidekick data: 254 comments

People tended to blame Microsoft/Danger more than T-Mobile *The most popular solution suggested by users was for T-

Mobile or Microsoft to pay for new phones like the

G1/Android/Blackberry

Example posts:

“It's sad that T-Mobile is going to be the one to lose business over this, when Microsoft is the one who royally screwed up” “$100 to make up for my lost contacts? I'd take that in a heartbeat. Hell I'd sell my contacts for $100.” “Seriously $100 is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY fair. Unfortunately, most folks will either just say thanks

because they already put all fifty of their contacts back on to their phone or were halfway smart and backed up their data.”

Key Takeaways:

• Because outage was long, we saw volume (and sentiment) ebb and flow..• T-mobile website did not address the outage.• Improved crisis communication:

• Message from exec• Video a la JetBlue• Engagement on Twitter, forums and blogs

• YouTube was relatively tame.

Next Steps:

Should review events for week of 10/18 when outage was resolved and instructions provided on site.

Documented learnings/ value of engagement.

Should evaluate the sentiment post outage re: Company perception of response Microsoft perception of response Implementation of $100 credit