How Uber Increased Online Exposure by 24% with Social Listening

1. About the client

We spoke with:

Uber

Uber is a prominent and globally recognized transportation network company that has revolutionized the way people move around in cities. By leveraging technology and innovation, Uber has created a user-friendly mobile app that connects riders with drivers, offering a seamless and convenient transportation experience.

With Uber, users have the flexibility to request a ride at any time and from any location, eliminating the need to hail a traditional taxi or rely on public transportation. The app provides real-time information about available drivers nearby, estimated arrival times, and fare estimates, providing transparency and convenience to riders.

With the release of its new app, Uber saw a massive increase in social media buzz. Here's how they used Brand24 to measure the effectiveness of their strategies.

At Uber, we use social listening on a daily basis, which allows us to understand how our users feel about the changes we’re implementing. As soon as we introduce a modification, we know which parts of it are greeted with enthusiasm, and which need more work. We’re happy that the new app was received so well because we’ve put a lot of work into it.

Krzysiek Radoszewski

Marketing Lead, Central & Eastern Europe at Uber

2. Objective

On November 2, 2016, Uber released their new rider app, which was greeted with enthusiasm by users worldwide. The rollout got people talking and the subsequent increase in online conversations mentioning “Uber” was instantly visible in their project dashboard.

Within 2 days of the rollout, the amount of online discussion about Uber increased by 100%, from approximately 8-9k mentions to 16-22k in just the first three weeks following the initial release.

The volume of discussions around Uber didn’t increase during the next week or so, but remained high for an extended period of time.

Engagement also increased significantly in the days following the introduction of the new app, reaching a peak between November 7 and November 11. As you can see on the graph below, the number of likes (marked in pink) increased by 90% in comparison to peaks from the end of October. Similarly, the number of shares (marked in green) rocketed following the app rollout - they increased by 250% in comparison to the end of October.

While many riders expressed their love for the brand new app, Uber was also on the lookout for the not-so-happy ones so they could use their feedback in the future.

Uber keeps an eye on their driver and rider opinions because this allows them to continuously optimize their product.

Thanks to the real-time feedback that Uber collects with social listening, they know which features are frequently requested by their customers. Simultaneously, Uber can also use this feedback to decide which features have been unsuccessful and require further modification.

While working on the new app, we were interested how our users were using the older version, and how they would like to do it in the ideal world. To find out, we used Brand24 social media monitoring - we simply took a look at markets where were present.

Krzysiek Radoszewski

Marketing Lead, Central & Eastern Europe at Uber

Well done. Some good looking #UX updates there pic.twitter.com/l3pyEMcP0E
— Jeremy Wight (@JeremyWight) November 2, 2016

Uber uses data gathered with Brand24 to estimate the effectiveness of their current activities, as well as in making recommendations regarding the future of Uber. These include product development, entering new markets, and new features of the app itself. Once they make a decision to go ahead, Uber uses social media monitoring to discover how their current customer base feels about the change. They also continue to monitor customer satisfaction from using Uber on a regular basis.

@SuperMobility Great changes. All the little changes are fantastic. Nice work.
— Brian Stucki (@brianstucki) November 2, 2016

For Uber, the simple & fully intuitive dashboard is obviously a huge advantage of Brand24, but from their point of view, the people behind the app really make a difference.

We know we can always count on them, even with the most difficult inquiries, not to mention challenging deadlines. Thanks to their input, working with Brand24 is not only a wise business decision, but a source of great satisfaction.

Krzysiek Radoszewski

Marketing Lead, Central & Eastern Europe at Uber

The global rollout of the new rider app started in early November 2016 and will take several weeks, so Uber will only be able to sum up this particular project in terms of sales growth after it’s been completed. Thanks to social listening, they can estimate social ROI, which, as stated previously, equals:

100%

Growth in discussion volume

90%

Growth in number of likes

250%

Increase in number of shares

Radoszewski states that at Uber, they “see the value of social listening every single day”. Let’s take the uberIceCream campaign organized worldwide as an example.

Thanks to social listening, we were able to satisfy the needs of riders & drivers worldwide, and with a 1-day event, we observed a 24% increase in engagement in social media. The action had a direct influence on our business results, with an 11% increase in new users, and a 7% increase in average number of rides per user.

Krzysiek Radoszewski

Marketing Lead, Central & Eastern Europe at Uber

Table of content

1. About the client

2. Objective

3. How Uber uses Social Listening in Product Development

4. Social Listening ROI

More on this

How Does Dealavo Use Brand24 To Know Their Customer’s and Reader’s Feedback?

How Mercedes-Benz Leveraged Brand24 to Monitor and Maximize the Success of Their Campaign and Quadrupled Time Spent on Dedicated Landing Page

900% Higher Conversion Rate: How We Helped TimeCamp Increase Website Traffic

How Brand24 Helped Extradom.pl Handle 170,000 Mentions