You don’t need a massive marketing budget to start seeing results on your social media platforms. All you need is a little ingenuity and a lot of patience. With the right approach, you might even start a movement.
In mid-summer 2017, enGen (formerly HM Health Solutions), the B2B tech subsidiary of Highmark Health, was three years old and the company's LinkedIn page had less than 2,000 followers with a below-industry-standards engagement rate of roughly 1%. At the time, resources were scarce – no dedicated copywriter, graphic designer, or photog…let alone social strategy driven by goals or data. Content was manually posted, often with low-quality images, inconsistent or irrelevant hashtags, and uninspiring industry jargon, like “thought leadership.” And there were no clear calls-to-action.
I was challenged to document my strategy. After completing my research and consulting with former colleagues and industry pros, I prepared a grassroots social media marketing strategy and presented to senior leadership.
Why go grassroots? We had no budget. The brand's equity was very low. We had a niche audience that included Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plans, veteran IT pros familiar with our technology, and previous, current, and prospective employees at different stages in their career. And yet our audience – who seem to have little in common – were remarkably willing to interact with us. Organic social relies exclusively on audience, intent, and virality to succeed. The defining idea behind this approach was to encourage engagement with a story – our story – and our LinkedIn presence was critical in making that happen.
Strategy Summary
Focus on brand health and audience growth and engagement; invest in building brand loyalty, social conversations, and communities; share content geared to our audience to create trust without being “salesy.”
Our Actions
Use conversational tone and sense of humor – a risky approach in the tech industry; engage with audience instead of broadcasting by talking to our audience, not at them; provide quality content; embrace content outside of health care tech industry to relate to a broader audience.
Surprising Results
We engaged the audience through storytelling with three unique intentions: attract qualified talent acquisition leads, boost employee engagement, and build relationships with current and prospective customers.
The Hard Work
Embracing the Best Work of Your Career
Fall Internship and Recruiting Campaign featuring vignettes of interns
Hashtag holiday International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Takeaways
The total potential size of a social network is far less relevant than the number of people actually reached. Grassroots, organic strategy allows brands to capitalize on social trends and gives the audience a direct and impactful interaction with the brand.
Most importantly: consistency breeds credibility. And consistency pays off.
Project Credit
Chelsea Koontz | branding, creative direction, digital marketing, social media strategy, design, photography, copywriting
Beth Geisler, Adam Rozmus | copywriting
Sean Slebrich | photography
Nicole St. Clair | industry-specific content strategy