by Fronetics | Aug 18, 2015 | Blog, Leadership, Marketing, Social Media
In one of the most infamous social media gaffes, the insurance giant Aflac fired its widely-recognized spokesman Gilbert Godfrey after he tweeted insensitive comments about the Japanese tsunami in 2011. The rapid growth of social media has created a gray area for employers and employees alike in the space where personal and professional meet, to be certain. But, social media has also presented some of the greatest opportunities for marketing growth since the introduction of the internet. Even so, companies have been slow to relinquish control and absolute authority of their brands on social media. Those that have embraced employees as brand ambassadors, though, have seen mighty returns on their efforts.
A few years ago when Sodexo set out to transform the way it uses social media, no one could have foreseen how successful the initiative would eventually become. Through a series of intentional moves, the company empowered its employees to use social media to extend its brand. In short, Sodexo shifted its social media efforts from strictly marketing to the education and empowerment of employees. Its expanded marketing efforts engaged and mobilized its entire workforce as brand ambassadors. As an example, to find and attract top talent using existing employee connections, Sodexo crafted a targeted social strategy. The company identified employees who were frequent social media users with many connections and tasked them with social job sharing – in other words, employees were asked to use their personal social media accounts to advertise job openings to their collective social connections. In just three years, Sodexo grew their average job opening pageviews per month by over 1,100%.
So how can your company foster a similar online community of connected and engaged employees? To begin, listen and observe. Monitoring the activity of both your company’s social profiles and that of your employees will help you to understand how employees are currently using social media to interact with your brand. From there, you’ll be able to identify employees that are heavy users of social media and which employees are online community influencers. Note what topics and social networks drive the most engagement. Use this initial research to set benchmarks and goals for progress. After you’ve completed the review of your company’s social landscape, you’ll have a clear picture of where the greatest areas of opportunity lie and who to tap for help.
Successfully reframing your employees as brand ambassadors through an intentional social strategy requires creating a culture that empowers and incentivizes employee participation. It’s important to clearly articulate your company’s overall social strategy, but much more important to link its goals and objectives to employee job functions. Employees are much more likely to participate if what you’re asking them to do is seen as complementary, not supplementary to their workload. To encourage informed participation, provide training for your social media brand ambassadors. For example, you could invite a local college professor to present at an internal workshop outlining how to write content specifically for social media. Or, mine existing internal resources by tapping your communications department to lead an introductory corporate digital communications webinar for social brand ambassadors. Creating an informative and sustaining dialogue with your employees will be key in determining whether or not your efforts will be successful.
Once you’ve empowered your employees with the appropriate resources and knowledge, motivate them to participate online. Ask brand ambassadors to follow your company pages, promote company events or initiatives, and share company-posted content. Assign them as group moderators of online communities. Request their contribution as subject matter experts for blog posts. Whatever it is you decide to ask of them, it’s critically important that you regularly engage them. Companies that consistently treat employees as partners in social media by marrying the personal and professional growth of employees stand to gain significant benefits.
Back at Sodexo, a quick glance at the company’s social media profiles reveals a thriving online community driven by employee participation. The Sodexo Facebook page shows a wealth of employee comments and posts, links to employee blogs, and corporate posts highlighting employees. The company’s Twitter account is populated by dedicated hashtags for employees and tweets about employee participation in one of the company’s social initiatives. It’s clear Sodexo’s employees are enjoying the perks that come along with engaging online with their employer. Meanwhile, Sodexo itself is expanding brand awareness, enjoying improved internal communication, increasing sales, and attracting top talent – simply by empowering its own employees to become ambassadors of the brand.
by Fronetics | Aug 6, 2015 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain, Transportation & Trucking
Transportation and logistics is a field that is booming. The business is a money-maker and a cornerstone of day-to-day functioning. It’s one that has been present for centuries. We are well past the Age of Discovery, but transportation and logistics companies carry on the torch of moving products that people need and desire around the world. One might wonder if the sultriness of the Silk Road and the Spice Trade has lost its allure and sexiness, but that needn’t be the case. Social media has brought about a fantastic opportunity for transportation and logistics companies to share their successes, display their offerings, create community, and convert leads.
Where to Start
First, think about it. Many transportation and logistics companies think about social media and how to use it, but cite a lack of time as a reason they haven’t explored the various platforms. Thinking about how social media can work for your logistics or transportation company is the first stop towards progress.
Second, learn about it. Understanding individual usage of social media versus B2B usage of social media is important. Do your consumers use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter? Where are your competitors finding success, and what platforms are they missing? Once you figure these things out the impulse will be to get started. Post away! Tweet away! Blog away! However, creating a Facebook page or a Twitter account will not draw in your community of employees or existing clients, and will not attract potential customers or clients. Having an account is great thing, but it’s not the most important thing. Knowing how to express your brand, what content to curate and create, and how frequently to share content is critical to social media success.
Learning is a process and takes time. Set up also takes time. Hiring an outside agency to do this work can both save you time, and will ultimately reap ROI. Marketing strategy companies have been doing this work already, and understand how to highlight your company. They know the market, and once they get to know you a bit better, you can work together to figure out how to express your brand through the platform of social media.
What to Highlight
Once you figure out who to focus on and how to reach that community, creating and curating your unique content is key. What is most informative and helpful to your clients? What will feel meaningful to them? What will catch and hold their attention? How do you want people to perceive you, your employees, and your products/services? Some studies have shown that conversion rates from social media can be 100% more effective than from outbound marketing, so getting this right could greatly benefit your company.
The joy of social media is its speed and its ability to humanize a company. A company’s Twitter feed is not like its white papers. Social media is known for personalizing things, so let people know the more human side of your business. Who are the drivers? Who are the employees? What are the success stories? Celebrate your community, partners, and clients. This is a place to engage with other businesses – to educate them and learn from them.
One perfect example of a logistics company that thrives in this arena is UPS. The logistics company has found success with unique, fun, interesting, frequent posts, tweets, and blogs. They also highlight their “heroes” by telling stories, often through video, of their heroic drivers who have been known to save lives. They show the human side of delivery. They connect. And when it comes to social media, it’s all about connection.
Two other examples of companies that excel in this area are Sourcemap and Transfix. Both companies have leveraged social media as a platform for growth. Sourcemap’s founder and CEO Leonardo Bonanni credits social media for the success for his business: “Sourcemap wouldn’t be here without social media.” For Transfix, social media and digital technologies enables the company to make the trucking industry more efficient and user-friendly.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
When it comes to marketing we work with our clients to create and execute strategies that drive success and elevate their brand position within the industry. Unlike other firms, we align marketing programs with business objectives and, through a data driven approach, are able to deliver results with a targeted ROI. Our team is comprised of strategists, marketing professionals, writers, designers, and experts in social media. Together we leverage our experience to increase brand awareness, position our clients as thought leaders, drive meaningful engagement with prospects and customers, and help businesses grow.
by Fronetics | Jul 30, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
For decades, companies have relied on the recommendations of friends and family to acquire new customers and grow sales. Social media is now transforming how these recommendations are shared and given companies a way to directly interact with customers. With more than 1.9 billion monthly active users, Facebook is helping businesses amplify their marketing efforts in the places where their leads and prospects are spending their time. In fact, according to an annual report generated by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, 84% of companies are using Facebook to distribute their content and promote their brand.
Today, Fronetics is announcing the addition of Facebook to its social media catalog. Click over and like Fronetics Strategic Advisors for up-to-date information on business strategy, marketing and sales, industry notes, blog content, and company announcements. Find Fronetics Strategic Advisors updates on Twitter, too. Follow @Fronetics. And find us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/fronetics.
To celebrate the launch of our Facebook account, enjoy our top tips for using Facebook to market your business:
- Use the 80-20 rule. 80% of your posts should generate engagement – only 20% of your posts should be sales-focused
- Be sure to add a profile picture
- Use the “About” section to provide relevant company information
- Use photos and videos in posts – they’re likely to get the most views
- Don’t limit posts to only your business – share posts from partner businesses
- Experiment with different posting times to find what’s ideal for your target audience
- Respond to comments posted to your page
- Buy Facebook ads to capture attention
- Use a Call-To-Action button in the landing tab of your page
- Insert a Share Button on posts to encourage sharing of your content
Using Facebook is a great way to get found by visitors searching for your products or services. If you create a community that connects and engages with followers in meaningful ways, you’ll turn followers into leads and leads into customers.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
by Fronetics | Jul 20, 2015 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Sourcemap: doing well by doing good.
Leonardo Bonanni’s company, Sourcemap, is doing well by doing good, and he’s helping companies to do the same. In working on his doctoral thesis at MIT, Leonardo Bonanni created a service that is good for the world on many levels – it saves companies money and it works towards sustainability through transparency. Bonanni is bringing the people what they want. Consider these numbers from recent surveys:
- more than 88% of consumers think companies should try to achieve their business goals while improving society and the environment
- 83% of employees would seriously consider leaving their job if their employer used child labor in sweatshop factories
- 65% would seriously consider leaving their job if their company harmed the environment
Bonanni’s innovative company, Sourcemap, helps clients visually map the supply chain route, from raw materials to end-users, providing unique and important visibility. Companies like Stoneyfield, Mars Chocolate, Fairphone, and Office Depot can see risks and disruptions in the supply chain in real time, act responsibly, promote sustainability, and please consumers who are increasingly curious and conscientious about materials sourcing.
The likes of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and The Guardian have taken interest in Dr. Bonanni and Sourcemap. Here he shares some insights with Fronetics on the growth of the company and how he won’t rest until mapping the supply chain is status quo.
What’s the most exciting thing going on at Sourcemap right now?
2015 is the year of supply chain mapping. When we started helping companies trace their products to the source, it was 2007 and the question was ‘why would we want to do that?’ Today it’s ‘how fast can we start?’ Whether it’s risk, sustainability, or simply finding more efficient ways to source products, companies need a big picture of the end-to-end supply chain. What’s exciting is how fast and far we help our clients get there – sometimes in as little as one day.
Tell me about how the maps are built. Are the maps on the free source platform built the same way as the maps on the enterprise platform?
Sourcemap started as a service for consumers to find out where products come from (free.sourcemap.com is still the only website where anyone can make a supply chain map, no training required). Users log in and map a supply chain – from raw material to end customer – as easily as drawing dots and lines on a Google map. Soon after the free website launched manufacturers approached us to see if we could help them figure out where their products come from. We had a lot of experience from serving millions of visitors through our free website, so we knew how to make a robust and intuitive interface for supply chain mapping. We adapted the technology to enterprise needs by adding company specific KPI’s, network analytics, and real-time reporting. The difference is that our enterprise users don’t draw the supply chains one link at a time. Their maps are automatically generated in near-real time from transportation, purchasing, and product lifecycle management databases.
Is it hard to convince businesses that there is an economic or competitive advantage to a utilizing a platform like Sourcemap?
It’s true that Sourcemap was originally built for sustainability, and it can be hard for companies to dedicate resources to long-term issues when short-term priorities come up every day. But our first success wasn’t helping companies be more sustainable in the long term. It was helping them tackle short-term crises, by developing a supply chain repository for emergency response and business continuity planning. Our clients were spending days and weeks to determine how a natural or human-made disaster was impacting any of thousands of suppliers worldwide. We brought that time down to minutes. Then supply chain managers started to see the benefit of knowing not just who they buy from, but who their suppliers buy from – and making decisions to consolidate or diversify supply, move inventories around, and decide when to in-source / out-source processes. These decisions represent huge savings in overall supply chain cost.
This is fantastic tool for companies who are proud of their supply chains, but what about those companies who aren’t, or who aren’t even fully aware of the steps and impact of their chain?
Over the years we’ve worked with companies big and small, with widely differing visibility into their supply chains. What we’ve seen is that the biggest benefit – the low-hanging fruits – are there for first-time supply chain mappers. These are companies that have expanded through acquisitions, are entering new markets or introducing new products – basically any organization that needs to account for a whole new way of doing business. Then, supply chain mapping is the easiest way to keep tabs on everyone in the supply chain and make sure that decisions are taken with an eye on the big picture.
In the years you’ve been doing this work have you seen a shift in consumer demand around the sourcing of materials and making of products? Is there increasing social pressure for companies to “do good”?
We’ve seen two drivers for supply chain sustainability and transparency: companies who want to attract the best talent, and brands looking to differentiate their product by providing information on its price, its composition, or its source.
Given that you teach at Columbia, I’m wondering if you see a difference in the passion, awareness, and attitude around sustainability with younger generations? Have you seen growth in the enrollment numbers in your classes?
I like to teach one or two evening classes a year (this Fall at NYU) to see how supply chain thinking is evolving as it becomes more mainstream. My class hasn’t changed much since it started in 2007, but the students have. Sustainability used to be a futuristic concern, and no one outside logistics departments ever talked about supply chains. Today there is a real desire among students to be social entrepreneurs, and part of that means thinking about products and services holistically – making sure that the social and environmental impacts are drivers of innovation, not just a nice-to-have. Enrollment has grown, and so has the number of departments where supply chains play a role: from engineering, architecture and design to business, public policy and international affairs.
Has social media played a role in the growth of the business and/or the operations of the business?
Sourcemap wouldn’t be here without social media. The fact that our supply chain maps can be embedded in other websites attracted over a million visitors in the first year. We saw brands embedding maps of their supply chains on their own websites, and we got a tremendous amount of traffic from being embedded and linked from the Huffington Post, Wired and Fast Company.
What are your ultimate goals for Sourcemap?
Supply chain mapping – knowing where products originate – gets easier the more companies do it. It requires information sharing, which means tighter collaboration between buyers and sellers. We’ve seen it become a requirement of purchasing departments: if you want to sell your products, disclose the raw material origins. That makes it easier to trust – and verify – the quality, the compliance, the sustainability of the product. Personally, I won’t rest until supply chain mapping becomes part of doing business as usual.
Dr. Leonardo Bonanni is Founder and CEO of Sourcemap, the supply chain mapping company. The New York-based startup offers enterprise software for companies to trace products, evaluate social, environmental and financial risks, and monitor improvements over time. One day soon you’ll be able to scan a product on a store shelf and be connected to the people who made it through the Sourcemap social network.
Leo is a supply chain transparency advocate named among the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics (2011) and America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs (2012). He teaches sustainability at Columbia and at MIT, where he received his doctorate from the MIT Media Lab. He has a background as an architect, an inventor and a performer.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
by Fronetics | Jul 9, 2015 | Blog, Data/Analytics, Marketing, Social Media
In what seemed like a curious social experiment, KLM Royal Dutch Airline harnessed the popularity of social media and launched their “Meet and Seat” program in 2012. The service gives passengers the option to link their social media profiles to their boarding information during the ticket purchase process. Once a traveler’s profile is linked, they gain access to other social profiles of travelers that have also opted in to the service. Underling the concept is the notion that travelers will choose seatmates based on the profiles of users with similar business or leisure interests. While KLM reports that over 50,000 flyers have utilized the service since its inception – enough for KLM to deem the program successful – what’s discernable from KLM’s efforts is that social media has become a major player in today’s business world.
With a reported 8 out of 10 businesses using social media in the communication between their brand and their audiences, companies are spending more marketing dollars on social efforts with increasing regularity. But with its fairly recent introduction to the business world, many companies are struggling to determine whether their efforts, and their investments, are paying off. Fortunately, by focusing on a few key metrics, your company can start to understand which of your social efforts are adding value and, just as important, which ones are not.
Here are the 4 social metrics that matter:
Source Reports
The most common remark about measurement you’ll hear social media marketing experts say is that social media efforts shouldn’t be solely measured in likes and follows. It’s hard to connect the number of likes and follows to financial business metrics, so thinking about the success of your channels in different terms gives a more insightful report about how your social channels are performing. HubSpot recommends tracking the network source of your web traffic, leads, and customers to determine how your social platforms are performing.
Track: # of visits, leads, and customers for each of your social channels
Engagement and Amplification
“No man is an island,” wrote John Donne in his poem. His summation about the nature of humans is quite evident in social media. Indeed, one of the greatest benefits of social media is that it is by its very nature, social. For companies, social media exponentially expands the reach of its content by playing on the communal nature of these networks. If a company has 2,000 followers on Twitter, and each of them shared that company’s content with 200 of their followers, the amplification of its content has expanded to 200,000 users. Your business can leverage these immense networks by maintaining consistency in the quality and value of your content as this strategy will naturally inspire followers to share and repost your content. Track the types of content that drives the most amplification and identify trends in popular publishing times, then refine your efforts based on your analysis. Remember, as a business using social media, your end goal is action, not eyes. In other words, what’s important to your efforts is engagement. Pay close attention to how your followers are interacting with your content.
Track: # of Facebook Post Shares, # of Retweets, # of Twitter Mentions
Lead Generation
Put simply, lead generation activity lets you know whether your social content is generating leads and creating opportunities for your business. At the end of the day, your social efforts don’t matter if they aren’t playing a part in driving new business. Of particular value to your business is your conversion rate. Knowing how often content consumption results in a new lead will help you to build a more successful overall content strategy. Is your new infographic converting visitors to leads at a higher rate than your verbose Facebook posts? That might be a sign that your audience responds better to image-heavy content.
Track: # of form submissions, # of email subscribers, conversion rate
Return on Investment
If one of your company’s objectives for its social media participation is to drive growth, your company’s ROI calculation is one of the most important measurements of your social efforts. This measurement determines what impact your social content is having on customer acquisition and sales. Just as you would for all other marketing efforts, you need to know whether or not the investment you’re making in social media is producing a positive return for your business. To find your investment, start by calculating the total of your investment, your overhead factor, and your miscellaneous costs. To calculate your return, you’ll need to know your leads per month, your lead conversion rate, your average lifetime customer value, and average profit margin. Let’s take a look at how those factor into your ROI calculation in the example below.
To Calculate Investment
- Multiply the hours per month needed to create the content by the hourly rate of the employees used to create the content.
- Multiply the result by the overhead factor, taking into account rent, insurance, utilities, etc. (typically 50%)
- Add all other costs, such as design fees, hosting fees, subscriptions, software, etc. You may choose to allocate them to a specific piece of content or amortize them monthly and spread the costs evenly across each piece of content.
Calculation: At 40 hours/month at $40/hour to produce a corporate blog, multiplied by a 50% overhead factor. Add in $1k/month for design, $100/month for hosting, and $100/month for miscellaneous fees.
Total Investment in Monthly Blog = $3,600
To Calculate Return
Multiply your leads per month by your lead conversion rate, average lifetime customer value, and average profit margin.
Calculation: You collect 25 leads a month from your blog. At a 20% lead conversion rate, you’ll generate five new customers. Assume a $3,000 average lifetime customer value and a 30% average profit margin.
Total Monthly Blogging Return = $4,500
To Calculate Return on Investment
Subtract the investment from the return. Then, divide by the investment.
Calculation:
$4,500 – $3,600 = 900
900/3,600 = .25
ROI = 25%
Nearly 70% of communications professionals report dissatisfaction in how they’re measuring their social efforts. That’s understandable, social can be cumbersome to analyze. But looking at activity through the lens of your business objectives should really get to the heart of why your company participates in social media. In your work to distinguish your company from the thousands of others in the sea of social, seek to create rich and robust social experiences for your followers by connecting them with relevant and valuable content. Then measure that user activity and engagement to see how it is helping grow your business.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
