ABC SOCIAL MEDIA ASSESSMENT

Executive Summary

Social Media has become widely accepted across industries as a valuable means of

engaging customers and prospects by displaying brand identity and demonstrating

market intelligence and thought leadership.

ABC has an opportunity to amplify its brand presence and message via LinkedIn,

Facebook and Twitter, placing itself along side key industry competitors who are

already active in the space.

Given ABC’s go-to-market model, LinkedIn is the most important platform and should

anchor the company’s social presence. Other social platforms should be activated and

supported for cross-promotion and content amplification purposes.

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Social Media 101 - Platform Roles 3  

What it is Why it Matters

LinkedIn LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking service. Users include business professionals, majority ages 35-54 (40%), trying to find jobs/clients, keeping tabs on their business acquaintances/networks or becoming visibly active in professional communities.

A go-to resource for business people looking to assess a brand’s credibility, LinkedIn is an excellent platform for showcasing core attributes and offerings, and establishing thought leadership.

Facebook Facebook is an online social networking service that brands use to convey personality through posts, comments, photos, videos and more. Facebook users are 53% female and 47% male.

Business customers are also consumers. When a brand’s core target intersects with the Facebook community, the platform becomes a powerful means of brand amplification and traffic-driving.

Twitter Twitter enables users to send and read short 140 character messages called tweets. Brands use twitter to correspond with customers, engage in relevant conversations.

Twitter increases a brand’s discoverability and provides an excellent mechanism for driving traffic to core platforms and sites.

Platform

YouTube YouTube is a video-sharing website. Online video is growing. In 2013, 85% of US internet users viewed online video. YouTube is increasingly becoming a purchase decision resource for consumers of all ages.

Brands use YouTube to establish brand personality and articulate their core value proposition to today’s time-constrained consumer via rich media. A YouTube presence can also improve SEO.

Social Media Platforms At-a-Glance

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Social Snapshots and Analyses 5  

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Approach

Who: At the beginning of June, the social media activity of ABC and a few key competitors was analyzed.

What: Social media was scored on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the

best. How: Scores were based on the following categories:

•  Content integration- messaging across and outside of social platforms •  Social branding- the establishment of a recognizable, ownable social

voice for the brand •  Sustained focus- consistent, industry-standard frequency of posts and

response to community

ABC Social Snapshot

While ABC has a LinkedIn page

with a substantial number of

followers, their overall presence

pales in comparison to key

competitors. ABC is missing an

opportunity to establish its place

among industry leaders by

highlighting and amplifying its

experience, capabilities and unique

value proposition.

2,036 followers

65 Likes

SCORE: 3

ABC LinkedIn

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It is apparent that the current ABC Facebook page

is not under the control of ABC corporate.

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ABC Social Snapshot

Opportunity exists to strengthen the individual

LinkedIn profiles of the ABC Account

Executives by tying them back to a strong

corporate presence.

Quest Social Snapshot

Quest’s social presence is inclusive, containing

pertinent industry news and advancements

within the company, while tastefully portraying

the Quest culture. Quest’s social community is

the largest and most engaged in the industry.

SCORE: 8

67,099 followers

11,993 likes

77 videos

4,253 followers

Quest Facebook

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Quest does a superior job of posting with consistent, industry-leading frequency across platforms:

•  LinkedIn at least once every other day •  Facebook at least 2-3 times a day •  Tweet 3-5 times a day

Quest also does a good job of incorporating brand imagery throughout their platforms, paying off their Social Brand.

Quest Twitter

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Quest Social Snapshot

LabCorp Social Snapshot

LabCorp Clinical Trials LinkedIn

Although there are three active

platforms and four pages, LabCorp’s

overall social presence is disconnected.

Their most engaged page is their

Clinical Trials LinkedIn (pictured to right)

where LabCorp portrays its brand

identity fairly strongly.

SCORE: 5

20,192 followers

194 likes

1,202 followers

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LabCorp LinkedIn LabCorp LinkedIn

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LabCorp Social Snapshot

Alere Social Snapshot

SCORE: 9

19,763 followers

752 likes

50 videos

608 followers

Alere’s social presence is thorough, comprised

of B2B and B2C platforms with consistent

content across these platforms. Engagement is

high and regular due to frequent content

consisting of industry news and company

advancements. Alere reinforces its brand identity

and provides insight on company culture.

Alere Facebook 13  

Alere LinkedIn

Alere LinkedIn:

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Alere Social Snapshot

Alere LinkedIn

Alere YouTube

✔  2,036  followers  

✔  67,099  followers    

✔  20,192  followers    

✔  19,763  followers    

* ✔  11,993  likes  

✔  194  likes    

✔  752  likes

✔  77  videos

✔  50  videos

✔  4,253  followers  

✔  819  followers  

Content    Integra+on

N/A 9 3 9

Social  Branding

3 8 5 9

Sustained    Focus

2 9 4 8

Overall: 3 8 5 9

Summary Scorecard

*current page is not official Business page or claimed by ABC/anyone associated with ABC 15  

Establish Competitive Social Presence- 3 Strategies 16  

Strategy 1: Create an Ownable Social Brand

How? Be Distinguishable

Extend the ABC Brand and messages across LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Use imagery and a consistent language palette to convey ABC’s unique brand personality.

ü  Family owned, personal touch at top of pages, in bio,

etc.

ü  “Purple Glove treatment”

ü  “Trusted partner”

ü  Showcase brand aesthetic, lifestyle imagery across

platforms and adopt consistent on-brand tonality

ü  Mission: not to be the most recognized lab, but the best

ü  Promote slogans

ü  Company logo across all platforms as profile picture

ü  Distinguishable cover photos

ü  Focus on brand attributes: accuracy, speed,

personalized service, innovation

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Strategy 2: Coordinate Content Across Platforms

How? Planning

Develop, implement and follow a Social Media Playbook and Editorial Calendar to ensure coordination of content and messaging across social media platforms that align with key ABC events and other media.

•  Keep content uniform across platforms

•  ABC social content should fall into

predetermined categories such as:

•  Industry news (keep brand

relevant)

•  ABC news, events and

developments

•  ABC culture (stories, testimonies,

employees)

•  Link to ABC website and LinkedIn page

Alere Facebook

Alere LinkedIn

Alere Twitter

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Strategy 3: Create Engagement Show ABC is not only comparable to the “big dogs” in the industry, but superior in differentiated ways. ABC must start by meeting key competitors where they are in terms of social media.

How? Sustain Focus & Activity ü  Establish and adhere to frequency targets:

ü  LinkedIn: 3-5 posts per week (Mon.-Fri.)

ü  Facebook: 3-5 posts per week

ü  Twitter: 2-4 tweets/day

ü  Update industry tagging across platforms to match competitors:

ü  Curated content

ü  Generate content put out by others, not everything has to

be original

ü  Use hashtags trending on Twitter and Facebook to join

conversations

ü  Take ownership of Facebook

ü  Expand LinkedIn content to other platforms

ü  Community management SLAs

19  Quest LinkedIn

Proposal & Next Steps 20  

What Next?

ü  Engage GO2 to develop and manage ABC corporate social media presence on an on-

going basis.

ü  We will:

ü  Take ownership of handles across key platforms and establish KPIs

ü  Develop and document core processes and guidelines including the ABC Social

Media Playbook and LinkedIn Cheat Sheet

ü  Be responsible for sourcing and developing social content and creative,

scheduling and posting and conversation monitoring via a robust Social Media

platform

ü  Provide monthly analytics reporting across platforms

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What If?

2015 Datia programming was ideal for

social amplification.

If ABC social platforms had been in place,

our purple carpet buzz could have been

extended beyond the event venue to non-

attending clients and prospects as well as

ABC employees.

Execution of a simple hashtag would easily

have driven tens of thousands of earned

media impressions across Twitter,

Facebook and others, cultivating

discoverability and brand awareness—at

no additional program fee.

#ABCPurpleCarpet