The addressing of target groups via social media platforms has long been part of everyday business for consumer-oriented companies. Companies in business-to-business are more hesitant. Especially when the marketing budget is tight and customer communication has worked primarily through direct contact. Professionally operated social media channels offer real added value in a business context. Ideally, they complement existing communication, provide a modern and up-to-date insight into the company and strengthen the bond between target groups and channel operators. In mid-2018, at our suggestion, Sonoco Consumer Products Europe added LinkedIn as a communication channel. The aim: A targeted communication via LinkedIn.
That’s a logical choice. Because LinkedIn offers companies the opportunity to create attractive company profiles and news feeds. According to current information, the platform has over 500 million members from 200 countries and a wide variety of industries. Sonoco started an ambitious social media project with us. The aim: feeding the trade audience with news about products, Sonoco CPE as an employer and as a technology leader.
Managing the creation and coordination of content
Together with two Commha colleagues, experts from Sales, Research and Development, HR and IT form a powerful editorial team that manages the creation and coordination of content. As experts for the packaging industry and trends, we deliver impulses, create texts and graphics. In addition, we advise which content should be played out to a larger target group through targeted sponsoring. A useful tool here is our analysis dashboard. It is used once a month to evaluate the data supplied by LinkedIn. It documents exactly how successful the channel is with which target group.
Participating Sonoco employees
An important success factor is the participation of Sonoco employees, often referred to as Employee Advocacy. They link, share and comment on the company’s content. Thus ensuring reach well beyond the number of followers on the site – and are also available for communication with their face and history. To promote this commitment, we organized two online webinars for employees at locations across Europe. They offered tips on how to use LinkedIn themselves and specifically called for cooperation. In addition, the editorial team publishes graphically prepared LinkedIn tips every two weeks in the internally used Microsoft Yammer channels.
Contacts
