A global manufacturer of construction equipment was seeking to create a social media presence for one of its key sales divisions in order to build a community amongst their targeted industry customers. They enlisted Bridgz Marketing Group to evaluate and develop a social media strategy that would define how best to use the channel and allow them to successfully engage their targeted customer base specific to North America.

Challenge

While social media has created a sizable amount of buzz, many companies are still struggling to find ways that they can properly leverage and fully utilize its features. The client was focused on building community and wanted to create an online hub that could help build synergy among customers, dealers, and product and marketing divisions, but was unsure where to begin.  

Approach

Our first step was to pull back and get a better understanding of the best way to allocate time and financial investments based on existing insight. Specifically, we wanted to learn which resources customers were already using, what sites they were visiting, what needs they had and what kind of relationship they were looking for from their manufacturer.

Next, we spoke with dealers and key stakeholders, conducted primary customer research, performed a comparative analysis to learn what the client’s competitors were doing in the interactive space, and tracked relevant themes and conversations taking place in social media through the listening platform Radian 6.

Outcome

Based on evaluating the client's objectives and resource opportunities, we learned there was no need to start from scratch in building a community targeting their specified customer segments because these communities already existed. We helped lay out a strategic framework that would allow the client to get involved, participate in the dialogue and maximize marketing efforts within these existing channels.

To start, the client was able to take advantage of existing tools such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. In addition, the provided framework facilitated a roadmap to prioritize efforts across the organization that were actionable, supportable and sustainable. Departments that previously hadn’t unified efforts, such as product development, IT and innovation, came together under a common goal: enhance the customer’s experience at all touch points within the brand.