WGL Energy Social Media Thought Leadership
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This document discusses how WGL Energy is using thought leadership and social media to position itself as an industry expert. It defines a thought leader as someone who shares their expertise to educate and improve an industry. The document explains that thought leadership makes good business sense by differentiating the brand and giving customers useful insights. It provides tips for social media thought leadership, such as speaking with one voice, connecting with audiences, and focusing on outcomes over outputs. Metrics are presented showing that WGL Energy's thought leadership efforts on LinkedIn and Twitter are driving results in terms of followers, impressions, and engagement above industry benchmarks.
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WGL Energy Social Media Thought Leadership
- 1. WGLEnergy.com HOW WE’RE USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO POSITION OURSELVES AS A THOUGHT LEADER. WGL ENERGY THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL MEDIA DUANE BAILEY
- 2. WGLEnergy.com 2 WHAT IS A THOUGHT LEADER? Authority and Expertise Content and Education #EnergyAnswers 1 Johnson, J. (2013, November 19). 5 Steps for Becoming an Authentic Thought Leader. Retrieved June 14, 2017, from https://blog.influenceandco.com/5-steps-for-becoming-an- authentic-thought-leader “An industry expert who shares his or her expertise with a broader audience for the purpose of educating, improving and adding value to the industry as a whole.”1
- 3. WGLEnergy.com 3 WHY THOUGHT LEADERSHIP? CREATING THOUGHT LEADERSHIP MAKES GOOD BUSINESS SENSE. ◼ Thought leadership is a way to: ► Improve sales effectiveness ► Differentiate our brand ► Give customers the insights and engagement they are seeking
- 4. WGLEnergy.com 4 HOW WE’RE USING SOCIAL MEDIA SIGNS OF A THOUGHT LEADER.
- 5. WGLEnergy.com 5 WHAT WE’VE LEARNED ADD VALUE THROUGH CONSISTENCY, SOCIAL CONNECTIONS AND A FOCUS ON OUTCOMES. ◼ Speak with one voice across all channels ◼ Connect with your audience ◼ Optimize content for outcomes, not output
- 6. WGLEnergy.com 6 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP IS DRIVING RESULTS LINKEDIN ◼ Followers and Impressions: ◼ Senior-level engagement: ►Industry presence: 2,140 followers TOP 10 JOB TITLES BY CLICKS FOLLOWERS BY INDUSTRY 3.7M impressions
- 7. WGLEnergy.com 7 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP IS DRIVING RESULTS TWITTER 6,802 followers 22.9M impressions ◼ Followers and Impressions ◼ Engagement: ◼ Content: Average click rate 8x higher than industry benchmark of 0.20%
- 8. WGLEnergy.com DUANE BAILEY Marketing Manager WGL Energy @wglenergy | @duanebailey WE ARE
Editor's Notes
- My name is Duane Bailey and I’m the Marketing Manager at WGL Energy. I’d like to thank you for being here today. Over the next few minutes, I’m going to talk about our experience with social media and how we’re using it to position ourselves as a thought leader. #NOVAChat
- What’s a thought leader? In the 90’s, back when I was selling telephones, a thought leader was someone who was viewed within an industry as an authority and expert. Today, with social media and the democratization of content, it goes a step further to mean an authority who actively offers content and education to people seeking to learn more. And, at the intersection of these two spheres of influence is where you’ll find Energy Answers, the brand promise for WGL and its affiliates.
- From our perspective, creating thought leadership makes good business sense. Thought leadership is a way to improve sales effectiveness, differentiate our brand and engage with customers. In 2010, Gartner Group identified thought leadership marketing as a basis of competitive differentiation when buyers perceive little difference among solution providers. And in 2014, senior executives surveyed by Forbes said finding ways to differentiate the customer experience in social, mobile and digital channels was vital to achieving growth goals.
- How do you identify a thought leader? 4 signs of an authentic thought leader: Provide informative and useful content that inspires change or action. The key is to provide value that others aren’t. A whitepaper on how an energy management strategy is helping 3 college campuses meet their sustainability goals Act as a knowledge curator, rather than a self-promoter. Serving up energy conservation tips for large commercial buildings on our website Is acknowledged by third parties, like industry publications, that are viewed as industry leaders. Our own Rich Walsh, who was named a Forbes 30Under30 energy leader Is accessible to the people they are trying to educate about their industry, via events, social media, etc. Talking about Distributed Impact with Potential Energy DC, a DC technology incubator helping entrepreneurs address energy challenges Talking about energy diversification with the Association of Climate Change Officers, at their CCO strategy forum
- What we’ve learned in the 14 months we’ve been at it is this…at the end of the day, it’s about adding value to our industry. We’ve heard earlier it’s about finding your voice, and speaking in one voice across all channels. It’s about connecting with your audience…people don’t wake up wanting to have a relationship with their energy supplier. People want relationships with people. And it’s about outcomes, or changing our audience for the better…not outputs, or how many posts we published over a certain amount of time. In fact, we’ve found increased social activity does not automatically lead to positive business results.
- When we talk about results, it’s important to know there are two types of outcomes: financial and non-financial. Non-financial outcomes precede financial outcomes. Think of them as transactional precursors to ROI. And, because our foray into social media is relatively new (we’ve been at this for 14 months now), our early focus has been on non-financial outcomes like net new followers, impressions (or the number of times your content is displayed), engagements (a measure of follower interactions with your brand) and audience demographics. Part of being a thought leader is knowing your audience and understanding them. On LinkedIn, for example, we looked at follower growth, impressions and audience demographics as evidence of impact: 2,140 followers (doubled in FY16) 3.7M impressions Top job title clicks: President, CEO, Owner Paid vs. Social Q&A: Followers - 98% organic, 2% paid Impressions – 96% paid, 4% organic
- Again, because we’re a relative newcomer on Twitter, we’ve been looking for evidence of impact in non-financial outcomes like net new followers, impressions, engagement measures (1.1% avg), link clicks (14/day) and retweets (3/day). I can tell you we’ve already begun to look at financial outcomes, as well, like sales conversions, net new sales revenue, cost per click and cost per acquisition. Paid vs Organic Q & A: Organic - It’s free and it’s the use of social networks to build a social community and interact with it. Paid – it’s the paying of social networks to target and/or boost the reach of posts, ads, videos or sponsor messaging. Twitter – 70% of followers came from paid efforts; 95-98% of impressions from paid. Reach vs Impressions: Reach - # of people who see your content Impressions - # of times your content is displayed ROI Q&A: 2 things to keep in mind when it comes to ROI: Every resource you assign to a project has monetary value ROI can only be calculated after the investment has yielded a return. It cannot and must not be estimated beforehand. Ever.
- Thank you for your time this afternoon. You’ve been a great audience and I appreciate your being here today.