In 2022, Hitachi Vantara doubled its efforts on LinkedIn to drive more followers and engagement. We knew we had stories and news to share that our customers, our prospects, partners and even critics would like to know --- and possibly share.
To do it, we deliberately began featuring more culture-related posts and posts that highlighted employee and executive stories on a consistent basis. We also deliberately began uplifting specific senior leaders, especially our CEO to share his “voice of the company.” Meanwhile, we proactively and consistently began engaging with followers by liking posts, replying to comments, and sharing their posts.
All of this activity began bearing fruit very quickly. However, we knew it would take commitment to the plan, and the Social team executed flawlessly, driven to drive engagement and build a reputation. By the end of the year, we had grown followers 15% to 518,000 followers.
Once the strategy was set and committed to, the only real challenges we faced were cultural. There was a slight learning curve initially that required frequent reminding executives of the value of sharing our stories in eloquent and interesting ways on LinkedIn. We also were cognizant of the true value of viewing LinkedIn as a launch pad to other Hitachi Vantara assets. To wit, we leveraged the platform strategically throughout the year to align with the content being presented on a variety of Hitachi Vantara destinations, including our Insights thought leadership page or our corporate Newsroom where the latest news was being featured. It didn’t take long for those reluctant executives to see the value. Once impressions started climbing, and comments of approval and thanks started racking up, virtually every executive and subject matter expert became a believer. By the end of the year, we were thrilled to see certain executives “shooting” on-the-spot short videos with their iPhones from conferences or meetings and posting them on their own LinkedIn channels. These execs, now socially aware, alert the Social team about their posts, and the Social team in turn amplifies the posts from the corporate handle, creating a robust circular engagement.
Our objectives for this effort were (and continue to be) practical and intangible. We set out to increase followers and engagement, which we could track while improving brand reputation and consideration. By growing followers 15% to 518,000 followers (it’s at 525,000 as of Feb. 9), and dramatically improving the amount of engagement per post (our average engagement rate on LinkedIn in 2022 was 6%), with zero negative comments on the site for the entire year, we feel as though the reputation of the company is solid and growing positively.