What is community? How can making community central to your business help you grow? Beyond likes, +1s, shares and RTs, how can brands engage with their audiences to build lasting relationships that take them from fans to advocates? Hootsuite’s VP Community & Customer Experience, Jeanette Gibson, and Dr. William Ward, Director, Education Strategy share best practices and real-world examples of how a strong community of fans and followers can become a powerful tool in activating others to get involved and fall in love with your brand.

1. From Fans to Advocates
• How to Build Community
and Grow #BrandLove
VP, Community & Customer Experience
@JeanetteG
@HootCommunity
Jeanette Gibson
Director, Education Strategy
@DR4WARD
Dr. William Ward
#HootSMW

2. 11M+
Users
worldwide
1600+
Enterprise
Customers
744
out of the
Fortune 1000

3. Hootsuite Vision
Revolutionize Communications via Social
Community Vision
Be the most loved brand in social media by building
lasting relationships with our users and inspiring
Hootsuite fans around the World

6. 80%
It costs 80% less to
retain a customer than
acquire a new one
95%
Increasing retention rate by
5% can increase profits by
95% over long-term*
*Harvard Business Study
** MSI Study
25%
Increased engagement on
community sites can result in
25% increase in revenue**
Community Impact on Business

7. The State Of Customer Experience, Management, 2013
Companies view
customer experience
as one of their top
priorities
Use customer
experiences as a
competitive
differentiator
92%
© 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
60%

8. Source: January 12, 2014, “The Customer Experience Index, 2014” Forrester report
Yet, few companies deliver an
outstanding experience
53%
© 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
1%
1%
42%
37%
11%
Very Poor
(0 to 54)
Poor
(55 to 64)
OK
(65 to 74)
Good
(75 to 84)
Excellent
(85+)

9. Seeding #BrandLove
Relationships
Be an internal advocate for the customer and nurture brand loyalty
Deliver insights about your customer and use data to continually
improve, grow and nurture your community
Add value by inspiring, educating or entertaining customers with thoughtful
moderation, relevant content and online/offline experiences
Build relationships with key members of the community and with each
other, nurturing customers and developing engagement strategies
Engage employees to make your brand personal and
accessible to customers
Insights
Engage
Employees
Add Value
Advocacy

10. Customers
& #Brandlove

12. Brand Ambassadors
875 Ambassadors in 67 countries
Being a Hootsuite Ambassador makes you part of a
growing global community. Regardless of what
country you are in, each local Hootsuite
community is built by the same grassroots efforts
that has made them such a huge success.
– Danielle Hatfield -Hootsuite Ambassador, North Carolina

13. Ambassadors Increase our Global Reach
Amplification
Product releases shared
with ambassadors to
drive 200% more
engagement & reviews
Insights
Share regional
insights, offer
product feedback
and support
initiatives in 22+
languages
Support
Support our 15,000
registered customers
in the Support Forum
with 80% response
rate
Events
Drive localisation
efforts by hosting
200+ events in 62
countries
Empower engaged users to act as brand advocates to grow Hootsuite’s global community

15. Ambassadors Strengthen our Support Community
We challenged the Hootsuite Ambassadors to a 60-Day race to see which #HootAmb could
provide the most support over the course of August and September. From July to August we
saw a 30% increase in Ambassador engagement as well as more than doubling our
Community Forum self-serve.
Brand ambassadors helped @Hootsuite reach 65% self
solve rate in its community support forum #hootamb

17. Who Attends Our
Hootups?
13% of prospects in 2014 Hootups
converted to Hootsuite customers.

18. Measuring Success
● # of Ambassadors in key local markets
● Ambassador engagement and participation
● Volume of conversations, sentiment, SOV
● User-generated content posts and shares

19. Relevant Content
= #BrandLove

20. Driving Engagement
Timely content to create conversation
Stories
Momentum
Experiences
Inspire fans by curating
experiences and stories that
surprise and delight

22. #BrandLove in Action

23. • Geo-Search to engage
within a certain radius
• London grand opening
• 12K+ locations
• #SayCheeseSweeps
1K total mentions

24. • Let community tell their
story with visuals
• #WellTraveled
Photo Contests 480K
Instagram Followers
• 60% Increase in positive
brand sentiment

26. • Served as Hootsuite
Campus Ambassador
• Completed social media
certifications
• Championed social in her
workplace
Adelyn Biedenbach
@Adelynlee
Community Manger

27. • 57K followers today
(increased from 4K in 2013)
• Driving increased ticket
sales
Reward Your
Influencers

28. Employees
& #BrandLove

29. “The general public want to hear
directly from employees as
‘Ambassadors for the company.’ ”
Edelman Trust Barometer

30. Employees Help Build #BrandLove
● Motivate with purpose, not profits
● Mobilize with education, provide the tools
● Make sharing content simple & easy
● Bring employee ideas front and center

31. #SMW14: #HootsuiteLife Employee Engagement
“@David_Thai That time I wore a
kangaroo suit to the company
retreat #hootsuitelife #SMW14”

32. Key Takeaways
• Know your audience and create relevant experiences
• Champion your customer’s needs
• Focus on content that resonates with your audience
• Use events to connect users with one another
• Gamify the experience to make it fun and challenging

33. http://signup.hootsuite.com
/ambassador
Sign up page
@hootsuite
/hootsuite
/company/hootsuite
/+hootsuite
Join the conversation
#HootAmb
Share the love
@hootsuite

34. Thank You!
Jeanette Gibson Dr. William Ward
@JeanetteG @DR4WARD
#HootSMW