How a 180 Year Old Brand Made a Huge Social Media Pivot

Social is no longer a free marketing tool

There was a time when social could be used as a free marketing tool. The only price you had to pay for some engagement was time and maybe a little bit of luck. However, putting the same message on multiple platforms and hoping for the best isn’t going to cut it anymore.
Paid social is arguably the most effective way for brands to expand the reach of their content. Instead of saturating your audience with content, you need to consider targeting the right audiences, at the right time and on the right social platform.
Jen Hartmann, the Public Relations and Social Media Manager at John Deere, agrees that social is no longer the free marketing tool it used to be. As you can imagine, it was a challenge for her and the social team to transform the corporate strategy of a business that has been in the game for 180 years.
Tune in to find out how paid social helped John Deere target their specific audience with the right message at the right time and how to make it work as part of a much larger marketing communications program.

In This Episode:

• 08:25 – How to work with multiple social media stakeholders from different countries
• 13:07 – How to know when you’re one of the best social brands in the world
• 16:46 – How to balance the content you share with your audience
• 21:25 – How brands can insert themselves into conversations on social without being tagged or invited
• 26:58 – Why brands should stop looking at social as free marketing and start seeing the benefits of paid social
• 31:31 – An insight into John Deere’s influencer marketing strategy

Quotes From This Episode:

“We’re a 180 year old company. If we’re going to be around for the next 180 years, we have to continue introducing the latest technologies and innovation.” – @jenalyson
Our social programme would reflect the innovation and technology that our story would say we're committed to. Share on X
“When we think about being effective as a brand or in that social space, we’ve got to attract the top tech talent in the industry.” – @jenalyson
 

Resources:

• Get the new State of Marketing report for free from Salesforce
• Find out more about the community at SocialMedia.org with a special form for Social Pros listeners
• Learn how to stay connected with your email marketing subscribers using Emma
• Find out more about John Deere’s heritage and equipment