How Social Media Powers the Sam’s Club Brand

In this five-part Deep Dive into Sam’s Club, we look at how their busy team executes its social media strategy.
For an insider look at how Sam’s Club’s social media team operates, each episode features a different social team member. They speak about their role and how they fit into the now-huge social media team at Sam’s Club.

Social Media’s Influence in Brand Storytelling

What makes the Sam’s Club brand so unique?
In part one of the Social Pros Deep Dive series, Sabrina Callahan spoke about how she focused on getting the brand right before anything else.
In this episode, part two of the Deep Dive series, Natalie Hite, shares more details about what makes the Sam’s Club brand so special – and how social media fits into that. She talks about why “brand storytelling has been our primary objective.”
Natalie discusses how vital connection, communication, and brand storytelling are to Sam’s Club and how her role as Associate Director of Brand Marketing helps drive results.
All episodes of this series are out now, ready to binge!
As this is a brand-new series, we’d love to hear some feedback on what you think of the Social Pros Deep Dive. Please share any thoughts you have by emailing Jay directly at jay@convinceandconvert.com.

In This Episode:

• 5:38 – How Natalie’s role fits into the Sam’s Club team
• 6:55 – Natalie’s experience of watching the social team grow so quickly
• 8:43 – Sam’s Club’s brand promise and what it means
• 10:02 – How Natalie adapted from traditional media to social
• 13:36 – Why Sam’s Club takes a “social-first approach”
• 15:50 – How the Sam’s Club social media team collaborates with other departments
• 18:15 – Natalie’s take on traditional vs. social media
• 19:39 – How Sam’s Club targets different customer types with its content
• 22:43 – How Sam’s Club taps into the ethos of its audiences by asking for feedback
• 25:47 – Why Sephora and Ben & Jerry’s are “north stars” for Sam’s Club
• 28:00 – How Sam’s Club uses storytelling to resonate with audiences
• 31:34 – How vendors get involved with Sam’s Club’s social pushes
• 34:30 – Natalie’s top tips for becoming a social pro
• 37:43 – Natalie shares who she’d love to have a video call with

Quotes From This Episode:

As we started to think about our audience, we realized that the message 'turning the everyday into something special' resonated far beyond just our members. - Natalie Hite Click To Tweet
“We had a unique opportunity to take this company that was already strong from a revenue perspective and add a layer of brand and meaning.” – Natalie Hite
“At Sam’s Club, we operate a pretty lean and mighty marketing department.” – Natalie Hite

Sam’s Club Brand and Social Team:

To help you follow along, here’s an organizational chart of the Sam’s Club Brand and Social Team.

Resources:

• Get the new State of Marketing report for free from Salesforce
• Download Upfluence’s Brand Influence Ranking Report
• Download the Social Media Metrics template from Supermetrics