If you've ever used a PC you know Hewlett-Packard. With more than 317, 000 employees worldwide, and annual revenue in the vicinity $112 billion, the HP logo is one of the most iconic brand images in the world. The tech giant has been a stable presence in the industry, relied upon for quality and reliability. And as you'd expect from a tech company, they've also stayed up with tech trends, including social media. HP's Director of Global Social Marketing, McKaela Doherty recently answered a few questions about HP's impressive social media presence.
"At HP, we view social media as an amazing opportunity to connect with all of our distinct audiences." Doherty said. "With a company as big as ours, the sheer volume of news, innovation, and products can be overwhelming, and customer needs and interests can vary dramatically - the CEO or CIO that's interested in enterprise security and cloud solutions, for example, is very different than the artist or crafter interested in our printing solutions. We have to be cognizant of that diversity, and ensure we're delivering the right information to the right audience - with the right voice and narrative."
As you'd expect with such a big brand, HP has a large social following. The company has more than 3.5 million likes on Facebook, where they post a mixture of product news and offers, seasonal-themed content and links to the various HP blogs. The company's main Twitter handle has over 746,000 followers, with their 17 tweets per day (on average) retweeted and shared the majority of the time. But it's Google+ and LinkedIn are where HP sees the most notable engagement. HP's Google+ posts garner seven re-shares and 64 +1's per post, on average - great numbers by any measure, figures which underline Google+'s more specialized, tech-savvy audience. And then there's the company's LinkedIn presence - where HP really flexes its social media muscle.
"LinkedIn, is one of our largest and most engaged communities," said Doherty. "In fact, LinkedIn recently named HP as one of the top 10 most influential brands on the channel. We were the first company to earn a million followers there, and our current base of nearly two million connects us to more than 50 million professionals around the world." Doherty also noted that HP CEO Meg Whitman has a highly engaged network of near 700,000 followers on LinkedIn and frequently posts her own perspectives on business, leadership and technology, which also helps boost the brand's presence on the platform. "As LinkedIn has evolved into more of a publishing and sharing platform, HP has followed suit, curating and creating content. Right now, our focus is on 'success in the workplace' and how that's supported by big technology trends and the New Style of IT - cloud, security, mobility, and big data."
Doherty discussed how HP's LinkedIn community responds well to news about products and innovations: "be it insights into how our HP Robotics Lab in Houston smashes products to test their durability or how one of our latest innovations, "The Machine," can address emerging big data challenges. Technology is driving tremendous changes in the way business is done, and it can be overwhelming. Through our social presence, we can help our audience make sense of the trends and illustrate how such changes can be of benefit."
In terms of metrics, HP is well-aware of the benefits of big data. "Data informs everything we do, from content development and optimization to campaign creation and execution." Doherty explained. "But how we measure success is really defined by the objective of each effort."
"Social data is most powerful for us when it's received and used in real-time. To drive our content process, we use a proprietary system of social listening panels to identify trending conversations - relevant to both our customers and to HP - to enable quick response. The result might be a responsive blog post, a tweet or a subject matter expert jumping in to engage in the conversation. Not surprisingly, we've seen this type of timely response drive up to 10 times the engagement of content we've planned." Doherty said.
What's something of a deviation, considering the platforms where HP is seeing the most engagement, is HP's adoption of video technologies - most notably Vine and more recently Hyperlapse on Instagram. In the case of Vine, HP got onto the platform early, posting their first Vine in May 2013 (Vine launched in late 2012). Since then, HP has posted a range of entertaining and creative vines - the type of content you might not normally associate with HPs 'all-business' persona. Even more impressive, HP recently became the first brand to create a TV ad comprised totally of back-to-back Vine videos. While HPs social media presence is solid on most platforms, it's their more adventurous approach to Vine that provides one of the best lessons for brands looking to better leverage social technologies.
It was HP's 2014 '#bendtherules' campaign that took their engagement with Vine to the next level, using well-known Viners to create video content on their behalf. This not only enabled HP to reach a wider audience through Vine by tapping into these users' already established fan-bases, it also gave HP high-quality Vine content created by platform experts, people already highly proficient in the art of the 6-second video. This is effectively influencer marketing, but on a different level - in a regular influencer relationship, you're working with that influencer to increase reach and engagement via their endorsement. Using Viners to create content in this way, HP isn't so much leveraging their influence but their expertise, helping HP generate reach across more networks, through shares of popular content, and ultimately enabling them to create a high quality video campaign with life beyond the Vine platform itself. The final product has been viewed on YouTube more than 3.6 million times and one of the Vines from the compilation, created by Robby Ayala, has since become the most looped branded Vine in the apps history. The campaign highlights the opportunities available to brands through influencer and creator marketing partnerships on social platforms.
"While we continue to experiment with various storytelling and engagement techniques, it's no longer about throwing stuff at the wall and hoping for the best. It's about entering conversations with insights and nurturing our audiences. We strive to publish responsive content within four hours, from the internal pitch to the content production, which is no small feat. But the results speak for themselves."
Doherty also discussed the growing opportunity of social, the ability to engage with customers directly and in real-time. "We can learn, we can take action and we can change for the better - social is an invaluable feedback loop." Given the success HP has seen thus far, the tech giant is definitely among those leading the way in social business, showing the opportunities that exist across the various platforms, and in new apps and features. HP's recognizes the significant value of listening, the benefits of being where your audience is at, and the necessity of evolving strategy in-line with platform changes and advancements - it would serve other brands well to take notice and see how it's done.