Case Study: Brunswick Social Media
Role
Content Creator, Community Manager, Social Media Specialist and Project Coordinator
Duration
May 2023 to October 2023
Tools
Hootsuite, Gain, Klear, Meltwater, Excel, Canva
Deliverables
Social Media Audit, Social Media Workflow, Community Management Workflow, Influencer Strategy, Social Media Posts, Designed Graphics
Overview
Brunswick Corporation is the global leader in marine recreation, delivering innovation that transforms experiences on the water and beyond. Across their many brands, they aim to transform the boating experience.
My main goal during my contract with Brunswick was to assist in the creation of a social media strategy and help evolve their social presence as they were expanding with new products, media placements, and company developments. They also needed someone who could create a content calendar, gather assets and turn them into social media posts, and manage the larger community that interacts with the Brunswick Corporate social media — an audience within the tens of thousands.
Problem
Brunswick Corporate’s social media was inconsistent in terms of posting cadence, subject matter, and community management in comparison to its brands. There was also not a dedicated content calendar and list of subjects/pillars for those social media posts.
We wanted to enhance our social media presence while appealing to our primary audiences:
Investors
Talent
Channel Partners
Media
Solution
We started to work together on the pieces that would create a dynamic, yet sustainable long-term strategy for Brunswick’s social media. What we needed was:
A Social Strategy encapsulating Brunswick’s primary messaging and ongoing storytelling
A content calendar that would allow us to plan posts as far as 3 months in advance
Workflows for post approval, responding to social messages, relevant stakeholders for various subjects, and social listening
An influencer strategy to help team up with popular social media accounts to drive more brand awareness
A social media plan for the upcoming CES 2024 event
How I Met Those Goals
A team comprised of the Director of Digital Media, The Sr. Brand Manager, and I coordinated to create and refine all of these deliverables so they could be utilized to improve our social media processes:
The team met several times to help formulate the social media strategy. Since our innovation-first mantra of “Next Never Rests” is key to Brunswick’s storytelling, we focused on pillars of innovation, customer value, and our position in the recreational marine space.
I was in charge of creating and managing the content calendar, creating a regular cadence of 2-3 posts per week on all of Brunswick’s social pages, making small adjustments to fit within the parameters of each individual platform. We always aimed for 2 posts to be prepped to allow for room of any last-minute developments, creating more flexibility.
Brunswick would often get various comments and direct messages, usually asking about many of its various brands. Within the social strategy, I created an escalation workflow with various tiers based on urgency. I also made a list of brand leaders and social leads to forward inquiries in order to best serve the community. Our response rate increased around 50% and we were able to maintain our boating community with greater ease.
With CES being an important event for Brunswick, I created a content calendar template and influencer strategy to optimize our social media coverage of the show. My main focus was on “Next Never Rests”, so I incorporated various forms of relevant content, a strong cadence for that content, and various influencers at different price points that we could utilize around that time and beyond. Various leaders at the company reacted favorably to both deliverables.
To keep track of Brunswick’s sentiment on social media, I utilized Meltwater to create a refined search of the company on various social platforms with boolean code search to weed out irrelevant entries. I also created a dashboard comparing coverage of Brunswick Bowling, what the corporation was previously known for, and Brunswick Marine. Positive sentiment increased and focus narrowed on Brunswick Marine between H2 2022 and H1 2023.
Metrics
Total Followers
39K+
Templates Created
10+
DMs Responded to
40+
Results
During my time at Brunswick, I was able to create several playbooks and templates that they would be able to use for 2024 and beyond. With a good blueprint for social media posts, a revised community management workflow, influencer strategy, and social listening dashboard, I gave Brunswick tools that will make their social media work harmoniously with the rest of their communications efforts.
With my contributions, Brunswick will be able to reflect its leading position in the marine industry with its social media outreach. I’m very proud to have had a part in working with an organization that brings the various joys of the water to millions of people across the world.