"Colleagues are busy, so when they get a message on WhatsApp via Apostle, they post it quickly. It takes a maximum of 2 minutes,"

Chloé Bosschaart, Marketing Campaign Manager at Festo Benelux.

About Festo

Festo is a German company specializing in automation technology and industrial training. They produce items such as pneumatic and electric drives, sensors, and control systems and offer training programs for industrial skills. Festo is renowned for innovation and sustainability in its solutions.

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Challenge

"Social media is often the first step in the customer journey. Therefore, we wanted to increase our sales team's reach on LinkedIn," starts Chloé Bosschaart, Marketing Campaign Manager at Festo Benelux. The sales team hardly used LinkedIn. "They wanted to post but never got around to it." Previously, posts were only made on the LinkedIn company pages of Festo Netherlands and Belgium. These posts were mainly ad-hoc, depending on events or colleagues' ideas. To post consistently and gather relevant content, the marketing strategy aimed to involve colleagues more in social media. After a tip from a colleague about Apostle, they quickly started after some research.

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Approach

Since partnering with Apostle, Festo has implemented an extensive content planning and strategy. Where initially a post was made every two weeks on request, Chloé now plans three posts weekly within 45 minutes. "I'm already planning for October. It may take a bit longer than one post, but it's much more efficient." This case study was written in June (eds).

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The first colleagues were introduced to the Apostle software through kick-off sessions so they could post as Festo brand ambassadors on LinkedIn. Now, colleagues from the UK have also joined. They deliberately chose a relatively small group of brand ambassadors in the Benelux to ensure the content remains relevant and aligns with the content strategy and colleagues' interests. On average, 38% of the posts suggested to colleagues are published on social media. Chloé aims to increase this percentage to 40%.

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Engaging with colleagues at Festo is key to achieving this. Every three months, Chloé has an evaluation moment with the brand ambassadors to discuss how they experience the posts and whether they want to continue contributing. She also contacts less active colleagues to see how she can support them and what content is relevant to them. "We always get great feedback." Additionally, Chloé regularly runs mini-campaigns to recruit and activate more brand ambassadors.

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Chloé describes Apostle as a user-friendly tool that allows her to schedule all posts conveniently. "As a brand ambassador, you don't have to click many buttons. You can see exactly when a post is ready for you and how to publish it. That helps a lot because colleagues can't always sit down for it." For older colleagues, the app was sometimes challenging. Recently, Chloé tested the new WhatsApp integration. With this, brand ambassadors receive a message via WhatsApp and can publish a post with one click. "WhatsApp is ten times simpler than the Apostle App, so it works even better for us." The brand ambassadors Chloé tested with confirmed this. "Colleagues are busy, so when they get a message on WhatsApp via Apostle, they post it quickly. It takes a maximum of 2 minutes."

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Results

Festo's statistics show that many brand ambassadors publish the suggested posts on social media. According to Chloé, this success is due to the short communication lines within Festo regarding Apostle and social media. "My colleague and I make it clear that we work with Apostle, and that we are visibly active on LinkedIn. This way, everyone knows about Apostle and comes to us with post ideas. When you schedule a post, there's a high chance brand ambassadors will share it on their social channels. The same goes for my colleague in the UK: he talks a lot with colleagues to ask what they want to see on LinkedIn or what he can best create for them."

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Festo also leverages trends and popular topics in their posts. "Recently, we had a big trade show in Germany where we launched our Bionic Bee. Of course, people will post that when we suggest it; they are really proud of it," Chloé explains.

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The added value of Apostle lies in visibility and presence on LinkedIn. "That colleagues post about Festo - besides our company pages - has greatly expanded our reach. And that's the biggest added value of Apostle. The LinkedIn statistics are excellent. People click a lot on links to register for a particular webinar or trade show." This happens both on company page posts and colleagues' posts. While Chloé can't see if people register on the trade show site, the click-through rate is very high. "We also see that when we post a behind-the-scenes video, many people watch it, and it's shared a lot."

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The extensive use of Apostle within Festo has led to greater visibility and engagement on LinkedIn and a more streamlined and efficient content management process. Regular contact with brand ambassadors ensures social media posts remain relevant and appealing. This has laid a solid foundation for a lasting and successful social media strategy that strengthens and optimizes the customer journey from the very first touchpoint.