SmartBlogs on Social Media

At last count, CME Group — the world’s largest futures exchange — had more than 750,000 followers on Twitter. They’re a business-to-business brand doing some simple, creative things that are resulting in genuine connections with their industry’s stakeholders.

Allan Schoenberg and his team at CME Group are the ones making it happen every day, and we were lucky enough to have him at GasPedal’s recent Word of Mouth Supergenius event to share a few of the ideas behind it all. His big points:

• Define your goals. You can’t have social-media and word-of-mouth success if you don’t know what that success looks like. It’s fine to try little tests and see what works, but genuine, sustainable programs like CME Group’s are founded on core objectives. CME Group’s includes information and idea sharing, building brand reputation and demonstrating thought leadership.
• You don’t have to be the expert. You don’t have to be a know-it-all to create great content. While CME Group knows a lot about its industry, some of the most popular content Schoenberg creates is interviews with other thought leaders outside of the company.
• Use data to identify the content your audience likes. Schoenberg says that while he doesn’t put too much stock in click-throughs, it does help him identify what content his readers are interested in.

If you like this presentation, check out our upcoming Word of Mouth Supergenius event in New York on July 20.

Disclosure: CME Group is a Social Media Business Council member (of which I am the CEO). Learn more about it and our members: http://www.socialmedia.org.