Scholastic knew it had an existing community of fans in teachers and parents — but it didn’t have an established platform to reach and connect with them. When a communication crisis arose over misinformation, Scholastic saw an opportunity to bring this community out.
Using Facebook, Ivy Li, Morgan Baden and their team at Scholastic launched a simple, yet vibrant community that is creating real results: These fans are placing 29.8% more orders than non-fans — and spending 7.6% more on each order when they do it. And more importantly, they have the ingredients to support a long-term, loyal base of brand ambassadors.
In their recent BlogWell presentation, Li and Baden shared the details behind how they’re doing it. A few of their big takeaways:
- Introduce your new community to existing customers. Scholastic leveraged its existing list of loyal e-mail subscribers by giving them the first look at their new Facebook community. With a simple giveaway, it was able to generate some early excitement that got things off to a fast start.
- Give them a reason to keep coming back. Scholastic’s editorial strategy for Facebook is to share exclusive content, behind-the-scenes details, expert advice on children’s books, advanced previews and general book buzz.
- Keep promoting and supporting your community. Scholastic’s fan page continues to see steady growth because it continues to promote it to new fans and customers every chance it can — for example, it is even promoting it on their shipping boxes.
And if you love this presentation, be sure to check out our upcoming BlogWell in Austin on Feb. 2.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mo' stash and others. mo' stash said: Andy’s Answers: How Scholastic is using Facebook to create loyal brand ambassadors http://bit.ly/fFtwcZ [...]
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How cool to see Scholastic is not only still around after all these years, but they're leveraging social media to get their brand out beyond the classroom! I checked out their Facebook page after seeing this article promoted on Twitter.
What I love about Scholastic's page: the consistent engagement with their fans via questions about books and reading. Scholastic is sticking with what they know best, and reflecting an understanding of who they are and what their market wants from them. We would all do well to pay attention to that as we consider our own social media marketing efforts.
My recent post Grateful Reflections on 2010
[...] and customers every chance it can — for example, it is even promoting it on their shipping boxes.Click here to view the embedded video.And if you love this presentation, be sure to check out our upcoming BlogWell in Austin on Feb. [...]