CASE STUDY: WILEY

How Social Media Education Helped Put the Customer FirstWiley had a global organizational footprint on social media, but half of the accounts lacked strategy, weren’t driving revenue, and served only to confuse customers. Find out how Wiley empowered their workforce with the digital skills and toolsets to be more strategic, collaborative, customer-centric, and results-oriented.

WileySince 1807, Wiley has provided knowledge and knowledge-enabled services around the globe that improve outcomes in areas of research, professional practice, and education. Wiley’s three core business sectors focus on global research, professional development, and education.

Wiley marketing colleagues

increase in employee engagement since the

certification

to engage on social with confidence

200 educated

90% increase

Empowered colleagues

Case Study:

Wiley

CASE STUDY: WILEY

What They DidUnderstanding the Business ChallengesAs Hootsuite further developed corporate education programs, Wiley executives were having strategic conversations about the company’s digital communications. The importance of being present on social media spread across the organization, but as more departments opened accounts haphazardly, liability and ROI became an increasing concern.

Wiley had nearly 700 social accounts, most of which lacked a strategy. And because Wiley is divided among their three core business sectors, customers didn’t know where to look online for customer service—especially if their inquiries overlapped business sectors. Teams and departments weren’t collaborating on social and ran the risk of duplicating efforts and confusing customers.

Wiley executives quickly recognized that education is crucial across multiple teams and departments for empowering colleagues with the digital and social media skills required today. To meet this need, Michelle Lockett was brought onboard in June 2013 as Director of Social Marketing. She was charged with transforming how the organization looked at social and how to leverage it to drive company-wide collaboration and core business objectives.

Lockett saw the need for a scalable, credible, recognized, and innovative education program to address the digital skills gap and begin putting the customer first.

“As we move into a more digital realm, social plays a key role in how we engage with and better understand our customers. Arming colleagues with the skills they need is the first step.” Clay Stobaugh, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Wiley

CASE STUDY: WILEY

How They Did ItStrategizing, Organizing, and EducatingDuring the initial audit of Wiley’s social media presence and landscape, Lockett unearthed the plethora of accounts. “Our colleagues were already on social, but it was my job to make it strategic,” she says.

As the first step in arming the marketing department with the skill sets for the digital era, Wiley partnered with Hootsuite to develop and deploy a scalable, custom education program: the Wiley Hootsuite Social Marketing Certificate. Hootsuite’s education team worked with Lockett to create a blended-curriculum approach that identified three distinct curriculum levels, addressing three core areas of focus for Wiley:

�� Tier 1: Fundamental look at today’s digital landscape addressing how businesses and consumers are interacting online through Hootsuite’s existing training and education resources from Hootsuite University.

�� Tier 2: Deeper dive into important concepts and tactics necessary for Wiley Marketers to succeed. Content and resources were incorporated into this tier from the Newhouse-Hootsuite Advanced Social Media Strategy Certification.

�� Tier 3: Fully customized content based on Wiley’s key business objectives.

Throughout the curriculum development process, Wiley subject matter experts provided specific examples and company best-practices, adding to the relevancy of the certification. Lockett officially rolled this program out in June 2014 to more than 250 marketing colleagues across Wiley. Within months, the education program expanded beyond marketing to many departments including customer service and editorial.

Lockett placed herself and the program at the center of the Hub and Spoke social business model to effectively deliver education and best practices among Wiley colleagues. “Hootsuite was just as invested in our success as I was in our colleagues’ education,” she says. “It was just a matter of getting everyone to a similar level, but I needed help training and building strategies.”

After her initial audit, it was also established that Wiley had too many social accounts. Working with executives and directors, Lockett halved the amount of official channels around which committees could collaborate. While she gave these committees the tools and knowledge to engage strategically, they were empowered to manage these channels themselves.

“Successful digital transformations require that the right skills are developed, mindsets reframed, and expertise leveraged.”Michelle Lockett, Director of Social Marketing, Wiley

CASE STUDY: WILEY

The ResultsIncreased Collaboration and Strategic ThinkingBefore rolling out this custom education program, Wiley’s departments were siloed and used systems that didn’t interact with each other—leaving customers in the dark.

Today, colleagues have the strategic skills and knowledge to collaborate within the Hootsuite dashboard. “Scaling social across the organization continues to evolve, but we can already see more internal collaboration,” says Lockett. Colleagues now work together to create strategic content calendars for more cohesive sharing and global response sheets for improved customer service.

Education also empowered colleagues to engage with confidence on behalf of Wiley. “Training gave me the permission and confidence to be more human on social—just because I’m representing our brand online, doesn’t mean that I can’t create that personal connection,” says Jill Yablonski-Crepeau, a Marketing Manager at Wiley. “There’s great business value in having an individual voice support its message.”

Using Hootsuite, Lockett can now track activity across the main channels and traffic back to their website. They now auto-append tags on to social messages, which are then pulled into analytics to track customer movements online. “We’re now starting to test and break down the effects of organic social versus paid social, and what happens if we launch a marketing campaign versus not,” says Lockett.

This is only the beginning for Wiley’s company-wide digital education. As certification becomes available to more teams across the business, colleagues will be armed with the skill sets and toolsets to help drive revenue and business.

“It’s a powerful thing to track social back to real business results. Even though it’s just one social sale, the knowledge and confidence is instilled.”Michelle Lockett, Director of Social Marketing, Wiley