Sociagility helped us understand just how important social media is to our business and what to do about it. Their approach was clever and rigorous and their recommendations were both aspirational and practical.
David Johnson, Global Marketing Director, BonhamsBonhams, one of the world’s leading and largest auction houses, was aware that its social media presence lagged behind that of focal competitors and new market entrants. With new generations of buyers and sellers increasingly comfortable with using social media, Bonhams needed to take a more proactive approach or risk becoming invisible to a significant part of its current and future customer base.
Sociagility created an evidence-based vision and strategy for a sustainable social media programme. The wide range of valuable items for which Bonhams is an international market maker – from fine art to classic cars – means its buyers and sellers are very diverse. We therefore started by establishing Bonham’s comparative position in social media vis-a-vis these different groups through competitor analysis, online customer research and staff consultations. The competitor analysis quantified the degree to which Bonhams was lagging behind focal competitors, and why. The customer research showed the enormous potential for engagement and exactly what was wanted from Bonhams. Discussions with staff showed their desire to engage and their level of knowledge and skill.
As a first stage a summary of research findings and conclusions was created and circulated internally to inform management and staff and help generate buy in for a more proactive approach to social media.
As a second stage, a social media plan was produced setting out vision, mission and strategy, along with a ‘playbook’ of specific tactics covering key platforms. This included the creation of an internal social media ambassador programme, the development of a social media hub. A virtual team was empowered to implement the plan, and we provided interim on-site support to the marketing department to ensure it was embedded in daily operations.
Finally, a bespoke measurement model centered around four key performance indicators (popularity, popularity growth, content effectiveness and infuence) was developed in order to track progress against objectives.
As a result of our work, Bonhams’ performance on all four of these KPIs had grown at a higher rate than either of its two focal competitors, after just nine months. Furthermore, Bonhams’ social media audience, visibility, engagement and conversion rates improved by an average 60% during the last three months of our involvement.
