GovDelivery Social Media Marketing Case Study

Happy Monday morning! Earlier in the year, I started a regular Monday social media marketing case study. So far, we've looked at work we've done for companies like British Telecom, Microsoft, Monster.com and Sun Microsystems. All great high profile brands...

but what about smaller companies with leaner budgets? Well, the great thing about integrating traditional PR with social media marketing is that it levels the playing field dramatically for companies that are trying to get cut-through on a limited budget. If you can create great content for your targeted community, content that they really want to consume and share, on a regular basis, they will. That is basically what we do...

Here is a great example of this approach in real life...

Situation

The world’s leading provider of government-to-citizen communication, GovDelivery provides the infrastructure for government entities to communicate better with citizens and deploy Web 2.0 technologies. Despite working hand-in-hand with many government agencies and being the depended-upon vendor for digital communication with constituents, GovDelivery was relatively unknown among the Government 2.0 community, government influencers and thought-leaders.

Goal

GovDelivery came to Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) in 2008 looking to improve their awareness among government influencers and decision makers, drive corporate valuation, and generate leads from agencies and government entities looking for a better way to serve and inform their constituents.

Solution

Strategic worked with GovDelivery to establish a traditional media relations strategy designed to generate awareness for the company among government influencers and decision makers while simultaneously assisting the company in taking steps towards social media adoption. Strategic worked with GovDelivery on the creation of the Reach the Public campaign, which consisted of targeted blog writing and blogger relations outreach, in conjunction with the launch of a Twitter stream dedicated to injecting GovDelivery into the Gov’t 2.0 arena.

Results

GovDelivery’s media relations activities culminated in the placement of a byline in Federal Computer Week that positioned Scott Burns, CEO and co-founder, as a thought leader in the government 2.0 space. Subsequently, Scott was chosen to be a presenter at a Government 2.0 “bootcamp” well attended by local “goverati,” experts on the issue of government 2.0 techniques.

Strategic’s social and traditional media activities secured dozens of high-level media placements and buzz in October when GovDelivery acquired government-focused social network GovLoop, known as the “Facebook of the Feds.” In January of this year, the increased visibility and rapid growth of GovDelivery helped drive the purchase of 89% of the company by the Internet Capital Group (ICG) at terms favorable to the company’s shareholders.

Here is a link to the whole case study, along with links to the various web sites: http://gotostrategic.com/site/index.php/site/cases/govdelivery/