As the parent company to 16 top-tier publications in Latin America like Elle and InStyle, as well as 11 web media properties including Expansión en alianza con CNN, social media represented a great way to grow their audience, strengthen their relationship with existing ones, and even create new revenue streams.

The challenge

Grupo Expansión had more than 70 employees touching social media across several publications and departments within the organization, without clear roles and responsibilities. In addition to siloed structure that a multi-brand organization can create, it was also difficult to demonstrate the value of social media to management and advertising partners. They needed a solution that provided the structure required to work in lockstep as an organization, as well as the ability to drive—and measure—results.

The solution

Create a structured workflow

With a large number of employees across several brands and departments using social media, Grupo Expansión needed to build a foundation for social media success. They used Hootsuite to align teams across the entire organization and create a smarter workflow so that everyone from sales to creative services was able to work more efficiently.

The optimized workflow

1. Sales team sells a branded content campaign to an advertiser.
2. Creative team builds the campaign, then places assets in Hootsuite’s content library.
3. Social Media Editor uses Hootsuite to schedule the campaign to run at the optimal time.
4. Once campaign has run its course, Ad Operations uses Hootsuite Analytics to pull data on campaign performance.
5. Data is used to make smarter creative and strategic decisions, as well as demonstrate the value of social to prospective clients.

From building messaging and keeping assets organized to approvals and eventual publishing of content, Hootsuite made it possible to create and execute multiple campaigns for numerous clients, across several brands, simultaneously—all while demonstrating the inherent value of social.

The results

With a bit of planning—and widespread adoption of the Hootsuite enterprise platform—Grupo Expansión drove impressive revenue and audience growth numbers while uncovering meaningful efficiencies that have transformed how the organization manages social media.

Time saved: The flexible but powerful workflow and approval settings within Hootsuite allowed for more clearly defined roles and responsibilities, which Grupo Expansión estimates resulted in  10 hours saved per employee, per campaign.

Revenue growth: Improved efficiency allowed them to create and publish campaigns for clients that netted an impressive 200 percent growth in revenue from social—more growth than any other channel within the organization.

Efficient workflow: The Hootsuite platform made it easy to establish a smart and nimble workflow for every employee that uses social across the organization. Everyone from sales to creative were able to work in tandem to create content, publish it in a timely way, respond to customers, and even demonstrate value to clients.

Security: Given the high-profile titles they publish, brand security is extremely important to Grupo Expansión. Hootsuite’s approval function made it possible for more than 70 employees to work in social media without sharing passwords or the risk of accidentally (or maliciously) publishing content.

Audience growth: Grupo Expansión’s entire social presence experienced a 20 percent lift in audience size—more than any other channel, including the publications themselves.

Recognition: Repeated impressive results got the attention of senior management, who now include social media results as part of the organization’s overall key performance indicators.

In an increasingly social world, large organizations have begun to embrace social as more than just an awareness play or afterthought. Using Hootsuite, Grupo Expansión was able to quickly demonstrate to external clients and advertisers that social media can be a powerful way to increase reach and drive revenue—not to mention the major time- and money-saving efficiencies that played a big role in moving the revenue needle internally.