Building an Ocelot Identity
July 17, 2020
By Nick Weaver
Building an Ocelot Identity
In writing, the phrase "show don't tell" is commonly used to teach emerging authors how to convey a captivating story. Instead of writing "Jack was depressed," write "Jack laid in bed all day with no motivation to move other than to change the channel." When storytellers show the audience a concept, they're much more likely to believe and understand what they're being told. Marketing is no different.
This summer, I've had the privilege to work as a Digital Media Intern for Ocelot Consulting, a boutique software company in St. Louis. As a young person growing up in the age of technology, I am well-versed in marketing for platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. When the leadership team at Ocelot communicated that one of my top priorities was going to be implementing a professional LinkedIn campaign to increase followers and engagement without the use of sponsored posts, I knew I had a lot of research to do. LinkedIn is a fantastic networking tool, but it's not the type of site I casually spend hours scrolling through on the weekend.
My first order of business was to conduct a content analysis on 35 of Ocelot's local and national competitors to gain a thorough understanding of what a strong media presence looks like for software and technology companies. At the University of Mississippi, my background is in Integrated Marketing Communications and Public Policy. While branding comes very natural to me, engineering does not.
After a couple weeks of research, I decided to model Ocelot's LinkedIn strategy after an old educational saying: show don't tell. According to LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, "companies that post weekly see a 2x lift in engagement with their content" and "video gets 5x more engagement." To me, the initial answer was simple: frequent video and graphic content that highlights company values and employee satisfaction. After a couple weeks on the job, our posting schedule was populated with core value videos, new hire welcome videos, employee quotes, and shared articles.
Instead of telling our followers we were hiring, we published videos spotlighting all of the incredible people who were joining our organization. Instead of telling our audience how great the culture is in our St. Louis office, we asked our employees for quotes talking about why they liked working for the company. In every circumstance, Ocelot has stopped telling the world what it's capable of and decided to show the world instead.
So far, our strategy has been successful. According to LinkedIn Analytics, during the first 30 days of the campaign, our post impressions increased by almost 4,000%, new followers increased by over 350%, and unique visitors increased by over 280%. By freezing publication of new content on every social media site other than LinkedIn, we were able to focus our efforts on creating one account that provided consistent value to its followers.
The "show don't tell" mantra is a good summation of my role at Ocelot. Classroom lectures are good at telling students how things should be done, but real-life experience is how we show what we can do. While some internships are focused on watching from the sidelines, Ocelot has given me the opportunity to experiment, fail, get feedback, try new things, and push the limits of what I was previously capable of doing. Building an Ocelot identity has been an incredible journey thus far, and it's a process I hope continues long after I move on.
Learn more about the Ocelot identity on the Ocelot LinkedIn page.
This work by Nick Weaver is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).