Technology

How an IT solutions provider got 10.3M impressions on social

Hootsuite Amplify lets employees share approved, relevant, well-crafted social media posts to their own networks.

When Carahsoft first adopted Hootsuite Amplify, their social media team began by onboarding the marketing teams, then gradually expanded  to teams that were most engaged on social media and enthusiastic about sharing the company’s vision. Adoption grew organically as teams across sales, contracts, and renewals observed the success of their peers on social media and wanted to participate.

To keep Amplify top of mind, the team offers regular training sessions and sends consistent reminders to maintain engagement and encourage content sharing online. They have also been actively working to boost sales leadership participation to leverage their extensive LinkedIn networks for promoting vendor events and content.

1000 personal accounts can post a wider variety of content than one corporate account alone

One of Carahsoft’s major challenges in the past was how to share a wide array of content from their diverse partners while maintaining a coherent and compelling brand identity. A brand account only has so much room on the calendar, and too many posts can hurt metrics, if they aren’t strategic.

With Amplify, Carahsoft now distributes content from all partners via its employee network without muddling corporate channels. One of the most valued Amplify features is the ‘Suggest a Post’ button, which allows individuals to submit content requests for the brands they support. The team receives up to 15 suggested posts per day and ensures all requests are addressed within 24 hours, providing a quick turnaround by sending the post to the rep who suggested it, along with any relevant team aliases who may also be interested in sharing to keep the momentum going.

The Carahsoft team proactively collaborates with their blog and PR teams to ensure all high-priority content is included in Amplify without delay. They have created specific UTMs for blog posts and tech spotlights to track clicks from Amplify posts. From January 2023 to November 2024, Amplify posts drove 8,700+ additional page views on Carahsoft's website.

Through automation between Hootsuite Enterprise and Amplify, the team seamlessly shares content scheduled on the corporate social media calendar to Amplify. This is crucial as Carahsoft’s own brand topics see the most traction on Amplify, with employees eager to share news of Carahsoft events and tradeshows, and promote its digital series like Innovation in Government. 

The Microsoft Teams extension has been a game-changer, reminding employees to share content regularly, and increasing overall usage rates.

Carahsoft has seen a remarkable increase in event attendance thanks to Amplify. Collaborating with the marketing operations team, the social media team created an Amplify reference code to track event registrants back to their source. They encourage users to personalize their Amplify posts and use their individual ref codes to receive credit for registrations generated from their shares. This strategy has proven highly effective, with up to 35% of registrants for events and webinars coming directly from Amplify posts.

Carahsoft’s leadership has been incredibly supportive and plays a crucial role in driving the success of Amplify. Leaders are keen to have their entire teams onboarded and actively using the platform to grow their network. To assist users who are hoping to update their LinkedIn profile before they begin sharing, the social media team created a LinkedIn cheat sheet to help employees successfully enhance their accounts.

By providing full visibility into team activities and setting up automated monthly reports, leaders can monitor and encourage usage. Some leaders have set Amplify targets and integrated them into their overall team goals. Sales leaders have also begun presenting Amplify numbers to vendor partners during quarterly business reviews (QBRs) to demonstrate the additional reach their brands are receiving.

Social relationships bring new opportunities

Carahsoft plans to continue expanding the use of Hootsuite Amplify, aiming for more widespread adoption across the entire organization. Future initiatives include developing additional corporate-wide training opportunities to coach teams on advanced Amplify usage and creating more internal success stories to showcase the program’s value.

Through the strategic use of Hootsuite Amplify, Carahsoft has successfully enhanced its social media presence, driving engagement and creating valuable networking opportunities for its employees and partners alike.