The award ceremony put on by Social Media Club of Des Moines recognized excellence in digital and social media marketing.
West Des Moines, IA (August 23, 2019)—Strategic America earned five first place awards during the Hashie Awards from the Social Media Club of Des Moines. The ceremony recognizes excellence in social media work in Central Iowa, but judges from around the world select the recipients. This is the second year Strategic America has submitted to the awards and the first year placing first in any category.
Best Use of Video: Digital Happy Hour
Starting this year, SA created a video series meant to show off the agency’s digital capabilities—along with its personality. Covering a range of topics, Digital Happy Hour has been successful internally and externally. Videos are an educational asset for associates and a good resource to share with clients to demonstrate SA’s digital offerings.
Externally, the series reached nearly 10,000 people on Facebook and 4,000 views on YouTube. The average watch time on YouTube was nearly a minute and half—essentially the length of the videos. In a paid campaign to highlight SA, the videos brought viewers to the agency website at low cost clicks.
Best Twitter, Nonprofit: The Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council
The Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council promotes STEM education across the state through educational programs, educator professional development and special funding. The account shares happenings in the world of STEM, information from the Council and content from passionate STEM fans and advocates across Iowa.
As of June 2019, the Iowa STEM Twitter account has doubled organic growth goals achieving 19% increased growth at 3,529 total followers. Total retweets accumulated to 859, a 93% increase over the previous year and mentions equaled 1,128, a 61% increase over the previous year. Tweet impressions from July 2018 to June 2019 nearly surpassed half a million at 465,689.
Best Social Media Customer Service: Old Chicago
Digital customer service requires social media professionals to be an extension of a brand, while navigating and responding to customer experiences. While working on Old Chicago social accounts, Strategic America’s primary goal was to create authentic connections with customers—whether their experience with their local Old Chicago location was positive or negative.
SA received and processed more than 2,200 reviews on Google alone. On TripAdvisor and Yelp, we processed an additional 169 reviews. On Facebook, SA received an additional 247 reviews. SA also received and processed more than 2,700 comments across social platforms.
Social Media Campaign of the Year: Dorothy’s House
People don’t talk about things they don’t understand. And they certainly don’t talk about things that are uncomfortable or disturbing. The #SeeSurvivors campaign was designed for those very reasons. The disturbing reality behind the demand for sex trafficking in Iowa is unknown to most Iowans. Those who do know about it don’t talk about it either.
The campaign was an earned media, organic effort. SA far surpassed its goals. During April 2019, Dorothy’s House Facebook page likes increased by 19% and Instagram followers increased by 91%. Dorothy’s House received 490 post likes and saw more than 1,200 video views on Facebook alone. The average reach on Instagram increased by 143%, more than doubling the number of users who saw the content.
Trailblazer Award: Strategic America
As the digital landscape rapidly evolves, staying current on all things digital becomes even more important. Strategic America has long recognized this and its impact on providing the best counsel to clients. In order to help SA associates stay on the cutting edge, the digital team developed a cross-departmental curriculum. The course featured daily stand-ups with client account teams, a video series called Digital Happy Hour, blog and social content, as well as an external campaign that positioned Strategic America as a digital agency.
Digital trainings helped associates position themselves as experts while working with clients. Because of that effort, paid social media campaigns for one of SA’s largest clients were brought in house. The digital services sale cycle is much shorter with existing clients. And new clients are on their way due to the digital campaign that brought more than 1,800 new users to the SA website.
Strategic America also finished as a finalist in Best Use of Pinterest and Best Overall Social Media Presence. To see all the winners from the event, visit socialmediaclub.org/desmoines.
