Project: Building social media presence on LinkedIn
Client: Marex
Curating a LinkedIn social media feed is demanding: you know you should be on it, but figuring out actually what to do is another story.
Literally.
You know you need a constant stream of positive news, witty repartee and killer graphics to satisfy those content-hungry eyes.
“Feeding the beast” is the common analogy, but what if you’re not even sure where the beast lives? If you’re starting from scratch, maybe you’ve still got to trip off to the woods to lay the trap to find the beast in the first place.
Why is LinkedIn for Marex?
We’ve been working with Marex since the start of 2022, and this was a challenge they recognised.
They have a rich history – established in 1998 after the Cullen Report into the Piper Alpha disaster – and they’re experts in their field of risk management in hazardous industries but getting that across online needs a different skill set.
Added to this was their desire to communicate their own ongoing transition. Four years ago, 95% of their business was in North Sea oil and gas. Fast forward to today, and it’s a 60:40 split with renewables.
How do you showcase 25 years of risk and marine expertise while also positioning yourself as a key player in the renewable energy space?
In flies Hoolet. Acting as Marex’s strategic communications wing, we’ve been raising their profile and shifting perceptions across number of platforms, tackling everything from PR and award entries to website content, and even helping nail down their core values and key messages.
What we did
But let’s concentrate on what we did for their LinkedIn presence. Because they were there, but they weren’t entirely sure what they were supposed to be saying.
They had just relaunched their website so they knew they wanted to drive content there. So here’s what we started with to help:
- reviewing information across platforms with LinkedIn making sure it was clear, and consistent with other channels
- devised a strategy for the key messages we wanted to land that align with the company’s business plan
- created a plan of who, why and when we’d say things and how we’d measure success
- produced a content plan which combined different posts aimed at “selling”, “informing”, “establishing brand” and “building community”
Our focus was on creating clear, consistent, and engaging content. Quality over quantity, always.
And content mix is very important. Our tips are, perhaps unsurprisingly, very similar to tips for speaking to people in person:
- don’t be boring,
- don’t get distracted, and
- don’t talk about yourself all the time.
To inform and build that online community, there was a regular series of blogs from their commercial lead tagged “Coffee with Kai”, and guides to human factors jargon from Varun which added personality and proved really popular.
And we worked on making that Marex brand stick in the mind, developing strong client-focused straplines such as “solving problems that matter” and “making compliance easier”. We also included talking about their maritime heritage and insightful pieces on navigating the energy transition as well as more graphic-led content like the “Why Marex?” opinions from the team.
Challenges and discoveries
Internally, we made sure to keep the Marex team in the loop, presenting quarterly updates that included an overview of communications activity and its impact, including the part LinkedIn was playing.
They have a thoughtful and considered MD supported by a busy team so we had to be efficient and effective, while getting them on board to suggest and offer up relevant content.
What helped was showing how we make content work for its living. If a lot of thought and effort goes into producing words that reflect what Marex stands for, we want it to reach as many eyeballs as possible.
A good example of this is using the LinkedIn newsletter feature. Marex already has its Pulse enewsletter that delivers news and updates to its client database. Modifying this to a LinkedIn equivalent meant we could reach more people with content that resonates, with minimum extra effort.
A breakthrough was discovering the unexpected talents of their senior marine consultant Donna Van Damme. Happy to take pictures and provide a running commentary as she went about her job, Donna’s wit and willingness to share her experiences gave us the raw content to polish into an irregular series on vessel inspections that proved hilariously popular.
Her first “boat section” post achieved a 35% engagement rate (all interactions divided by impressions) and a staggering 33% click-through rate (clicks divided by impressions).
Even Donna’s near-miss with a business breakfast (no broken knuckles, stand down) resulted in a 23% engagement rate. It’s okay, no one was actually harmed in the making of the LinkedIn content plan…
LinkedIn results
It’s still very much a work in progress, but when we look at the results from working on growing Marex’s LinkedIn presence, we can measure:
- a 300% growth in followers
- 500 extra subscribers to Marex enews content through the LinkedIn newsletter feature
- over 10% of Marex’s website traffic now comes from social media
- and visitors to the Marex website from LinkedIn have a much higher engagement rate of over 80% – we’re reaching the right people, the ones genuinely interested in what Marex offers
Marex managing director Wayne Henderson said: “Working with Hoolet really has opened our eyes to the value of clear, consistent and engaging communication.
“LinkedIn has been a great platform for us to take control of what the industry sees and thinks about Marex. We have a well-established reputation in the industry but we need to make sure our existing and future clients are aware of everything we can offer.
“Hoolet has helped us to generate a regular and varied mix of content that raises awareness of the range of our international services, engages others with our net zero journey and also supports us as we diversify into other industries.
“Valuable feedback and regular reporting from Hoolet is showing tangible results as we translate this into real-world conversations.”
So, what’s the takeaway? Don’t get lost in the follower count. Focus on clarity, consistency, and how your content connects to your business. And always, always have a clear call to action. Because if your content resonates, you want to make it easy for your audience to take the next step to get to know you better.
Now, if you’ll excuse us, we can hear the LinkedIn beast stirring…
Hoolet is a strategic communications consultancy. Come say hello to us on LinkedIn or you can read more blogs while you’re here.