Association Insight International & European 1 | Page 51

Association Success Story
What we did:
To reach its goal, AmCham EU produced a comprehensive social media strategy, which included key
performance indicators and a recommended set of actions. A majority of these recommendations were
successfully acted upon during the course of 2013. On 7 March 2013, AmCham EU hosted a social media
event to explore how stakeholders in elections and policy making were using social media to gauge public
opinion. Panellists included Marietje Schaake MEP, Steffen Thejll--‐Moller, Associate Director, Digital
Strategist, FleishmanHillard and Ryan Heath, Spokesperson for Neelie Kroes, among others. A Twitter friendly
logo was launched at the same time and has been used since on relevant events documents to showcase a
designated hashtag and generate successful Twitter conversations. Other actions included integrating social
media into advocacy plans, including social media icons on all publications, and integrating all Google
accounts (Picasa and YouTube) to create one Google+ platform.

Challenges
Although there was good support for the social media strategy amongst members and staff, its application on
certain action points proved to be more of a challenge. Resourcing was also an important aspect of the
project as social media is under the responsibility of one person, who is also in charge of other marketing
tasks and projects. Getting staff more involved in their respective issues and topics is an ongoing project. The
Board of AmCham EU also requested the development of more detailed social media guidelines in order to
provide a framework for staff using social media for professional purposes, which also details a process for
approving and reacting to messages.

Data Analysis:
Regarding the recommended actions in the social media strategy, AmCham EU was able to achieve a lot in a
short amount of time. We have successfully implemented an internal social media policy (guidelines),
encouraged passive engagement of staff, created individual Twitter accounts for managers, increased our
number of followers on all accounts, increased interaction and we are now able to view and share basic
analytics on our performance on social media.

Results:
In the past year, AmCham EU has increased reach and engagement levels on all social media accounts. Since
January 2013, AmCham EU’s Facebook page has reached 351 ‘likes’, increasing the January 2013 number by
nearly 200. According to Facebook analytics, AmCham EU has maintained a consistent reach, with increased
activity during major event periods such as the Transatlantic Conference in March. Since November 2013,
AmCham EU has also experienced increased likes and comments on Facebook posts. The AmCham EU
LinkedIn page also saw a consistent increase in followers in 2013, reaching 321 members by 2014. In terms of
‘followers’, Twitter has been the overall greatest achievement for AmCham EU. In 2013, we doubled in
follower growth, gaining 919 followers in just one year. For a more visual description of these figures and
statistics, please see below.