Social Driver

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

At the time we did this project with Social Driver, I was president of William Jewell College. Jewell is a small liberal arts college in Liberty, Missouri.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Social Driver?

We engaged Social Driver to provide social media marketing workshops and advice for the departments on campus which were involved in social media marketing, such as alumni, athletics, and advancement.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to raise the level of knowledge and have all departmental social media staff use a common language at a common level of knowledge.

SOLUTION

How did you select Social Driver?

We knew one of the founders very well because he is a graduate of Jewell. We had maintained contact with him over the years since he graduated so we were familiar with their services.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Social Driver provided 8-10 hours of workshop for all appropriate staff and follow-up conversations to support their work.

What was the team composition?

Social Driver's team consisted of two members, one was a principal in the firm and one was the senior social media marketing leader.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our social media work improved significantly and the level of sophistication among the team increased greatly.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Social Driver's staff was very easy to communicate with both in the workshop and follow-up conversations.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Social Driver has very strong technical skills. They also demonstrate a very high level of insight for applications of social media that go far beyond technical insights into human insights. This part of their work is extremely valuable.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP and chair of programming at a national chapter of a PR society.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

We needed help with our events.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Social Driver helps to market our events through email, social media, and word of mouth. We also rely on Anthony (Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer) to provide some of the programs for our events. They have led workshops on writing, social media strategy, and digital marketing among other topics.

What is the team composition?

Anthony is my main point of contact, and then we’ve typically worked with three people per event.

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

Anthony did a few events before I came on as the chair of programming, and I noticed that the crowd responded well to him. He was always a fan favorite. My predecessor highly recommended working with him and his team. 

How much have you invested with them?

Apart from the pro bono work, a typical event costs about $6,000–$7,000 for a week of events. We do about 4–5 events with them per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

I began working with them in 2014. We’re planning to do more workshops in 2021. We don’t have them on retainer, but we reach out to them whenever we have events.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Social Driver’s marketing, complemented with our own marketing, maximized how many people we got to attend our evens. The events were ticketed, sometimes priced at $200–$300, so it was a big revenue generator for the organization. 

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via phone, but I also usually send Anthony an email when we have project work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Social Driver is very responsive. I’ve worked with a lot of agencies that get back to you the next day, but this team treats us like we’re their only customer. I appreciate their immediate, quick responses and their punctuality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront with them about your goals. Their work is only as good as the information you give them. You don’t need to know your exact campaign because they will do that for you, but if you give them a goal, Social Driver will find the most creative and innovative way to achieve it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for an organization called LearnServe International. We train high school students in the Washington, DC area in entrepreneurial and change-making skills.

Young people are often told that they have to wait to be the leaders of tomorrow, or even that they’re part of the problem, and we try to  tear down both of those ideas by bringing together individuals from a very diverse range of backgrounds to give them the skills to be leaders today.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

They created a video for us to help us feature our students and their stories to get more people involved with our work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handled the creative process of the video from scratch, working with us to plan, and script the project and then providing both shoot management and post-production editing services. From there, we posted the final product to our YouTube and our social media channels, as well as using it in outreach to partner organizations and schools who might be interested in the program.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact for the work was Victor (Creative Director), and he helped with the interviewing and editing himself as well as with a small team for the editing process.

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

We have a very longstanding partnership with Social Driver. They are one of our corporate donors, their employees serve as mentors to our students, and they help us to pilot programs such as our Boardroom Champions project that brings students to pitch to company boardrooms across Washington. This project was pro bono to help us get more people inspired to help out in our organization.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first event that they filmed was in February, and our events since then have been canceled due to the pandemic but we continued to work with them through June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The video tool that they created for us has been incredibly useful in connecting with people, especially small grassroots nonprofit organizations. Having a very professional face to your organization that you can send out into the world in a way that raises your profile and grabs your audience has been incredibly important to us. I really think we will continue to see greater and greater tangible effects of that product down the line.

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very communicative with u throughout all of the work, primarily over email and phone. They even invited us to a couple of workshops geared towards helping mission-driven folks and organizations understand how to use the virtual/digital space to their advantage. That was incredibly helpful for our own professional development and really spoke to their willingness to meet us where we were at and deliver whatever we needed to do our best work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think their responsiveness was the biggest asset to our collaboration. Every person I’ve worked with at Social Driver actually looks at what we’re doing and provides relevant input and support based on what they see, and that’s really important in a vendor for a small nonprofit. We needed a partner who was flexible and responsive to the challenges we were facing, and they were able to provide completely to make sure that we had what we needed to be sustainable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only regret we have is that we haven’t been able to grow the scope of our work with them yet, but we fully plan to in the future and are excited about that prospect.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just be totally upfront about what you need. Don’t worry if it seems like too much, or if it’s the right way to look at things. They will be able to tell you in an honest conversation what you can and can’t accomplish, but you shouldn’t limit what you might be able to accomplish.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the market president and publisher of the Washington Business Journal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

At the time when we hired Social Driver, we were hosting our largest event of the year. It was very early in the era of social media and we wanted to show our leadership in that area. We partnered with them to introduce the idea of Twitter to the larger Washington business community.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Most recently, I engaged them to help us with our Twitter strategy to see how we were implementing it across our whole platform of 44 business journals. We wanted them to help us develop some best practices across our entire company. For part of the engagement, they actually implemented some of the best practices and did some of the work with us, as well. 

What is the team composition?

Across the projects, we’ve consistently worked with Anthony (Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder) and Thomas (CEO & Co-Founder). 

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

We met them through common relationships within the community. I was introduced to them by someone on my staff who intersected with them at the local LBGT Chamber of Commerce.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $25,000–$50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since December 2011 and our last engagement wrapped up in August 2019. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Their work was first class. In the most recent project, they were able to provide actionable results to maximize our social media efforts, which I really liked. 

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

We typically communicated via text, call, or email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

As an organization, they were leading edge. They understood changes in the social media sector and knew how it would impact us. They were able to bring that level of thinking to our business. Comparing our first engagement 10 years ago to our most recent one, it’s clear they evolved with the industry and with our business as we evolved. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s not much. If anything, they could help us think bigger. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to just use them and trust their experience. The people I’ve referred to them have been those who are skeptical about the impact of social media on their business and Anthony and Thomas do a really great job explaining why it’s important. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our organization advances smart, actionable and evidence-based energy and climate solutions through research, education and dialogue.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Social Driver?

We hired Social Driver to complete a video and social media campaign for the launch of the Guide to Chinese Climate Policy 2019.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to engage people interested in the impacts of climate change in China, and to promote the guide as a resource that provides a history of China's climate policies and discusses China's principal climate policies today.

SOLUTION

How did you select Social Driver?

We selected Social Driver through a competitive contracting process. We considered a range of factors and companies and ultimately selected Social Driver because of their unique expertise creating integrated communications campaigns across websites, social media, branding and marketing.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail.

Once we selected Social Driver, we worked with them to understand our organization, our existing video portfolio and specific goals and ideas for the Guide to Chinese Climate Policy.

We completed a creative intake process where they reviewed the University's brand standards, videos and social media campaigns we admired, and also where they met directly with the researcher to better understand the research and goals behind the research.

The vendor managed scripting, story board and design and video editing. They also designed social media graphics to accompany the video rollout.

What was your vendors' project management or feedback process?

Social Driver has an extensive and detailed project management system, using project management software that supports communication between the teams and helps us manage deadlines. We set specific project milestones, including mapping out time for the University's review and approval process which includes multiple levels of review.

We were supported by subject matter experts in videography, design, branding and social media marketing, as well as a project manager who coordinates the schedule and review process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Ultimately, the campaign was very successful. We saw an increase of more than 5,000 visitors to the Guide's web page on the first day of the launch. The video and social media campaign garnered thousands of views and engagement on social media.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communications, scheduling and project management were seamless, using project management software like ASANA to keep track of key tasks and milestones.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I find their creativity to be the most impressive - they were able to take a very complex subject, distill the most important ideas, and package that into a video that was interesting and timely for social media.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of communications for the LGBTQ Victory Fund. We’re the only national organization that works to elect LGBTQ people to public office. We endorse and support LGBTQ candidates from school board members all the way up to the U.S. Senate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

We engaged Social Driver for web development services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a very outdated website. Not only did it need an aesthetic update, it was also presenting a lot of challenges, because it didn’t really work with our database. It needed to be able to present candidate information from our database, which Social Driver was able to accomplish. 

We also worked with Social Driver to display our 800 LGBTQ elected officials nationwide on an interactive map. As we add features to our map and website, they continue to help us build those. The website is run on WordPress — Social Driver put a lot of effort into making WordPress work for us, using our database and other third-party tools such as Algolia. 

What is the team composition?

During the development projects, we worked primarily with three people, though there were more working behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

We put out an RFP, and they responded. Social Driver’s mission aligned with ours, and they were able to provide solutions well-beyond others offering the same price.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $150,000 or so over the last three and a half years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2017. They’re currently working on ongoing maintenance, and have been involved with several projects throughout the years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Recently, another organization reached out to us because they saw the map Social Driver created and were really impressed with it. It’s not uncommon for us to get compliments on the map.

They’re very creative. When we have money to do something big, Social Driver thinks outside the box. When money’s tighter, they’re also really good about figuring out how to make solutions that work for us.

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Asana, which has been really helpful when it comes to organization. We also can send emails for anything more urgent, but generally speaking, they’re pretty responsive on Asana.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Social Driver is very solutions-oriented, and they have a great ability to carry out a vision. We’ll come to them with ideas, with no idea about the technology behind it, and they’re really good at coming up with solutions. We also appreciate how they’ve been able to work with various budgets. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind that needs to be improved. They’re responsive, and if something goes wrong, they fix it. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come to them with a detailed idea of what you need, but don’t bother with focusing on the technology solutions. Let them use their expertise to figure that segment out for you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former deputy director of an LGBTQ military and veteran service organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

We hired them to support a rebranding as we were merging with another military partner association.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were dealing with two opinionated boards that often conflicted but took bits and pieces from both sides to put together a brand product. They helped us come up with a name and logo, along with a branding package, including a color scheme and things like that. 

What is the team composition?

There was a core group of three people working with us, but a larger team of 5–7 were pulled in at different times. 

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

A board member, who is no longer on the board, recommended Social Driver. At the time, I was reviewing proposals from four different agencies. We decided to go with Social Driver because of their reputation for working with other organizations and the comprehensive report they submitted during the proposal. I thought if they did this much work before having the contract, they’d do even more work once they got the contract.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent in the range of $50,000–$100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2018–May 2019. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

A lot of people really enjoyed the new logo. They appreciated how certain elements showed progression and incorporated different military components into it. It was also versatile, so we could use it for branding specific projects and have that universal feel. The contemporary and simple look was also appreciated since in the past the logos had been convoluted and busy. They helped us pull everything under the same umbrella to have a united front. They helped us achieve a simplistic brand that represented us clearing up the craziness in the community, too. 

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Asana and they were able to assign things to us so we knew what was going on. They always got back to us at least 24 hours before a deadline, which was wonderful. They were good at reminding us about deadlines which we could sometimes forget with everything else going on. 

They were really easy to work with. For example, there was one instance where the board just didn’t like one of the options and Social Driver was good about changing the timeline a little bit but still ensuring all products were delivered by the right date before the merger was announced. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really appreciated all of the options they provided. Since the boards we were bringing together wanted their brands to shine through in the new merger, Social Driver was able to provide options that appealed to both boards and showed how strong they’d be by coming together. They made my job a lot easier by showing why specific components should be incorporated and what it would mean to the community. I was really pleased with them and have recommended them to other organizations, too. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing off the top of my head. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just trust the process. A lot of my board members thought they’d have to provide their own advice and direction, but just allowing Social Driver to move through the process and seeing what they come up with made it fun to do, which rebranding usually isn’t.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a national health foundation focused on the needs of military families called the Elizabeth Dole Foundation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

We were trying to build macro-awareness very early in the foundation’s existence in a multi-dimensional way. This included digital, social, and more effective backend management of data.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

All of the web properties at our foundation are multifaceted. We have a foundation website and a campaign site, so they built both of those from the ground up. They revamped the foundation’s site, too. Social Driver is our daily manager of social media properties, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

They’re both our strategists and executors on that front. They do PPC and SEO work for us, too. All of the content generation, graphic and video support, and creative design and strategy is done by them. 

What is the team composition?

When we worked on the website, a team of about 5–6 worked with us and a project manager. They provide people for design work and three people social media support. Anthony (Co-Founder) and Thomas (Co-Founder & CEO) have worked with us on overall strategy across the projects we’re working on. 

How did you come to work with Social Mark?

I was introduced to them through another consultant we have in the PR space. They recommended Social Driver as one of the best web development firms, which is what we really needed at the time. Our relationship blossomed from there into the other SEO and strategy work. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve climbed over $1 million since we’ve started. 

What is the status of this engagement?

They’ve been working with us since around July 2016 and our engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Their work substantially grew our social media following and our capabilities across the board. Our social media following has grown by about 200% since they took over. We had a really immature Twitter existence but now we have a sophisticated presence and we do chats and partnerships through it. Our following has skyrocketed on that platform alone. 

Our ability to drive people to our website has grown substantially and we’ve zeroed in on getting our content to the people who will engage and become donors and supporters for us. 

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent. Unlike a lot of firms I’ve worked with, they’re as good at design and creative as they are at organizing and project management. When we have meetings, we want to go to their office because of their culture. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The organization culture there is really strong — they retain teammates and people who leave usually come back. Anthony and Thomas are really good leaders who nurture their team. Their team has a super creative culture and everyone is happy, motivated, and passionate about their work. That is a huge plus because a lot of partners have turnover, but they’ve kept a lot of the same people on our account for a long time. 

They are also innovators. They don’t rest on the laurels of what they’re asked to do — they help to think about where else you can go. They’re always giving us good ideas that aren’t focused on making them money; they want to do what’s best for our organization. 

They show a lot of ownership for their clients. For example, I launched a search for a COO, and Anthony and Thomas have checked in with me every week and sent me leaders, so it’s clear they care about their clients.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we asked them to build our web property, I should have thought more about our long term web development goals. We ended up creating a lot of project sites that we might have been able to predict earlier on. In the context of what we asked them to, it could have been helpful for them to challenge us to see the long term goals, 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Put in as much as Social Driver will put in. Give them the time they ask for at all levels of the organization because they’ll do better work for you. They appropriately have a good, heavy onboarding process to understand everything and it’s extremely well-executed, so if leadership doesn't take it seriously, they’ll miss a huge opportunity to transform their operation. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Washington DC Economic Partnership is a non-profit organization responsible for attracting and retaining businesses in Washington, DC. My position at the company was to oversee all programming and business attraction marketing activities, including DC's official presence at SXSW each year.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Social Driver?

We have hired Social Driver for a number of projects over the years, including digital strategy, social media strategy and content development and website design. We relied on Social Driver for several years to oversee our larger social media campaigns, including our SXSW campaign each year.

What were your goals for this project?

Our overarching goals each year were to (1) present Washington, DC as a national tech and creative hub, (2) Expose entrepreneurs, talent, and investors to opportunities in DC, and (3) amplify DC's presence and programming at SXSW to encourage attendance.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We requested proposals from several DC-based marketing firms in the District. We needed a firm that understands the District and the specific industries we wanted to promote, and a firm that understood best practices in utilizing social media to target specific audiences at SXSW.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Social Driver was responsible for everything from strategy to execution. They took our target outcomes and developed a strong strategy to achieve them. They took our brand guidelines and developed all content and visual, developed an executed a paid campaign strategy, and managed all on-the-ground real-time content across all platforms. They also made sure to track the metrics we needed to share with our key stakeholders and board members, and developed an extensive close-out report.

What was the team composition?

Leading up to SXSW each year, they would have at least 3-4 people on the project team, consisting of a project manager, content developers, and designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Each year, we set metrics that we wanted to achieve to gauge the overall reach of our campaign: impressions, social media engagement, media coverage, WeDC House attendance, and meetings with businesses. Every year, Social Driver would far exceed any metrics set for them, and helped us to elevate our brand and campaign beyond what we knew was possible. They were true partners in the campaign with us.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Social Driver's way of working with me and our team gave me a sense of comfort that is hard to have with many marketing firms. Their team was always professional, always prepared, and ready to ask all the right questions and make sure they understood what we wanted. They established workflows that allowed them to work collaboratively with our marketing team and the many layers of approval we needed to manage with our stakeholders, and was always able to adjust and deliver as needed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Social Driver was the one marketing vendor that I worked with that I never had to worry about if they were going to deliver. They gave me peace of mind when i was drowning in everything else related to our projects, and it's hard to find that. They were able to do that because of the way they worked and essentially became an extension of our team, they cared about the results as much as we did, and knew how to get it done. They strive to be at the top of their game when it comes to digital strategy, and it shows in their work and the results.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't have any areas of improvement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former director of communications and external affairs for a nonprofit organization. The focus of the organization is advocating around federal and national higher education policy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Social Driver?

We hired Social Driver to help us launch our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team worked closely with ours to launch our site on a small budget. Social Driver guided us through the process of launching the site, providing an overall project plan and strategy. The project involved a wide range of people, and the team worked to engage them on intake and strategy before getting to work on the design. 

We provided the majority of the written copy and content strategy, but their work was much more focused on visual design. Along the way, they provided us with input and recommendations and held us accountable for making sure we got everything done.  

What is the team composition?

Day to day, we were interacting with a team of about 3-4 people. We had a dedicated digital manager, technical strategist, and account manager through the project. As the project evolved, we engaged Social Driver for other work as well, and worked with more people. 

How did you come to work with Social Driver?

I knew Anthony (Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer) through mutual friends and contacts. We went through an RFP process, and ended up picking them out of a group of several companies.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from December 2017–April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Social Driver helped us launch a really good website. We received great feedback from our peers and other allied organizations after the site launched. Having a professionally done website made a statement for our organization, which was brand new at the time. It helped give legitimacy and credibility to our experience, and the site was ultimately important to our growth.

Internally, we enjoyed working with them and were impressed by the quality of their contributions. From a talent perspective, Social Driver is a team of young, outgoing, talented, creative people. They also took a lot of uncertainty out of the project. It would’ve been very time consuming and precarious if I’d have been running point on my own. 

Overall, I’d give it very high marks. At the price we did the project for, I don’t think we could’ve done much better than Social Driver. 

How did Social Driver perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a very effective in-house approach to project management, which guided us very well through the process of launching the website. The team came with a very specific timeline and process centered around major deliverables, which helped us stay on track.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Social Driver really strives to create as much consistency in the process of managing and building a website as possible. That includes everything from the technical build-out to the timelines, for the express reason that they want to be able to focus more of their time and energy on the design and creative. The end result is really impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a little bit of churn among the Social Driver team while we were working with them. However, they were really good about minimizing the impact of those changes so they didn’t disrupt the project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Follow their process and know that it will get you some really high quality digital and creative work that’ll not only make you feel great, but make you a hero among your colleagues.