Owens Corning

THE CHALLENGE

Owens Corning is a household name for home insulation yet it also has an important composites manufacturing division. Each division has different audiences: home insulation is mostly B2C while composites is primarily B2B.

The Owens Corning Composites Solutions Business didn’t have its own social media presence and therefore didn’t have a way of engaging with its audience online, particularly during major trade shows. They also insisted that they wanted to build their social media following organically, by engaging with their target audiences without resorting to promoted posts or ads. 

THE SOLUTION

I conducted a social media survey which showed that the Owens Corning Composites audience was principally using Linkedin and Twitter, allowing us to focus our energies on these two platforms. I then worked with the marketing and communications teams to create social media profiles according to brand guidelines, then develop the tone and focus of the profiles alongside with a social media content marketing calendar centered around the main trade shows of the year.

A social media training programme for Owens Corning Composites employees and a year-long strategy was also developped. We used Hootsuite for Teams to accomodate team collaboration across the entire organisation. Scheduled posts of videos (like the one below) and presentations were coupled with live photos and tweets during events: the objective was to align online activity with major trade shows taking place throughout the year for direct ROI.

THE RESULTS

While reticent at first, the communications team started seeing the benefits of building social media activity thanks to a well-crafted series of engaging posts that helped showcase their popularity within the composites community. This approach gradually became an integral part of all marketing and communications activities in Owens Corning Composites and gained support from senior management.

We remotely managed the social media channels during peak times for trade shows such as JEC Europe and CAMX. The Owens Corning Linkedin account grew from zero to over 3000 followers in just a few months. Engagement was high: Linkedin posts were seen almost 20,000 times during the JEC Europe trade show. The Owens Corning Composites Twitter account saw huge spikes of activity, reaching over 50,000 impressions during JEC Europe. Slideshare was also used to easily share speaker presentations and share them online.

Overall, Owens Corning Composites reached its objectives by engaging with a senior-level executives during key trade shows, leveraging social media to drive participants to their exhibition stand and increase engagement, both online and offline.