The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) was founded in 1922 by a group of U.S. Army officers who, unable to secure auto insurance due to the perception that military offers were high-risk, decided to insure one another's vehicles instead. The organization has since expanded far beyond its auto insurance roots, now offering a range of banking and insurance services to its more than 10 million members, all past and present participants in the Armed Forces or members of their immediate families. I recently got a chance to talk with Renee Horne, Vice President of Social Business for USAA, to discuss how the organization has integrated social media into their marketing and communications efforts, and how they're utilizing social channels overall.
"We're very attuned to fulfilling our members needs," Horne told me. "That means meeting them where they are - we see social media as no exception in advancing our marketing efforts. Social is unique in that it allows for engagement and dialogue - not only are we able to use social to increase our targeting capabilities, given the ability to focus on specific audiences, but we're also able to utilize social media listening, enabling us to better understand the needs of our members and provide more relevant offers and support."
Horne continued: "While many brands may be on the publishing, or push messaging, bandwagon with social, we've extended beyond this concept and view social listening as a much more valuable and strategic asset longer term. These capabilities will enable us to improve our member experiences while driving benefits in terms of process improvements, efficiencies and overall member satisfaction."
A Platform Specific Approach
Facebook is where USAA sees its biggest social following with more than 770, 000 Likes. USAA's Facebook engagement is also solid - around 828 likes, 31 comments and 83 shares, for every post post - I asked Horne what approach USAA takes to Facebook, in terms of content and response to queries.
"Facebook's certainly a solid platform given the large military user-base and the fact that military over-index in use of Facebook versus the general population to stay connected. However, it's not the only platform. Regardless of whether we use Facebook, Twitter, or whatever other social platform, our approach to each balances the demands of what business objectives we are aligning to fulfill our mission, as well as the overall appetite of each platform's audience demographics." This approach highlights the importance of having a strategic plan, of utilising each specific platform for its own strengths, in-line with how your audience is interacting, rather than broadcasting the same messages across each outlet.
"Facebook is the broadest and most widely used platform across a breadth of demographic audiences, and provides us with a very natural way to connect and engage with members and prospects with content that's of relevance to their needs. The growing targeting capabilities on Facebook enable us to focus with more precision and relevance, and thus, increase our relative impressions and engagement in a way that maximizes viewership across every post." This is smart social media practice, and again, works within the parameters of how USAA's users are interacting and engaging on the platform, providing content the audience wants, as opposed to the messages the organisation may want them to hear.
Another social element USAA utilises is video - around two new videos are posted to USAA's YouTube channel every week, with an average of 363 views per post. USAA obviously sees a lot of value in video marketing - I asked Horne how USAA views video content and whether they're looking to utilise newer video options like Facebook native video or Vine. "USAA uses multiple video formats, including YouTube, Facebook native and Vine. While we don't necessarily set goals on the number of videos published per week, we do put a lot of effort into ensuring that what we publish is of high relevance to our membership and provides the content in the most consumable format, given the audience, platform and objective of each. We continue to refine our content mix to better reflect the full set of value to our membership and to help improve the financial literacy of our members and their families. Needless to say, video is increasingly becoming a very effective, if not one of the most effective, methods for engagement."
A New Way of Working
With a significant presence on all the major platforms - 770k Likes on Facebook, 79k followers on Twitter, 75k followers on LinkedIn, 10k on Google+ - managing USAA's social presence is a significant task. I asked Horne how many staff USAA has looking after their social presence. "The team managing USAA's social presence includes a blend of community managers and social marketers. Given our go-to market social engagement includes an integrated approach - blending owned, paid, earned and shared social platform activities - that's about 4-5 people combined."
"We also share some of the aspects required to maintain these properties across areas that have primary responsibility for servicing members or handling issues outside of day-to-day engagement. In essence, it's now becoming a natural part of our DNA, regardless of the function. There's a larger set of focus and resources associated with broader social enablement as part of a larger digital transformation set of initiatives at USAA, which includes another 7-8 strategists - which, combined, make us the social business center of excellence at USAA."
Horne elaborated further on this, clarifying how USAA approaches social and integrates social media into their wider operational culture: "Social "channels" or our "social presence" is only a portion of how we view social at USAA. We look at social through a much broader lens than social as a channel. We view social tools, technologies, practices and principles as a new way of working and doing business."
"Given the growing mix of millennial and Gen Z across both our membership base and workforce, we're evolving the way in which we work and serve our membership in a digital and social age. Such demographic segments are digital natives and naturally adapt social technologies, not just for networking among friends, but for other purposes also. The use of social media has more than transcended from the consumer marketplace and into the workplace. It's impacting and being integrated into every facet of our business - from member servicing and experiences to how we communicate and interact with one another on the job or solve business problems. Given these factors, we have purposefully embedded social to evolve USAA into a social enterprise in the 21st century. Social at USAA is viewed as a way to drive value for our members, employees and the associated, when done well."
Horne's statements again underline USAAs audience-driven approach to social, and how USAA is moving in-line with the evolution of social media in the wider community and society generally. As their membership shifts further towards a social media-enabled lifestyle, USAA is moving to meet their demands and integrate that cultural shift into their make-up and overall business processes.
ROI is Objective Dependent
Of course, the ever-present query in social is around ROI and displaying definitive return on investment from a brand's social media efforts. I asked Horne how USAA approaches the question of ROI and her view on the equation. "First of all, we avoid compressing the benefits of social down to a single ROI metric. As I mentioned previously, we are embedding social into various business processes and practices at USAA - the ROI will vary and dependent on the objective we're trying to achieve or business problem we are trying to solve. If we're looking at return on paid or organic social activities, we would be interested in earned media associated and overall amplification or advocacy as a result. If we're talking about servicing members through social, a key performance measure would likely be response time. If the objective is engagement, to help drive middle-funnel activity when members are in their research and information gathering phase, seeking assistance or trying to make a decision based on reviews or feedback from peers, we would focus on increasing engagement with USAA and other members. These are just to name a few."
"Other ROI may be based on reducing a cost of a process, like social recruitment, or increasing productivity in other cases, or increased employee engagement through a more connected culture - again, we don't limit ROI to just a single measure, but tie it back to business goals and objectives."
This was an enlightening take on social ROI. Rather than view social through traditional marketing or advertising metrics, USAA's approach is to measure the effectiveness against the specific goals of each task. That, in itself, is not revelatory, but USAA acknowledges that the impact of social can be far more wide-reaching than those base metrics, that the application and utilisation of social channels extends beyond those practices. With that in mind, USAA takes a more holistic, and I'd argue, logical view on ROI. Each activity needs a measurement, but those measurements will vary significantly, dependent on the desired outcome for a specific element.
The True Value of Social
As I got to the end of my discussion with, Horne, I asked for her view on what the true value of social media is. "The true value of social media is dependent on how you decide to apply it, and is infinite. The value can only be derived when there is purposeful intent and application." This was a great quote, a great viewpoint on social, and it stood out as the best summary of how USAA has approached social media as a means of servicing their membership. More than a new means of advertising or a new platform for marketing, USAA's approach to social is to view it as a new way of working. That approach, integrating social media into the very core of what they do, is being driven by their members, in fulfilling their mission to facilitate the financial security of their members and their families. And that approach has delivered USAA not only with success in social, but with wider success as a service.