‘We Are Cisco’ social media strategy includes knowing when to say goodbye to a key channel

Cisco Systems’ Talent Brand team is a frequent award winner for its innovative and daring use of social media to attract the best recruits for the company. The team is well-known for its Snapchat account, WeAreCisco, which was taken over every single day by an employee who conveyed what it’s like to work at Cisco.

In 2018, the team shifted the takeover to summer interns in a program it labeled, “Summer of Interns.” Although the program helped boost metrics, when the interns returned to school an audience analysis identified a clear preference for Instagram Stories. The team made the bold decision to retire the Snapchat account that had served them so well and shift its emphasis to Instagram Stories and also go all in on live video. These decisions have earned Cisco first place in the “Social Media” category of PR Daily’s 2019 Content Marketing Awards.

Having already gained experience with Facebook Live, the Talent Brand team embraced Instagram Live. The team measures each channel it uses, including its recent adoption of an attention metric. The social media analytics for each channel are impressive. For example, the best performer among Instagram Live videos drew 1,300 views. Another example: The reach of Cisco’s Instagram Stories is up 71% year over year and 73% of viewers complete the stories.

Congratulations to Macy Andrews, Carmen Collins, Casie Shimansky, Jennifer Burns, Lauren Grimaldo, Ileana Cates, Raymond Leung, Drew McInnis, Tamar Glasner and Janani Vijayakumar.