Supporting a company from zero in its wish to build social media marketing capability in-house

b-style Holdings Inc., which provides companies with the added value of high productivity by enabling diverse ways of working and promoting DX, wanted to build a digital marketing capability (especially social media marketing) as a new way to attract customers. However, it felt a lack of know-how, and of the management capability that goes with it, was a problem, and in November 2020 it launched a new “Social Media Marketing Project” and began the work.

We asked Mr Mihara, president and representative director, about the background and aims of asking NowVillage for social media marketing support, and what he expects from us going forward.

The challenge at the outset: “a lack of social media marketing know-how”

―First, could you tell us your role and about your company?

I am Kunihiko Mihara, president and representative director of b-style Holdings.

Under our principle of “best basic style: creating value suited to the times”, since our founding in 2002 we have kept creating places where women who have married or had children can return to the office and work “shorter hours”. Today, as needs around ways of working are diversifying, and not only among women, our services have grown too. Specifically, we run staffing and recruitment businesses, the job site “Shufu JOB”, and “Gokinjo Work”, which lets people work in their spare time.

Beyond making use of people, we also support companies in improving productivity through DX, providing services suited to the times, such as total support from RPA implementation through development and maintenance to training people.

In April 2020 we also moved to a holding company structure to further realise our group mission of “raising Japan’s happiness”. The holding company structure has enabled us to run the business with quick decision-making while making the most of each business’s strengths.

The whole company works on this every day with the wish to increase the choices in how people work and create a society where people can work happily, and to promote business efficiency at companies and create a society that is easy to work in.

―What is your current goal? And could you tell us how you saw the challenges in reaching it?

Our current goal is to build a new social media marketing capability within the company. At b-style Smart Career Inc. and b-style Media Inc., both members of the holding company, the challenge was how to deliver our services to women struggling with how they work.

Also, b-style Value Technologies Inc. was running seminars and sales activities on the themes of RPA and DX, but with the impact of the coronavirus on top of that, it faced the challenge that attracting attendees and so on was not going as hoped.

Until then, our in-house marketing team had led acquisition measures such as search advertising, SEO and email newsletters, but now that social media has become widespread, we felt the need to build awareness of our services through new methods.

To have many more customers know our services in future, we believe that, as a medium- to long-term strategy, we should carry out marketing using social channels such as Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and work to expand awareness.

However,

we also had the organisational challenge of having no social media marketing know-how at all.

With sales or inside sales we have experience, so we know the orthodox approach, appropriate goal setting, work standards, how to manage the numbers and how to build the organisation. But with social media marketing, neither I nor anyone in the company had the knowledge, so we did not know where to start.

Also, I felt that simply building a new social media marketing capability would be meaningless unless it led to business results, so I thought we needed to raise the probability of success at the same time.

Why we asked NowVillage: “they had all three: know-how, hands-on execution and management”

―Could you tell us how you came to know us?

In fact, I originally met Mr Imamura through an inter-company network called the “HR Business Council”. We have known each other a long time since then, and we often went out for drinks when he was in his previous job.

When I heard he was founding NowVillage in the digital marketing field, given his qualities as a business leader, his character, and his know-how and knowledge in marketing, we asked him to take on the role of our CSMO (Chief Social Marketing Officer) and to support us in implementing a social media marketing capability. NowVillage’s strength is social media acquisition, and they said they could also manage the social media marketing project team, so I thought they would deliver value aimed precisely at our challenges.

―Could you tell us about the measures you are carrying out?

Since November 2020 they have been supporting us in earnest, from the planning stage.

Specifically, in carrying out social media marketing at three group companies (b-style Smart Career Inc., which provides staffing and recruitment services that enable diverse ways of working; b-style Media Inc., which runs “Shufu JOB”, a job portal targeting homemakers; and b-style Value Technologies Inc., which supports corporate DX including RPA implementation), they started by selecting which social channels each organisation should work on, according to its business scale, business content and customer characteristics.

Next, we placed one dedicated person at each of the three companies and launched a new social media marketing project team, and they handle planning the initial account design, advising on post ideas, setting the operating schedule, setting KGIs, KPIs and KDIs, and reporting on monthly effectiveness measurement. Beyond providing know-how, they also follow up on actually running Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, which is a great help for a company like ours that had no know-how.

Each operating company has different goals, but we set the number of followers on each channel as a numerical target. We see social media not as something whose effects appear markedly in the short term but as a strategy that has a big impact on each business over the long term, so using the concept of KDIs as activity targets, they set detailed goals with us, such as the number of Twitter and Instagram posts and the number of YouTube videos produced.

Expectations for building social media marketing knowledge and management

―Is there anything you expect from NowVillage going forward?

It has only been about three months since we started, but currently each company is achieving its monthly KDI and KPI targets, and results are gradually appearing. We want to continue gaining awareness from each social channel.

What I expect from here is for them to establish the organisational capability so we can deliver results through social media marketing. I believe we are moving into an era in which companies themselves must be able to create attractive content. For that, I think the ability to set objectives, KGIs and KPIs, ensure quality, increase the speed of execution, manage, and also compare with other media and companies is essential.

We want to accumulate best practices and failure cases in carrying out social media marketing, and build a knowledge management system together with them going forward.

―What kind of companies would you recommend NowVillage’s services to?

I think NowVillage’s consulting services are a good fit for companies offering consumer (B2C) services and for companies whose business lends itself well to content, such as gardening or cooking.

I think the social media marketing market will grow even further. I strongly recommend that companies with the financial strength ask NowVillage for social media marketing consulting now, while they can!