GE Power Employees Took Over Company’s Social Accounts to Tout Its Efficient Gas Turbine

GE teamed up with VaynerMedia on an initiative that handed control of its social media accounts to four GE Power employees last week in order to provide the public with a behind-the-scenes look at its GE-HA gas turbine. The GE Power employees shed light on how the company designs, assembles, tests and repairs the product it bills as the world’s largest and most efficient gas turbine. “To hand the camera over to our employees was an easy decision to make, not to mention a fun one," said GE brand content manager Carolyn Ksiazek said in an email. "But to change the GE brand name and monogram to their names and faces was what they truly deserve. This activation is more than a brand campaign: It’s a chance to showcase the people who quietly, every day build the things that matter.” The first takeover of GE’s social media accounts took place in July, involving the GE Research team, and later this year, GE Healthcare, GE Renewable Energy and GE Aviation will follow suit. “I was so excited to take people behind the scenes and talk about how additive manufacturing is changing our work today," said advanced manufacturing engineer Clay Griffis said in an email. "It’s still a relatively new process, so to showcase how our additive designs are making turbines stronger and more efficient was amazing. I never expected to have that chance.” [kickout id="1"] [kickout id="2"] [kickout id="3"] [kickout id="4"] GE said its posts on LinkedIn propelled it to second place on the professional network’s weekly top performers list in the business, industrial and manufacturing category last week, highlighted by a 1.9% click-through rate. Eighty percent of the comments it received on all platforms were positive, with the largest number coming from Facebook, followed by LinkedIn and Instagram. The initiative got off to a bumpy start on Facebook, as GE said that the social network’s ads algorithm was not recognizing its content as ads due to the GE profile’s transformation to look like employees’ profiles—the profile picture, vanity name and visual look and feel were all changed—as well as the fact that a tangible product was not being discussed. But after the content passed through Facebook’s review process and other branding elements were added, Facebook ended up generating 54% of all engagements during the initiative. GE said that overall, last week’s execution drove the most positive engagement since its Unseen Stars takeover of the ceiling in New York’s Grand Central Terminal in 2017. “We knew we had a particular challenge to humanize GE in a way that we’ve never done before," said director of brand marketing Lindsay Stein in an email. "The creative speaks to that—the need to be transparent and to shine a light on the people who continue to drive this company forward. As an extension of our team, our partners at VaynerMedia really understood that it needed to have emotion and depth while not being overly produced.”