The Corporate Coalition of Chicago brings together C-suite leaders to “move beyond ‘business as usual’ to catalyze permanent systemic change.” Leaders from some of Chicago’s civic-minded companies and nonprofits such as AT&T, Discover, and United Way Metro Chicago, among others, co-founded the Corporate Coalition in 2020.
What We Did
Managing Director Brian Fabes and his team worked with us to showcase innovative business practices Fabes dubbed “Business UNusual” and other aspects of the Coalition’s work. Gordon and a colleague, Raleigh Floyd, Jr.:
- Profiled member firms innovating in procurement, HR and other areas, plus reports from the Coalition’s Corporate Connector and other initiatives for the website and in print.
- Created and implemented LinkedIn content strategy/calendar and joined brief weekly content brainstorms to post 3 to 5 times a week, and
- Pitched an op ed to Chicago Tribune on Fair Chance Hiring, migrated weekly member email to Mailchimp, and did other media outreach.
What happened
Stories about Business UNusual strengthened the Coalition’s brand and voice. LinkedIn followers grew 133%, from 456 to 1084 from August 2022 to June 2023. New members joined, members whose terms ended during the period renewed, and several deepened involvement by joining the Coalition’s Leadership Council. The Tribune op ed amplified Coalition work on fair chance hiring.
What We Learned
Content: Posts highlighting the Coalition’s core values, spotlighting key individuals and achievements, as well as video and linking to new content and commenting on issues in the news all performed well.
Audience: LinkedIn was the right platform for the Coalition. 75% of readers had senior, director, partner, or owner titles; 39% worked for 1,000-plus-employee companies and 65% worked in a corporate area, with the balance in education and nonprofit.
Collaboration: This was a highly collaborative effort. Coalition Chief Operating Officer Holli Wertheimer led weekly content brainstorms and connected us with the Coalition’s agenda and plans throughout the engagement.
“The Business UNusual stories we worked on together and incorporated into our LinkedIn strategy was a big thing for us,” Wertheimer says. “We started with none and did 10 together, and now we have a page dedicated to them on our website. This is great content, as well as a great way to engage and celebrate our members and deepen our relationship with their communications teams.”