Social Media Success Story

Social Media Success Story - From Twitter to CNN

One of VPI's Twitter followers writes a story picked up by CNN

Bryan Howland, social media specialist at Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) in Brea, California, has been on the job for six months. During that time, the company’s social media audience has expanded significantly, from 3,000 friends on Facebook to 19,000, and from 2,500 Twitter followers to 4,000. The impressive increase in VPI’s social media popularity, according to Bryan, is due to the fact that the company strives to be a resource for its customers, posting relevant content. It turns out that pet owners are not the only audience that finds VPI’s tweets of interest.

Morieka Johnson, a freelance writer for Mother Nature Network, was writing a story, “Pets and holidays: avoiding mutual destruction,” and contacted Bryan via Twitter to find out if there was a spike in pet mishaps during the holiday season.

”The request came out of the blue,” Bryan said, “but if we had not been active social media participants, Morieka may not have considered using us as a source for her story."

Morieka was intrigued by VPI’s extensive claims data and included information in her story about the company’s Hambone Award, which is given each year to the pet with the “most unusual health insurance claim.” When her story got picked up by CNN at Pets and holidays: Avoiding mutual destruction,there were ten times the daily average number of visits to the company’s Hambone Awards page.

”Instead of telephone calls and meetings, we’ve developed a relationship through social media that is the basis for on-going, future interaction,” Bryan said. “Posting information that others can use rather than sales pitches, lays the framework for social media success.”