Salesforce’s Ebony Beckwith ends each interview in her #BossTalks collection with the identical query: “What is your superpower?”
So I requested her that query.
Her response? Well, it’s a bit meta – and really correct.
Ebony’s superpower is bringing out the superpowers in others.
“This comes through in my mentoring and the way I manage my leadership team. It brings me a lot of joy to see them shine,” she explains.
It additionally manifests in her function as Salesforce’s chief enterprise officer and chief of workers to co-CEO Marc Benioff. Ebony can also be the CEO of the Salesforce Foundation.
But this story focuses on how she scaled her mentoring superpower right into a smash hit on LinkedIn and the new Salesforce+. That reside interview collection, #BossTalks with Ebony Beckwith, additionally earned her a spot as a finalist for 2022 B2B Content Marketer of the Year.
@EbonyBeckwith turned her superpower – bringing out the superpower in others – into the smash hit #Content series #BossTalks, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
The superpower origin story
Ebony joined Salesforce in 2008 after spending 10 years in the monetary sector. Her first Salesforce function was senior director of expertise enterprise operations at Salesforce.com, and he or she ultimately took on a collection of roles on the philanthropic aspect of the enterprise. In 2021, she was named the firm’s chief enterprise officer – the identical yr #BossTalks launched.
“I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without my mentors’ guidance and support. Not everyone has someone in their corner, cheering them on, so I try to be that person when and where I can,” Ebony explains.
Ebony started mentoring to pay again what had been given to her by mentors over the years. Eventually, she had so many requests for mentoring she launched group periods, which she known as Mentor Moments. Participants might ask profession questions, and he or she candidly answered them from her private expertise.
Scaling her mentoring by way of Mentor Moments labored, nevertheless it wasn’t sufficient. Eventually, Ebony took that work to LinkedIn with a collection of posts tagged with #BossNotes. (You can learn all of them, together with the October 2020 publish that kicked off the collection, at BossNotes.com.)
“I write everything down, especially when it comes to career advice, and I stumbled upon an old notebook (aptly titled “Boss Notes”) with a immediate a profession coach had given me on what recommendation I’d give a 12-year-old woman,” Ebony says. “I realized how much of what I wrote down was also relevant to adults.”
That content material resonated on LinkedIn, with some posts hitting over one million views and incomes tens of hundreds of likes.
With an viewers response like that, Ebony and Salesforce noticed the potential for an interview-based video collection with leaders “mentoring” viewers. They created the video collection #BossTalks, which launched on LinkedIn in 2021, out of that concept.
Ebony says LinkedIn was an “obvious-but-not-so-obvious choice” to be the residence #BossTalks. She explains, “I was already building an audience on LinkedIn through #BossNotes, but Salesforce was not producing a lot of content for the channel at the time.”
Since then, Salesforce has added its personal streaming service, Salesforce+. The first #BossTalks is now accessible on demand on the streaming platform. (Season 4 will probably be underway shortly on each LinkedIn and Salesforce+.)
Some #BossNotes posts by @EbonyBeckwith on #LinkedIn attracted over a million views, and led to the idea for #BossTalks, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
Creating the reside video collection
The #BossTalks staff is lean, totaling between 5 and 6 folks. In addition to Ebony, it consists of two producers, a technician who handles recording and modifying, and social leads. “I’m so grateful for their hard work and drive to create something special for our audience,” Ebony says.
The staff produced 22 episodes in season one, airing one each two weeks. “It featured leaders I knew would give people the real talk they were craving,” Ebony says.
Guests included folks in her personal community and people she admired and hadn’t met, like Thasunda Brown-Duckett, president and CEO of TIAA, who talked about letting go of perfectionism. Other interviews embrace:
- Karlie Kloss, supermodel and founding father of Kode with Klossy, on work-life stability
- Mona Kattan of Huda Beauty and Kayali Fragrances on authenticity
- Kyra Kyles, CEO of YR Media, on private branding
- Karissa Bodnar, founder and CEO of Thrive Causemetics, on changing into your individual boss
The subjects relate to what the neighborhood asks for, trending office subjects, and the friends’ experience. For instance, when burnout and the Great Resignation was a scorching subject, they invited Karlie to speak about psychological well being and work-life stability – subjects she’s enthusiastic about.
“The relationships are real, and the chemistry our audience feels when we’re laughing and making jokes or getting vulnerable with each other is authentic. It’s what I love about the show the most,” Ebony says.
The energy of the #BossTalks video collection wasn’t restricted to LinkedIn and Salesforce+. They repurposed on different channels, together with Salesforce’s The 360 Blog (over 13,000 natural web page views) and replays on Salesforce YouTube channels (practically 200,000 views).
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Getting in actual life with the neighborhood
The should be part of the neighborhood – not simply speaking to the viewers – has been an important lesson in Ebony’s #BossTalks journey. In the feedback, she solutions viewers’ questions or replies to what they share. It deepens the reference to the viewers and helps the #BossTalks staff produce content material folks need to interact with.
And the staff doesn’t additionally restrict interplay to feedback. In October 2021, Marissa Kraines, Salesforce’s vice chairman of social and content material advertising and marketing, and her staff got here up with a #BossTalks giveaway. The packages included a branded #BossTalks cape, pocket book, pen, pin, mug, and a bag of Red Bay Coffee.
Can’t wait to strive the espresso! Thanks a lot! @salesforce @gofooji #bosstalks pic.twitter.com/iNBo5VCBMN
— lisa lawton (@lisalawton3) November 4, 2021
Real-life superheroes, together with Team USA gymnast Nastia Liukin and two-time NBA All-Star Baron Davis, delivered a few of the watch kits to viewers.
“The superhero activation came at the perfect time. While we’d cultivated an incredible online audience, what people were missing most was that IRL connection,” Ebony explains.
The marketing campaign resulted in 8.2 million video views, 100,000-plus engagements, and #BossTalks trended at No. 7 on Twitter in the United States.
A superhero-themed giveaway helped #BossTalks rise to No. 7 on #Twitter in the United States, says @AnnGynn via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
Ebony says, “I loved seeing all the surprised looks from people and the pure joy on their faces. It was a great way to both connect with our core #BossTalks community but also attract new viewers.”
So what’s the superpower of #BossTalks?
It delivers content material the viewers desires, when and the place they need it, whereas making a neighborhood with digital and real-life interactions.
What content material marketer wouldn’t need that superpower?
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Cover picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute