In this Loomly Success Story, we spoke with Stacey Schroeder, President and Founder of EVelop and Regional Director at The Institute for Management Studies (IMS). Stacey shared what she's been able to achieve on social media using Loomly to manage three distinct brands: EVelop, IMS, and her own personal brand.
Since switching to Loomly for social media scheduling, Stacey's personal profile, EVelop, and IMS social accounts have collectively gained nearly 10,000 followers!
Read on to learn more about Stacey’s journey and her strategies for success with Loomly’s support.
Can you introduce yourself and provide a quick overview of your business?
“My name is Stacey Schroeder. I am the President and Founder of EVelop, which is a training and consulting firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. I founded EVelop back in 2019 after a career in manufacturing, spanning from engineering roles to director-level positions in workforce development. I’m also a Regional Director for The Institute for Management Studies (IMS), which is a leadership development organization based in Reno, Nevada.
IMS is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and we’re so proud to support hundreds of organizations across all different industries, bringing them access to world-class thought leaders that focus on critical areas of business.”
How did Loomly help you solve your biggest challenges and pain points when managing social media?
“I’m really glad I found Loomly as a solution. I was looking to manage three different voices or brands, if you want to think about it like that.
So my own personal brand, EVelop, LLC., and IMS to share compelling content across multiple platforms on a regular weekly schedule.”
Loomly made it simple to set up those three calendars, integrate with the desired social media platforms, pull in RSS feeds for ideas, and use a combination of images and videos that were my own, along with the high quality stock library of assets.
💡Loomly Tip: Need to connect multiple profiles from the same social media platform to Loomly? You can create as many calendars as you need, regardless of your plan. There’s no limit and you can keep your content neatly separated!
What is your favorite Loomly feature? And how does it help to achieve success?
“I really appreciate the [Product Digest and Social Media Marketing] newsletters with the tips and tricks. Honestly, as a small business owner, I wear all the hats. So marketing, sales, IT, operations, finance, business development, customer relationships, and oh and by the way, doing the work.
So it’s really helpful — and I need all the help I can get. And the way the information is presented, it’s fun, kind of cheeky, and always really helpful, which I really enjoy. The other thing I wanted to mention is I really like the workflow options. At different points in my business, I’ve had part-time help with social media marketing."
It was great to be able to adjust the workflow, to give autonomy to those individuals, but also give me the comfort of knowing that I had a final review step before anything went live.
💡Loomly Tip: Loomly offers three pre-set approval workflows designed to ensure you and your team can collaborate seamlessly without any roadblocks. Plus, you can create Custom Workflows to suit the needs of your organization if you’re on the Advanced Plan or higher.
How do you measure your social media success?
“At the end of the day, the core KPI for both EVelop and IMS is sales.
In terms of social media, I use things like the number of reactions, number of comments, number of reshares, and tags, along with overall follower count on each platform that we use.”
💡 Loomly Tip: Not sure how to measure your social media success? Here are 21 social media metrics you should be tracking. Use this Quarterly Analytics Report template to share your findings and social media growth with stakeholders!
How do you plan and execute your social media strategy?
“I actually had a change in approach back in July of 2022. I took over a lot more of the marketing for EVelop personally.
And my website manager was like, ‘We’re seeing a lot more traffic. So whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.’ So I’ve learned that each of those audiences is a little bit different.
For EVelop, I’m focusing on manufacturing companies and manufacturing associations. So I pull more from that type of content and then I throw in my thoughts and experiences based on my time in manufacturing.
If I look at IMS, we’re targeting business leaders across all industries. So I found that using sources like Harvard Business Review, Forbes, or Fast Company, and then tying that to upcoming programs with our thought leaders makes a lot more resonance with those folks.
Then, on the personal side, it’s a blend of both. I do sort of a weekly cadence where Monday and Wednesday are usually something around workforce development or manufacturing, since those are my passion areas.
And then Friday, I always do a Felicitous Friday which is something I’m grateful for, kind of paying it forward and sharing resources. So I found that those three approaches seem to be working pretty well over the past couple of years.”
How has Loomly helped with your content creation schedule?
“The big thing is it gives me control over my schedule and creative process.
I’m a business owner and a mom to a 15-month old. So my time is really limited, and I’m not always available or feeling creative at the ideal times to post on any social media platform.
I’m all about batching my work. I read articles and get creative, I use the flow state that I’m able to achieve every week or two if I’m lucky, and I load up a bunch of posts across all platforms."
I encourage people that are considering Loomly to think about how to totally switch up the way you think about specific times and days that they build content so that it suits your life and natural rhythms.
💡 Loomly Tip: You can plan your content to suit your cadence and workflow by taking advantage of Loomly’s RSS feeds and our hub of Post Ideas to keep your creativity fresh and inspired.
Can you tell us about the positive or measurable results you’ve achieved since using Loomly?
“Since we started using Loomly for EVelop, I’ve reached over a thousand followers on LinkedIn, which is great, considering it’s me out of my home office in Cleveland, Ohio. That’s a pretty good number.
With IMS, we’ve reached over 5,000 followers on LinkedIn, which is really cool considering that pre-COVID, we did every single program live and in person.
We weren’t big adopters of the internet or technology, so to have it move to 5,000 in just the past couple of years is a big deal."
And personally, I’ve achieved over 4,000 followers on LinkedIn, and we’ve had a number of posts on each of those that’s gotten tens of thousands of reactions, and many, many comments. To me, those are the wins.
💡 Loomly Tip: Build a stronger bond with your followers on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X by engaging with them using Loomly’s Interactions to respond to messages and comments. Interested in growing your LinkedIn specifically? Check out our guide to LinkedIn marketing.
What are the hidden gems about Loomly you'd like to share?
“I really like the different views for the calendar and using the RSS feeds.
I’ve developed my own list of newsletters that I subscribe to and Google alerts that I set up. Then I’ll batch all that and create a lot of draft posts as I get time throughout the week.
Then I’ll spend some dedicated time every week or two to really read those articles, create more firm content, try to connect it to upcoming programs or events or to experiences I’ve had and some personal stories.
I really think just thinking flexibly — just because you’re scheduling content on a regular basis doesn't mean you need to do that thought work on any sort of regular basis. Maybe you want to go to a coffee shop on a Saturday at 2 o’clock and type away for a couple of hours, great!
For me it’s usually a Friday during my little guy’s nap, I’ll get those posts done, get those creative juices flowing."
I think Loomly really frees your time up so you can do what’s best for you and match your flow, which is really important.
Can you tell us more about what motivated you to upgrade from the Base Plan to the Standard Plan?
“I started experimenting when I opened my business, EVelop. It was just me thinking, ‘Okay, how do I make marketing a little bit simpler, a little more streamlined, and get some help.’
And within the Institute for Management Studies, I have a number of peers, but I’m the youngest one, maybe the most tech savvy of the crew, and I’ve got a pretty good voice in terms of marketing. So they asked me if I would take on some of the corporate marketing responsibilities.
And I was like, ‘Okay, sure, but now it’s time to do an upgrade and get access to the number of connections that we needed to make.’
And then, I said, ‘Oh wait a minute, I can add in my personal brand on here, too, and schedule those posts as well.’
At that point, we’re maxing out."
We’ve got ten different connections across three different calendars. And it’s awesome because I can search across all historical posts and see what has resonated with people, and maybe reshare and rehash some things and make sure that I’ve got a good cadence of content across these three brands. So it’s been really helpful.
💡 Loomly Tip: Loomly’s Analytics allow you to filter posts based on channel, labels, and more, making it easy to retrieve posts and view their performance. This helps you strategize your content creation process effectively.
What are some things you’d like to say to others who are considering Loomly?
“It’s been a really good experience. I’ve learned a lot and it’s freed up my time."
I’m able to schedule my work when I’m feeling creative, which has been a huge benefit for me. It’s simple to use. And as you build more and more over time, you’ve got a bigger and bigger database of past posts, and you’ve built your library of assets, and I just think it’s such a win and a no brainer for me.
"So if you’ve got a brand that you’re trying to build awareness for, why not use a tool that makes it so simple?”
Wrap up
Learn more about EVelop and The Institute of Management Studies by visiting their websites.
You can also find them on social media:
EVelop
The Institute of Management Studies
If you’re interested in keeping up-to-date with Stacey’s content, follow or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Want to learn why social media marketers like Stacey Schroeder choose Loomly over other social media schedulers? Start your free trial today to see the impact!
