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1Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
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3Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
Employee Advocacy: The Natural Link Between Employee Engagement & The Future of Work
Neal SchaferCo-Founder, Social Tools Summit
The ubiquitous nature of the Internet has made a permanent
impact on the way we do business. From desktop computers
to handheld devices, everyone is everywhere these days. The
trend is likely to continue as novel ways of accessing information
and interacting with people pop up every day. With so much
communication going on, it’s only natural that businesses are
getting in on the action.
While some companies are holding on to the old notion that their
employees should be cut of and focused while they are at work,
others are starting to realize the beneits of not only permitting
internet communication throughout the workday, but actively
encouraging it. Employee advocacy programs seek to increase
an employee’s engagement with the company while also taking
advantage of their digital connections by encouraging branded
conversations.
By unleashing their employees onto the web, businesses are
showing that they are current, connected, and not afraid to
engage with customers in a variety of ways. In return, employees
feel like they can have a real impact on the success of the
companies they work for, which boosts their engagement and
satisfaction.
The Changing Work Environment
The digital revolution has passed. There may be a few stragglers
who have not adopted digital technology, and there are certainly
plenty of innovations to look forward to. However, the world
is already forever changed: companies and their employees
will never interact as they have in the past. Email has become
the prominent form of business communication, and texting is
dominant for Americans under 50.
Recent estimates have millennials taking over anywhere from
40 percent to 75 percent of the workforce by 2025. This is
important because the millennial generation is the irst to grow
up surrounded by connectivity. They are also the irst to not only
demand a digital work environment, but also to leverage that
environment to boost the proitability of their employers while
making their own lives easier.
‘‘Employee advocacy programs seek to increase an employee’s engagement with the company while also taking advantage of their digital connections by encouraging branded conversations.’’
Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com4
Social Media as a Mainstream Tool
Most employees are already using social media as a mainstream
communication tool for their personal lives. To bring more
people on board to an employee advocacy program, companies
are going to have to take a step back and reevaluate their use of
employee advocacy plans as a content marketing initiative.
Companies will have a better chance of adoption if employee
advocacy becomes part of a broader efort to increase employee
engagement. This means that employee advocacy must be about
more than just ampliication; it has to be about the insourcing of
content and ideas to make employees feel like they are part of a
larger social media team that represents the brand.
The Success of Engagement
According to a recent Gallup report, companies with engaged
employees are 21 percent more productive than those whose
employees are not. Employee advocacy programs are a strong
way to get employees engaged with their employers, but only
within the right structure. When companies not only acknowledge
the new workforce, but also embrace it by changing the culture
for employees to one where everyone is a digital ambassador, the
initiative will be better received from the top down.
The result is a win for everyone involved as consumers receive
information from relatable individuals, employees are more
engaged in their work, businesses gain the advantage by
combining content with advocacy, and the overall success of the
organization is recognized from every angle.
‘‘Employee advocacy is a natural match for content marketing as employees are well versed on the brand as well as distributing and consuming information on the web.’’
Employee Advocacy as Content Marketing
Content marketing has been the biggest overhaul of the
marketing world since the invention of the television. Advertisers
have been trying to break into the online world and, while some
have been effective, many have not. Internet users employ
a number of methods to avoid advertising, from ad-blocking
software to learning how to tune out peripheral content on
websites.
Content marketing cuts through these blockades by giving
consumers what they want: information. Most people do not
mind getting information about products and services; it is the
interruption that causes objection. Content marketing puts the
information out there and leads consumers in.
Employee advocacy is a natural match for content marketing as
employees are well versed on the brand as well as distributing
and consuming information on the web. Consumers are also
more likely to respond to a real person, a trusted source within
the company, than they are to a more general branded approach.
The trouble is that too many people do not want to lend their
personal identity to their employer to use for marketing
purposes.
Budget
Paid Media
KPIs
CPCTrust
Social media
Engagement credibility
reach
content
cpm
Neal SchaferCo-Founder, Social Tools Summit
5Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
THE ROAD MOST
TRAVELED IS CROWDED
Acquiring a competitive edge in the online media and advertising
world is becoming increasingly complex. Companies attempting to
grab a share of the voice are increasingly limited by the presence of
competitors and the resulting competition for existing audiences.
Minimum bid prices for paid media advertising are high and will
most likely continue to rise, while the ability to feel conident that
online media campaigns are reaching your target audiences is
becoming more unclear and increasingly complex. Facebook,
for example, dramatically controls what end users see, and
impressions are largely dependent upon a wide range of factors
besides CPC and CPM rates. We should expect to see social
networks change in order to better serve their members, though
it remains to be seen whether this will be detrimental to brands
and companies.
Nonetheless, social networks are here to stay. As we will see
below, long-term audience engagement will be largely driven by
content marketing that enables brands and clients to engage in
ongoing conversations. Social networks are the space in which
such interaction thrives.
Content marketing: A marketing technique
that focuses on
attracting target
audiences by providing
visual and editorial
content on topics
of interest.
12.00%
12.05%
All Pages
Pages w/ > 500k Likes
4.04%
3.51%
2.97%2.71%
2.11%
11.58%
8.70%
7.70%
6.15%
10.00%
8.00%
6.00%
4.00%
3.00%Oct’ 13 Nov Dec Jan’ 14 Feb
Analysis of 100+ Facebook brand pages around the world with more than 48 million total fans conducted by
Social@Ogilvy in Februrary 2014. Please see the report Facebook Zero at http://social.ogilvy.com for details.
AVERAGE ORGANIC REACH OF CONTENT PUBLISHED
ON BRAND FACEBOOK PAGES
Companies attempting to grab a share of the voice are increasingly limited by the growing presence of competitors...
Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com6
SPEAK YOUR TARGETS' LANGUAGE
AND THEY WILL HEAR WHAT MAKES
SENSE TO THEM
An important development has begun to have an obvious
impact on social media campaigns and other online media
advertising formats. Because of the extreme competition for
clicks, impressions, shares and favorites, target audiences are
becoming much more reserved about what they are willing to
click on. When talking about companies with long sales cycles,
where discussions with prospects have to span long periods,
where purchases are often expensive, or for situations in which
the brand has existed for many years and needs to preserve its
relevance, maintaining a share of voice has become increasingly
challenging, as audiences are tuning out of online solicitation and
being choosy about who they do listen to.
“Content marketing’’ is the idea of attracting audiences by
providing content that has a high appeal, either because it
93% of B2B marketers are using content marketing (2014)B2B marketers use an average of 13 content marketing tactics
B2B content marketers use an average
of 6 social media platforms
Top Organizational Goals for B2B
Content Marketing
Content snacking: A content marketing technique that involves promoting
short, digestible pieces of content that can be easily
consumed.
is exciting or interesting (and easily readable), or because
it provides insights that are useful for audience members.
Brands and companies are beginning to understand that while
engaging in conversations with target audiences represents a
signiicant investment, in the long term it may be the only viable
way of preserving that elusive share of voice in an increasingly
competitive environment. Today, content marketing is the vehicle
brands must use to position themselves on social media and grab
the attention of their target audiences.
OF B2B
MARKETERS
USE LINKEDIN
TO DISTRIBUTE
CONTENT
91%
BRAND
AWARENESS
82% OF B2B
MARKETERS
USE FACEBOOK
TO DISTRIBUTE
CONTENT
81% OF B2B
MARKETERS
USE TWITTER
TO DISTRIBUTE
CONTENT
85%
LEAD GENERATION
74%
SOCIAL MEDIA
(OTHER THAN
BLOGS)
87%
VIDEOS
73%
E-NEWSLETTERS
80%
WHITE
PAPERS
64%
IN-PERSON
EVENTS
76%
WEBINARS
62%
WEBSITE
ARTICLES
81%
ARTICLES ON
OTHER WEBSITES
68% BLOGS
76%
ONLINE
PRESENTATIONS
63%
CASE STUDIES
73%
RESEARCH
REPORTS
44%
Source: TopRank Online Marketing, Over 100 B2B Marketing Statistics for 2014
51% INFOGRAPHICS
7Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
SOCIAL MEDIA LEAD GENERATION:
Not just a marketing activity
At the end of the day, all online marketing activity is designed
with the purpose of attracting leads and converting them into
sales, whether in the short or long term. Sales teams, however,
have an increasingly dynamic role that borders online marketing
activity. That activity, as you may have guessed, directly involves
social networks: social selling. Although social network lead
generation has traditionally been led by marketing departments
and structured around marketing initiatives, this is no longer
strictly the case. More and more sales initiatives now take place on
social networks, the domain of one-to-one interaction. However,
as we have already explored, this should not and cannot take the
form of push marketing initiatives such as sales pitches and pricing
discussions.
Social selling, in fact, is self-positioning and content marketing at
the same time. Why is this signiicant? Because important targets
are increasingly available to you and your competitors on social
networks and, with all of your competitors attempting to grab that
share of attention - whether through marketing or sales eforts
- , the barriers are the same. You must therefore diferentiate
yourself through the content you promote and the messages you
push. This is pull marketing through the promotion of expertise
and the provision of thought-provoking, engaging content.
Marketing and branding on social
media now extend to HR
The concept of brand positioning and content marketing extends
beyond social selling; it has strong implications not only for
Marketing and Sales, but for Human Resources and any other
department whose activity involves image, trust, and branding.
Attracting talent is largely dependent upon candidates’ perceptions
of company activity and success stories. Potential employees
are now scouting social networks and analyzing the activity of
potential employers in an efort to see what types of subjects they
are communicating on, what they have achieved, and how often
they post on social networks. Content-focused HR activity on social
networks is an important relection not only of the dynamism of
the HR department, but also of the company as a whole. A recent
report by Altimeter illustrates this very point: “Socially engaged
companies are more likely to drive greater lead generation,
cultivate innovation and yield top talent”.1
For example, a recruiter posting on specific projects related
to employees’ activity suggests that the company values its
employees (a very attractive quality), just as ofering employee
testimonials conveys trust for potential candidates. Sharing
content on product launches and team successes in conjunction
with open positions related to those activities (e.g. posting on
an R&D success while promoting a new position within the R&D
department) can lead to higher interest in those positions. It is true
that many companies are already aware of the importance of HR
activity on social networks. According to a 2014 survey by Jobvite
on the use of social media by recruiters, HR departments already
“showcase the employer brand, post jobs, generate employee
referrals, search for candidates, and contact candidates” on social
media.2
1: Altimeter, Relationship Economics
2: Undercover Recruiter, How Recruiters Use Social Media in 2014
Social selling:The act of reaching out to prospects on social media
and beginning sales discussions through the provision
of content marketing related to products or services.
Social media engagement stimulates
competition
Socially engaged companies are more likely
to drive greater lead generation, cultivate
innovation and yield top talent.
In this area, socially engaged companies are:
40%more likely to be perceived as more competitive
57%more likely to get increased sales leads
58%more likely to attract top talent
Source: Altimeter Group and Linkedin
Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com8
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN ?
Social networks are places for conversations, and will continue
to be a necessary environment in which to engage with target
audiences. Understanding what it takes to attain reach (share
of voice) and drive long-term engagement (and conversion) will
impact the way in which social media communication is embraced
by companies. Content marketing will continue to be a prominent
part of social media activity because it allows companies
and brands to continually develop conversations with target
audiences. Content marketing has also become an important
part of long-term branding processes, and will continue to impact
brand awareness and positioning, both on and of social media.
We can therefore conclude that Sales, HR and other company
departments must partake in content marketing eforts and be
active on social media in order to compete. This necessarily means
that all departments, not just the social media team, need to be
engaged in social media strategy in order to reach their targets
and objectives.
The next question is therefore: How do we push content on
social media networks in a way that increases contact with target
audiences despite the diiculty of organic reach, without spending
entire budgets on increasingly high CPC and CPM rates, and all
the while organizing content marketing initiatives transversally
in order to engage sales and HR teams along with marketing and
communication departments?
In the following discourse we will discuss the beneits of employee
advocacy on social media, and present examples of employee-
oriented social media initiatives at diferent companies. Although
it is true that any kind of initiative involving employee engagement
and the coordination of internal departments requires energy
and innovation, we believe that approaching the strategy in a
structured way can help ease organizational and motivational
diiculties. In the following sections we have formalized several
concepts into concrete solutions, and introduced case studies
on the successful deployment of a global employee advocacy
program.
How can we overcome the difficulties of organic reach...
...while organizing content marketing initiatives transversally...
...in order to reach target audiences?
...without exhausting entire budgets on increasingly high CPC and CPM rates...
9Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
engaged employees
A potential solution exists
within your company
Social media campaigns are, of course, a necessary part of social
media marketing and the launch of any product, service or piece
of news. It is here, however, that companies are encountering
increased competition in terms of bids for target audiences, as well
as when it comes to morphing social network algorithms for brand
pages and activity that makes it more diicult to achieve organic
impressions, as is currently the case on Facebook. However, the
complexity involved in paid social media marketing does not mean
we can, or indeed should, look to other strategies to replace paid
media. In fact, the targeting capabilities that exist on social media
are, and will continue to be, the very strength of social networks.
However, there is a way of complementing existing social media
activity (paid media) and community management in order to
increase the impact of your content marketing strategy: expanding
your marketing team by engaging your employees, across all
departments. What does this mean exactly?
It means engaging your employees to share content on their
own personal social networks, to contribute on behalf of
your company, to create synergy between teams through the
sharing of experiences and insights, and to position themselves
as company experts and brand influencers who connect with
prospects on social media. Why does this make sense? Aside from
the indirect bottom line efects of having an engaged workforce
that contributes actively to the communication strategies of your
company, there are many direct bottom line positive efects that
can be measured.
The evidence is in the math: 200 employees, each of whom has
an average of 200 connections per social network and shares 15
pieces of content on social media during one month, can generate
a potential 600,000 additional impressions on social media.
Moreover, of all adult social media users, 42% are active on two or
more social networks, meaning that this additional potential reach
is actually much larger.3
That’s all to say that if your company’s marketing team were able
to engage employees to share, tweet, and post at least 15 times
per month, they would achieve on average an additional 600,000
potential organic impressions for your content. What’s more,
the content your employees shared would be viewed by their
connections not as ads, but as trustworthy content, meaning that
audiences would be far more receptive to the messages being
shared.
Beyond sheer numbers of additional impressions, employee
contributions save time and money when it comes to content
creation. Who better to submit a piece on a successful project or
200 employeeswith an average of 200+ connections per social network
600,000 potential impressions per month.Amplified reach.A more receptive audience that includes your next best clients and employees
15 shares per monthon one social network
Credibility90%
of internet users consider consumer
recommendations to be the most credible
form of advertising.Source: Nielsen
Trust92%
of social media users trust content
shared by people they know versus 36%
for content originating from social ads.Source: Nielsen
Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com10
EMPLOYEE SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT
INITIATIVES
Swisscom: Effective Utilization
of Social Media
Swisscom devised a plan that would enable the company to
communicate efectively with customers on social media, which
resulted in the construction of a cross-function social media
initiative that not only saved on customer service and CRM costs,
but also proved to beneit other departments such as HR and PR.
The original idea was to create a customer service community:
a forum that would help customers share information, thus
client experience than the employees directly involved in those
projects? Companies have tons of employee experts, from Sales to
HR, IT to R&D. If employees could share their insights into business
or customer experiences, they would not only serve as additional
resources for other employees in similar roles, but would also
contribute valuable points of view that would promote conidence
and trust outside of the organization - sources of important
content marketing, highly tailored to speciic subjects or topics.
Moreover, conversations between employees and prospects are
by their very nature a far more personal experience than brand-
prospect conversations, and improve overall proximity.
Of course, there are many questions that come into play in light of
this type of strategy. Aside from the obvious “how can a marketing
team orchestrate such an initiative”, which we will address later,
many questions arise: How do I get my employees to engage in
this kind of activity? How can I manage employee sharing? How
do I address sensitive issues regarding employee communication
on company activity on social media? How can I encourage the
sharing of company content? How do I deine KPIs for this activity?
And is this all worth the efort?
Before going into detail about how to orchestrate such a strategy,
let’s take a look at some existing initiatives that embrace the
concept of employee advocacy on social media, and see how
companies have beneited from cross-function synergy that in
turn provides bottom line arguments for these kinds of initiatives.
cutting down on support costs. The success of this online
community indicated that customers were demanding varying
levels of interaction with the brand on diferent social channels,
a realization that pointed directly to the need for company-wide
social media involvement. This led to the creation of a social media
board with members from all departments, serving as a cross-
function strategy hub where all departments play a role in the
development of new social media initiatives.
Led by Communications, there is a social media lead for every
department, including Customer Care, Marketing and HR. The
board meets to explore, devise and coordinate social media
Is this all worth the effort?1- Engage employees2- Manage sharing activity3- Address sensitive content4- Encourage ongoing sharing5- Define and measure KPIs
3: Source: Pew Research Center
2
3
4
5
1
11Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
initiatives, and strategies range from the development of the
Customer Care Support Community to the engagement of
journalists on Twitter through the company’s PR department.
In terms of ROI, the fact remains that there are many beneits
of employee mobilization and engagement that are not easy to
measure. However, Swisscom has identiied two key performance
indicators: call delection and the hours saved by call centers.
These KPIs proved to be important ROI metrics, and have helped
support proposals for other social media initiatives.5
Nokia: Internal communication
Initiatives
Nokia has been particularly active in encouraging social media
use internally to “bring out the company’s unique authentic
voice”.6 Nokia’s Social Media Communications team, established
in 2008, seeks to engage internal conversations in order to
promote external communication, and ultimately to drive online
engagement.
As part of these eforts, Nokia has launched diferent communities:
the Blog Hub, the Video Hub, and the Nokia Conversations blog.
These communities are designed to foster communication and
engagement between employees, keeping them up to date on
company news such as new product releases and company
projects. The Blog Hub, for example, serves as a place to showcase
internal projects and teams, where employees can search for
relevant information and ofer their feedback through voting,
comments and posts. The Video Hub was designed to provide
informative video news clips on daily activity, which has become
very popular among employees, and the Nokia Conversations blog
was launched with the intention of keeping employees informed
on product releases, showcasing interviews, and providing
internal leaders and teams with a voice to share their stories and
experiences.
The result? Nokia’s efforts have helped establish an air of
transparency not only for employees, but also in the eyes of the
outside world, by focusing on the notion that “we are not just a
giant machine, we are a collection of individuals”.6 Although the
ROI on these initiatives is more focused on employee engagement
in general, it incorporates metrics such as the number of attendees
at meetings, the number of article views and comments, and the
types of comments - all of which are used to “measure success and
progress at the company”.6
These initiatives revolve around the idea that employee
engagement and the sharing of knowledge not only have a positive
efect on brand image internally and externally, but that they also
have an important impact on eiciency and cost savings. In the
case of Swisscom, aside from integrating social media throughout
the organization, the insights gained through the social media
board have led to the development of social communities that have
produced tremendous cost savings for call centers. Meanwhile,
Nokia’s direct engagement with employees has led to information
being shared more easily, promoting a culture of innovation
and improvement tied to employees, with KPIs revolving around
measurable employee advocacy.
Accepting these concepts and their positive impacts, and linking
them back to the ampliication and content marketing eiciency
discussed at the beginning of this paper, it is clear that there are
valid arguments to be made for embracing an employee-focused
social media strategy. Connecting the added value identified
through these employee advocacy initiatives with the fact that
engaging employees to share and produce content boosts a
company’s content marketing strategy, we begin to see the
complete system, and are able to understand the full scope of the
beneits to be gained, both for employees and for companies.
However, in order to consider employee advocacy on social media
a true solution, we need to formalize the concept, making it easily
replicable, scalable, and deployable for companies of any size
and scope. Doing this involves setting up organizational roles,
implementing speciic tools designed for this purpose, educating
employees on social media, creating participation incentives for
employees and department leads, and establishing KPIs that
address direct and indirect bottom line variables.
5: Telecoms IQ, How Swisscom Have Efectively Utilised Social Media: Internally and Externally (2014)
6: Simply-communicate.com, Nokia’s internal communication driven by social media
Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com12
Organizational Roles: Initiate,
Moderate, Animate and Track
Your Program
The irst step to launching an employee social media engagement
solution within an organization is identifying and assigning the
necessary roles. Who will steer the project - will it be the marketing
or communications department? There are several ways to
approach the assignment of organizational roles; companies
can choose to launch an initiative from within a department
that is already engaged in social media activity (perhaps only the
marketing and sales teams), and expand activity in a transversal
approach over time, or, alternatively, choose a top-down approach,
with senior management pushing initiatives on a company-wide
scale. Of course, there may also be a mixture of both. But whatever
the strategy for participation and initiation, roles must be assigned
in order to streamline communication and task management.
Firstly, project leads need to be assigned: individuals who possess
knowledge on the full scope of the project, and who can provide
support for participating departments. Another set of social media
leads should be responsible for devising and organizing employee
social media training and implementing expert certiications based
on topics and social networks. The next step is to select “solution
ambassadors” within participating departments, who will aid in the
onboarding of the initiative within their teams.
In addition, someone needs to be responsible for deining and
evaluating KPIs, and providing detailed analyses on KPIs per
participating department. Last but not least, the short-term
objectives of the program must be set, in order to allow all
participating departments to focus on the same goals. Is the goal
to maximize participation in the program (high user engagement),
obtain the most reach, or produce the highest traic on brand
assets? Objectives can be adapted and changed over time, but
the deinition of a single objective at the beginning helps steer all
eforts in the same direction.
EMPLOYEE ADVOCACY:
A BUSINESS
CHALLENGE WITH HIGH
RETURNS
01More informed employees, which leads to
personal development and improvement
in work-related practices.
04Greater numbers of employee experts
in contact with prospects on social media.
02Employee-driven insights
and innovation.
05Greater inluence and share of voice on social media, and more lead generation
driven by commercial teams.
03 Improved internal and external
brand image.
06 Cost savings on customer service
through engaged employee
and customer communities.
by Breaking down the core concepts of employee advocacy initiatives, we can see that content sharing
on internal and external social networks leads to:
13Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
Employee Training &
Certification Programs
Employee training and certiication play an important role in the
success and engagement rate of any advocacy initiative. Several
issues must be decided on by management, but this does not have
to be a daunting task. The irst step is to establish the ground rules
for communication: which topics should be avoided, what type of
language should be avoided, and what can or can’t employees say
in the content they post? This can be easily broken down into short
information sessions, starting with a two hour session on the “dos
and don’ts”, during which social media skills are introduced.
Additional training can be ofered over time and speciic training
held for addressing bad buzz and negative interaction on social
media. Training should also be designed for speciic departments.
For example, sales departments should receive training in social
selling and lead generation strategies. Marketing and HR, on the
other hand, should each have separate training focused on issues
that relate to their objectives on social media.
Equally important is the training that should be designed and
held for project leads within each participating department; it is
important to educate solution ambassadors on the scope of the
project, the desired objectives, and the beneits of participation
for their team. Department heads should become champions for
their teams, and understand the added value of the initiative in
order to encourage adherence and participation. Case studies
are important at this stage, as it is crucial to convince as many
department leads as possible of the potential efectiveness - for
them - of the project. Sales teams must understand how engaging
employees on social media helps generate more leads, while
HR departments must understand how posting on Facebook or
producing testimonials and content that employees can share
on social media will help them acquire the most sought-after
candidates.
In addition, certiication programs must be developed, not only to
encourage employees to acquire more training, but also to provide
a system of recognition and reward for their eforts. Employees
must understand the added value of engaging in communication
eforts and, in addition to having the possibility of being recognized
as company brand advocates, they need to be encouraged through
reward programs and perks for active participation. Finally, if the
initiative is launched from within a speciic department within
the organization in a bottom-up or transversal approach, top
management must be engaged in the project.
One Tool to Orchestrate All
Activity
One of the most important aspects of implementing employee
advocacy on social media is finding a way to organize and
centralize company content, in order to share it with participating
departments and employees, partition content to the relevant
employee groups, provide a centralized location in which to view,
share and create content, create worklow approval systems that
allow project steers to monitor, track, and approve employee
contributions, and track activity and engagement in order to
determine concrete KPIs and ROI.
Sociabble, a tool created by a group of developers, marketers
and social media experts, was designed for the very purpose
of employee advocacy on social media. The tool has content
The Sociabble Platform
Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com14
aggregation functionalities that gather all the content a company
publishes on its social media channels and websites. Using a
channel and tagging system, the tool pulls in content through
APIs from company social network accounts, RSS feeds and third
party sources. The tool then allows administrators to organize all
feeds onto themed channels.. An example would be to have all
the content related to a company’s products and services on one
channel, and content related to trending topics on another.
Employees log onto the platform, and then choose the channels
to which they want to subscribe. For example, when sales team
members log in, it would be relevant for them to sign up to a
channel with topics revolving around the products they sell, or
research regarding the latest trends related to those products. The
channel and tagging system is lexible, giving companies the ability
to design and organize content as they see relevant. Organization
varies for each company, as well as the type of activity in which it
is engaged. The point of the organization functionalities is to allow
employees to view the content that is most relevant for them to
read and share.
The platform also allows employees to join multiple Sociabble
networks, meaning that if a company possesses two separate
Sociabble networks (let’s say, one for employees and another for
company partners), employees can be invited to join both.
The interface itself is highly interactive: a dynamic lux with blocks
of images and short text intros, with sharing icons visible in each
block for a quick “click, edit, share” experience, straight from the
platform. Filters allow employees to view posts by social network
or RSS, and simple profile modules allow each employee to
choose the social networks on which they would like to share.
The ergonomic interface allows users to easily understand
calls-to-action, read and share posts, and ilter content. On the
navigation menu, users can also click to write posts and submit
user-generated content (UGC), including links and images, which
are sent to administrators for approval.
From a management point of view, there are several features
available for administrators to manage users and content.
For UGC, administrators receive a queue of posts ready to be
approved. Admins also have the ability to lag content, warning
employees of potentially sensitive topics through notiications that
appear on the platform and on the website. An example could be
if there were some negative posts or bad buzz online, certain posts
managed by the company’s community managers or social media
Organizational Roles.Project leads
.Social media leads
.Solution ambassadors
.KPI managers
Analytics.Metrics for employee activity, end user interactions
and content topics
.Engagement data linked to lead generation
and conversion rates
.Before and after testing
Employee Training & Certification Programs.Ground rules for communication
.Social media dos and don’ts
.Dealing with bad buzz
.Training and reward programs
Animation Calendar.Departmental coordination
.Production of employee participation initiatives
.Regular challenges and campaigns
Sociabble: One Tool to Orchestrate All Activity .Content aggregation and channels
.Ergonomic interface
.Multiple sharing communities
.User-generated content
.Gamiication
15Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
strategists could be lagged in order to inform employees not to
comment or create additional communication.
Moreover, admins have a large amount of control over the
partitioning and organization of content; they can tag content
by topics, create new channels and manage content through the
organizational features, in order to better populate channels with
relevant content. If certain types of content are receiving more
traic and shares, admins may identify the subjects trending the
most among employees and end audiences, insights that help
steer content marketing activity (a little more about this later on).
Admins may also add and remove users and launch notiications,
both on the platform and via email.
Aside from management-focused features, Sociabble offers
engagement functionalities that help animate communities.
Admins can launch campaigns, during which certain posts are
highlighted at the top of the interface. These special posts can be
related to keywords or can be chosen manually from the interface,
and are pinned to the top of the channel lux, ofering visual cues
for users.
Sociabble includes a gamification system for users, whereby
actions such as likes, posts, or shares are rewarded by Sociabble
points. Campaign posts, for example, award more points than
normal posts. The tool also offers a challenge functionality,
whereby employees can compete for prizes. Leaderboards allow
all members to see the most engaged members and the top
Sociabble advocates.
From a departmental point of view, these features are important
for several reasons. First of all, the ability to form teams is
very important for developing a sense of community within
departments, and fosters healthy competition between business
units. More importantly though, these campaigns and challenges
can be scheduled and synchronized with external communication
efforts and events such as product launches, paid media
campaigns, important press releases and new client acquisitions.
The Sociabble Interface
Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com16
Analytics
It goes without saying that the deinition of KPIs is a critical aspect
of any employee advocacy initiative. Fortunately, the Sociabble
platform ofers tracking functionalities that ofer insights not only
into employee activity, but also into end user interaction with
content. For example, Sociabble can identify the most engaged
users, as well as the advocates driving the most traic on social
media. Sociabble also provides data for end user engagement per
piece of content, such as the total number of clicks on a given social
network.
Using the dashboard ilters and tables, Sociabble administrators
can view other metrics such as the topics tagged to pieces of
content (in order to identify the most popular topics), the total
traffic driven by a user or piece of content, and the complete
ampliication and engagement data based on the total number
of clicks and shares, both on and of the platform. Using these
analytics, project leads within each participating department are
able to determine the engagement level of their team, as well as
the total traic driven by individual employees.
The next step requires linking this data to lead generation and
conversion rates within participating departments. For example,
how did acquiring 2,000 clicks on Twitter for the article Cloud
Computing for Big Data impact a sales executive’s lead generation
activity? Of those clicks or likes, did a potential lead become
available, or did the content help convince a wavering client?
Tracking activity per department or user, and analyzing parallel
lead results, helps concretize the impacts of the employee
advocacy initiative. Sociabble’s link tracker allows CRM systems
to trace the source of a lead obtained via a contact form as a
result of a Sociabble share. The platform also allows individuals to
track their own performance and engagement metrics on social
networks. Commercial managers are able to identify the most
active members of their team, as well as who is generating the
most traic. In combination with CRM tools, the ROI of employee
advocacy in terms of lead generation can therefore be assessed.
Department leads may also choose to perform before and after
testing, comparing overall traic results from before and after
the launch of the program. Of course, this may not be truly
representative, as variables change over time and are diicult
to control. Nonetheless, conversion down the funnel requires
a combination of tactics from all angles, and any touch point
along that funnel is a contribution towards a lead or conversion.
Therefore, if employee social media activity is providing important
additional touch points with potential prospects, there will be an
increase in the rate of lead generation and conversion overall. An
alternative way to assess contributions made on the platform is
to perform before and after testing with listening tools, in order
to assess the ways in which perceptions of the company have
improved since employee advocacy began.
Sociabble Rich Analytics
17Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
Animation
With all the tools in place to launch this sort of initiative,
what comes next? The true success of implementation lies in
employees’ use of, engagement in and adherence to the solution.
A launch strategy must be developed, and it may include pre-
roll out information sessions with managers, formal employee
announcements, email communication, and other internal PR
activities (to read more about internal launch strategies, check out
our 12 Steps to Launching Your Employee Social Media Engagement
Initiative).
A few recommended communication strategies include launch
emails sent to employees, a formal presentation of the initiative
given to each department, integration of the announcement
on existing employee communication channels, such as the
homepage of an intranet page, and materials for employees that
serve as visual cues and reminders of the tool during the irst few
weeks of launch.
The next step, animation of the platform, is crucial. Using the
functionalities within the employee advocacy platform, project
leads must coordinate among diferent departments in order
to build a general calendar of animation per department, and
produce participation incentives for employees.
One example of an engagement tactic is the creation of a challenge
to Submit your Opinion on the Future of Mobile Use (for a telecoms
company for example), during which the best post is chosen and
the winning employee awarded a prize. Another example is the
launch of a series of challenges among diferent sales teams across
a region, during which teams compete for the most traic and
engagement on their shared content. One could imagine the New
York oice versus the Chicago oice, or the London team versus
the French team. There are many possibilities, and the social media
board (the project leads from each participating department and
the project steering leads) would be responsible for devising
diferent ideas. Quarterly or trimesterly performance assessment
and recognition awards should be set.
Along with engagement and participation awards, social media
training should be continually offered and developed around
the idea of developing teams’ social media skills, helping them to
improve their positioning and inluence on social media.
It's a Multi-Faceted Initiative
Based on the discussion so far, it is evident that implementing
an employee-oriented social media strategy goes far beyond
simply inviting employees to share company posts on their own
social networks. Roles need to be assigned, the right internal
communication strategy put in place, training organized, and the
right tool implemented. KPIs for individual departments need to
be deined, while a strong employee engagement strategy must be
created. However, the approach is clear, as are the results: multiple
employee-related beneits, such as professional development
opportunities and the achievement of objectives, including bottom
line goals. However, you do not need to take our word for it; this
solution has already been launched successfully, and continues to
exceed expectations, at Microsoft and Sage.
The Sociabble Leaderboard
Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com18
40countries
17 000 employees
Global employee advocacy:
The pilot
Launching employee advocacy on a global scale, while at the
same time addressing regional needs, is no easy task. After
evaluating several tools, Microsoft selected Sociabble to scale its
employee advocacy program worldwide.
By launching a pilot phase in selected countries, the company
was able to establish the key objectives and structure for its
program, which was later rolled out throughout the organization,
engaging around 17 000 employees.
By leveraging employee advocacy, Microsoft wanted to
provide easy access to relevant content for social sellers, target
receptive audiences, and amplify the reach of social media
content. Beginning with a pilot phase in selected countries, the
company launched the Sociabble employee advocacy platform,
aggregating content from oicial company social media streams,
curated RSS feeds and the accounts of Microsoft executives.
Highly visual and incredibly easy to use, the Sociabble interface
allows members to view all content and share posts on any of
their own social networks.
The objective of this pilot phase was to determine how to
launch a global employee advocacy program while considering
both global and regional needs. As well as beneiting from the
localization of the Sociabble platform in ive languages (English,
CASE STUDY: Microsoft
How Microsoft Transforms Employees
into Brand Advocates on a Global Scale
10 000employees
on Sociabble
350-500 millionpotential impressions
per year
$5-10 millionpotential advertising value
19Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
French, German, Spanish and Portuguese), this objective was
achieved thanks to the creation of a speciic channel structure.
Dynamic channels: The
organization of global and
localized content
Launching Sociabble in around 40 countries, Microsoft used the
platform’s dynamic channel functionality to tag content and ilter
it onto channels, including Marketing, Finance, Manufacturing,
Retail and Local Events.
The Microsoft Sociabble network has 20 standardized channels,
each of which contains both global and localized content. This
means that when employees sign up, they receive content that is
tailored to them according to their location, but are also able to
access all global Microsoft content.
The channel structure implemented by Microsoft is crucial
for a number of reasons. Firstly, it gives Microsoft employees
throughout the organization easy access to the content that is
most relevant to them. Secondly, it gives the company a high
amount of visibility concerning the engagement rates of global
and localized content, as well as the activity of diferent user
groups. And thirdly, it allows administrators to devise and launch
campaigns that are tailored to their region.
For Microsoft, being able to localize content for employee
advocates throughout the organization was a key priority.
Beginning with a pilot in selected countries was therefore key to
the success of the employee advocacy program, as it allowed the
company to structure content channels according to a deined
global approach and identiied regional needs.
20 standardized channels
5 languages
Sébastien ImbertDirector of Digital Marketing
Microsoft France
“We estimate that if 10,000 Microsoft employees use Sociabble, it will generate between 350 and 500 million potential impressions per year, with an estimated equivalent advertising value of between 5 and 10 million dollars.”
The Microsoft Sociabble Wall
Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com20
#SociableDay:
13 000 Employees,
23 Countries &
3.5 Million IMPRESSIONS
Fully aware of how social media is impacting business activity
and consumer behavior, Sage wanted to position itself as
a leader in digital transformation by engaging employees
in online communication. As part of a company-wide social
media initiative, the software company launched the Sociabble
employee advocacy platform globally in a single day, integrating
it with Salesforce and Chatter in order to facilitate the tool’s
seamless introduction.
A customer-irst company, Sage’s decision to launch employee
advocacy was rooted in one simple yet essential fact: social
media is where today’s consumers are and, if companies are to
stay relevant, they need to be social. Employee advocacy was
therefore a natural step within Sage’s digital strategy.
When it came to launching an employee advocacy program, Sage
wanted to transform the entire organization with no exceptions,
in a way that relected the company’s ‘‘speed of now’’ outlook.
CASE STUDY: sage
Sage Launches Brand Advocacy for
13 000 Employees in a Single Day
Xavier MontyHead of Social Media
Sage
52
24
“It was a no brainer that the social advocacy platform we would use would be integrated in Chatter. This is where Sociabble came up as the perfect solution.”
Sociabble in Salesforce
21Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
“There was no good reason not to try to do this globally in one
day,” explains Xavier Monty, Head of Social Media at Sage.
The company’s success in achieving this is due in no small part
to the fact that senior leadership teams were on board from the
word go. Under the leadership of new CEO Stephen Kelly, who
is incredibly active on social media, plans were made to launch
employee advocacy throughout the entire organization in just a
single day, during a company-wide event called #SociableDay.
A global conference dedicated to social media and associated
best practices, #SociableDay allowed Sage teams around the
world to drive digital transformation through a 40-minute
video. The event enjoyed unprecedented success, engaging
13 000 employees in 23 countries and generating 3.5 million
impressions on Twitter. And at the heart of the conference lay
the global launch of the Sociabble employee advocacy platform.
Sociabble's Integration with
Salesforce and Chatter
In order to position itself as a customer-irst organization on
social media as well as elsewhere, Sage wanted to enable all
employees to share company content and make a diference
to brand communication. This is why Sociabble, which ofers a
user-friendly interface and is also available in native app form
for Android, iOS and Windows Phone, was the chosen advocacy
platform.
Sage wanted employee advocacy to it naturally into its existing
internal communication ecosystem, which includes Salesforce
and Chatter. “It was a no brainer that the social advocacy platform
we would use would be integrated in Chatter,” explains Xavier
Monty, Head of Social Media at Sage, “This is where Sociabble
came up as the perfect solution.” Thanks to close collaboration
between Sage and Sociabble teams, the Sociabble platform was
fully integrated with Salesforce and Chatter a month ahead of
schedule.
For Sage, the decision to launch an advocacy program was one
based on a culture of openness and trust, in which employees
have the company’s full backing when sharing content on social
media. Through advocacy, employees are actively encouraged
to engage directly with customers by ofering innovative content
and demonstrating their own expertise.
During the irst few months since the launch of Sociabble, Sage
has reached over 100 000 online users on LinkedIn and Twitter
thanks to employees’ sharing activity on the platform. Moreover,
the content employees share on Sociabble has already brought
in new customers.
So what advice does Sage have for other companies considering
an employee advocacy initiative? “If you really trust that the
best asset of your company is your people, employee advocacy
is what you need,” adds Xavier Monty. “Having an employee
advocacy platform is one of the solutions, as you ensure that the
content shared is consistent with your brand and that this is the
best content you can share with your customers.”
This sums up Sage’s motivation for launching a social media
initiative: a desire to get ready for the business landscape of the
future by engaging with customers on social media today. The
company has achieved this with Sociabble, launching employee
advocacy throughout the organization and placing its people at
the forefront of its online communication strategy.
The Sage Sociabble Wall
Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com22
Employee Social Media
Engagement: A Challenge with
Tremendous Rewards
We started this discussion with the business rational for an
employee social engagement solution by understanding the
importance of social media marketing, the rise and continued
need for engaging content marketing, and the potential of
transforming employees into the brand advocates of the
companies they work for. Along the way we have identified
concrete KPIs, as well as diferent kinds of ROI, both quantiiable
and qualitative. We have presented existing initiatives and the
reasons for their success, and have put forward a concrete
solution with a structured implementation and animation
strategy. Microsoft and Sage are at the forefront of this initiative
and, as early adopters of a structured employee advocacy
approach, are continuing to reap the many beneits.
But what does this all mean for you and your company? Are
you considering implementing such an initiative but not sure
where to start, or reluctant to embark upon what may appear
to be a daunting task? Our discussion does point to the fact
that the success of this type of program requires strong
intradepartmental support. However, after obtaining interest
from departments and assigning key lead roles, the rest can be
implemented systematically.
CONCLUSION
Here at Sociabble, we have years of experience in company
transformation and digitization, internal program launches,
and the animation of initiatives within enterprises. If you
are interested in learning more about how we can help your
company launch an employee advocacy program, or are
interested in exploring the Sociabble employee advocacy
platform, please contact us at [email protected].
Embarking on this kind of initiative is no easy task. Nonetheless,
we believe that companies need to start considering employee
advocacy as an essential area of development, as it is through
their inluencers and brand advocates that they will be able to
reach prospects and stay relevant in today’s incredibly complex
and increasingly competitive social media landscape.
Relying on the social media strategies of yesterday will not
suice for tomorrow. Companies must continue to embrace
the importance of social media, and the relevance of multiple
points of contact with prospects and partners, both as
individuals and as business entities. Tailored and personalized
approaches will only become more important, as will multi-
touch point lead generation strategies in which the type of
contact, as well as the people from whom it originates, matters
most. Your employees are in the best position to showcase
your company. Empower them to help you, and allow your
company to shine through the voice of its people.
23Employee Advocacy: The New Frontier in Social Media Communication | sociabble.com
Disclaimer
The data and information in this publication originate from sources believed to be reliable. Nevertheless, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the completeness, accuracy or use of the information, and the authors of this document shall have no liability for errors, omissions or misinterpretations. References made to speciic products and vendors by trade name, trademark or otherwise do not constitute or imply their endorsement, recommendation or favoring, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. The opinions expressed in this publication are subject to change without notice.
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Altimeter, Relationship Economics
Nielsen, Global Trust in Advertising and Brand Messages
Simply-communicate.com, Nokia’s internal communication driven by social media
Social.ogilvy.com, Average Organic Reach of Content Published on Brand Facebook Pages
Telecoms IQ, How Swisscom Have Efectively Utilised Social Media: Internally and Externally
TopRank Online Marketing, Over 100 B2B Marketing Statistics for 2014
Undercover Recruiter, How Recruiters Use Social Media in 2014