HEARSAY SOCIAL ADOPTION GUIDE€¦ · HEARSAY SOCIAL ADOPTION GUIDE Ultimately, the success of your...

HE ARSAY SOCIAL ADOPTION GUIDE

HEARSAY SOCIAL ADOPTION GUIDE

A Six-step Framework for Boosting Social Business Adoption Across Your Organization


At the same time, people are sharing their lives on social media and the best way for financial services professionals to reach and engage with customers is to listen to them through social media and other digital channels. Your job, as program advocate, is to provide your field teams—the agents, advisors, wholesalers, and bankers—with the tools and resources they need to successfully leverage social business in their daily sales routine.

Luckily, we have spent a lot of time and energy not only perfecting the product, but coming up with key insights and recommendations after working with hundreds of customers to help drive social business adoption. We’ve seen dozens of use cases and heard from many financial industry professionals like you who have shared successful strategies to increase social business usage over time. These strategies generally fall into six buckets:

1. Executive Sponsorship and Championship

2. Field-Level Advisor Advocacy

3. Training and Education

4. Advisor Success Stories

5. Gamification

6. Content Strategy

INTRODUCTION

Everyone wants to run his or her business more effectively, but driving adoption of a social business platform can sometimes feel like an uphill battle. Even the most sophisticated program administrator using applications like Hearsay Social, which were created to increase a financial professional’s productivity and company’s business growth, can face “user adoption” challenges.


On the heels of our industry-leading Social Business Maturity Model study, which looks at our customers with various levels of “maturity”, we’re sharing best practices that we think will boost adoption and help turn your team into high performers. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to driving adoption, we believe there are practical things you can do today to increase your chances of social business success.

ORGANIZE YOUR TEAMWhether you’re in a pilot phase, or 18 months into a full-scale

program, the team responsible for driving the adoption of the

Hearsay Social program should meet to discuss the goals of the

program—to increase user engagement—and how to scale it across

the company. Moreover, your team should be aligned with the top

priorities of the business and support the idea that Hearsay Social

is a critical solution to meeting those priorities. The most effective

teams tend to include an executive level sponsor, dedicated

marketing project lead, content marketing professional, field sales

team member, compliance professional and support staff.

ADVISOR PAIN POINTS AND SUCCESS ENABLERS Low user adoption is often due to incorrect perceptions about

the technology and/or lack of understanding and knowledge

about the value it provides. Below are key challenges to

overcome and success enablers to be aware of:

ADVISOR PAIN POINTS SUCCESS ENABLERS

“Not enough time”

“Fear of posting”

“Too difficult”

“Don’t feel it’s important to the business”

“Not a requirement of my objectives”

Keep it simple

Demonstrate value

Make it part of the culture

Provide training and education and evolve plan every quarter

Rely on strategic partners for content


Executive buy-in is a critical first step along your path to increasing social business adoption. In fact, programs with executive buy-in have an average of 13% higher maturity than those without.1 Equally important are executive champions (i.e. those who actively use social channels to reach their target audiences). Executive sponsors help to increase program visibility, create culture change, and clear any roadblocks; whereas, executive champions lead by example and motivate teams by personally using social channels in their daily routines.

1 The Social Business Maturity Model study, Hearsay Social, August 2015.

The executive sponsor or champion is not limited to the

CEO or CMO. He or she can be the Head of Digital, Marketing,

Sales, Compliance or IT. The key is to find someone who can provide top-down leadership

to support organizational transformation.

SECURE AND MAINTAIN EXECUTIVE SPONSORSHIP AND CHAMPIONSHIP

1.


SUCCESS INSIGHTS

• Social leaders ACTIVELY USE THEIR OWN SOCIAL NETWORKS to cultivate relationships with clients, prospects, peers, and employees. They are adept at listening to opportunities on social by posting content and responding to real-time conversations about their company and industry.

• Social leaders MAKE SOCIAL BUSINESS PART OF THE COMPANY CULTURE by communicating the value of social business. They view social business as imperative and not a “check the box” policy on behalf of the company.

• Social leaders LEVERAGE THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE such as @handles in presentations or email signatures and #hashtags in social media communication to attract awareness to the brand.

• Social leaders ATTEND AT LEAST ONE HEARSAY SOCIAL QUARTERLY BUSINESS REVIEW (QBR) a year and show their support through continuous involvement.

Getting Executive Sponsors Involved

• Consider training one or a few people from the executive team to show the value that social business provides; for example, help them build out a professional profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook to get them started.

• Provide step-by-step guidance to help executives engage with their audiences through social networks:• Try to get the executive sponsors to write content

themselves whenever possible. They could start writing and posting on topics they are thought leaders in or are passionate about. Otherwise, consider designating someone from your team to learn their voice and write on their behalf.

• If the executive sponsor is already producing thought leadership through the company blog, consider expanding the reach of the content by promoting it via social.

• Encourage the executive sponsor to follow other executives that they admire and listen to how they engage and respond.

• Show the executive sponsor how to listen for opportunities on social media for two-way dialogue with his or her “fans” and “followers”.

HOW TO:

1.


SPOTLIGHT: SOCIAL BUSINESS LEADERS

A number of executives from large financial services and insurance companies not only embrace social

but utilize it publicly as well.

John Taft, CEO of RBC Wealth Management

Tash Elwyn, President of Raymond James, Private Client Group

Scott Ham, President of Transamerica, Life & Protection

1.


In many companies, there’s often a disconnect between what’s happening at corporate versus what’s taking place in the field concerning compa-ny-wide initiatives. Your job is to help bridge the gap to help overcome this disconnect. This may require you to go door-to-door to field offices to create awareness of the social business initiative to your advisors or agents, and then train them (and train them again) on how to effectively use the platform. Essentially, the more you increase their comfort level, the more you empower them to act on their own accord.

ZEALOUSLY ADVOCATE THE PROGRAM AT THE FIELD LEVEL

2.


SUCCESS INSIGHTS

• GO DOOR TO DOOR. Find moments to communicate the value of social business with your advisor field teams.

• FILL THE ADOPTION GAPS. Determine the specific adoption gaps that exists among your advisors and help fill them. For example, if your advisors have not all connected their social networks to Hearsay Social, you may wish to set up a session on just how to do so—or do it for them!

• FIND THE PASSIONATE AGENTS and have them assist you with training and curriculum, support help, and building momentum with others.

• GROOM FUTURE SOCIAL CHAMPIONS by hosting relevant and easy-to-follow workshops and one-on-one training sessions on how to use social for business.

• TRAIN BY REGION and incorporate social media metrics into monthly branch sales reviews.

• APPOINT A POINT PERSON by region or local office for others to reach out to with questions, feedback or support.

• BE CREATIVE. • Set up a booth or “tech station” and HOST DROP-IN

OFFICE HOURS and help people sign up for social business on the spot.

• CREATE A “DAY IN THE LIFE OF” VIDEO series highlighting a small sampling of advisors who use social business in their day to day routines, and share on the company’s intranet, newsletter, or social media channels.

• Host a “TRAIN THE TRAINER” session and share best

practices for increasing social business adoption using this document as a guide.

• Help to CREATE LOCALLY-FOCUSED CAMPAIGNS

and use social to promote them.

2.


SPOTLIGHT: FARMERS INSURANCE The Social Heroes include:

Joel McKinnon (@mckinnonins) Keith Wainauski (@keithski)Mike Schmisek (@MSchmisek)Angela Johnson (@AngelaAJJohnson)Renee Corwin-Rey (@ReneeCorwinRey)Nadeem Damani (@nadeemd)

The Social Heroes are comprised of six Farmers Insurance Agents located all across the country

that are passionate about social media and shares with other agents the importance of Social Media

marketing for small businesses.

2.


Ultimately, the success of your social business program depends on your advisors actually using the social business platform. While you should already have a training and education program in place, you should also plan for contingen-cies based on new hires, new product function-ality, and the latest know-how in social business. Your goal should be to create a systematic and ongoing learning engine that delivers insights, best practices, and metrics around social business success. Below are tips for how to stay top of mind through advisor training.

PROVIDE ONGOING TRAINING AND ACCESS TO AMPLE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES 3.


SUCCESS INSIGHTS

• Training and education takes time. COMMIT THE TIME AND “PEOPLE RESOURCES” to build a robust training and education program.

• REVISIT YOUR TRAINING STRATEGY on a quarterly or monthly basis. You may wish to revamp your strategy based on learnings from the field or objectives you’d like to target.

• CREATE EASY-TO-FOLLOW EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS such as user guides and “tip sheets”. Consider integrating them within company-only sections of your website, your intranet, and in new hire onboarding kits.

• BE CREATIVE AND KEEP THINGS SIMPLE! For example, put a sign in the lobby to advertise an upcoming training session, offer a brown bag lunch series or “coffee chat” to go over simple things like “How to use LinkedIn to generate leads.”

Stay top of mind by offering the following on a quarterly, monthly, or even weekly basis:

• Live remote instructor-lead trainings (via Go-To-Meetings or WebEx)

• In-person field training

• On-demand recorded training

• Self-guided training via the company’s intranet

• On-site training at sales conferences

• Hearsay Social’s Standard (web-based) or Premier (on-demand subscription)

HOW TO:

3.


SPOTLIGHT: PACIFIC LIFE

Pacific Life does a good job at educating their advisors and wholesalers through a robust training program that includes a library of online resources (e.g. FAQs, checklists), in-person trainings, and continuing discussions around behaviors that work. Pacific Life’s “activity checklist” highlights things advisors and wholesalers can do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

ACTIVITY CHECKLIST

EDUCATION

IN-PERSON

COLLATERALSOCIAL OUTREACH

WEBINARS

DAILY

WEEKLY

MONTHLY

• Review any Notifications on your Home dashboard in Hearsay Social.

• Resolve any Compliance infractions in your Notifications on your Home dashboard in Hearsay Social.

• Read and engage (e.g. like, comment) on your Activity Conversations in Hearsay Social

• Read and engage on your Activity Feeds in Hearsay Social

• Review your Social Signals stream and reach out to any advisors with significant events

• Schedule Posts for the week through Hearsay Social

• Choose at least two of your appointments from last

week and verify you are connected on LinkedIn. If

not, add them as connections

• Review incoming connection requests on LinkedIn

• Read and Engage in the Pacific Life RSD

Wholesalers Group on LinkedIn

• Review your Metrics on Hearsay Social and determine best posting times

• Join a new Group that aligns with your background or interests on LinkedIn

• Be prepared to provide feedback on Monthly Social Media Pilot Group follow-up calls

3.


Salespeople want to hear from and about other salespeople. Peer-to-peer evangelism is a great way to increase adoption by sharing success stories from people who have already found value and who can provide real-life scenarios on how the program drives tangible ROI. These “social media superstars” become the champions for Hearsay Social and act as catalyst within their teams and motivate other team members to start using the application to their advantage.

PROMOTE AND ENABLE ADVISOR OR AGENT SUCCESS STORIES

4.


• HIGHLIGHT ADVISOR/AGENT SUCCESS STORIES not only in the field, but among the executive team.

• FIND YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA POWER USERS. These people are typically part of a smaller sub-section of the larger group who can use their enthusiasm to grow the program. Run an analysis report to see who within the company is already using the platform fairly regularly. For example, you can pull a Breakdown by Workspace Report or leverage the Analytics tab and sort by advisors who are actively posting, increasing their connections and getting engagement.

• INVITE PEER TO PEER SHARING. Allow these early adopters to tell their stories both from within their teams and across the organization. Give them a voice to evangelize their successes at places where their peers are likely to hear it (for example, at regional and local sales conferences, during a webinar, on the company’s intranet and during weekly sales calls.

• CAPTURE ADVISOR TESTIMONIALS WITH ROI DATA TO BACK IT UP.

• TRAIN FIELD MARKETING TEAMS on Hearsay Social so messaging is on point, as well as data and fact-based information highlights the current ways consumers are researching, engaging and buying.

SPOTLIGHT: THRIVENT FINANCIAL AGENT

Hannah Sorensen (@HannahThrivent), Financial Consultant with Thrivent Financial, is a social media power user and winner of

the 2015 “Silver Bowl Award” for best use of social media by an agent/advisor.

SUCCESS INSIGHTS

4.


THE ULTIMATE ROI—HOW ONE TWEET LED TO A $4.1 MILLION SALE FOR GARY VAYNERCHUK

Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee), co-founder and CEO of VaynerMedia, is an enthusiastic social media thought leader. Obsessed with social selling, says that the only reason he believes in social media is because it helps sell.

Below is an excerpt from a Hearsay Social blog post highlighting the potential ROI of social media for sales reps.

Gary’s chief belief is that every person’s job is to be a storyteller. (Fittingly, much of his talk drew on his own personal experiences of growing up in the Soviet Union, emigrating to the U.S., and eventually establishing a presence in technology and social media.)

Relationship managers like financial advisors and insurance agents are successful when they are telling stories, not just trying to sell directly. And they distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack by telling different stories and by telling them in different ways. That’s where social media comes in.

One of his friends, who tweeted “thinking about moving,” eventually bought a $4.1 million apartment after a progressive insurance agent reached out in response to the tweet. This is just one of many successful social sales examples, and it’s a sign of the times we live in.

“We are living through the biggest culture shift of all time,” said Gary, referring to the unstoppable proliferation of the consumer Internet over the past two decades and social technologies today.

4.


Salespeople are generally highly competitive, so why not tap into this natural tendency by allowing them to engage in some friendly competition? Gamification is a process that uses gaming tech-niques—such as scorecards, badges, and lead-erboards—to keep track of top behaviors that management is aiming to measure and grow. While many companies report that their gamification strat-egies are successful, not all sales teams are willing to adapt to new technologies, and gaming may only appeal to a small subset of your users. So, then, the key is to get as many people as possible involved to get the most return from your investment.

USE GAMIFICATION

5.


SCORECARDS, BADGES, LEADERBOARDS

• USE COMPETITION TO MOTIVATE THE TEAMS by offering a reward to a key metric tied to the success of the program. For example, one company ran a contest for RSMs with Super Bowl tickets as the prize. The top manager with a percentage increase in usage won the tickets.

• MAKE IT FUN AND ENGAGING! Take advantage of the competitive nature of salespeople and reward those who respond to the activity

• CREATE, SHARE AND PUBLISH LEADERBOARDS or other gamification tool to help jump start competition and attract people who are not already in the program.

• RUN A “30 DAYS OF SOCIAL” CAMPAIGN to bring visibility to the program.

SUCCESS INSIGHTS HOW TO:

5.


Advisors are often pressed for time to deal with matters of productivity (ironically) and figuring out what to post on social media can be daunting for some. Advisors establish a credible reputation by posting useful, relevant content and following contacts in a way that is friendly and demonstrates expertise. Therefore, maintaining a strong content pipeline can help tremendously and lead to increased adoption of the platform.

HAVE A STRONG CONTENT STRATEGY AND PIPELINE

According to a recent LIMRA study, Supporting Social Media, one of the most

common impediments to social media adoption are a shortage

of content and slow review processes of the content

6.


• MAINTAIN A ROBUST CONTENT LIBRARY to ensure your advisors have something worthy to share on social media.

• CREATE CUSTOM CONTENT TAGS within the Content Library for easy searching.

• LEVERAGE HEARSAY SOCIAL’S CURATED CONTENT CHANNELS to find ready-to-share compliant content.

• UTILIZE RSS FEEDS for accessing and curating content to upload into the library.

• MAKE IT EASY FOR YOUR ADVISORS OR AGENTS TO SHARE CONTENT ON SOCIAL; show your users how to access the Content Library to share relevant content with their clients and prospects.

• HELP USERS SAVE TIME AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY by highlighting easy-to-use Hearsay Social functionality, such as Hearsay Social Mobile and iPad Apps.

• Leverage HEARSAY SOCIAL FOR FACEBOOK ADS OR PROMOTED POSTS to allow relationship managers to take content they’ve published and broaden their distribution through Facebook ads, amplifying their visibility and increasing engagement.

• Use content to ELEVATE REPS AS LOCAL EXPERTS

Keep your Content Library full of engaging and informative content for advisors to share. Hearsay Social advocates a “80/20” rule when posting content to social networks. Eighty percent of the content distributed should be non-financial in nature, but should help to create an authentic, engaging social personality and brand for the advisor. The remaining 20 percent can be financial content to educate the audience and better position the advisor or agent as a trusted source for value-added information.

HOW TO: THE “80/20” RULE SUCCESS INSIGHTS

6.


SPOTLIGHT: HD VEST

HD Vest makes it easy for their advisors to access and share content on social media.

Centralized marketing portal: Their centralized marketing portal contains instructions on how to get compliantly-approved content for use on social media (see image below).

Communications: The social media team tries not to overwhelm their advisors with too many communications and are mindful not to over communicate during busy seasons.

Feedback: The team takes feedback heavily into consideration when planning training and content. They also utilize campaigns to help advisors get started, stick to themes, and provide seasonally relevant information.

6.


In the end, you don’t have to be an expert to drive social

business adoption, you just have to be committed and stay

focused on the people. Whichever method you choose to

adopt, remember that having a dedicated team, strong

executive leadership, and field education remain the top

three critical components for success. Lastly, always focus

on the end goal—Hearsay Social is meant to help advisors

strengthen relationships so make it easy without requiring

much from them.

CONCLUSION

The information in this guide is for educational purposes only. All images and

“spotlights” were obtained with permission and are for illustrative purposes.

Remember to check with your financial institution regarding your social

business program and follow your firms’ policies, procedures and guidelines.

To learn more call 888-399-2280 or email [email protected].

ABOUT HEARSAY SOCIAL

Hearsay Social provides the Predictive Social Suite for financial advisors and insurance agents across the world’s largest financial institutions, including 7 of the top 10 global financial services companies and leading firms such as New York Life, Raymond James, Vanguard and Penn Mutual. Hearsay Social powers over 100,000 financial relationship managers worldwide, allowing them to engage today’s social, mobile customer through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and mobile-first websites. Advisors receive unique client insights through multi-channel signals, and the predictive Content Library makes it easy to share the right content at the right time. Built-in enterprise integration and governance powers compliance and supervision for global firms, seamlessly addressing industry regulations and enforcing policy.

Hearsay Social, a SIFMA strategic partner, LIMRA Elite Strategic partner, GAMA partner, and Efma Associate Partner, has raised $51M from Sequoia Capital, NEA, and private investors and is headquartered in Silicon Valley with dedicated local presences in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, Toronto, London, Paris, Munich and Hong Kong.

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