Why Employee Advocacy is Critical for Your Business

Employee Advocacy:Mobilizing Employees to Tell the Brand Story

Contextualizing the Marketplace 1:9:90

1% CREATE CONTENT

1

InfluencersThis group drives the conversation about a specific topic. When they create content,

others listen.

9% SHARE & REPACKAGE

9

AdvocatesThis group curates, contextualizes and re-packages influencer content. They provide

their own point of view.

90% LISTEN & LEARN

90

EnthusiastsThis is the broader market. They rely heavily on word-of-mouth, peer recommendations

and Google search.

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What’s the Market Opportunity for Employee Advocacy?

92% of consumers say peer recommendations are

their most credible source of brand

information

of people find "people like yourself &

employees of a company” credible

and trustworthy when seeking information

about a product

67%

of business pros & ITDMS participate and engage with

colleagues and peers within social media

65%

SOURCE: Acquity Group, Boston Consulting Group, SNCR

of B2B business decision makers do research and seek colleagues’ POVs

before making purchase decisions

94% EMPLOYEES

(EXECS, SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS, AMBASSADORS)


New Business Requirements are Forcing Change

TODAY’S NEW

ENVIRONMENT

REQUIREMENTS

INTERNAL EXTERNAL

MANAGE MORE EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

Harness the massive amount of available content and data to rethink and re-equip business operations

ENGAGE IN A MULTI-STAKEHOLDER CONVERSATION

Use new mediums to communicate with a wider, multi-faced set of stakeholders – influencers, media and customers

INNOVATE AT FASTER SPEEDS

Focus business efforts on innovation rather than continued improvement in order to stay relevant

HUMANIZE YOUR BRAND In a world where marketing is driven by data and content, brands must learn to communicate with empathy

EMPOWER EMPLOYEES Equip employees with the right content at the right time in order to increase brand impact

EMBRACE THE RISE OF THE INDIVIDUAL

Whether you are a B2B or B2C company, it’s important to remember “people buy from people.” It’s vital to sync the internal with the external


The Impact of Employee Advocacy

DRIVEBRAND AWARENESS

CHANGEBRAND PERCEPTION

SOLVECUSTOMER

SUPPORT ISSUES

EDUCATEEXISTING CUSTOMERS

PROVIDEINSIGHTS FOR

INNOVATION

INFLUENCEPEERSTO BUY

FILLTHE SALES PIPELINE


Stakeholder Value - Internal and External

SALES & REVENUEBRAND ADVOCACY (WOM)

INSIGHTS & FEEDBACK

THOUGHT LEADERSHIPCUSTOMER SUPPORT

SOCIAL SELLING

STRATEGIC PLANNINGTRAINING & DEVELOPMENTSOCIAL ENABLEMENT & TECHNOLOGY

HAPPY EMPLOYEESHIGH MORALE & PRODUCTIVITYARMY OF BRAND CHAMPIONS

ORGANIZATIONAL READINESS TRUSTED, CONTENT AMPLIFICATION

ENGAGEMENT, BRAND LOVE

ACTIVATION, MEDIA INTEGRATION

1

2

3

4

EMPLOYEES CUSTOMERSBRAND


The Brand Advocacy Spectrum

AMBASSADORS

CUSTOMER ADVOCATES

EMPLOYEE ADVOCATES

INFLUENCERS

• Paid influencers• Can be found and hired

through ambassador networks

• High influence in various verticals

• Share content created from influencers

• Already have a natural affinity towards the brand

• Group of internal employees and subject matter experts

• Trained to share and create branded content

• Storytellers

• The 1% driving the conversation about topic or category

• Usually have high reach and large communities

• Relationship with a brand based on incentives

INFLUENCERS

AMBASSADORS

EMPLOYEEADVOCATES

CUSTOMERADVOCATES


The Value Proposition

What’s in it for theBRAND?Content creation

Reach new audiences w/ trusted, branded content

Trusted source for insights and feedback

Promote / defend brand

What’s in it for EMPLOYEES?

Employee engagement

Internal “rock star” recognition

Access to exclusive content

Platform for sharing thoughts with the wider audience

Thought leadership


General Types of Employee Programs

BRAND AMPLIFICATIONThis program involves sharing “branded” messages and content with employees so they can “re-share” the content within their personal social media channels. Content can be customized and/or changed by participating advocates and is usually managed by a central marketing organization.

BRAND JOURNALISM (CONTENT DRIVEN)This program involves mobilizing employees to tell stories (usually long & short form) that are published on a corporate site/blog, the LinkedIn blogging network or a media site. It can also involve employees sharing and amplifying other employee stories/content.


Brand Amplification


Brand Journalism

The Coca-Cola Journey site launched in 2013 with a focus on telling stories related to business, innovation, music, sustainability and other topics.

Contributors to the site include employees, customers and influencers, and it’s powered by the Contently platform.

Conversations from Coca-Cola Journey are aggregated using the #CokeJourney hashtag.


Blending Internal and External Engagement

Internal Internal Proactive employee advocacy community that shares and engages with internal audiences.

Internal ExternalEnabled employees communicate meaningful messages externally with customers and partners resulting in trustworthy relationships.

Healthy and proactive communities create their own conversations resulting in advocacy.

External External


Where Does Employee Advocacy Fit into Brand Storytelling?

Community Engagement & Measurement Build a social governance model to ensure all content / ads are within brand / FTC guidelines.

Listen and respond. Monitor, track, report and escalate all conversations as needed.

Narrative Development or Campaign Strategy

Deliver an editorial and creative framework to reach the right audience using content best practices and community engagement.

Audience Intelligence

Stakeholder Engagement

Empower, train and mobilize employees, customers and channel partners to participate and tell the brand story.

Channel Strategy

Build a channel and media strategy based on audience segmentation, native social platform capabilities and user functionality.

Paid Media

Use analytics to determine the best targeting on social channels based on audience behaviors and conversations – where they spend their time and what media outlets they “like”, “follow” and “talk about.”


Activating Employeesto Shape The Brand Story

PLAN IDENTIFY

ACTIVATEAMPLIFY

EMPLOYEEADVOCACY

PLAN IDENTIFY

ACTIVATEAMPLIFY

EMPLOYEEADVOCACY

Delivering an amazing employee experience should be the focal point of all programs and activations. Making that experience memorable, and more importantly, convenient for employees to share content, is critical.

The content itself must not only tell a good story but also be relevant to the brand, product or business priority. It should resonate with what employees care about and align with their passions.

In order to determine success of employee programs, there must be a framework establishing what to measure and how to measure it.

Defining the Guiding Principles


PROGRAM LOGISTICS

How long will the program last? What do we call our

program?

STAKEHOLDERCOLLABORATION

Are all of our internal stakeholders involved – legal, brand, IT, etc.?

SELECTION CRITERIA

Who do we want as our advocates? How do

they join the program? Is there a criteria?

BRANDED CONTENT

What do we want our advocates to say and does it

align with our content strategy?

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

Do we have a policy in place that protects the brand and empowers our employees?

TECHNOLOGY SELECTION

Do we have the right technology for our program? Can it scale long term as the

program grows?

GOALS & OBJECTIVES

What exactly do we want to achieve with our program?

Does it align with our marketing and business

goals?

The Operations of Employee Advocacy


Identifying Employee Segments, Behaviors and Channels

EXECUTIVES

SALES

CHAMPIONS

SUBJECT MATTEREXPERTS (SME)

CONTENT TYPES

Industry and thought leadership

Brand product and other IT related topics

Industry and thought leadership

Pre-created content from brand and marketing, thought leadership,

cultural, job openings

CHANNELS

Executive branded Twitter handle, branded blogs,

LinkedIn (blog/influencers)engagement in industry

forums, bylines

SME branded Twitter handle, community,

engagement in industry forums

Branded LinkedIn profile and/or personal social

channels

Personal social channels

ACTION

Contentcreation

Contentcreation

Shares

Shares


CONTENTCREATORS

CONTENTCREATORS

CONTENTCREATORS

CONTENTCREATORS

CONVERSATIONALIST

LISTENERS

Low Participation

HighParticipation Create a training curriculum with a focus on

thought leadership, long-form content, blogging, videos, podcasting, webinars and events.

Create a training curriculum with a focus on best practices of community engagement and provide value-added content for maximum participation.

Create a training curriculum with a focus on how to use tools to listen to brand and industry related conversations.

Build a Training Curriculum to Address Levels of Participation

5min

15min

30min

QUICK GUIDESWhat can you do in social if you only had:


PLAN IDENTIFY

ACTIVATEAMPLIFY

EMPLOYEEADVOCACY

Ensure that employee content aligns (either directly or indirectly) with the broader brand story, industry topic discussion, event or initiative.

Build an editorial calendar so that content can be planned in advance and aligned with other initiatives in the market. Content should be anchored in one or more of the following core values – utility, education, entertainment, access, emotion, exclusivity, information and promotions.

Enable participation through smart technology deployments (make it EASY for employees to participate). Mobile integration is critical for adoption and growth.

Activate Employees with Strategic CTAs


Align Employee Narratives with Brand Story

Insights from audience analysis

Determine “winnable moment” – what’s the core idea?

Employees are the heroesof the story

Employees are the characters in the broader

story

Employees comment the story

Data and insights extracted from the analytics will be used

to inform a strategic framework and social narrative.

The strategic framework will inform all content creation and

creative assets.

An editorial and creative framework will categorize

content based on guidelines and brand criteria.

Content categories


Ensure Content Adds Value

UTILITY

Helps me “do” something or solves

a problem

EDUCATION

Makes me smarter about a topic or

subject

ENTERTAINMENT

Makes me laugh and inspires me to

be happy

ACCESS

Connects me to others that share the

same passions

EMOTION

Elicits a passionate reaction that

empowers me

EXCLUSIVITY

Makes me feel special and

emotionally invested

INFORMATION

Shares current news, views and insider

information with me

PROMOTIONS

Gives me rebates and product related

promotions


Make It Easy for Employees to Participate

How It Works

Mobile Notification

Company News Feed

Sharing Interface


PLAN IDENTIFY

ACTIVATEAMPLIFY

EMPLOYEEADVOCACY

Integrate employee-generated stories and content across the broader digital eco-system.

PAID: Syndicate employee driven long form/blog content to 3rd parties and relevant sites (promoted content, content syndication)

EARNED: Pitch thought leadership content and bylines to relevant media

SHARED: Publish and promote content on branded social channels. Amplify with paid media.

OWNED: Build a media site (content hub) that aggregates employee-generated and branded content.

Amplify Employee Content


Frequent and Consistent Storytelling is Critical

SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING BY THOMAS SMITH (SLIGHTLY MODIFIED)

The 1st time people see the content, they don’t really see it. The 11th time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.

The 2nd time, they don’t even notice it. The 12th time, they start to think that it must be a good product.

The 3rd time, they are aware that it is there. The 13th time, they start to feel the product has value.

The 4th time, they content appears to be familiar. The 14th time, they start to feel like they’ve wanted a product like this for a long time.

The 5th time, they actually read the content. The 15th time, they start to yearn for it because it’s not in the budget.

The 6th time, they thumb their nose at it. The 16th time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.

The 7th time, they get a little irritated with it. The 17th time, they make a commitment to buy the product.

The 8th time, they think, “Here’s that stupid ad again.” The 18th time, they curse their poverty because they can’t buy this terrific product.

The 9th time, they wonder if they’re missing out on something. The 19th time, they count their money very carefully.

The 10th time, they ask their friends or colleagues if they’ve tried it. The 20th time prospects see the ad, they buy what it is offering.


Integrated Employee and Branded Content

PAIDMEDIA

SHAREDMEDIA

OWNEDMEDIA

EARNEDMEDIA

Your Employees

Surround sound your audience with trusted, credible content from

your employees.


An Example Customer Journey

Google Search (unbranded, industry term).

Industry related technology discussion (i.e. data center, networking, servers).

Technology discussion within the blog post comments between customer and blog post author. Follow each other on Twitter and continue there.

Frequent sharing, retweeting and commenting within various social networks. Subscribes to brand’s blog feed.

Branded white papers, blog posts and other forms of thought leadership.

Continued dialogue with employeesabout the benefits with of using brand’s technology solutions.

Seeks validation from other, 3rd party, sources before making purchase (i.e. asks colleagues, Google search for customer testimonials, etc.)

Industry white papers and research reports. Customer related “guest” blog posts and/or customertestimonials.

Brand’s thought leaders and subject matter experts continue to share content that adds value to the technology conversation; passes along conversation to sales.

Retweets and shares branded content. Contributes to brand’s community and industry blog.

Branded white papers, blog posts and other forms of thought leadership to include support related material.

Employees retweet and share content from customers. Engage openly and in public about the brand’s solutions.

CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR CONTENT TOPIC AREA EMPLOYEE INTERACTIONPURCHASE FUNNEL

AWARENESS

CONSIDERATION

PURCHASE

ADVOCACY


Determining the Right Measurement Framework

Trackable metrics at every level, from impressions to clicks to sales. Dynamic Signal even tracks sales leads generated by employee shares and assigns leads accordingly on Salesforce.

Let proud employees endorse the company to build a great employer

brand and help with recruiting

HR and Company Culture

Drive social selling and lead generation, and

create more productive sales thought leaders

Sales and Marketing Leads

Inform and engage employees to become

experts, advocates and contributors

Employee Communications

Humanize your brand and increase awareness

through your employees’ authentic voice

BrandAwareness

Drive more registrants and attendees to webinars and

events with real-time sharing

EventPromotion


www.lws.co/mile13Register for our next “Marketing at Mile 13” webcast:

Marketing at Mile 13 - Webcast Series

Thank You

Michael BritoSVP San Francisco, Head of US Digital Marketing @Britopian

Why Employee Advocacy is Critical for Your Business

Marketing

Transcript of Why Employee Advocacy is Critical for Your Business