Social Employee Advocacy: Tapping into the Power of an Engaged Social Workforce

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[WEBINAR] Social Employee Advocacy: Tapping into the power of an engaged social workforce

Ed TerpeningIndustry Analyst, Altimeter

@EdTerpening

Aubrey LittletonResearcher, Altimeter

@AubreyLittleton

“I bristle at the notion that employee advocacy is a new thing. In many ways, it’s something

we’ve been trying to do for a long time, and only recently have the stars aligned between culture, technology, and product to be able to roll it out at

scale.” Matt Switzer, Hootsuite

“When we first launched our [employee advocacy] pilot, I found an old essay that the President of General Mills had written in the 1940s that said:

‘PR is everybody’s job.’ That’s especially true today; we all have a role to play in promoting the company and this is just

the 2015 version of that.”Kevin Hunt, General Mills

Key Findings

1. Planning and adoption of employee advocacy is quickly growing

2015 State of Social Business

45% of strategists indicated employee advocacy was a top priority – a 191% increase in interest over 2013.

Source: “The 2015 State of Social Business: Priorities Shift from Scaling to Integrating”, by Ed Terpening and Charlene Li, 2015

90% of brands are pursuing employee advocacyOur latest research shows that 90% of brands are now pursuing some form of employee advocacy – a further 2x increase over 2015.

Source: “Social Media Employee Advocacy: Tapping Into The Power of An Engaged Social Workforce” by Ed Terpening, 2016

1st Increase reach of our messages in social networks2nd Drive increased understanding and brand health of our organization3rd Engage employees more deeply in our company mission and their work

The top business drivers for employee advocacy

2. Consumer response to employee advocacy content is encouragingEmployee posted content out-performs social ads

31%of consumerssay they “better understand”

companies whose employees share content

47%of brands

cite “increased understanding and brand health” as priority for

employee advocacy

Employee advocacy promotes brand health

3. Employee advocacy amounts to native advertising in social

Native Advertising in Social Media

21%of consumersreport “liking” employee posts

8%of consumers

report “sharing” employee posts

4. But, employee posts can backfireLike anyone struggling with information overload, followers will block those that over-post or post irrelevant content.

Backlash can be significant

20%of consumersreport they have blocked or un-

followed a connection based on posts about work

“Have you ever blocked/unfollowed/unfriended someone because of their posts about work?”

Global consumer survey, Q1’16, n=2286

5. Employee advocacy drives employee engagement

How do you feelwhen sharing your employer’s content?

“I feel more connected and

enthusiastic about the company I work for.”

5. Europe lags North America in adoption

Europeans share less, overall∙ Greater desire for work-

life separation

Motivations & employer tool provision differ∙ Europeans less interested

in connecting work life with social networks

Best Practices for Planning Action

1 Define Scope and Business Objectives

✓ Set Expectations

“The biggest barrier is a psychological barrier in

expectation.”

Glenn Gaudet, GaggleAMP

∙ Have realistic targets for adoption

∙ Begin pilots with manageable groups

✓ Work Inside-Out

∙ Employee engagement goals lead to consumer-based outcomes.

“Alignment is the key to unlock advocacy at the scale required to drive true business impact.”

Nicole Alvino, SocialChorus

✓ Engage Leaders

“We have a really open culture - we are allowed to

‘try and fail’.”

Sarah Mortensen, Cisco EMEA

∙Seek executive support to:∙Cross silos∙Procure resources∙Motivate employees

to participate∙Allow for initial

missteps

2 Research and Baseline

✓ Understand Organic Activity∙ Who is already

sharing within your organization?

∙ What motivates these “organic advocates”? What results do they see and what motivates them?

✓ Mine your ESN

∙ Use an Enterprise Social Network to create and reinforce culture of sharing internally.

∙ Translate that culture externally with employee advocacy.

3 Departmental Alignment

Departmental AlignmentTeam Why?

✓ Employee Comms Raise internal awareness.

✓ Human ResourcesSet policy.Drive engagement through ESNs.Manage the employee relationship

✓ Legal Legal compliance (e.g., FTC disclosure, NLRB, et al)Labor, privacy, and regional laws.

✓ Sales Social selling.Align engagement and advocacy strategies.

✓ IT Important operations ally.

✓ Marketing / Social Team Think strategically about employee advocacy.Define KPIs that drive brand impact.

4 Pilot: “Test and Learn”

✓ Start Low-Tech

“Our program is really quite an old one. We started it as an

email, with anywhere from five to ten pre-written, legally-approved tweets for people to copy-and-paste into Twitter.”

Nolan Carleton, AT&T

∙ Don’t shy away from low-tech pilots, but be aware that they won’t scale.

∙ Typically, even large brands begin employee advocacy efforts with as few as 25 - 75 employees.

✓ Employee Training

Convey…

…the benefit to the employee

Source: “Social Media Employee Advocacy: Tapping Into The Power of An Engaged Social Workforce” by Ed Terpening, Altimeter Group, 2016

Convey…

…the benefit to the brand

Convey…

…the shared benefits

✓ Training

“People are so fearful of getting out there in social media, but once they do it…it’s amazing the pivot they make. Make sure whatever materials you have about your program are fun and

engaging. Don’t make your program any scarier than it needs to be.”

Nolan Carleton, AT&T

5 Scale

✓ Benchmarking

∙ What does good scale look like?

∙ Average employee adoption seems to run between 10-40%

✓ ROI

∙ Look for connections between employee engagement and consumer response

∙ Give employees proof metrics, too, to encourage participation

✓ Retirees

∙ Some retirees may have unique social graphs with significant influence

✓ Content

∙ Consider the content mix and tools

∙ Curate content to differing teams interests and areas of expertise

✓ Content

✓ Governance

∙ Have clear policy∙ Training /

mentoring∙ Have monitoring

in place

Thank You

Disclaimer: Although the information and data used in this report have been produced and processed from sources believed to be reliable, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the completeness, accuracy, adequacy or use of the information. The authors and contributors of the information and data shall have no liability for errors or omissions contained herein or for interpretations thereof. Reference herein to any specific product or vendor by trade name, trademark or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the authors or contributors and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

Ed TerpeningIndustry Analysted@altimetergroup.com@edterpening

Altimeter provides research and advisory for companies challenged by business disruptions, enabling them to pursue new opportunities and business models.

Recent, related research cited in this presentation.