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Scaling Employee Advocacy with Social MediaJeremiah Owyang, Industry Analyst - Altimeter - @jowyang Scott Gulbransen, Director of Social Business - H&R Block - @sdgully Zena Weist, VP Strategy - Expion - @zenaweistMay 8th, 2013 #expion13
© 2013 Altimeter Group
Scaling Employee Advocacy with Social Media2
Companies that leverage social employee advocates with a formalized program can amplify brand content and build better relationships at scale.
© 2013 Altimeter Group
© 2013 Altimeter Group
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Agenda1. Defining employee
advocacy2. The business case for
employee advocacy3. Informal vs. formal
advocacy4. Employee advocacy
framework5. Recommendations
and key takeaways
© 2013 Altimeter Group
© 2013 Altimeter Group
What is Employee Advocacy? 4
An official, long-term programto empower trusted employees
to engage with customers and prospectsas representatives of the company
© 2013 Altimeter Group
Farmer’s Insurance empowers independent agents to engage with customers and prospects directly on Facebook
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“I’ve sold over 200 policies from my
marketing efforts on Facebook”
– James Peregrino, Independent agent
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© 2012 Altimeter Group
Employee Advocacy:The Business Case
© 2013 Altimeter Group
Employee Advocacy: Business Case 7
1. The risk of not doing it It’s already happening, formalized or not If you don’t get in front of it, you risk losing
control2. The benefit
Your customers and prospects use social media
Customers and prospects trust employees Employee involvement nets real results
© 2013 Altimeter Group
2,500 employee have about 13 employees publishing
7,500 employees have about 22 employees publishing
30k employees have about 83 employees publishing
75,000 employees have about 182 employees publishing
100k plus average have about 280 employees publishing
Company size and Publishing on Accounts8
On average, 1 out of 330 employees publishes on social for business purposes, far more do for personal reasons.
© 2013 Altimeter Group
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Employees are talking about their employers – whether or not they have any guidance – on corporate and personal accounts
*
© 2013 Altimeter Group
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Would-be advocates without education on proper disclosure can make the brand look bad, or worse
After many negative comments, Honda posted:“Eddie Okubo is a manager in Honda Product Planning. His post was removed for two reasons: 1) He did not
first state that he is a Honda employee and that his posting is his personal
-- not Honda's -- opinion. 2) He is not a spokesperson
for Honda.”
Source: AutoBlog
© 2013 Altimeter Group
KitchenAid had to quickly backtrack after an offensive tweet by a team member
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© 2013 Altimeter Group
Employee Advocacy: Business Case 12
1. The risk of not doing it It’s already happening, formalized or not If you don’t get in front of it, you risk losing
control2. The benefit
Your customers and prospects use social media
Customers and prospects trust employees Employee involvement nets real results
© 2013 Altimeter Group
Social networking dominates time spent online
Source: Nielsen, 2012
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© 2013 Altimeter Group
At the same time, trust is rising among peers and regular employees
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Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2012
© 2013 Altimeter Group
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What it means:
Few companies have the resources
to reach customers in a 1:1 fashion.
Customers trust employees, and
social media enables the connection.
Companies that leverage
customers and employees for
advocacy benefit from greater
Trust and Scale.
© 2013 Altimeter Group
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Real results:When Texas Instrument’s employees answered questions, there was a massive increase in product trials
Customers and prospects “were
requesting 6 times the number of samples across 3 times the number of product
areas.”
- Devashish Xaxena, Internet Marketing
© 2013 Altimeter Group
Create policies and procedures
Get buy-in from stakeholders
Apply social insights to the product roadmap
Determine an organizational/governance model
Develop a listening/monitoring solution
Connect employees with social tools
Integrate social media with digital and mobile
Connecting social data to other enterprise data sources to deliver actionable insight
Scale our social programs
Develop internal education and training
Create metrics that demonstrate the value of social media
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
22.0%
32.2%
34.7%
34.7%
29.7%
26.3%
24.6%
37.3%
48.3%
6.90%
13.10%
15.40%
15.40%
15.40%
23.10%
26.90%
33.10%
40.00%
43.10%
47.70%
20122010
Scale is already become a top social priority
“In 2013, what are your top three internal social media objectives?”
Source: Altimeter Group. Social Business Survey,Q4 2012.
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© 2012 Altimeter Group
Employee Advocacy:Informal vs. Formal
© 2013 Altimeter Group
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Informal: Keith works for GE, and tweets, blogs, and posts on Facebook about GE
© 2013 Altimeter Group
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Informal: Sandro works for Ferrero in Brazil – he has liked the brand and shares about it
© 2013 Altimeter Group
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Formal: New Belgium Brewery has an official employee advocacy program – local “Rangers” are empowered to engage with their regional communities on Facebook
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© 2012 Altimeter Group
Employee Advocacy:A Framework
© 2013 Altimeter Group
1. Identify internal
advocates2. Train them 3. Enable them
to share
Employee Advocacy Framework
Will all employees be empowered, or just a select number?
The what, when, where, and how of social engagement.
Will you provide them content? A platform to manage sharing?
© 2013 Altimeter Group
1. Identify internal
advocates2. Train them 3. Enable them
to share
Employee Advocacy Framework
Will all employees be empowered, or just a select number?
The what, when, where, and how of social engagement
Will you provide them content? A platform to manage sharing?
© 2013 Altimeter Group
Home Depot has selected and trained 30 “social media store associates” to engage directly with customers on multiple social platforms
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More than 2,000 forum topics have been posted by Home Depot’s 30 “social media stores associates” and
community members, 6,000 responses given, and
hundreds of videos viewed in more than 30 countries.
1. Identify 2. Train 3. Enable
© 2013 Altimeter Group
1. Identify internal
advocates2. Train them 3. Enable them
to share
Employee Advocacy Framework
Will all employees be empowered, or just a select number?
The what, when, where, and how of social engagement
Will you provide them content? A platform to manage sharing?
© 2013 Altimeter Group
Intel empowers employees with “Digital IQ” program, and has certified more than 1,000
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Source: “Social Media Strategy Secret Sauce: How Intel Makes Data-driven Decisions,”Allen Stephens, Keith Molesworth, and Tiffany Peery, March 21, 2011
Intel was one of the first companies to publish Social
Media Guidelines and provide employee certification.
1. Identify 2. Train 3. Enable
© 2013 Altimeter Group
More than 10,000 of Dell’s employees have been trained and certified to be “brand ambassadors”
281. Identify 2. Train 3. Enable
© 2013 Altimeter Group
1. Identify internal
advocates2. Train them 3. Enable them
to share
Employee Advocacy Framework
Will all employees be empowered, or just a select number?
The what, when, where, and how of social engagement
Will you provide them content? A platform to manage sharing?
© 2013 Altimeter Group
Formal: H&R Block is connecting clients and seasonal Tax Pro’s with an employee advocacy program.
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H&R Block operates over 10,000 retail offices in the
the United States and 1,700 retail offices abroad and employs 90,000 Tax
Professionals worldwide.
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© 2012 Altimeter Group
Employee Advocacy:Recommendations & key takeaways
© 2013 Altimeter Group
1. A successful result is a low-cost, yet highly-trusted form of marketing
2. Identify, Train, then Enable employee advocates3. Co-creation is the fuel of advocacy, help
employees feel ownership and empowerment4. When done correctly, this fuels the top of the
marketing funnel and promotes customer advocacy
5. Incorporate performance management, including elements of gamification
6. Make it circular: employees can teach each other and share what works
Employee Advocacy: Key Takeaways32
© 2013 Altimeter Group
Jeremiah [email protected]/blogTwitter: jowyang
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.
© 2013 Altimeter Group
H&R Block Case Study
© 2013 Altimeter Group
H&R Block Case Study
© 2013 Altimeter Group
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• Content Marketing• Gaming Mechanics
Expion Social Advocator
• Browser Plugin (Mobile Coming Soon)
• Always on when web browsing• User can discover new content
daily• Provide Personalized Content by
Department
Identifying Top Advocates
Identifying Best Performing Content
Jeremiah [email protected]/blogTwitter: @jowyang
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.
Scott [email protected]: @sdgully
Zena [email protected]: @zenaweist
[email protected]#expion13
slideshare.net/expion Expion Platform Video: expion.com/news