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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


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...


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


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


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...


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 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


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


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:


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


#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


“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 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.

mailto:welcome%40sociabble.com?subject=


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.

Sources Cited

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

24 sociabble.com

http://www.sociabble.com/

http://sociabble.com

http://www.sociabble.com

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