From the Trenches: What it Takes to Grow an Employee ... · From the Trenches: What it Takes to Grow an Employee Advocacy Program Jessica LaHaie Influencer Relations Coordinator TechsmithCorporation

From the Trenches: What it Takes to Growan Employee Advocacy Program

Jessica LaHaieInfluencer Relations CoordinatorTechsmith Corporation@JessieLaHaie

Turner RoachSocial Media Marketing ManagerDeloitte@turnroach

Molly ClementsSocial Marketing ManagerUnited Way Worldwide@UnitedWay

Panel Moderator: Stephan Hovnanian | Content Solutions Architect | Bambu by Sprout Social | @stephanhov

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

We’re more than just an accounting firm. Our employees represent Deloitte to our clients and encourage them to take a closer look at all that we do.

Deloitte’s Employee Advocacy Story

• 5 years old with 8,000 participants

• Grew by 6,000 in last two years

• 11% of total US employee population

• Build employees’ personal brands

• Data helps drive engagement

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

Employees are an extension of our brand. We want to lower barriers for anyone to build their networks, and even become speakers and content creators.

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

Techsmith’s Employee Advocacy Story

• 4 years old

• 100 out of 300 employees participate

• Build employees’ personal brands

• Use Word of Mouth for product releases

and recruiting

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

Everyone knows what United Way is, but not what they do. Our advocacy program lets all our local member organizations communicate as one brand and one voice.

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

United Way’s Employee Advocacy Story

• 1 year old

• 450 of 2,000 local member organizations

participating to date

• Central hub for B2B communication

• Consistent social presence for smaller local

organizations

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

One of the biggest challenges for getting employees to participate in an advocacy program is making it worth their time by communicating the value of the program.

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

Engagement Tactics that Fuel Adoption

• Contests and Sweepstakes

• Lunch & Learns

• Complete specific actions to qualify

• Make prizes relevant and personal

• Exclusive content

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

How Technology Helps Adoption

• Easy to use

• One-stop shop for content

• Pre-written status updates builds confidence

• Data and reporting drives content strategy and ROI

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

Growing an advocacy program means scaling your admin and content efforts, raising awareness internally, and maintaining value for all types of employees.

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

Scaling Your Admin and Content Efforts

• Enlist PR firm and other outside teams

• Encourage employees to suggest content

• Appoint topic, team, or channel leaders

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

Raising Internal Awareness

• Showcase ambassadors and power users

• Highlight business wins, relationships built, anecdotes shared

• Regular reminders in all internal communications

• Get executives to participate

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

Maintaining Value for All Types of Employees

• Part of new hire training

• Match rewards and recognition with “advocate level”

• Provide resources or privileges to employees to want to grow in

the program

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

Advocacy in B2B is part of the word-of-mouthmarketing toolkit, where “soft metrics” are more common than direct sales. So how do we define and measure success?

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

Defining and Measuring Success

• “Our program will be successful if…”

• Web traffic from employee-shared content

• Applications from employee-shared job postings

• Content performance

• Anecdotal speaking, business, content opportunities

@JessieLaHaie @turnroach @UnitedWay @stephanhov #MPB2B

From the Trenches: What it Takes to Growan Employee Advocacy Program

Jessica LaHaieInfluencer Relations CoordinatorTechsmith Corporation@JessieLaHaie

Turner RoachSocial Media Marketing ManagerDeloitte@turnroach

Molly ClementsSocial Marketing ManagerUnited Way Worldwide@UnitedWay

Panel Moderator: Stephan Hovnanian | Content Solutions Architect | Bambu by Sprout Social | @stephanhov