How should employees be part of my marketing mix? Can I extend the reach of my brand’s messages through employees in social media? Can I drive increased engagement of employees at work? Does the shift of social media from organic messaging to paid advertising concern you? Will there be a time when my employees will carry my messages further than our brand's social pages? If so, this research report is for you.
Social Employee Advocacy: Tapping into the Power of an Engaged Social Workforce
1. Proprietary and confidential. Do not distribute.
[WEBINAR] Social Employee Advocacy:
Tapping into the power of an engaged social workforce
Ed Terpening
Industry Analyst, Altimeter
@EdTerpening
Aubrey Littleton
Researcher, Altimeter
@AubreyLittleton
2. 2
“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
3. 3
“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
7. 7
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
191%
8. 8
90% of brands are pursuing
employee advocacy
Our 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
9. 1st Increase reach of our
messages in social networks
2nd Drive increased
understanding and brand
health of our organization
3rd Engage employees more
deeply in our company
mission and their work
The top business
drivers for employee
advocacy
10. 10
2. Consumer response to employee advocacy
content is encouraging
Employee posted content out-performs social ads
11. 11
31%
of consumers
say they “better understand” companies
whose employees share content
47%
of brands
cite “increased understanding and brand
health” as priority for employee advocacy
Source: “Social Media Employee Advocacy: Tapping Into The Power of An Engaged Social Workforce” by Ed
Terpening, 2016
Employee advocacy promotes brand health
13. 13
Native Advertising in Social Media
21%
of consumers
report “liking” employee posts
Source: “Social Media Employee Advocacy: Tapping Into The Power of An Engaged Social Workforce” by Ed
Terpening, 2016
8%
of consumers
report “sharing” employee posts
14. 14
4. But, employee posts can backfire
Like anyone struggling with information overload, followers will block
those that over-post or post irrelevant content.
15. 15
Backlash can be significant
20%
of consumers
report 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
Source: “Social Media Employee Advocacy: Tapping Into The Power of An Engaged Social Workforce” by Ed
Terpening, 2016
23. 23
✓ Set Expectations
“The biggest barrier is a
psychological barrier in
expectation.”
Glenn Gaudet, GaggleAMP
∙ Have realistic targets for
adoption
∙ Begin pilots with manageable
groups
24. 24
✓ 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
25. 25
✓ 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
27. ✓ Understand
Organic Activity
∙ Who is already sharing
within your
organization?
∙ What motivates these
“organic advocates”?
What results do they
see and what motivates
them?
28. ✓ Mine your ESN
∙ Use an Enterprise Social
Network to create and
reinforce culture of sharing
internally.
∙ Translate that culture
externally with employee
advocacy.
30. 30
Departmental Alignment
Team Why?
✓ Employee Comms Raise internal awareness.
✓ Human Resources
Set 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.
32. 32
✓ 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.
33. 33
✓ 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
34. 34
✓ Employee Training
Convey…
…the benefit to the brand
Source: “Social Media Employee Advocacy: Tapping Into The Power of An
Engaged Social Workforce” by Ed Terpening, Altimeter Group, 2016
35. 35
✓ Employee Training
Convey…
…the shared benefits
Source: “Social Media Employee Advocacy: Tapping Into The Power of An
Engaged Social Workforce” by Ed Terpening, Altimeter Group, 2016
36. 36
✓ 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
44. 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 Terpening
Industry Analyst
ed@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.
Hinweis der Redaktion
Hello and thanks for viewing this webcast. My name is Lindsay Malone and I will serve as your moderator for this presentation.
Before we dive into today’s presentation, “Social Employee Advocacy: Tapping Into the Power of An Engaged Social Workforce,” with Ed Terpening and Aubrey Littleton, I’m going to tell you a little about Altimeter, a Prophet Company.
Altimeter, is a research and strategy consulting firm that helps companies understand and take advantage of digital disruption. In 2015, Prophet acquired Altimeter Group to bring forward-thinking digital research and strategy consulting together under one umbrella, and to help clients unlock the power of digital transformation. For those of you unfamiliar with Prophet, Prophet is a global brand and marketing consultancy that fuses insights, strategy, creativity and imagination to help clients grow better brands and businesses.
Without further adieux, I’d like to introduce you to today’s speakers – Welcome Ed and Aubrey.
Our report sought to answer some key questions.
These results out-perform social ads, whose click-through rates range from 1.5-4%, depending upon the ad unit (on Facebook)
Israeli—Palestinian Gaza Conflict. Nicholas John of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that 16.1% of Jewish-Israeli Facebook users had unfriended or unfollowed someone during the fighting due to posts about the war. Strong social connections, such as family or close friends, were less likely to defriend, while on the other hand, weak connecting ties were an important factor: 66% responded they disconnected from someone they “are not close to”, while only 2% with strong ties defriended.
The Refugee Crisis in Germany. A movement in Germany is focused on defriending right-wing political parties that have taken a position against refugee settlement there.An app shares which friends have “liked” this party as grounds for unfriending.
Pew Internet Research. In a Pew 2012 survey, 75% of social network users said their friends post at least some content related to politics. The survey found that 18% of social network users have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone based on political posts. This 18% figure is close to the 16.1% Gaza conflict numbers, which is surprising, as you’d think war is more divisive than US politics. As with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem research, weak connection ties were a strong indicator of action (defriending).
#1 response
#Aubrey, would like to see total numbers here rather than %, if possible
Thank you to all for your time today, and thank you to Ed and Aubrey.