SOCIALMEDIA.ORG/SUMMIT2014ORLANDOOCTOBER 27–29, 2014

“The Most Powerful Brand on Earth: How to Transform Teams, Empower Employees, Integrate Partners and Mobilize Customers to Beat the Competition in Digital and Social Media”

SUSAN EMERICKBRANDS RISING

@sfemerick

Empowering  Employees    to  Build  Trust  and  Advocacy    in  Social  Media    By  the  co-­‐author  of  The  Most  Powerful  Brand  on  Earth  

Susan Emerick @sfemerick

@sfemerick

What  is  Employee  Advocacy?    

Brands  empowering  employees  to    support  the  goals  of  the  brand,  using  content  and  employee-­‐owned  social  

@sfemerick

Why  should  brands  care?  

@sfemerick

Customers  trust  your  experts  and  regular   employees   more   than  anyone  else  in  your  company  

@sfemerick

People  trust  employees  more  than  official  brand  sources  

@sfemerick

Employees  rank  highest  as  the  most  trusted  and  influenDal  source  in  4  out  of  5  categories  

@sfemerick

84%    trust  people    they  know  

92%

70%

58%

50%

46 - 47%

40 - 42%

Survey  Ques@on  To  what  extent  do  you  trust  the  following  forms  of  adverDsing?  

92%

70%

58%

50%

47%

40%

33%

30%

@sfemerick

Sales  correlate  with  the  total  number  of  people  who  advocate  for  a  brand  -­‐-­‐  across  industries  

•  On  average,  53%  of  changes  in  online  and  offline  sales  can  be  aFributed  to  changes  in  the  number  of  people  advoca@ng  for  a  brand  online  

•  Not  the  number  of  online  messages  or  posts  about  a  brand  

Monthly  Change  in  Online  Promoters  v.  Monthly  Change  in  Sales    

Monthly  Change  in  Total  Online  Promoters  

Mon

thly  Change  in  Sales  

Sources:

@sfemerick

Traffic  from  employee-­‐owned  social  media  converts  at  a  significantly  higher  rate  

Source: Susan Emerick, “IBM Select Social Eminence Program, 3Q 2012 Measurement Framework Pilot”. September 2012.

Conversion Rate by Traffic Source IBM - 2012

Con

vers

ion

Rat

e

@sfemerick

Common  Reasons  Brands  Hesitate  to  Empower  Employees  

①  Fear  of  damage  to  brand  reputa@on  

②  Regulatory  concerns  

③  Hesitance  to  dis-­‐intermediate  the  marke@ng  team  from  customers  

④  Don’t  want  employees  crea@ng  brand  assets  that  the  brand  does  not  own  

⑤  Unsure  how  to  begin  

@sfemerick

How  to  begin?      

@sfemerick

Tips  for  launching  a  Successful  Employee  Advocacy  Program  

①  Set  Goals  Aligned  to  Company  Objec@ves  

②  Find  a  Champion  &  Build  a  Pilot  

③  Focus  on  Rela@onships  

④  Enable  Individuals  

⑤  Measure  and  Demonstrate  Value  

@sfemerick

Set  Goals  Aligned  to  Company  ObjecDves

What  are  your  business  goals  and  priori@es?  

Ø Entering  a  new  market  

Ø Growing  market  share  in  an  exis@ng  market  

Ø Customer  Acquisi@on  

Ø Compe@@ve  win  back    

Ø Reten@on  and  Loyalty  

Ø Financial    

Ø Cost  savings  

@sfemerick

Find  a  Champion  or  beSer  yet,  be  one!  

Image source: meloveletters.com

@sfemerick

Build  a  pilot  with  early  adopters

ü  Exper@se  aligned  to  business  

priori@es,  they  can  be  Technical  or  Business  topical  experts    

ü  Comfortable  collabora@ng,  commen@ng,  publishing  in  social  environments  

ü  Comfortable  with  and  finds  value  in  crea@ng  rela@onships  digitally    

 ü  CommiFed  to  sustaining  ac@vity  

and  evolving  par@cipa@on  to  achieve  personal  and  business  objec@ves  

ü  Willing  to  leverage  internal  listening  capabili@es  to  iden@fy  exis@ng  social  graph  and  enhance  online  professional  network  

Common characteristics of best suited candidates:

@sfemerick

Your  markeDng  and  communicaDons  teams  can  not  produce  enough  content  

Of  B2B  content  marketers  find  it  difficult  to  produce  enough  content.        Struggle  with  producing  the  kind  of  content  that  engages.  

Source: Bob Pulizzi and Ann Handley.“B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends — North America. Marketing Profs and Content Marketing Institute, 2013. http://bit.ly/B2BBench.

@sfemerick

Your  professional  communicators  can  not  develop  relaDonships  with  all  of  your  customers  

Your Marketing

Team

Your Experts

Your Employees

Your Customers

@sfemerick

Focus  on  RelaDonships  

People-­‐Centric  RelaDonships  

•  Social  strategies  focus  on  people  and  rela@onships  

•  Create  opportuni@es  for  audiences  to  establish  rela@onships  with  “people  like  me”  

•  Employees  and  partners  extend  their  reputa@on  online  for  the  benefit  of  the  brand  

Typical  Approach  to  Social  Media  

•  Venues  and  technologies  

•  Brand  presence  

•  Difficult  to  show  empathy  and  passion  

@sfemerick

RelaDonship  Ecosystem  

Topic  A  Influencers   Topic  B  Influencers  

@sfemerick

You  must  focus  on  more  than  select  Influencers    

Reality  of  Online  Influence  

1.  Past  influence  ≠  Future  influence  

2.  50%  of  product  adop@on  is  explained  by  homophily  

3.  Influencers  may  be  tough  to  find  (e.g.,  Velvet  rope  communi@es)  

ImplicaDons    

1.  Spread  efforts  across  a  pormolio  of  influencers    

2.  Help  employees  establish  their  own  influence,  at  mul@ple  levels  

@sfemerick

Influencing  conversaDons  online  requires  a  porYolio  approach  that  leverages  employees  

INFLUENCE  People  trust  experts  and  employees  Experts  and  real  employees  earn  more  trust  than  corporate  voices  and  execu@ves  

HOMOPHILY  Shared  interests  We  all  form  rela@onships  with  people  we  perceive  to  be  like  ourselves  

EMPLOYEE  DIVERSITY  This  is  how  you  scale…  But  it  conflicts  with  tradi@onal  marketer  mentality  of  control  

@sfemerick

Enable  Individuals  

Desire  to  Engage  

Self  Understanding  

AFendance  and  Listening  

Professional  Par@cipa@on  

Professional  Presence  

Community  Facilita@on  

Community  Leadership  

Source: The Most Powerful Brand on Earth, 2013

@sfemerick

Measure  and  Demonstrate  Value  

@sfemerick

Value  RealizaDon  begins  with  se`ng  Measurable  Targets  

A few examples: •  Increased Revenue

•  Decreased Cost

•  Efficiency and Productivity Gains

Image source: freeimages.com/wmagni

@sfemerick

 “Not  everything  that  can  be  counted  counts”  

 ~  William  Bruce  Cameron  

   

 

Measure  what  maSers  

@sfemerick

Business  funcDon  moDvaDons  

@sfemerick

Blogging tips Content ideas

Sharable assets Keywords

Measure and feedback

Listen, analyze social presence

Enable with best practices

Analyze,  enable,  measure  and  feedback  

@sfemerick

“Begin  with  the  end  in  mind”  ~  Covey  

Business  Goal  

Employee  Role  

Desired  Outcome  

@sfemerick

Connect  with  me  

The Most Powerful Brand On Earth: How to Transform Teams, Empower Employees, Integrate Partners, and Mobilize Customers to Beat the Competition in Digital and Social Media

Susan  Emerick  is  the  founder  &  CEO  of  Brands  Rising,  LLC,  a  consultancy  specializing  in  employee  advocacy  and  influencer  engagement.  She  previously  led  global  enterprise  social  business  and  digital  marke@ng  programs  for  IBM.  She  serves  on  the  advisory  board  of  Social  Media  Today  and  is  the  co-­‐author  of  The  Most  Powerful  Brand  on  Earth.              susanemerick.com                          @sfemerick                              linkedin.com/in/sfemerick/                      bit.ly/susan-­‐emerick  

Let’s  conDnue  the  conversaDon  about  the  value  of  employee  advocacy  …  

SOCIALMEDIA.ORG/SUMMIT2014ORLANDOOCTOBER 27–29, 2014

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