The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 1

Transcription

1 The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 1

2 Contents Introduction 3 Is Your Enterprise Ready for Employee Advocacy? 4 Selling Internally 6 Selling to Executives 7 Selling to Marketing 11 Selling to Human Resources 14 Selling to Legal 16 Selling to IT 18 Overall Timeline 21 FAQ 22 Getting Started 23 The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 2

3 Introduction THE WORLD OF WORK IS CHANGING Enterprises are now realizing that employee engagement is at the forefront of successful operations. Companies with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202%. Nearly 31% of all high growth enterprises now have a formal employee advocacy program, and 86% of employee advocates credit their involvement with the program as having a positive impact on their career. Employee advocacy isn t a buzzword, nor is it a maybe next year idea. It has become a must-have for any enterprise wishing to reduce the length of their sales cycle, increase employee engagement, and build brand trust. Despite this momentum in the market, many enterprises don t know how to implement a formal employee advocacy program. With a growing number of platforms and vendors, it can be difficult to navigate the procurement process. This guide will walk you through how to speak to your colleagues about employee advocacy, address concerns that each department may have, and will offer additional resources to help develop your social business strategy in Let s Get Started! The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 3

4 01 Is Your Enterprise Ready for Employee Advocacy? Employee advocacy is not a campaign-based social media tactic, it s an always-on internal communications strategy that will evolve over time and continue to scale with your enterprise. With that in mind, it s imperative to conduct an internal audit to determine how prepared your enterprise is for this program. Be critical, and ask yourself the following: ü ü ü Who owns internal communications at your enterprise? What is your current social media policy for employees? Are your employees allowed to share company content? o What are the guidelines around that? ü Do your employees feel engaged and empowered? o How are you measuring engagement? ü What is your current content strategy? o Do your employees engage with your content? These questions are meant to provoke some internal analysis. The fact is, some enterprises aren t ready for an employee advocacy program. They may have more work that needs to be done on the content or employee engagement side. Here are a few common scenarios we ve seen: The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 4

5 Leadership does not see the value of social media and is not willing to invest The organization is very slow to adopt new technology The employees are highly disengaged and talent retention needs drastic improvement Lack of an established content marketing strategy If one or more of these scenarios sounds familiar, don t worry. Organizations will vary in terms of readiness, but if you re even considering whether employee advocacy is something you should invest in, you re in the right place. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 5

6 02 Selling Internally Different business units will have different questions surrounding an employee advocacy program. When sharing your ideas with colleagues in different departments, put yourself in their shoes! The next sections will highlight some of the most common objections each business unit has, and how to address them. We ll walk you through what matters to each department, what you ll need to prepare, and when you should approach them for employee advocacy procurement. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 6

7 03 Selling to Executives We re often asked by the C-Suite how an employee advocacy program will impact the bottom line. They may ask... What are the benefits of having a socially engaged leadership team? Why does it matter? 77% of buyers are more likely to buy from a company whose CEO uses social media. It allows executives to keep up-to-date with what s going on at the company, in one centralized dashboard. How will this contribute to our overall strategic goals? Employee advocacy stems across multiple departments, and can help align communication and goals. It s a commitment to both employee engagement and improved internal communications. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 7

8 What s The ROI? How Much Will It Cost? MARKETING Cost Per Lead BRAND / PR Share of Voice Sentiment SALES Sales Market Share Trusted expert employees generate greater referral traffic, leads, & conversions Employees engaged in social media create links to your content, which boosts SEO Customer satisfaction can increase when trusted employees are accessible and responsive Increase share of voice by extending the reach of the brand Develop more stronger relationships with influencers Protect the brand in times of crisis or criticism Influence and relationships online drive sales Employees engaged in social media impact consideration and preference, thereby conditioning the market into a favorable selling environment Create new customer interactions Enable affiliate, partner, and supplier interactions HUMAN RESOURCES Productivity Talent Acquisition Retention Leverage external talent through crowdsourcing Decrease reliance on paid recruiters IT Productivity Efficiency Increase transparency that decreases time to find our distribute information, knowledge and insights FINANCE Costs Reduce spend on media Decrease costs of content development and distribution The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 8

9 Employee advocacy helps improve communication, reduce operational costs, and helps generate leads that result in revenue over time not to mention the positive brand sentiment that is built by the trust of your employees. Of high growth firms with a formal employee advocacy program surveyed... 77% 65% 44% REPORTED INCREASED BRAND VISIBILITY REPORTED INCREASED WEB TRAFFIC / INBOUND LEADS REPORTED INCREASED BRAND RECOGNITION Other measurable benefits include: ü ü Reduced cost for social media training Reduced time spent on internal communications effort (more streamlined knowledge transfer) Cost structure for this type of software usually depends on the number of employees in the program, the various integrations, and location-specific requests. Do our competitors do this? Yes, they do. Leading companies use employee advocacy to their competitive advantage. Hinge Marketing reports that 31% of high growth firms have a formal employee advocacy program in place. What will adoption look like? Depending on the size of your business, a pilot program may be appropriate. If a pilot is put in place, a segment of employees (brand ambassadors) are The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 9

10 carefully selected to participate in the program. The program manager will work closely with the vendor s implementation specialist/customer success manager to ensure that goals are met, and that a company-wide rollout is attainable based on the pilot results. What to Prepare: 1-sheet showing stats and logos of other companies using employee advocacy software. ROI calculator and projections of how employee advocacy can help strategic goals. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 10

11 04 Selling to Marketing Most marketing teams have some familiarity with employee advocacy, which is great! However, there are a few concerns here regarding messaging and content. Your marketing department may ask Why should we use a platform when we re already investing in paid media? Friend and family referrals are more trusted than advertisements. In fact, more than eight in ten (83% to be exact) of global respondents say they entirely or mostly trust referrals from friends and family, making personal referrals the single most trusted form of advertising. This is contrasted with 70% of respondents who trust brand-owned channels. Your employees are therefore the most credible source of information for people who are unaware of your brand. Employee advocacy isn t meant to replace paid media, but instead, it s meant to complement your existing paid strategy. Employee advocacy isn t campaign-based the way paid is, so results and KPI s will be different. Some platforms can calculate Earned Media Value to demonstrate the cost savings. What if the employees get our brand messaging wrong? Your social media policy can outline at a high level what s appropriate to share on social media. Employee advocacy platforms typically come with a suggested caption for each piece of content. Each piece can be edited by the employee to reflect their own voice, or can be left as the suggested caption. Why would employees care about this? Position this to employees as an opportunity to build a personal brand online. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 11

12 Explain that this isn t a tactic for them to blindly share your message, but to engage with your unique content and add their own voice to it. Benefits advocates receive from employee advocacy Discover New Career Paths 87.2% Generate New Revenue Streams 76% Access to More Job Opportunities Recognized as a Thought Leader Differentiation From Peers More Opportunities for Referrals Develop Skills in High Demand Opportunities for Professional Partners Attract and Develop New Business 50.4% 48.6% 47.2% 45.7% 45.7% 44% 37.8% Keep Up With the Industry Trends Expand Professional Networks 26.4% 25.7% (Source: Hinge Research Institute in Association with Social Media Today) How does this integrate with our current tech stack? Most platforms come with integrations to CRM software, marketing software, intranets, etc. Some of the most common integration requests include Salesforce, Pardot, Yammer, Sharepoint, Microsoft Single Sign-On, or Google Analytics. Platforms can often offer a direct API integration or an integration through UTM Campaign tracking. Your platform should be as accessible as possible to encourage the maximum amount of activity from users. It should integrate with your current marketing stack and be accessible across devices with minimal effort for users to log in and share content. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 12

13 What to Prepare: Audit of current marketing stack and how an employee advocacy platform would integrate with it ROI Calculations Full evaluation of current paid media strategy and its results/roi Case studies that showcase how employee advocacy increases organic reach and helps to generate inbound leads The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 13

14 05 Selling to Human Resources COMMON CONCERNS Human Resources will be concerned with how this program will impact employees at every level. Their concerns will be focused on employee wellbeing, recruiting and employer branding, and might include questions like: Will employees be doing more work? And does this mean extra compensation? No, as this should be an opt-in program. Employees will be voluntarily spending time on the platform, and as such, can spend this time either on or outside work hours. Since the program is voluntary, this would not require extra compensation. Is this part of their job description? Not necessarily. Some client-facing roles (sales, public relations) may have more of a stake in developing their personal brand online. For behind-the-scenes employees, it s an opportunity to develop thought leadership skills. How will this improve our employer brand? Employee advocacy represents a shift in workplace culture (Future of Work) that encourages employees of all levels to share and engage with content. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 14

15 Our employees don t like being tracked or monitored. How will this program be any different? Although employees can be tracked down to the individual level for sharing, this isn t a necessary component of the program. Most platforms will make it easy to measure a program s success at a high level that takes an average of participant engagement. Your enterprise will be more approachable, have a stronger brand, and attract/retain top talent. What to Prepare: Review current employee handbook (specifically: policies around social media use on work hours) Refer to case studies that position employee advocacy programs as key drivers for talent acquisition and social recruiting Research the growing importance of employee engagement and employer branding The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 15

16 06 Selling to Legal COMMON CONCERNS Given that there are certain regulations around content sharing and copyright infringement, your legal department will ask some important questions surrounding content ownership, intellectual property, and laws around employee engagement programs. They may have concerns like these: There are laws around incentivizing employees to perform tasks. Is this program in violation of these laws? If your region has laws prohibiting incentivization, there are ways to make your employee advocacy program opt-in only without any reward or incentive. This will ensure that there is nothing but personal motivation that encourages employees to join. Depending on the verbiage ( bonus vs. prize, for example), there may be other ways to reward employees that are legally sound. Legal would be involved in every step of this process.: What is the process around onboarding? How are employees made aware of what they re obligated to do (or not do)? Program managers should make it explicitly clear to their employees that this is an opt-in program, and they are in no way obliged to share content or say specific things if they aren t inclined to. Remember, the idea is to encourage organic sharing. Does sharing third party content violate any copyright laws? This is largely dependent on where your enterprise is located. We ve encountered many regions that state you must have a disclaimer for third party content, in which case this would be made clear to the employees. Most The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 16

17 platforms will have an edit feature for each piece, so any necessary disclaimers can be added. What if our employee defames the company on social media (or edits the content to say something unsavoury)? Realistically, this can happen regardless of an employee advocacy platform. Employees are always free to share whatever message they please on their social media pages. Social media policies should outline what type of content to share on social media. Your enterprise may also wish to have a formal social media training process that requires the employee to acknowledge (in writing) that they ve received proper training. What to Prepare: Review copyright guidelines for every region you plan to scale your employee advocacy program to. Evaluate your current System of Record Content audit (how your enterprise currently shares third party content, and what disclaimers are made, if any.) The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 17

18 05 Selling to IT COMMON CONCERNS Security is first and foremost for any IT department. When any employee information is being shared (particularly social media profiles), it s imperative to have a platform that is secure and handles sensitive information with caution. The answers will be largely dependent on your chosen platform, but should address: What access does the platform have to personally identifiable information (pii)? Unless the information is stated in the body of a piece of content, the platform should not store any additional information (metadata). If the platform stores PII in any space, this should be deletable upon request of the enterprise. Where is our data hosted? Are any activities related to hosting outsourced to a third party? Some platforms will host enterprise data in a cloud-based system (like Amazon Web Services), which is a secure method for hosting. Other platforms may own their own data center. How is data stored or transmitted? All data that is stored should be encrypted and require a private encryption key to access. Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols should be used when transmitting data over computer networks. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 18

19 What is the authentication process? Although single sign-on (SSO) is preferable, the platform should also be able to work with your existing password policies. If, for example, your enterprise requires that employee passwords be changed every 90 days, the software should be able to work in this capacity. What are your testing procedures? The platform should perform regular security tests (Blackbox testing) to ensure that the software is secure. The vendor may also wish to perform regular Code Review tests to ensure that their code is sound. What is the incident response process? How do you prevent incidents from occurring? Registry in the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is recommended as a way to keep informed with new security concerns. Additionally, if your vendor is hosting with a cloud-based solution, they should be registered for regular security updates in the form of a database or newsletter with their hosting service. A strategic incident response process (or indeed, disaster recovery process) should be strategically outlined during procurement. How often do you perform backups? Vendors should perform backups regularly and offer full restore to point in time functionality to ensure that no data or content is lost in the event of a failure. If using cloud-based hosting, the provider should have a full recovery framework. Is this platform available in an enterprise app store? Yes, your platform should be available in an enterprise app store. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 19

20 What to Prepare: Review your enterprise s current Information Security policy Review current password policies The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 20

21 06 Overall Timeline 1 Critical evaluation of current workplace culture, employee engagement, and employer brand 2 Internal audit of all current social media and employee engagement strategies 3 1 Consult with HR and Marketing 4 Calculate what the ROI would look like for your enterprise 5 Build excitement with executives to gain their support (buy-in) 6 Compare different vendors and schedule product demos 7 Work with vendor s Customer Success team to establish a full implementation and rollout plan. This will include identifying the initial brand advocates, program branding, and establish clear program goals and associated metrics. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 21

22 07 FAQ WHO SHOULD CONTROL THE PLATFORM? The platform is usually managed day-to-day by someone in the marketing department (social/digital). HR and Communications teams are usually involved in content curation, and Legal should be involved for strategy and planning. HOW LONG DOES IMPLEMENTATION TAKE? The first steps of your program (training the program manager, filling the content library, launching to the initial brand advocates, etc.) can take anywhere from 4-6 weeks. Full implementation, however, may be extended to a year or more to fully get the program running at its maximum capacity. WHAT IF THE ADOPTION RATE AMONG EMPLOYEES IS LOW? Although some large enterprises are now skipping the pilot phase in favour of a company-wide rollout, we recommend identifying a small portion of brand champions who are adept at social media sharing and already highly engaged and beginning your program with them. This will give you an idea of what type of content is most successful, and what your employees care about when it comes to an advocacy program, thereby increasing the chances of successful adoption. Your vendor s Customer Success team should assist in identifying the best adoption strategy to ensure that the program is running to its maximum potential. The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 22

23 Getting Started A complete digital transformation is a big step for any organization, and habits don t change overnight. But with the right tools and support, you can gain an advantage over your competitors by adopting early. There s no longer a question of whether employee advocacy is necessary for your enterprise. The question now is whether your enterprise is ready for it. I think tools like PostBeyond are becoming more important. It s now a question of having a tool that s accessible anywhere that gives you the right information at the right time. These are the types of tools that are becoming more vital not only in terms of how the world of work is changing, but in terms of how people expect to engage with companies and receive information. Mark Jordan - Director of Digital Projects, Brand Strategy & Communications, SickKids Foundation Use this guide to take a close look at your current enterprise operations. Where do you stand in terms of readiness? Will your enterprise be a leader in the changing world of workplace culture, or will you be left by the wayside? Want to learn more? REQUEST DEMO Website PostBeyond.com social@postbeyond.com Phone (888) The Ultimate Buyer s Guide to Employee Advocacy Solutions 23