Your Best B2B Creators Already Work For You

EBVTT 1 00:00:02.530 --> 00:00:20.749 Mags - SocialDay: Hello, everyone! Welcome, and thank you so much for joining us today. I'm just gonna give 7 a second to move everyone from the wait room to this, because it usually takes a minute or two. If you're joining us from the US, the UK, please do say hi in the chat, just mainly because I'm nosy, and I want to know 2 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:27.849 Mags - SocialDay: where people are joining us from. But also, so I actually know that it's working. If there's any questions that pop up, I can have a look there. 3 00:00:27.850 --> 00:00:44.120 Mags - SocialDay: If you're new here, my name is Max, I'm the head of marketing at SocialDay, and today we're going to be talking about your best B2B creators already work for you with some amazing people, but I'm gonna let them introduce themselves, because nobody better to do that. 4 00:00:44.120 --> 00:00:50.469 Mags - SocialDay: So… Do I pick someone first, or does anybody want to volunteer? 5 00:00:53.380 --> 00:00:53.780 Anna Laura: I'll go first. 6 00:00:53.780 --> 00:00:57.249 Mags - SocialDay: I'm just gonna… I'll take it. I'll take it. 7 00:00:57.250 --> 00:01:11.339 Anna Laura: We'll go in alphabetical order. Hi everyone, my name is Anna Laura McGranahan, and I am a social media strategist at Aptian. I am based in Alpharetta, so suburb of Atlanta. Real quick, am I echoing for you guys? 8 00:01:12.370 --> 00:01:12.690 Mags - SocialDay: Nope. 9 00:01:12.690 --> 00:01:29.310 Anna Laura: Nope, you're cool. It's a new thing. Great. I've worked in social for a little over 10 years, and I've been with Optian for the past just over a year, so I oversee all of our organic social strategy, as well as our new employee advocacy program, so happy to be here. And I'll toss to Kassandra. 10 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:40.530 Kassandra Quinn: Hi y'all, I'm Kassandra Quinn. I'm a social media strategist at ModSquad. There I manage our organic social presence, mainly on a strong focus of LinkedIn. 11 00:01:40.530 --> 00:01:54.640 Kassandra Quinn: Over the past 2 years, I've been leading the development and launch of our employee advocacy program, so I've learned a lot about the ins and outs of, kind of, creating the content people like to see, and how that program works best, so I'm excited to talk to you guys about it today. 12 00:01:55.580 --> 00:01:57.109 Kassandra Quinn: And I'll pass it off to Steph. 13 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:21.999 Steph Guerin: My turn. Hey, I am Steph Guerin. I work for a company called Quo, which was formerly Open Phone, if you've seen that on socials. I've been there for about 4 years, and I've been a social media manager for just over 2, so I am coming from the perspective of a scrappy little employee advocacy program. I don't use programs or anything. 14 00:02:22.860 --> 00:02:28.180 Steph Guerin: just a couple of Notion docs, so I'm really, really excited to talk to you all about that today. 15 00:02:29.720 --> 00:02:45.200 Mags - SocialDay: Oh, amazing. Thank you so much, all of you for jumping on this call with me. I know we've been talking about this for quite a few weeks already, and I'm so excited it's finally here today, because we do talk about creators a lot at the creator economy, but the B2B creator 16 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:54.990 Mags - SocialDay: Because Fury is completely different, so it's great to be talking specifically about that. Now, to start us off, we know employee-generated content. 17 00:02:54.990 --> 00:03:00.880 Mags - SocialDay: Isn't exactly new, but why do you guys think it's become so big lately? 18 00:03:01.140 --> 00:03:03.259 Mags - SocialDay: Steph, you were the last one, too. 19 00:03:03.410 --> 00:03:06.609 Mags - SocialDay: dog, so I'm gonna just choose… choose you for this one. 20 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:07.990 Steph Guerin: Of course. 21 00:03:08.140 --> 00:03:19.729 Steph Guerin: I don't think it's any secret that, algorithms lately are a little funky. Like, personally, for brand content. 22 00:03:19.980 --> 00:03:24.639 Steph Guerin: across LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter. 23 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:40.190 Steph Guerin: The numbers are kind of going down, but it's really cool to see, we have a very active, one of our co-founders, especially on Twitter, and seeing her numbers, like, skyrocket, that's, like, a huge indication of… 24 00:03:40.610 --> 00:03:56.249 Steph Guerin: we maybe need to start looking at our people, and the information and new features and tips and tricks maybe coming from them, instead of just solely relying on the brand page. So that's something that we've really started, like, digging into. 25 00:03:58.470 --> 00:04:05.659 Mags - SocialDay: Yes, and Laura, I was gonna ask you next, do you think that this is something that's steered out from LinkedIn, or do you see it in other platforms, too? 26 00:04:06.230 --> 00:04:12.260 Anna Laura: I think, in my experience, LinkedIn has definitely been the priority for us. 27 00:04:12.260 --> 00:04:25.570 Anna Laura: you know, Twitter, X, it'll always be Twitter to me, has evolved so much over the years. I feel like, you know, a few years back, there was maybe more of a push for C-suite, and especially, like, CEO thought leadership and 28 00:04:25.570 --> 00:04:35.690 Anna Laura: and advocacy on Twitter X. I'm not really seeing that as much anymore. It's really primarily been LinkedIn, and I think to Steph's point, you know, algorithms are gonna do 29 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:55.139 Anna Laura: whatever they want to do, they're gonna change in the next 30 seconds, most likely. And I think combining just algorithmic, you know, ebb and flow over the years, as well as the rise of platforms like Reddit and, you know, LLM search and visibility and authenticity and all the different buzzwords. 30 00:04:55.140 --> 00:05:01.610 Anna Laura: There's… people trust employee, like, personal voices more than they're ever gonna trust a brand account. 31 00:05:04.570 --> 00:05:14.180 Mags - SocialDay: Yeah. Yeah, definitely we see, like, a big difference between… I know I usually ask, like, this from a LinkedIn perspective. I do see it on LinkedIn a lot, like, views for… 32 00:05:14.380 --> 00:05:30.610 Mags - SocialDay: company pages are completely different views or employees, and that's, like, a massive thing also that came into this. Kassandra, is there anything from your point of view that it may tie to why employee-generated content is so big? 33 00:05:32.270 --> 00:05:34.649 Kassandra Quinn: Yeah, I mean, I think that… 34 00:05:34.990 --> 00:05:50.549 Kassandra Quinn: social media, at the end of the day, has always been about connecting people, but somewhere along the line in B2B, we kind of lost that a little bit, and it became a lot of microphone, megaphone, of brands just kind of shouting out there, and I think that 35 00:05:50.580 --> 00:06:07.489 Kassandra Quinn: we saw that changing on other platforms first, and that almost always happens, where B2C kind of leads the way into what B2B marketing will eventually do in a very different way, but we saw influencers kind of be big in B2C, and now they're getting big in B2B. The same with 36 00:06:07.640 --> 00:06:13.690 Kassandra Quinn: The connection of, okay, how can we get people to feel a connection to a brand? 37 00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:21.439 Kassandra Quinn: And that's with people. People don't feel connected to a brand, they feel connected to people, and that's why I think employee advocacy is really just having its moment. 38 00:06:22.860 --> 00:06:41.510 Mags - SocialDay: Yeah, it's… that's a funny one, right? Because we've been told for the longest… I'm going through a completely different tangent here, so sorry, it's only, like, 7 minutes in, and I'm already changing the subject, but we've seen, like, such a fantom with so many brands that are actually brands, you know, we're feeling related to… 39 00:06:41.640 --> 00:06:52.830 Mags - SocialDay: I don't know, Tesla is the first one that comes to mind, which is a worst example ever, right? But we have, you know, like, big Tesla fans. I'm not an Elon fan by any means, right? 40 00:06:52.830 --> 00:07:03.529 Mags - SocialDay: And they feel so connected with that, well, they don't really feel any connection to B2B, or at least we're seeing it more, with Slack, at least. I see, like, the Slack fandom is massive. 41 00:07:03.940 --> 00:07:05.070 Mags - SocialDay: Right? 42 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:08.870 Mags - SocialDay: So, sorry, completely sidetracked there. 43 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:20.269 Mags - SocialDay: Kassandra, from your perspective, if you want to start an employee advocacy program from scratch, obviously, like, you've seen a massive difference from influencers to employees, 44 00:07:21.200 --> 00:07:29.020 Mags - SocialDay: What are the first three things you would put in place before asking anyone to create any kind of content? 45 00:07:29.860 --> 00:07:32.190 Kassandra Quinn: Yeah. No, definitely. I think… 46 00:07:32.340 --> 00:07:44.889 Kassandra Quinn: people kind of take that step where they jump right into content creation, thinking that's the most immediate and important part of it. For me, what I think is most important, and what I've seen in practice, like, in our programs, is 47 00:07:44.890 --> 00:08:03.139 Kassandra Quinn: engagement and education. So before even asking employees to post, they kind of need to understand why LinkedIn matters, not only for them, but also for the brand overall. So even before we launched and formalized our employee advocacy program, we really looked for ways to 48 00:08:03.310 --> 00:08:20.350 Kassandra Quinn: kind of have those conversations weaved into what was already happening, so I would join calls and talk about personal branding on LinkedIn. I would, talk about my own wins on LinkedIn and show numbers and show, like, how you could build a brand, how it could benefit them. 49 00:08:20.390 --> 00:08:36.880 Kassandra Quinn: And then also being very transparent about how it benefits the business. People want to be part of something, and if you're having them put in the work, they want to know how they're giving… they're giving back to their company, and also something for themselves, so being very transparent about that is super helpful. 50 00:08:38.630 --> 00:08:41.970 Mags - SocialDay: And then Laura, from your perspective, 51 00:08:42.070 --> 00:08:55.490 Mags - SocialDay: how do you find this? How do you find the right advocates, right? We, like, once you have those, like, first, like, three things in place, do you just, like, open a discussion to be like, who wants to do this? Or do you actually, you know, go and research? 52 00:08:55.990 --> 00:09:10.860 Anna Laura: Yeah, so I did it, kind of both ways. So, part of my responsibility when I first joined Optian was selecting a new social media management suite, and we kind of identified pretty early on that we wanted employee advocacy to be part of that. 53 00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:18.019 Anna Laura: So thankfully, I didn't have to pitch it or get buy-in for anyone. We kind of knew that that was going to be part of our tool stack. 54 00:09:18.020 --> 00:09:31.780 Anna Laura: And, you know, I built it very intentionally. I wanted to build a program that would scale, because we're a global company of over 4,000 employees, so I needed something that worked not just for people in headquarters. 55 00:09:31.780 --> 00:09:32.410 Mags - SocialDay: Wow. 56 00:09:32.710 --> 00:09:39.959 Anna Laura: North America, but could also work in Belgium, talking about food and beverage products, or apparel products with their customers. 57 00:09:40.010 --> 00:09:46.220 Anna Laura: So, there was a lot… there was so much intention that went into the architecture of the program that I built. 58 00:09:46.220 --> 00:10:04.349 Anna Laura: And then, from there, I kind of lightly stalked a lot of my coworkers. I had a general idea of who was already active, you know, primarily on LinkedIn, and who was already engaging with our content, who was already sharing. Those were kind of the people that I hand-selected to be part of our beta before we rolled it out. 59 00:10:04.350 --> 00:10:23.169 Anna Laura: to a larger group, but I worked really closely, we asked our head of HR to be our executive sponsor to advertise the program. When we rolled it out in Q1 of this year. She thankfully accepted that, those reins. And I worked really closely with our HR team, senior leadership, senior marketing teams, to identify 60 00:10:23.170 --> 00:10:40.030 Anna Laura: who's gonna get the most value out of this? Who's already doing something like this organically? And ultimately, who do we want to be using this? And it's a… it's a wide variety of people, but really, sales, especially in B2B, like, sales is gonna be your… your number one. 61 00:10:40.030 --> 00:10:40.460 Mags - SocialDay: Yes. 62 00:10:40.460 --> 00:10:42.220 Anna Laura: First for Advocacy. 63 00:10:42.820 --> 00:10:58.399 Mags - SocialDay: Yes, I think I completely agree with you there, like, sales has to be, like, the first ones that you actually go to, because they know the drill, right? They know a lot of stuff, and they want to be out there, so they're a great first choice if you have to stock for a thousand employees. 64 00:10:58.700 --> 00:11:05.190 Anna Laura: Yeah, we're currently sitting around, we use, Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social, combined with 65 00:11:05.190 --> 00:11:21.360 Anna Laura: Sprout Social Publishing. We currently have around, I think, 450 active employees in advocacy. My goal is 1,000, so definitely still in our infancy. But it's been going really well so far, and yeah, sales is… 66 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:24.569 Anna Laura: Way in the front, and then everyone else is way in the back. 67 00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:33.010 Mags - SocialDay: Oh, I love that, and I love stuff you say, like, professional stalkers. Yeah, we have a kind of like a bit. We have two for this. 68 00:11:33.130 --> 00:11:41.420 Anna Laura: I can… I made a joke recently, I've gotten really into genealogy, I said I can find just about anything with your brother's LinkedIn and your grandma's Facebook page, like… 69 00:11:41.530 --> 00:11:44.059 Anna Laura: I can find anything. 70 00:11:45.060 --> 00:11:46.510 Mags - SocialDay: I'm proud, too. 71 00:11:46.520 --> 00:11:49.810 Anna Laura: Yes, and proud, I'm proud. 72 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:53.680 Mags - SocialDay: Steph, how does this apply to you in an everyday? 73 00:11:53.920 --> 00:12:02.499 Mags - SocialDay: And if you want to, you know, talk about how do you find the right advocates, or if you want to go back to, like, how do you actually start employee advocacy from scratch. 74 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:04.200 Mags - SocialDay: Anything you want to share? 75 00:12:04.460 --> 00:12:16.269 Steph Guerin: Yeah, I have a little answer for both. I'm learning so much from Cassandra and Anna Laura, like, from what they have set up. I'm… we're still kind of very, like, at the start. 76 00:12:16.410 --> 00:12:35.810 Steph Guerin: of ours, and we don't… I'm sure at some stage we will have the need. We do have Sprout Social, so we have that stuff ready to go. But we're at the very start, so, I would say, like, the three things that I have down are finding the right people, the right channels. 77 00:12:35.810 --> 00:12:38.369 Steph Guerin: And the right topics. 78 00:12:39.790 --> 00:12:55.650 Steph Guerin: From there, it's funny that you are talking about sales. I can see that our sales, we've kind of have, like, a new sales team that's joined over the last 12 months, so I can definitely see that happening. But our product itself is, 79 00:12:56.350 --> 00:13:10.070 Steph Guerin: We're a business phone, so we're used by, you know, small businesses that… a lot of them are really interested in how they set up their workflows and their businesses, so they're really technical, they want to know how workflows work. 80 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:19.730 Steph Guerin: So we're finding that, apart from leadership that are really bought in to posting, is, like, our product managers and some of our engineers that… 81 00:13:19.880 --> 00:13:23.949 Steph Guerin: like, have those connections already, say, on LinkedIn. 82 00:13:24.140 --> 00:13:28.420 Steph Guerin: So they're the ones, like, when I get them to post, they're not just… 83 00:13:28.430 --> 00:13:39.209 Steph Guerin: talking about how this, like, feature would help them, but they're actually talking about how it was built and how you can, like, technically put it into this workflow, and I find that because they're… 84 00:13:39.210 --> 00:13:48.450 Steph Guerin: their voices are very similar to the ones that, like, to our customer base and our verticals that we go after, which is home services right now. That… 85 00:13:48.670 --> 00:14:01.190 Steph Guerin: I don't have to, like, I give them a little bit of a topic of stuff, like, to talk about and to cover, but they know so much better, like, they're so much smarter with the technicalities of things, so they kind of just, like, run away, and I'm like. 86 00:14:01.190 --> 00:14:18.819 Steph Guerin: how did you even… I wouldn't even know how to, like, steer you in that direction, but they know our customers so well in and out. They're building this product for them, so… I feel very lucky that I can kind of trust them if I give them a couple of steps that they are, like, good to go to their networks and talk about this, so… 87 00:14:19.260 --> 00:14:27.329 Mags - SocialDay: Those are absolutely the best ones, when you actually have to come up with ideas, and then they actually come back to you and be like, hey, I want to talk about all these things, great! 88 00:14:27.330 --> 00:14:31.699 Steph Guerin: I'm like, I don't know what that word is, but, like, go for it. I trust you. 89 00:14:34.210 --> 00:14:39.850 Kassandra Quinn: Jumping in there, I think that that's kind of one of the biggest parts of employee advocacy that's, like, the biggest… 90 00:14:40.160 --> 00:15:05.130 Kassandra Quinn: I guess, opportunity, because us as super social media managers, we're the experts in social media, not usually in whatever product or service we're selling on behalf of the brand. We know what we need to know, but like you said, those technical people, they know how to speak in a completely different way than we do, and that's kind of what makes it so valuable, and that's kind of the same way we're picking the people on our team, too. We find the people 91 00:15:05.130 --> 00:15:10.750 Kassandra Quinn: who, Can speak to the work in a way that marketing's just never going to be able to do. 92 00:15:11.510 --> 00:15:12.060 Anna Laura: And I think that. 93 00:15:12.060 --> 00:15:12.720 Mags - SocialDay: No. 94 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:16.600 Anna Laura: That's also the key piece of advocacy, is that 95 00:15:16.910 --> 00:15:28.579 Anna Laura: You know, if we're giving our employees, if we're giving, whether that's a product team, or a sales team, or marketing, or leadership, if we're giving them the tools and the instruction to go out into the world and to 96 00:15:28.700 --> 00:15:38.810 Anna Laura: tell their stories, that's always gonna be, again, more authentic than whatever I'm blasting out, you know, from the corporate channels. So, yeah, I think, really. 97 00:15:38.950 --> 00:15:51.070 Anna Laura: letting… enabling employees to have the ownership of their own voice on social is the entire reason for, you know, employee advocacy, influencership, like, they're all so connected. 98 00:15:52.190 --> 00:16:05.930 Mags - SocialDay: Yeah, they have that spark already, but it's one of the things, and this actually takes me to this question. Some people already do have the spark, and they're actually very knowledgeable about the product, the company, they do have, you know, that 99 00:16:05.940 --> 00:16:19.040 Mags - SocialDay: willingness to actually put themselves out there. Now, how do you manage that? Because, of course, we are the social media managers, small teams, big deliverables, tons of responsibilities. Do you actually meet with them? 100 00:16:19.400 --> 00:16:20.599 Mags - SocialDay: Once a month. 101 00:16:20.900 --> 00:16:30.939 Mags - SocialDay: and actually give them, like, chores to do, or, like, goals to do, to be like, well, do you have to post about this? How do you actually manage that with employees? Do you have prompts, templates, or… 102 00:16:32.530 --> 00:16:32.979 Kassandra Quinn: I can jump. 103 00:16:32.980 --> 00:16:34.780 Mags - SocialDay: How? I want the tea! 104 00:16:35.180 --> 00:16:41.979 Kassandra Quinn: There's a lot of… thankfully, there's so many tools out there that can really help with this, and 105 00:16:42.030 --> 00:16:57.379 Kassandra Quinn: honestly, you can also do it, I know Steph was saying, like, you don't necessarily need a tool. We started without one, but there are a lot of tools that can help you, and so what we do is every piece of content that we share with the employee advocates. 106 00:16:57.490 --> 00:17:09.520 Kassandra Quinn: we don't provide just, like, one suggested caption and an item. We provide different ways you can talk about it. We give them multiple prompts, different creative, and different kind of ideas on how they can speak. 107 00:17:09.710 --> 00:17:15.579 Kassandra Quinn: Because we don't want everyone to sound the same. The whole point is that we want them to sound like they're speaking from themselves. 108 00:17:15.670 --> 00:17:22.269 Kassandra Quinn: And we also make sure we're providing content that is relevant to all the different parts of our business. 109 00:17:22.300 --> 00:17:37.649 Kassandra Quinn: Very similar to Anna Laura and Steph, like, we have teams that are doing all sorts of different things. We have an AI tech team, we have a trust and safety team, and they're definitely not going to always speak about the exact same thing, so we make sure that our advocacy program has content that 110 00:17:37.890 --> 00:17:42.310 Kassandra Quinn: Fits in on different ways of all those different teams. 111 00:17:43.340 --> 00:17:54.700 Kassandra Quinn: And then, of course, intentionally rewarding originality, so, like, we gamify it a little, like, if you add… there's more points if you add your own perspective to it. That can always help as well. 112 00:17:56.610 --> 00:18:13.799 Anna Laura: Yeah, I think with my program, it's, you know, it's still new. This is the first employee advocacy program that I've ever launched, so I'm still learning so much from it. I did, you know, all the input to set up the architecture, make sure we have the right topics, make sure we have the right people. 113 00:18:13.800 --> 00:18:28.970 Anna Laura: now it's kind of the process of figuring out what's resonating with people, and how do I get them to embrace authentic voices more, because the way that we kind of do it currently, I'm a single, solo contributor of social, and I knew 114 00:18:29.040 --> 00:18:48.050 Anna Laura: pretty much day negative two, that there was no way I was going to be able to support the unique content needs for global social teams working across so many different verticals. Opti has over 100 products, there was just no way, it wasn't possible. So, I recruited, again, in partnership with our HR and leadership teams. 115 00:18:48.050 --> 00:18:57.349 Anna Laura: I work really closely with our field teams in our different global regions, and they're the ones creating content for their sales teams and their marketing teams to share. 116 00:18:57.350 --> 00:19:16.439 Anna Laura: So, it all flows through me for, you know, corporate brand governance, making sure hashtags don't have any typos, and making sure everything is tracked. I have an agent that will write 5 different versions of copy, but it gets a UTM for every single piece of content that is processed through our advocacy tool, so… 117 00:19:16.440 --> 00:19:21.389 Anna Laura: Everything is tracked, I see all my numbers, you know, we see how things are doing at the end of the day. 118 00:19:21.390 --> 00:19:38.630 Anna Laura: But, yeah, I think that's the challenge I'm having, is I've… I've built the tools to automate a lot of it, but sometimes the feedback I get is that it doesn't feel human enough, so that's still a… that's still a piece that I'm… I'm working through and figuring out. You know, we have a press release that went live today, and I'm… 119 00:19:38.710 --> 00:19:51.640 Anna Laura: Kassandra, I might pick your brain after this, like, okay, what do I give them in advocacy to say, hey, write your own, I'm not gonna do it. You know, I'm not… I'm not gonna give you the generated, you know, recommended content, I want you to put your voice behind this. 120 00:19:51.740 --> 00:19:56.740 Anna Laura: So it's… yeah, it's a… it's a complex process, for sure. 121 00:19:57.010 --> 00:20:09.069 Mags - SocialDay: I was gonna say, and it's just… it's a lot, and I applaud you for it, because especially when you work for big companies into, like, international companies, nobody likes to have content go without a first sign-off. 122 00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:11.980 Mags - SocialDay: So that's not a small win. 123 00:20:11.980 --> 00:20:27.069 Anna Laura: Yeah, yeah, I have, I think it's 36 people that have… we kind of recruited, and then a few that have joined along the way who have the tools that they need to create content within advocacy that get submitted to me for final approval before it goes live. 124 00:20:27.190 --> 00:20:28.630 Anna Laura: That helps so much. 125 00:20:28.630 --> 00:20:31.880 Mags - SocialDay: Okay, yeah, but I was gonna say, it still is… 126 00:20:32.010 --> 00:20:42.999 Mags - SocialDay: for those 36 people, you still have to review all the content that goes out, which I assume they have several pieces of content every week, and that's just something… someone has to approve that. It doesn't disappear, right? 127 00:20:43.300 --> 00:20:49.529 Anna Laura: I don't speak French, Dutch, or German, so I use my little Google Translate a lot. I'm like, this looks right! 128 00:20:50.170 --> 00:20:52.300 Anna Laura: Graphics approved. 129 00:20:53.040 --> 00:21:01.059 Anna Laura: Yeah, there's challenges, but it's, you know, that's why I built it the way that I did. I wanted it to be able to evolve like this. 130 00:21:01.230 --> 00:21:15.309 Anna Laura: And to hopefully, you know, have a bigger team in the future that can take more of this on, but for now, you know, we just had to make it accessible for everybody. It couldn't be just North America. That's not fair to all my colleagues. We're global. 131 00:21:17.030 --> 00:21:21.460 Mags - SocialDay: Yeah, and you need to help with sales across the globe, so it's kind of like… 132 00:21:21.860 --> 00:21:37.059 Mags - SocialDay: It was a requirement, almost, for it to be global. Sorry, Steph, do you want to actually jump in? Do you work with templates, prompts? I love, like, another she said, like, completely build a whole machine for it, and now she'll be like, I used to track this in an Excel sheet! 133 00:21:37.640 --> 00:21:46.910 Steph Guerin: I mean, we don't even have an Excel sheet right now. We are, I was gonna add on to what Ana Laura was saying, 134 00:21:47.330 --> 00:21:48.410 Steph Guerin: that… 135 00:21:48.510 --> 00:22:06.399 Steph Guerin: you can't come to this webinar, and, like, you're not gonna learn how to sort, like, set something up, and then that's it, you can just let it run. It's the same as algorithms, it's the same as trans, like, blink, and the next one's here, and something's changed. So if anyone ever tells you that they have, like. 136 00:22:06.410 --> 00:22:14.400 Steph Guerin: the secret sauce to employee advocacy, or for algorithms, or for trends, like, it… it just doesn't exist. 137 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:14.760 Mags - SocialDay: hence. 138 00:22:14.760 --> 00:22:15.500 Anna Laura: Through you. 139 00:22:15.500 --> 00:22:26.500 Steph Guerin: lying to you. No one… anyone that's in your DMs, like, your LinkedIn, if you're being pitch-slapped, and anyone's like, I can, like, I've got all the answers for you, lies. 140 00:22:26.500 --> 00:22:27.790 Mags - SocialDay: Yeah, I'll go to Laura. 141 00:22:28.380 --> 00:22:29.140 Steph Guerin: Lies. 142 00:22:29.710 --> 00:22:40.830 Anna Laura: The only secret sauce that I think is legitimate for any kind of employee advocacy is being so annoying to all of your coworkers. That is the sauce. It is you sending 143 00:22:41.420 --> 00:22:49.419 Anna Laura: 15 million follow-up messages and Teams notifications to me, like, hey, just checking in, did you share this? Where is it? Show me the numbers. 144 00:22:49.420 --> 00:22:50.600 Steph Guerin: Bumpiness. 145 00:22:50.600 --> 00:22:54.290 Anna Laura: Yeah, the secret sauce is being so annoying. 146 00:22:54.290 --> 00:22:57.919 Steph Guerin: 100%. Whenever I walk into a room and everyone's like, oh… 147 00:22:57.920 --> 00:22:58.830 Anna Laura: They're like… 148 00:22:58.830 --> 00:23:05.210 Steph Guerin: It's either gonna be, like, a video, or an ask, or, like, there's something coming. 149 00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:10.619 Anna Laura: Now, I won't call out our C-suite. When they walk by, I'm like, hey. Yes. 150 00:23:10.620 --> 00:23:12.359 Steph Guerin: Just… I'm here. 151 00:23:12.800 --> 00:23:18.330 Mags - SocialDay: I mean, I'm just gonna say, it's their fault, actually, because if they've done it before you asked for it, you wouldn't be asking for it. 152 00:23:19.620 --> 00:23:20.250 Anna Laura: There we go. 153 00:23:20.250 --> 00:23:20.790 Kassandra Quinn: I'm gonna use my. 154 00:23:20.790 --> 00:23:21.859 Anna Laura: I like it. 155 00:23:22.300 --> 00:23:29.920 Steph Guerin: There is a way out of this. What I was… what I was gonna say when I was saying about the trends and the algorithms and Secret Source, 156 00:23:30.030 --> 00:23:34.330 Steph Guerin: is that I think the… the cool thing about this is that 157 00:23:35.220 --> 00:23:40.889 Steph Guerin: it's going to evolve. Like, maybe every month it's going to evolve. You can… 158 00:23:40.910 --> 00:23:55.430 Steph Guerin: Like, however you have this set up, it's going to change, you're going to have more people coming into this program, but I think one of the coolest things, and Ana, Laura, you were… you were kind of touching on this, is that… 159 00:23:55.430 --> 00:24:07.880 Steph Guerin: The longer, like, the more effort that you put in, and it is really hard, going through 36 different pieces of content to, like, make sure it's good to go out, like, it's a lot of work. 160 00:24:07.910 --> 00:24:26.120 Steph Guerin: But, I mean, you'll probably start seeing in a couple of months that you're maybe still getting the same amount, but you're not having to put as much effort into it, because people start… I mean, this was the same as me two years ago, I'd… or two to three years ago, I'd never worked in social, and I was asking for 161 00:24:26.120 --> 00:24:29.380 Steph Guerin: approval for every single word that I was putting out. 162 00:24:29.380 --> 00:24:36.210 Steph Guerin: I don't ask anyone. People are like, oh, I didn't know this was going out today. I was like, oh, yeah, sorry about that. I should have asked someone, but… 163 00:24:36.220 --> 00:24:36.920 Anna Laura: Here it is! 164 00:24:36.920 --> 00:24:52.479 Steph Guerin: I think people get more comfortable with their voice and, like, the ask and brand voice as well, because it is brand voice, that it's on your own profile, so we want you to talk how you would usually talk. There's just a couple of things we want covered to make sure that 165 00:24:53.000 --> 00:25:02.760 Steph Guerin: it is about the bread, but we want it to be from you, and I think if you put in the effort, and it can, you know, it's time-consuming, but if you're… 166 00:25:02.950 --> 00:25:09.130 Steph Guerin: hand-holding for a little while, you'll start seeing that pay off. And you're not gonna have, you know… yeah. 167 00:25:09.780 --> 00:25:18.369 Anna Laura: Yeah, I've definitely started seeing that shift. Most of the… we call them advocacy champions, that's our internal field teams that are creating content. 168 00:25:18.530 --> 00:25:35.200 Anna Laura: I think we launched… I launched a beta in February, then we launched to around 700 employees in March, and then we kicked off Champions in April, because immediately after we launched, I had people coming from all directions, all different teams, saying, I need more content for… 169 00:25:35.490 --> 00:25:49.970 Anna Laura: XYZ, right, in different languages. I was like, I can't do this by myself. So, you know, we scaled it really quickly, but that was always the intention. So, yeah, the wheels were on the bus, and it was… 170 00:25:50.090 --> 00:25:55.870 Anna Laura: It was going 90 miles an hour. I was like, alright, are our mirrors okay? Are we good? We are on the road. 171 00:25:55.870 --> 00:25:57.880 Steph Guerin: My brake's not working. 172 00:25:57.880 --> 00:26:03.820 Anna Laura: Yeah, brakes, brakes don't work in this, in this bus, but we're, we're still on the highway, we're doing okay. 173 00:26:06.040 --> 00:26:08.290 Mags - SocialDay: Yeah, it's uninterested to… 174 00:26:08.290 --> 00:26:08.960 Anna Laura: Lip. 175 00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:25.980 Mags - SocialDay: this round, and before I get to the next question, right? It does feel, and as you said, Steph, it always depends with social media, depends on how much employees you have, and how do you have to expand your employee advocacy program. So sometimes it's easier just to have, like, my old Excel sheet, and just try… 176 00:26:26.530 --> 00:26:40.799 Mags - SocialDay: staff there, and sometimes, no, you actually need, like, an external tool to be able to track everything, because it… I would kill myself if I was at an Loris level, and had to track all that content that is going out. 177 00:26:41.310 --> 00:26:42.850 Anna Laura: Yeah, and I think… 178 00:26:42.890 --> 00:26:52.990 Anna Laura: You know, that's the reason we knew we needed a tool so early on, is because, you know, previous social media managers, it had been done all organically. If there was a new press release. 179 00:26:53.030 --> 00:27:06.770 Anna Laura: a product announcement, anything, you know, we would… the people before me, and then myself when I first started in the role, we would write some copy, we would be really annoying in Teams and SharePoint and Viva Engage, and email, and everywhere else. 180 00:27:06.950 --> 00:27:19.639 Anna Laura: And we never really knew, like, it just wasn't trackable. So that was the biggest piece. You know, when I came in, I was like, alright, here's how it's going now. We might get 2 or 3 of our execs sharing something. 181 00:27:19.770 --> 00:27:34.850 Anna Laura: I have no idea. Once they post it, it's out of my hands. I can give them a UTM, I can give them the tiniest piece of tracking information, and then it's gone forever, and what am I gonna do? Follow up 6 months from now and be like, hey, how many likes did that get? How many impressions? 182 00:27:34.910 --> 00:27:50.490 Anna Laura: you know, it was… it was too manual, especially at a company as complex as Optian is. That's why we went for the tool, and just saying, I'm a big fan of Sprout Social, so if anyone… my lights just went out in my conference room, if anyone has questions… 183 00:27:50.490 --> 00:27:54.140 Mags - SocialDay: And I will send this to them, because we actually work with them for most of our events. 184 00:27:54.140 --> 00:27:54.530 Anna Laura: Fantastic. 185 00:27:54.530 --> 00:27:55.910 Mags - SocialDay: Maybe you have a. 186 00:27:55.910 --> 00:28:04.400 Anna Laura: Oh, yeah. Oh, they hear from me a lot on LinkedIn. I'm like, hey, Sprout! Hold on, let me go turn my conference room lights back on, BRB. 187 00:28:04.910 --> 00:28:11.570 Kassandra Quinn: I think what Anna Laura said there, though, is, like, a really big part of it, is that you don't need a tool. 188 00:28:11.710 --> 00:28:20.979 Kassandra Quinn: Like, we all… like, most people should start with that one, because you don't know how it's gonna work, you don't know what tools you're gonna have, and then you're gonna reach a point where you're gonna be like, oh… 189 00:28:20.980 --> 00:28:31.789 Kassandra Quinn: I don't have the data I need, I don't have the analytics, I don't have the ability to reach X, Y, and Z. And that's when you know you're ready for a tool, but I think there's no… you shouldn't feel like you can't experiment. 190 00:28:31.840 --> 00:28:32.950 Kassandra Quinn: Unless you have one. 191 00:28:33.380 --> 00:28:34.210 Anna Laura: Yeah. 192 00:28:34.210 --> 00:28:35.690 Mags - SocialDay: I love that! 193 00:28:35.930 --> 00:28:42.989 Anna Laura: I think that's a really great point, too, like, you know, Steph, Kassandra, and I have connected throughout this process, you know, of… 194 00:28:43.040 --> 00:29:02.840 Anna Laura: of planning this webinar for everyone, and we're all at very different stages, you know, both within our work in social media and our work within employee advocacy and B2B space. This is my first ever B2B role, and my first time ever launching employee advocacy, so it's everything I know about employee advocacy I've learned in the last 8 months. You know, it's… 195 00:29:02.860 --> 00:29:03.670 Anna Laura: It's… 196 00:29:03.840 --> 00:29:15.590 Anna Laura: it's been such an evolution, but yeah, I think, you know, if you're being asked, like, how do we get our employees more active on social, you don't need a tool from day one. You need to throw 197 00:29:15.590 --> 00:29:32.130 Anna Laura: all the spaghetti, like, all the noodles at the wall, and see what sticks. Is it spaghetti? Is it penne? Is it something completely different? Like, throw lasagna at the wall. But that's how you get a sense for, you know, what will resonate with people, like, what does motivate people to share in the future, so that… 198 00:29:32.130 --> 00:29:35.749 Anna Laura: If and when, and you might not ever be ready for a tool. 199 00:29:36.150 --> 00:29:38.550 Anna Laura: how is that gonna look, you know? Like, what… 200 00:29:38.690 --> 00:29:50.199 Anna Laura: what's working for you now? Is that gonna keep working for you? Like, at what stage do you make that decision of, this is working for us, we're tracking it, or actually, we need to bring in some… some more… 201 00:29:50.520 --> 00:29:51.860 Anna Laura: Technical support. 202 00:29:52.900 --> 00:30:00.889 Steph Guerin: I was just gonna add, thankfully, like, I love pasta, so throwing spaghetti at the wall is, like, favorite pastime. 203 00:30:00.890 --> 00:30:04.450 Anna Laura: Throwmania directly into my dash, so that would be fine. 204 00:30:04.970 --> 00:30:20.700 Steph Guerin: I always fear that, like, with… because of where I am, and we're just kind of Notion docs, and putting some templates together, and, you know, really trying to, get people to use their own words, 205 00:30:20.810 --> 00:30:27.969 Steph Guerin: If I went from 0 to 100 right now, I think, and, like, went… so we use Sprout, we just don't have the advocacy part. 206 00:30:28.660 --> 00:30:39.299 Steph Guerin: if I went from that to that, I probably would drop the ball, and, like, it would be so overwhelming that I might not actually use it, so I would really recommend, if you are starting, just, like. 207 00:30:39.550 --> 00:30:43.690 Steph Guerin: Don't go from, like, 0 to 100 if you don't have to, and… 208 00:30:43.750 --> 00:31:03.159 Steph Guerin: what Kassandra said, like, test it out, see if it works for you, and, like, how you could set it up, because I feel like then when you get the tool, and you're spending the budget, which, as social media managers, we know can be really hard to ask for sometimes. So, like, you'll have the case, you'll have something to, like, put forward to people, and… 209 00:31:03.290 --> 00:31:10.329 Steph Guerin: I am still asking, like, after a week, asking, like, our co-founders, like, can you please screenshot your, 210 00:31:10.560 --> 00:31:27.219 Steph Guerin: your LinkedIn post so I can see your impressions and you're not this? Like, I'm still doing that, and I kinda… I love it, but I know at some point we're gonna have a need, and when we get to that need, I'm gonna be ready to start, like, implementing that and understanding the value and, like, asking for that budget. 211 00:31:27.460 --> 00:31:29.340 Kassandra Quinn: I think ultimately makes you… 212 00:31:29.430 --> 00:31:30.430 Anna Laura: Oops, sorry. 213 00:31:30.710 --> 00:31:31.370 Mags - SocialDay: Go on, go. 214 00:31:31.370 --> 00:31:43.629 Kassandra Quinn: Melissa asked that question in the Q&A, and I think that answers her nicely, in that a pilot program, like, with a small group, is… is perfect. That's a great way to start in a small way. 215 00:31:43.630 --> 00:31:51.820 Kassandra Quinn: Both times I've launched employee advocacy programs, they've started with a pilot program, because you, you need to get that leadership buy-in, you need to get that. 216 00:31:51.820 --> 00:31:56.660 Kassandra Quinn: buy-in from your team, and then also just prove to yourself that you can have the results. There's… 217 00:31:56.980 --> 00:32:00.469 Kassandra Quinn: I think you can launch it right away, quickly, but… 218 00:32:00.590 --> 00:32:07.599 Kassandra Quinn: Doing that pilot program gives you a lot more leverage for asking for that, you know, mythical budget that we all hope to have. 219 00:32:08.060 --> 00:32:13.240 Steph Guerin: And I was gonna… I will say to that as well, with the starting it, is… 220 00:32:13.780 --> 00:32:30.259 Steph Guerin: getting leadership buy-in, of course, like, we're, like, you're in your leadership, you kind of have to do this. So most of the time, they're like, yeah, you're right, let's, like, make a good example for our teams, but also trying to get people from different departments to start testing, like. 221 00:32:30.260 --> 00:32:35.890 Steph Guerin: What… what they're saying, how it's resonating with people can kind of give you more of an idea of… 222 00:32:35.930 --> 00:32:40.089 Steph Guerin: Should we maybe not put as much effort into 223 00:32:40.280 --> 00:32:46.719 Steph Guerin: I don't know, engineers, and maybe more into the product team, because they have this network, has really worked for us. 224 00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:52.220 Anna Laura: Yeah, I think if it puts a bow on, you know, this conversation. 225 00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:57.209 Anna Laura: The most important part, I feel like, and I'm curious for you guys as well, is… 226 00:32:57.260 --> 00:33:12.729 Anna Laura: like, visibility as a social media manager in your company. Employee, you know, employee buy-in is one thing, executive buy-in is another thing, budget, we all need more of, but I think what I value about 227 00:33:12.730 --> 00:33:30.259 Anna Laura: you know, not having a tool when I first started and, like, knowing that was coming, was building a lot of the relationships internally. Like, I reached out to, you know, the pre… pre-beta users to say, hey, I don't actually know, like, what is sales need from social media? What is… 228 00:33:30.270 --> 00:33:50.379 Anna Laura: product need? What do executives need? So, I think building off those relationships and visibility were so integral to launching the program, and also having everyone else talking about it, too. Like, if you can get an exec to throw some weight behind you and say, okay, Steph is sending an email, everyone needs to go share it. 229 00:33:50.380 --> 00:33:55.170 Anna Laura: Kassandra's adding something in employee advocacy, circulate it, you know. 230 00:33:55.580 --> 00:34:12.959 Anna Laura: circle the wagons, whatever the phrase is. I think that's… that's really, you know, like, you have to get yourself and your name out there within your organization. I think that can be hard to do if you work at a big company, but again, be annoying, like, that's my biggest takeaway. Just be annoying. 231 00:34:14.170 --> 00:34:17.670 Steph Guerin: We need shirts. This webinar needs shirts. 232 00:34:17.679 --> 00:34:20.689 Anna Laura: Number one annoying social media industry. 233 00:34:20.690 --> 00:34:22.770 Steph Guerin: Throw spaghetti at the wall and be annoying. 234 00:34:23.170 --> 00:34:25.710 Mags - SocialDay: Pretty annoying, yes, love the takeaways so far. 235 00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:31.959 Anna Laura: I see a question from Melissa. Is it okay? Nice if I don'. 236 00:34:31.960 --> 00:34:32.460 Mags - SocialDay: Of course! 237 00:34:33.030 --> 00:34:43.539 Anna Laura: Melissa said, how do you balance managing EA programs and social media marketing programs? I'm nervous about managing it all by myself. Girl, me too. I think… 238 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:52.910 Anna Laura: It's not easy. It's really not easy. You know, I think what I've learned through it, like juggling all of… 239 00:34:52.989 --> 00:35:06.100 Anna Laura: brand messaging on organic social channels, as well as advocacy, is you need resources. Like, there is no way I would have been able to achieve what I've been able to achieve with my program if I didn't have 240 00:35:06.100 --> 00:35:16.020 Anna Laura: my field marketing champions, and they're creating content with me and advocacy. You know, it's not something to take lightly. I think as you're planning it, if you're being asked. 241 00:35:16.130 --> 00:35:24.590 Anna Laura: by your leadership team, your boss, you know, marketing, etc. Like, we need more employees active on social. Great. What do the resources look like for that? 242 00:35:24.590 --> 00:35:43.469 Anna Laura: Are you gonna get templates for design? Are you gonna have someone supporting you writing copy? Who's gonna share it? Like, what are the places that it can be shared? It's really challenging having to figure that all out by yourself, while also, you know, being great and creative on social channels. 243 00:35:43.770 --> 00:35:55.040 Mags - SocialDay: And I'm gonna add to that, and also trying to motivate the people that you need to create content. You need them to do that, and you need to get them motivated, because there's one reason when you find 244 00:35:56.240 --> 00:35:57.420 Mags - SocialDay: there's one… 245 00:35:58.530 --> 00:36:01.940 Mags - SocialDay: Sorry, I spaced out for a second there. 246 00:36:03.280 --> 00:36:25.399 Mags - SocialDay: There's one thing to actually find the people that are motivated to do it, and they do it already, and you just kind of, like, align with them to the other people that you know might be great for it, but they need that extra push to do it consistently. So, what kind of, like, you know, program or rewards do you build with them that is not just like, hey, I'm the social… I'm the annoying social media girl here, please post a little bit more about it. 247 00:36:25.400 --> 00:36:26.480 Anna Laura: Yeah. Right? 248 00:36:26.750 --> 00:36:29.689 Anna Laura: Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to go first? 249 00:36:33.640 --> 00:36:44.650 Kassandra Quinn: Okay, I can start. So, I think one of the best ways is to make the program fun. I know we talked a lot about… I talked a lot about education earlier, and kind of talking about why it's important, but also, like. 250 00:36:44.760 --> 00:36:54.070 Kassandra Quinn: this is an extra thing on type of their work, so you don't want to make it a chore. So, gamifying it, a leaderboard, we also have, like, one-off 251 00:36:54.140 --> 00:37:07.890 Kassandra Quinn: competitions of who got the highest engagement over a certain period, or we did, fun internal superlatives for our program once that was just really silly. But also just, you know, gets people 252 00:37:07.970 --> 00:37:10.640 Kassandra Quinn: you know, engaged and involved. 253 00:37:10.820 --> 00:37:19.090 Kassandra Quinn: And I think recognition is just as important, so celebrating the people and the channels, and then lastly, I think 254 00:37:19.210 --> 00:37:24.970 Kassandra Quinn: Not everybody has this, especially if you have a smaller program or a smaller budget, but incentives. 255 00:37:25.240 --> 00:37:27.900 Kassandra Quinn: are so important. I think that 256 00:37:28.080 --> 00:37:45.010 Kassandra Quinn: again, you're asking people to do things outside of their job description. So if you can provide it, and it doesn't have to be huge prizes, it can be small gift cards, it can be a quarterly award, but I think if you are able to get that incentive, it is something that signals, like, this work is really important. 257 00:37:45.920 --> 00:38:00.799 Mags - SocialDay: We once did that, just like a nostalgic thing. We once did that just with a big bag of M&S. You wouldn't believe how competitive people in the office were for that bag of M&S. So we would do that weekly at Austin, and we just had a discussion with each other, saying, like, hey, just… 258 00:38:00.800 --> 00:38:06.200 Mags - SocialDay: we have them, can I use them? And that became a thing. People would fight for that bag. 259 00:38:06.740 --> 00:38:19.179 Anna Laura: You just gotta make it fun. I wasn't able to get a really small budget for, like, launch recognition and gamification. We also have a leaderboard through Sprout, and 260 00:38:19.720 --> 00:38:32.440 Anna Laura: Sorry, I was looking at chat. Melissa, I saw you just said help. So, we also have a leaderboard, and, you know, for our first 3 months, I got, I think, like, $250 a month. 261 00:38:32.460 --> 00:38:43.069 Anna Laura: And I picked 3 Advocates of the month for our launch, so we did April, May, June, and I picked people intentionally. 262 00:38:43.070 --> 00:39:03.060 Anna Laura: we said it was random, it was pretty intentional, but we wanted to pick people from different regions, from different, like, cross-functional teams, who were taking what we had in advocacy and really making it their own. So, you know, we gave them… I think we ended up doing… each person got, like, $50 credit, or $75… 263 00:39:03.060 --> 00:39:03.810 Anna Laura: Math. 264 00:39:03.820 --> 00:39:10.730 Anna Laura: People got a certain amount of credit to our company store, but you can get, like, a t-shirt, branded merch, or you can get, like. 265 00:39:10.790 --> 00:39:24.339 Anna Laura: for a gift card, you know, or change it up there. So, yeah, small budget to start with for the first 3 months, and I still try to recognize people, you know, and we have Aviva Engage and SharePoint channels to say. 266 00:39:24.360 --> 00:39:41.259 Anna Laura: these three, like, I don't have prizes, unfortunately, that I can give them now, but as this program has continued to evolve and grow, our… one of our international sales leaders did his own competition with his team and said, okay, whoever has the most shares in advocacy for the month of July gets 267 00:39:41.480 --> 00:39:47.290 Anna Laura: this really expensive bottle of champagne. So, they went crazy sharing, and I was like, wait, wait, wait! 268 00:39:47.550 --> 00:40:03.699 Anna Laura: They're spamming people. Hold on! Great idea, love the initiative, but, you can't share 11 times in a day, that's too many times. So it's evolved, but I think, you know, as we continue to have, like, big, splashy things. 269 00:40:03.700 --> 00:40:13.550 Anna Laura: I wanna… I wanna have budget, like, we could give a PlayStation away to, like, a number one advocate or something, like, that would be really awesome. So, more to come. But yeah, you can start small. 270 00:40:13.770 --> 00:40:21.039 Mags - SocialDay: You can start small, you don't even have to start with something that is physical, you can just select someone, and then give them, like, a day off. 271 00:40:21.040 --> 00:40:22.380 Anna Laura: from work, if… 272 00:40:22.380 --> 00:40:30.310 Mags - SocialDay: you have, like, a quarterly challenge, and you can get the quarterly measures, and it's like, yeah, it's just something that you arrange with HR, and there's no need to invest. 273 00:40:30.310 --> 00:40:31.279 Anna Laura: More in it. 274 00:40:31.320 --> 00:40:32.830 Mags - SocialDay: Especially when you're starting. 275 00:40:33.870 --> 00:40:36.230 Anna Laura: Everyone loves Fuchio. 276 00:40:36.230 --> 00:40:37.110 Mags - SocialDay: quite honestly. 277 00:40:38.040 --> 00:40:43.019 Anna Laura: Steph, are you having any luck? Have you started any kind of gamification? 278 00:40:43.440 --> 00:40:56.169 Steph Guerin: We don't have gamification, and I think, I forgot to mention this before, but the way that we have started is that we're really just focusing on, like, bigger launches right now. 279 00:40:56.400 --> 00:40:58.530 Steph Guerin: Because… 280 00:40:59.110 --> 00:41:00.060 Anna Laura: I… it… 281 00:41:00.060 --> 00:41:08.640 Steph Guerin: isn't a part of people's jobs to post, but this kind of helps, because it kind of is. Like, we're getting them to talk about something that's been built. 282 00:41:08.770 --> 00:41:17.089 Steph Guerin: So we talk about it, like, I host our All Hands, so I have, the flexibility to kind of yap about 283 00:41:17.360 --> 00:41:28.459 Steph Guerin: whatever I see fit. So, I, can kind of talk about that this is coming up, and that we want you to… to be involved, and then I can talk about the numbers and kind of give people 284 00:41:28.650 --> 00:41:31.510 Steph Guerin: shoutouts from there. But I do find that… 285 00:41:31.960 --> 00:41:37.279 Steph Guerin: Because you're kind of helping them to post, and a lot of these people, 286 00:41:37.520 --> 00:41:40.680 Steph Guerin: I'm gonna highlight, like, our product managers. 287 00:41:40.980 --> 00:41:58.029 Steph Guerin: they've worked in… for other companies, like, their network is, like, we have one join, and then they're like, oh, I used to work with this person here and here, and they know this person, and they just know everyone. And our customers start following them. 288 00:41:58.170 --> 00:42:04.600 Steph Guerin: And prospective customers, so the network kind of just gets wider and wider, so… 289 00:42:04.790 --> 00:42:13.759 Steph Guerin: I think helping them, and then they start seeing the numbers in the engagement is kind of, like, the gamification, kind of, like… 290 00:42:13.890 --> 00:42:33.389 Steph Guerin: they don't have the time to come up with topics, they don't have time to sit there and, you know, post every week or every couple of weeks, so this is a way that we can help them, you know, showcase what they're talking about. And the other thing I was gonna say is that I really love jumping on, 291 00:42:33.850 --> 00:42:40.720 Steph Guerin: like, a riverside chat with someone if they've got something to talk about, and just doing a very quick snippet, going into CapCut. 292 00:42:41.940 --> 00:42:54.229 Steph Guerin: chucking some captions on there and letting them, like, giving them content to use as well. I'm… came from the background of, like, employer branding, and that's why I love having people's voices and people's faces out there, because 293 00:42:54.470 --> 00:43:02.150 Steph Guerin: Even if it doesn't, like, it's… this stuff is probably not gonna go viral. It might get you, you know, some likes. 294 00:43:02.490 --> 00:43:07.669 Steph Guerin: But… It also helps, like, the other way when people are, 295 00:43:07.670 --> 00:43:25.790 Steph Guerin: looking for somewhere to join for a job, and they see that their product managers are really big. Like, there are some really big things from this. Yes, it gets your name out, and it's all about marketing, but I really love that… and also, working in social, you know that, like, we're the place where people come to complain. 296 00:43:26.210 --> 00:43:35.850 Steph Guerin: We do get some nice people, of course, but if something's happening with the product, like, they're coming to us. So it's actually really nice for them to go into one of your social platforms. 297 00:43:35.850 --> 00:43:57.949 Steph Guerin: And to see, like, that you've reposted things with, like, people's real faces working on the product, it kind of just, like, reminds people that there are people behind the brand and this thing, and they are working on it. We're trying to make things better, and yeah, I just think there's so many, and I think people can see that when you're giving them the content. That's kind of, like, the gamification for us right now. 298 00:43:58.300 --> 00:43:59.110 Anna Laura: I can't stop. 299 00:43:59.110 --> 00:43:59.669 Mags - SocialDay: I love that. 300 00:43:59.900 --> 00:44:00.860 Anna Laura: the real friends. 301 00:44:00.860 --> 00:44:04.329 Steph Guerin: I'm sure that they would love cash. Or a PlayStation. 302 00:44:04.330 --> 00:44:05.730 Anna Laura: Well, the hardest. 303 00:44:05.730 --> 00:44:06.779 Steph Guerin: You know what. 304 00:44:06.780 --> 00:44:11.180 Anna Laura: We built along the way. 305 00:44:11.180 --> 00:44:16.889 Anna Laura: No, I think that's… that's so true, like, there is a level of ownership once people start 306 00:44:16.890 --> 00:44:27.359 Anna Laura: engaging and seeing that it's working, like, yeah, you get a personal brand out of this. You know, like, that's so important for, you know, especially people with a lot of expertise, like product managers. 307 00:44:27.360 --> 00:44:38.949 Anna Laura: But also sales, like, if they're trying to build those connections, those one-on-one relationships with people, like, yeah, we're building your brand. That's also why you should, you know, participate in employee advocacy. 308 00:44:38.950 --> 00:44:39.270 Mags - SocialDay: Yeah. 309 00:44:40.510 --> 00:44:41.729 Anna Laura: Talk next to you. 310 00:44:42.040 --> 00:45:01.490 Mags - SocialDay: Absolutely. Yeah, there are many pros to do it, it's just, like, getting the right people to basically do it. It's always a thing, right? Now as the last question before I loop in, but I think, Mel, there's one question that I haven't answered for the Q&A. It's just basically to try to close this, narrow this a little bit more. 311 00:45:02.710 --> 00:45:04.720 Mags - SocialDay: If you were starting from zero. 312 00:45:04.720 --> 00:45:05.590 Anna Laura: Right? 313 00:45:05.590 --> 00:45:11.119 Mags - SocialDay: And you had to get that buy-in from senior leadership to get an employee advocacy program. 314 00:45:11.280 --> 00:45:16.850 Mags - SocialDay: What would be the first thing that you measure and you share with them to be like, this is actually working? 315 00:45:18.220 --> 00:45:20.439 Kassandra Quinn: Hmm, that's a really good question. 316 00:45:20.920 --> 00:45:23.300 Anna Laura: Program or tool? 317 00:45:23.520 --> 00:45:26.470 Anna Laura: Are we talking paid or unpaid? 318 00:45:26.470 --> 00:45:38.159 Mags - SocialDay: Let's say you're paid. Let's say you don't pay, you haven't even got signed up for this, you're gonna test it, you know you have to do it, and senior leadership is like, do we have to? And you want to be like, yes, this is the evidence. These are the receipts. 319 00:45:39.790 --> 00:45:49.100 Kassandra Quinn: I think it's important to remember what advocacy and employee advocacy and organic social in general, is designed to do, which is brand building, and 320 00:45:49.100 --> 00:46:07.660 Kassandra Quinn: getting your name out there. So, at that point, if you're building from scratch, you're not going to be able to say, I can get X amount of conversions, or I can do X, Y, and Z. It's just not possible. So you want to look at the types of impressions and things, or the types of numbers you can show, so impressions. 321 00:46:07.660 --> 00:46:13.460 Kassandra Quinn: Engagement, because that's gonna show where you can have your piece in the funnel. 322 00:46:13.540 --> 00:46:30.080 Kassandra Quinn: And that's gonna eventually lead down to a sale, hopefully, but you're not gonna be able to show those specific numbers beforehand, and I think that's important to know. So I would definitely go on the bigger numbers, and then show… for example, for us, we quickly surpassed 323 00:46:30.310 --> 00:46:32.229 Kassandra Quinn: Our page impressions. 324 00:46:32.480 --> 00:46:34.909 Kassandra Quinn: With our employee advocacy program, like. 325 00:46:35.100 --> 00:46:37.310 Kassandra Quinn: I would say within a month. 326 00:46:37.450 --> 00:46:45.020 Kassandra Quinn: two months of our program, we surpassed our yearly. So I think that that's just showing, like, you can really get great results. 327 00:46:46.030 --> 00:47:00.660 Steph Guerin: I was gonna say, I would just do a screenshot of, like, a post, like, test with one person and get them to post, and get the stats, like, after a week. And that's… right now, for me, would be… I was… we just did a launch. 328 00:47:01.290 --> 00:47:05.909 Steph Guerin: and… The numbers in comparison are just… 329 00:47:06.160 --> 00:47:11.570 Steph Guerin: unbelievable. And I think with that, no one could deny. 330 00:47:11.640 --> 00:47:12.440 Anna Laura: That. 331 00:47:12.530 --> 00:47:14.809 Steph Guerin: Having a personal… 332 00:47:14.990 --> 00:47:23.080 Steph Guerin: brand of face that's working on the product, or working on whatever your company is talking about that thing is going to 333 00:47:23.350 --> 00:47:26.439 Steph Guerin: Surpass what's coming from the brand. 334 00:47:27.200 --> 00:47:29.990 Mags - SocialDay: Yeah, retail… oh, sorry, Angela, go on there. 335 00:47:29.990 --> 00:47:30.600 Anna Laura: Oh. 336 00:47:31.160 --> 00:47:48.630 Anna Laura: just agreeing with Steph and Kassandra, I think anytime you can compare, like, what are people sharing from personal accounts versus what is going on the brand account, like, you can do a beta with 3 people, right? You can say, I know these 3 people that would be willing to share about this event or webinar, etc. 337 00:47:48.630 --> 00:47:52.270 Anna Laura: And here's what I did on the corporate page, here's how that performed. 338 00:47:52.270 --> 00:48:02.550 Anna Laura: here's how they're posted. Like, there's so many reasons that companies should have some kind of, you know, employee advocacy activation, and… 339 00:48:02.720 --> 00:48:20.579 Anna Laura: really just, like, genuine authenticity and reach, like, people trust people more than brands, that's okay. That's okay. It's still brand building, they're still talking about the brand, but it just resonates differently when it comes from a person versus a megaphone. 340 00:48:21.700 --> 00:48:40.220 Mags - SocialDay: Yeah, no, I agree with everything you said. As Steph just said, I think we're… especially when you're talking with senior leadership, they are more numbers-driven, and sometimes just being like, hey, this is the reach, and we would have had to pay this amount to actually get that, it's just reason enough for them. 341 00:48:40.220 --> 00:48:49.570 Mags - SocialDay: And we basically did it for free, because employee advocacy, we have them. It's just like, you know, getting that reel in for senior leadership to be like, this is what… this is why we need to do it. 342 00:48:50.450 --> 00:48:50.990 Kassandra Quinn: Anna Laura. 343 00:48:50.990 --> 00:48:52.570 Steph Guerin: I think the funny question… 344 00:48:52.570 --> 00:48:53.440 Kassandra Quinn: Bird? 345 00:48:53.480 --> 00:48:54.100 Anna Laura: Oh, sorry. 346 00:48:54.100 --> 00:49:02.529 Kassandra Quinn: I was gonna say, Anonora has incredible numbers in terms of, media buy versus impressions. Just throwing that out there. 347 00:49:02.530 --> 00:49:15.159 Anna Laura: Our… so we… I was gonna say, like, even if you're doing a beta test and you don't have a tool, if you are running any kind of paid social, or if you have a digital team or an agency partner who's running paid social. 348 00:49:15.370 --> 00:49:26.999 Anna Laura: especially LinkedIn, you can get, the way that our tool works, and probably Cassandra's as well, you plug in, like, the cost per thousand impressions, like your LinkedIn CPM. 349 00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:28.180 Mags - SocialDay: I love that. 350 00:49:28.180 --> 00:49:37.460 Anna Laura: I got that number for Aptian, and I put that in so then it calculates based on how many shares, how many, like, potential reach. 351 00:49:37.620 --> 00:49:38.400 Anna Laura: what… 352 00:49:38.890 --> 00:49:51.489 Anna Laura: estimated, like, earned media value is, if we had been placing, you know, if we'd been throwing a ton of money at LinkedIn to get the results we got, what would that value have been? And you can do that, you know, with 353 00:49:51.960 --> 00:50:11.299 Anna Laura: with organic posts too, right? Like, you have your baseline that you get from paid, and then that's how you compare, like, here's our earned media value for our organic page post versus here's how it performed when I tested it with advocates. And, you know, I think same, Cassandra, our… 354 00:50:11.350 --> 00:50:16.619 Anna Laura: I look at our page organic impressions for, like, our corporate profiles for Apti, and I'm like, man. 355 00:50:16.730 --> 00:50:20.360 Anna Laura: Advocacy's really, really crushing these numbers. 356 00:50:20.500 --> 00:50:31.249 Anna Laura: It was very similar for us, you know, we just hit over a million dollars in earned media value in 6 months since we launched advocacy. Thank you. 357 00:50:31.250 --> 00:50:32.440 Mags - SocialDay: That's amazing. 358 00:50:32.440 --> 00:50:45.790 Anna Laura: around 14 million impressions, like, average, you know, estimated reach. Our corporate pages are not even close to those numbers. Like, it's… it's… advocacy is a huge, huge driver for us. 359 00:50:47.410 --> 00:50:50.300 Mags - SocialDay: No, that's great. Those are great, those are great results. 360 00:50:50.450 --> 00:50:51.360 Anna Laura: Yeah. 361 00:50:51.360 --> 00:51:10.609 Anna Laura: But it's, like, I had to have that data from our paid team, because I don't manage our paid, so I had to have them tell me, like, hey, I have no idea how this is gonna go, it's all new for me. What does it normally cost us, you know, to get in front of a thousand people on LinkedIn? And being able to plug that into the backend of our tool. 362 00:51:10.610 --> 00:51:15.329 Anna Laura: And have our tool say, okay, here you go, like, here's the actual baseline. 363 00:51:15.330 --> 00:51:23.769 Anna Laura: was… has been, like, the best way to prove ROI of the platform, but I think also just, like, hearing from employees and our… 364 00:51:23.770 --> 00:51:41.930 Anna Laura: our head of HR, like, every single thing she's posted on LinkedIn since February has been an advocacy post, I've checked. And she said, like, people are calling me, asking, like, why is your LinkedIn so good all of a sudden? Like, what changed? And she's like, oh, it's advocacy. Like, that's… that's the ROI for me. 365 00:51:41.930 --> 00:51:44.169 Mags - SocialDay: That's me, I was gonna say that that's me! 366 00:51:44.220 --> 00:51:56.309 Anna Laura: Yeah! Like, that's, you know, the money's great, I'm not spending it, it's generating a lot of impressions, but having people come to me and say, like, this is making a difference in how I show up in the world is… 367 00:51:56.630 --> 00:51:58.390 Anna Laura: That's the real ROI. 368 00:51:59.230 --> 00:52:14.619 Mags - SocialDay: No, but I love it, and it's just… I think it's relatable, because one of the things when you work in socials, it's the fact that you're just the… you're the intern, you're the social media girl, you don't get that validation, because you don't have the hard numbers. It's like, yes, they're there. 369 00:52:14.740 --> 00:52:15.480 Anna Laura: Yeah. 370 00:52:15.890 --> 00:52:16.560 Mags - SocialDay: They're there. 371 00:52:16.560 --> 00:52:17.390 Anna Laura: Dollars! 372 00:52:17.390 --> 00:52:18.619 Mags - SocialDay: It's a good dollar! 373 00:52:19.480 --> 00:52:21.920 Mags - SocialDay: You can literally say I'm worth a million dollars. 374 00:52:22.080 --> 00:52:32.560 Anna Laura: Yeah, 10… social media intern of 10 years, estimated value, $1 million. Yeah, I'll update my LinkedIn… my LinkedIn header. 375 00:52:32.560 --> 00:52:32.990 Mags - SocialDay: booster. 376 00:52:33.400 --> 00:52:34.210 Anna Laura: Please. 377 00:52:35.660 --> 00:52:39.969 Mags - SocialDay: I've just been through the Q&A, and I think we've answered everything. 378 00:52:40.950 --> 00:52:54.630 Mags - SocialDay: But if not, I'll share your LinkedIn with everyone, and if there's any questions, I'm sure none of you are actually gonna say no to have a chat. Thank you so much for joining us, thank you so much for the chat, I've loved it. 379 00:52:54.630 --> 00:53:03.059 Mags - SocialDay: The recording is going to be out in a few days, hopefully I'll share it with everyone, but thank you so much for joining us today. It was an amazing chat. 380 00:53:03.210 --> 00:53:05.689 Anna Laura: Thanks, everyone. Add us on LinkedIn, let's be friends. 381 00:53:05.690 --> 00:53:07.270 Mags - SocialDay: Thank you, bye!