Dear Business Leader:
Great to hear from you! Where have you been these past few months? And what's new?
You're doing what ...?
You're encouraging your employees to share business-related content via their personal social networks ... are you unwell? That doesn't sound like the "I'm-in-charge-here-what-I-say-goes" approach you were taking when we last talked.
Wrong - that's perfectly fair comment. You didn't listen to
the advice I gave you last year, so I assumed that Employee Advocacy was off your to-do list - permanently.
I know you don't want to hear it, but plenty of other organizations were ready to implement advocacy programs, and I've been busy helping some of them. People are achieving real returns on their investments, increasing engagement with customers, attracting people to their websites, driving increased revenues - that type of stuff.
So now you're getting involved again. What do we have to thank for this dramatic about-face?
What? One of your new-year resolutions was to give me another chance? To do what exactly? Save you from yourself? What? You want ...
Proof That Employee Advocacy Really Does Generate Returns
You'll give me the benefit of the doubt? Please ... so where have you gotten to so far?
You set a clear business objective. Excellent. We had a little difficulty with that one last year. And you found an internal champion. Great. Your plan for content-sharing is complete and you have social-media analytics in place to measure the results. What's not to like?
It just isn't working ... so what's holding you back?
You Still Can't Get Your People Involved ...
That would do it. You just hit on THE most important factor in any employee-advocacy program, one that too many organizations get wrong - at least the first time. Welcome to the club. So tell me, what have you done so far to convince your employees that advocacy is a good thing?
You did what I suggested - you talked to them ... and?
Most of them are much younger than you. Of course they are - it comes with the territory.
So it was hard to explain why their Facebook friends might be interested in your business. And the older ones don't really use social media much so they didn't buy into what you were saying.
Stop right there. I guess these "older ones" wouldn't include you? Of course not. But your social-media skills could do with a little honing. Right - you're not alone there. Let's hold that thought - did you know that ...
Most CEOs Desperately Need Social-Media Training
Take a look at
this article from the people at SASI; they know a thing or two about employee advocacy. It describes how senior executives need more help with social media than they let on. You should start there; without the older - sorry, senior - people in your business understanding the ground rules, you're fighting a losing battle.
No that doesn't mean you have to take to Twitter like an A-list celeb on steroids, tweeting every waking moment of your day. More often than not, the CEO's role is to demonstrate a commitment to social media as a business tool, not to maintain a real-time dialogue with every employee in the place.
You need to understand which channels are important for your business; it's not the same for everyone. For you, it's most likely Twitter and LinkedIn. You're selling high-value services to business customers, and they probably won't expect to find you on Facebook. Once you've got that figured, you need to explain to your people how you see it working.
But ...? But what?
Most of your people aren't on LinkedIn ... and you're not sure they have that many Twitter followers either. They seem to spend most of their free time posting selfies on Facebook?
I'm impressed. You know what selfies are. No, let's not go there. Way too much information. My point is that you aren't alone in needing help. You need to ...
Train Your Employees to Use Social Media for Business
Let me give you an example. You remember I mentioned IBM just now? Yes, I know that was at least a half-hour ago, but it's important.
Read the article again. Yes, now. Please.
So you'll see that IBM is one of the leading organizations when it comes to implementing employee advocacy. In spite of that, the managers there realized that not every person on the team was confident in using social media at work. Yes, posting vacation snaps on Facebook is familiar territory, but sharing business content on Twitter or LinkedIn is stepping into the unknown.
IBM found that either people didn't have the right followers, or they weren't confident about reaching out and engaging with those connections. You have to take a professional approach that isn't too pushy, or people will simply be turned off by what they see as an extension of your sales activity. That's not something that comes naturally to everyone.
Yes, IBM did find a way to put things right. I love it. They developed what they called "social-media boot-camps." Just what every business leader should be organizing at the start of an advocacy campaign. They get people into the right frame of mind, and properly delivered, they boost the effectiveness of your social-media presence enormously.
You love it too? Hard work never hurt anyone? Calm down - you're reverting to type ... and you're scaring me. Find a specialist company that delivers this type of event regularly and I'm sure you'll see the difference in no time.
Can I recommend anyone? Of course. You can always hire me - if you can afford me nowadays.
Sounds good to me. I'll drop by next week to meet your people and get the ball rolling. You won't regret it. I stand by what I told you last year:
"Employee advocacy is one of the most powerful business-communication tools around."
Bye for now, and good luck!
Mike
Beyond Engagement is an exclusive Social Media Today column published every other Thursday.
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