Are you ready to make your employees the stars of your business?

Editor's Notes

• #2: It is considered the year of the influencer and they are definitely a powerful force. But wouldn’t it be easier to get your employee influencers engaged first? I’m going to speak to employee advocacy from both sides of the fence today. From the vendor side and consultant side. But there’s a third side to me.
• #3: Influencers are curious beasts and there is a lot of focus on this community in 2016. They are important. Ironically, I am considered an influencer in my field - an influencer influencing people to help them become influencers! Say that 10 times quickly. I’ve found that brands have mixed success with influencers in Asia, mainly because too many brands want to control them. That never works and should never be the goal. If you find the right one, let them be free. So yes, influencers are critical, but today, I want to convince you to look inside your organization first and identify your Employee Influencers. That’s your best starting point!
• #4: We are in the midst of the digital revolution and everything has changed. But we continue with business as usual. Please check out the Cluetrain Manifesto it’s awesome. The message I take from this quote is the world is open and public, but we are still operating behind closed doors.
• #5: Just look at yourself and how you interact with your world? We are in the midst of a global conversation and none of us can underestimate its power – yet brands continue to ignore this phenomenon We are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge – yet brands can’t keep track of what we are doing We are faster AND smarter than most companies – and brands continue to try and work out what we are doing, rather than paying attention to why We are having conversations – open, honest, funny, straight-forward and sometimes horrible – there’s definitely a lot of horrible ones at the moment But they are genuine human voices Business continues to speak marketing – not human - and in campaigns Business sends a brochure, a CTA, PR The consumer doesn’t care Employee advocacy and social selling = unleashing the humans of business and the greatest opportunity today
• #6: Consumers are 92% of the way through the sales cycles before we even come to a brand. We are learning and deciding outside the brand. Source: Gartner When you look at this stat, think about it from your company’s perspective. Are you still spending 90% of your marketing budget on the activities where customers are only spending 8% of their time? This is the shift businesses must make. For B2B it’s 65-90% Source: Forrester I know this is a surprise to many, but the human at the end of a B2B deal is also a consumer and taking the same decision making journey – if just more complicated.
• #7: I don’t know about you, but I spent more time watching the democratic and republican convention speeches in the last two weeks than I ever have in my life! How can your brand compete for that attention in the midst of how your consumers are participating online at that moment? That’s what it’s all about
• #8: Opps don’t know how that got in there ;)
• #9: Or with whatever else is going on or capturing attention?
• #10: Your brand has to be excellent within this midst and you do that by thinking of the customer first and always. That’s where brands are losing, because they are still doing business as usual. Of course we are, we know how to do that right?
• #11: Why am I talking about content marketing and not social media? Because content is what feeds social, and we must start there. Content marketing is about creating conversations with customers, partners and influencers. To achieve that, it’s about creating content so good, it earns the right to exist in your customer’s world, where they are. Our goal today, is to build so much loyalty with our customers – because we are consistently delivering value to them – that they want to buy from us to reward us for our efforts
• #12: Level one, two and three is where too many companies still sit. Level four scares me because brands are feeing employees marketing content to share on their social channels and it’s not good content. It makes the employees look bad and it makes the brand look bad. The good news is companies are realizing the employee social channels are valuable. The bad news is companies are not respecting the value and integrity of employee social channels. Level five is where we need to be focused. The is where the brand elevates the employees brands above the company brands. It respects the value of the personal brand of its employees and works with them to be the super stars of business. This is where we need to be focusing. Level six is my nirvana. I’ve never seen a business exist in its own silo. Business is an ecosystem. From the connections and communities of its employees, to its customers, partners, influencers and so on. The future will see content marketing as an ecosystem of business serving its combined audiences. That’s my prediction anyway.
• #13: I wrote a blog on this recently, because I believe that Content Marketing is fundamentally about business transformation. It’s not something the marketing team ‘does’ – yes marketing enables it, but everyone in a business must be on board and it starts at the top
• #14: People trust people, not brands and this is why your employees are SO critical today
• #15: The average person has 500 social media connections. If you have 500 employees doing one activity per week, on behalf of your business, that is the ability to influence 250,000 people. If you have 5,000 employees, they have the ability to influence 2.5 million people. Add this up over weeks, months, years, and you’re really starting to see impact.
• #16: I’ve showed this slide in the past, but the critical message here is content still sits off to the side of business, as a tactical after thought. It needs to come into the heart of business and become central to every role and function within an organisation. This is why it’s transformational.
• #17: Social CEOs – there are two CEOs in the future, social CEOs and retired CEOs There’s a very good reason the vast majority of new entrants to the Fortune 500 have social CEOs. All executive leaders must embrace content marketing and become authentic participators on social media. They are the face and voice of your company and their unique perspective builds trust in them and your business. But I’m talking to all business leaders here. They need to build authentic profiles. Not outsourced. I’m sure professionals are cleaning up Richard Branson’s content, but he’s behind his brand. We know it. Sales I read some research last week that only 15% of sales people are using social media to sell. Shocking right? But of course, the structure of business doesn’t support that. Nurturing relationships online takes too long. Sales must also be integrated with marketing, because any content created MUST have sales’ insight. They know the customer right? Are your sales and marketing teams working together effectively? But equally, why aren’t more sales people blogging on LinkedIn? Addressing customer concerns with solutions? And why aren’t businesses insisting on this? I’ve heard they don’t have time. Well perhaps they could stop cold calling (or cold social selling) and start investing that time here, where it really matters? Customer service/feedback We have to make sure all feedback and concerns are looped back to the content marketing team and then created into content to share on social channels. If you have one person complaining or needing clarity, the chances are 100s or 1000s of customers are in the same boat. This team is vital and must be integrated. But why not create their own content too? They have the first response role. They know exactly what is annoying the customer. HR What’s the biggest issue facing HR today? Employee engagement. What are HR people worried about – keeping great employees and attracting great employees. What’s the one thing millennials look at when deciding to join a company? Understanding company culture. Content marketing is the answer. Marketing/comms If you are not selling a marketing solution, it is often hard to understand how you can participate. How many marketing or comms people here today? My first advice is you have to work together. Too often these teams are completely separate. Also everyone in this field should create their own content, on their subject of expertise. I recommend you strive to become the legend of your industry. Why not? In return you attract the best talent to your team and build your brands reputation too, because you hire the best people in the world!
• #18: Culture - corporate cultures rooted in trust do employee advocacy well. Brands must trust the people your customers do business with Guidelines – that encourage participation versus being over controlling. If you are still using the same social media guidelines written a decade ago, throw them out and start again Employee brand first – focus must be on the success of the employee’s brand first, not the other way around A Platform – make it as easy as possible for employees to get on board Effective measurement – a platform makes measurement easier, and this will help to understand impact Champions – start with this group, those who are already engaged and understand the importance of their personal brand. Especially anyone who is blogging. Embrace them and bring them into the fold – they will set the tone for everyone to follow 1-2-1 Coaching – success requires access to coaching. An IBM case study revealed that only 9% were successful when left alone, versus 75% if they had access to on-going coaching.
• #19: Engaged and valued employees – employees who are contributing and part of your story are more engaged and feel more valued. You are making them a star and they appreciate that. Employee engagement is at an all-time low, this could be the differentiator Retain & recruit the best – when employees are valued they stay – and let’s face it, these are the people you want to keep. Equally, 50% of the workforce will be millennials by 2020, and what do they do when applying for new jobs? They find out about the culture of your business. Content marketing is that window to your business Agile business – being social as a business forces you to look outside of your organisation, versus being internally focussed. A broader, external perspective means you are more agile because you are connected to your customers in real time Connected to ideas – because you’re social, you’re connected to the ideas of your employees and the wider world. Being connected to the pulse of an always-on world is critical Customer loyalty – content marketing is all about helping customers and making them the focus of your business. In return you get their loyalty Industry leadership – an outward and customer-focused business is on the pulse of its industry Competitive advantage – and of course, if you’re on the pulse you’re going to enjoy the competitive advantage that comes with that across the board
• #20: If you really think about what Jay is saying here, it’s very powerful right?
• #21: Define a content strategy – if you don’t have a strategy, you will fail Define your audiences – I say audiences because it is not singular. Customers, employees, influencers, potential recruits, partners, etc… Also work out where they are. Customer’s come to you in the last 8% of their journey. How can you capture their interest in the 92%? Content hub – what is your makeup.com? A hub is a place you can drive customers to. It’s how you measure and understand impact. It makes it easier for your customers to find you It’s all about GREAT content – no matter what you do, if the content is poor or your employees wouldn’t be proud to share it, then you are wasting your time. Being awesome is all that matters Build a great team – writers, editors, photographers, designers, social animals who will find the stories in your business. Look within your company and without Invest in tools to simplify – there are many great tools out there. I use Hootsuite to manage my presence and was very impressed when I saw Amplify the other day. Definitely check it out. Whatever you use, make it simple for employees to get involved and support you Find engaged employees – start with those already doing it. But you’ll uncover surprising stars too – in my training I have taken people from doing nothing at all to become super stars on social media and with content. Sometimes you just need to unlock the potential and it’s not always obvious. Reward/celebrate – it doesn’t have to be much $100/blog, annual awards, monthly stars
• #22: Get the siloes down – content marketing can’t exist when siloes remain. The siloes of business are the enemy of being successful at content. This is about the whole organisation coming together Partnership culture – with siloes down you need to create partnerships across the business, working together for the future of the business Train & trust – train your people, provide them with great guidance, but you must trust them Get the leaders on board – without your leaders it’s very difficult to make this happen. Convince and cajole them Culture change – I’m talking about deep cultural change here. Content and social has to be at the core of everything you do as a business.
• #23: So are you ready to do this? Are you committed to making your employees the stars? I hope so. Thank you so much!