Leveraging social media in employee engagement

August 2, 2009
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: How to strengthen your brand through employee and customer engagement

WHO WE ARE

OUR LATEST ADDITION
Brand strategies and execution that bring your entire online presence into alignment with your brand.

WHO WE WORK WITH

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
The threat and the opportunity
The role of social media in your brand strategy
The advantages of using social media for employee engagement and the bottom line
Practical how-to’s for creating and executing your own social media brand strategy

YOUR BRAND IS UNDER THREAT
The number and velocity of marketing messages has increased exponentially
Central authority figures are no longer authoritative
Brand relationships are based more on cultural phenomena than quality or reliability

GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES ARE A CONTRIBUTOR
“ Decoding Generational Differences: Fact, Fiction or Should we Just go Back to Work?” Deloitte Development 2008 Social influences Characteristics Greatest generation Direct me Great Depression Recovery through public works World War II and Korean War Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima Loyal Patriotic Faith in institutions Baby boomers Engage me Economic prosperity Vietnam War Civil rights movement Sexual revolution Protest marches and sit-ins Idealistic Competitive Question authority Workaholic Gen Xers Educate me Watergate Corporate raiders Fall of the Berlin Wall Gulf War/high tech warfare PC boom Environmentalism Self-reliant Skeptical/distrust institutions Adaptive Millennials Connect with me Terrorist attacks (Oklahoma City, 9/11, Columbine) Internet boom World without boundaries Tolerant Cyber-literate Social Confident

THE MODEL FOR BRAND IS SHIFTING

OLD BRAND MODEL
brand messaging

Rather than a monologue to the masses, it’s engagement among managers, employees and customers
That seeks to build sustainable relationships with all brand stakeholders in part by energizing employees
THE NEW BRAND MODEL

Deeper brand-based relationships
Based on connected and shared employee/customer experiences
TODAY’S BRANDS ARE COMMUNITIES

BRAND COMMUNITY MODEL
Management Staff Customers Branded events Branded social media Branded website Branded product experience Branded customer service Branded advertising

Defining your brand promise
Developing company-wide strategies that deliver on that promise
Integrating brand-driven messages into all communications
BUILDING YOUR BRAND

ONE TOOL FOR CREATING
A BRAND COMMUNITY
Management Staff Customers Branded events Branded social media Branded website Branded product experience Branded customer service Branded advertising

THE MORE YOU ENGAGE,
THE STRONGER YOUR BRAND
Companies that were deeply and broadly engaged in social media last year recognized an 18% growth in revenue
Those who sat by the sidelines saw a 6% decline
– Engagement db’s ranking of the top 100 Global Brands, July 2009

IN THIS NEW MODEL AUTHENTICITY IS KEY

Direct
Instant
Expressive
Democratic/equalizes individual voices
Easy
Dialogue based
Occurs throughout our lives, anywhere, anytime
WHAT MAKES SOCIAL MEDIA AN IDEAL TOOL?

Social media has seeped into the broader culture, not just with tweens and not just with consumers

EVEN MARTHA’S DOING IT

AND SO IS EVERYONE ELSE
60% of Americans use social media
85% of users believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media
56% of users feel they have a stronger connection with and are better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment
93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media
The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study

ADVANTAGES OF BRAND-BASED SOCIAL MEDIA

EMPOWERS WORKFORCE

PROMOTES CONNECTEDNESS

BREAKS DOWN SILOS

FACILITATES INNOVATION

BUILDS COMPANY CULTURE

INCREASES STAFF PRODUCTIVITY
Use of social media to do one’s job Aon Consulting Web 2.0 and Employee Communications Survey March 2009 Non-Millenials Millenials Intranet 65% 72% Text messaging 25% 38% Instant messaging 46% 48% Social network sites 13% 20% Blogs 8% 13%

CREATES CHAMPIONS

DEVELOPING YOUR
SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND STRATEGY

T rack
L isten
C hange
YOUR PLAN TAKES TLC

Work with departments like marketing, product development, account management to determine shared company goals
Prioritize goals for those most easily achieved through the medium
Work with senior leadership to ensure goals reinforce strategic objectives
Include goals around building community, communicating your message and getting feedback from customers
To track, you must first identify your goals
Community Communication Feedback

What are you currently using to engage customers and employees?
What tools are out there that might improve upon these methods?
What problem have you always wanted to solve that you haven’t been able to so far?
TRACKING IS ALSO ABOUT INVENTORY

Identify, if you can, who in your company is already using social media
What are they saying?
What are your customers saying?
What are your competitor’s customers saying?
THEN, LISTEN

TO CHANGE, LET YOUR BRAND BE YOUR GUIDE
Use your brand promise
Identify the cultural norms and other aspects of your brand that will either inhibit or promote your objectives
Ask yourself, “how does a company who promises x communicate with employees and customers?

BUILDING THEIR BRAND COMMUNITY

TIPS FOR CHANGE
Start small and focused
Act with purpose
Be transparent
Let the community moderate itself first
Monitor heavily
Leverage your Gen X and Millennial employees

EXERCISE
TAKE 15 MINUTES TO IDENTIFY YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GOALS

EXECUTING A SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND PRESENCE

Brand-based social-media strategy use is in its infancy. One of the best examples out there is Zappos.com whose primary strategy is:
Training employees on and using Twitter to demonstrate transparency, happiness and passion for customer service . (Bethsblog)
CREATE BRAND-BASED SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES

Will you allow employees to be socially online at work?
Will you let them speak on behalf of the company?
Will you train them?
Will you establish guidelines? At what level?
Will you make clear what are career damaging actions?
ESTABLISH BASIC POLICIES

Don’t: Use objectionable language; demonstrate a disrespect of an employee, employee group or customer; or threaten violence
--Best Buy intranet guidelines
EMPOWERING GUIDELINES ARE SIMPLE

We don’t believe there is a conflict between authenticity, employee expression and brand guidelines
The idea that culture should only grow from the bottom up ignores the importance of leadership and management—brand is both bottom up and top down
A little brand leavening is a very good thing—because employees are your core brand champions whether online or out in the world
BRAND IS OFTEN MISSING IN SOCIAL MEDIA

“ Zappos has a customer obsession which is so easy for me to admire. It is the starting point for Zappos. It is the place where Zappos begins and ends. And that is a very key factor for me. I get all weak-kneed when I see a customer-obsessed company, and Zappos certainly is that. Zappos also has a totally unique culture. I’ve seen a lot of companies, and I have never seen a company with a culture like Zappos’. And I think that kind of unique culture is a very significant asset.”
--Mashable’s Ben Parr
“ Here’s Why Amazon Bought Zappos,” 7/22/09
AND YET BUILDING YOUR BRAND IS THE ULTIMATE GOAL

“ Create some excitement . As a business and as a corporate citizen, Intel is making important contributions to the world, to the future of technolo gy, and to public dialogue on a broad range of issues. Our business activities are increasingly focused on high-value innovation . Let's share with the world the exciting things we're learning and doing—and open up the channels to learn from others.”
--Intel corporate blog guidelines
INTEL ENCOURAGES BRAND DISCUSSION

“ One of IBMers' core values is ‘trust and personal responsibility in all relationships.’ As a company, IBM trusts—and expects—IBMers to exercise personal responsibility whenever they participate in social media. This includes not violating the trust of those with whom they are engaging. IBMers should not use these media for covert marketing or public relations. What does an IBMer's personal responsibility mean in online social media activities? Online social media enables individuals to share their insights, express their opinions and share information within the context of a globally distributed conversation .”
--IBM corporate social media guidelines
AN IBM GUIDELINE

What will you do to encourage
brand-based social media?
???

Take 15 minutes and create a strategy or strategies that would help employees, customers or other audiences through social media
Extra credit: Build brand into your existing social media policies
EXERCISE

http://www.integratedbrand.com	173
http://www.thesocialworkplace.com	140
http://geekygrrrl.com	6
http://www.slideshare.net	6
http://thesocialworkplace.com	3
http://dev.saddacrackers.com	3
http://www.integratedbrand.com.	1
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	1

Leveraging social media in employee engagement

by Parker LePla on Aug 07, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

8 Embeds 333

Statistics

Leveraging social media in employee engagement — Presentation Transcript