1. #AdvocateArmy
How IBM Drives ROI
Through Employee Advocacy
Colleen Burns
Influencer Engagement
Manager at IBM
Amber Armstrong
Program Director, Social Business
Market Making and Evangelism at IBM
Susan Emerick
CEO & Founder, Brands Rising
Presented by:

2. #AdvocateArmy
The Most Powerful Brand On Earth:
How to Transform Teams, Empower Employees,
Integrate Partners, and Mobilize Customers to
Beat the Competition in Digital and Social Media
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

3. #AdvocateArmy
What is Employee Advocacy?
Brands empowering employees to
support the goals of the brand, using
content and employee-owned social
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

4. #AdvocateArmy
Why Should Brands Care?
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

5. #AdvocateArmy
Customers trust your experts and regular
employees more than anyone else in your company
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
Source:

6. #AdvocateArmy
Employees rank highest as the most trusted and
influential source in 4 out of 5 categories
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
Source:

7. #AdvocateArmy
Measure to Demonstrate
Value and Prove ROI
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

8. #AdvocateArmy
Examples of Measurable ROI Targets
Financial:
Increased Revenue
Decreased Cost
Productivity Gains:
Operational efficiencies
Reduced time to market
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

9. #AdvocateArmy
Business Function Motivations
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

10. #AdvocateArmy
“Begin with the end in mind” ~ Stephen Covey
Desired Outcome
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

11. #AdvocateArmy
IBMers are the greatest source of influence to build
belief not just in our products, but in the entirety of
IBM and our role as an agenda-setter.
Through Relationships, At Scale
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

12. #AdvocateArmy
Program designed to create a pipeline of thought leadership blogs
Residents advance their personal social eminence
Nearly 2,000 blogs written across 11 business topics
1.1 million visits
Published
800 blogs
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
2011
Cloud Residency
Average visit
3.5 minutes

13. #AdvocateArmy
19 Bloggers
Blogger Tactic ranked #5
out of 4,300 campaigns
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
14%
Traditional marketing tactics
33%
Digitally engaged experts
2x
Conversion rate
Identified high-value experts to
support social strategies aligned to
go-to-market priorities
Enabled SMEs to tag links and track
inbound referrals from their
personal blogs
Blogger
Tactics

14. #AdvocateArmy
Go-to destination for
cycling enthusiasts
Expertise as a
competitive advantage
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

15. #AdvocateArmy
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
300%
Increase in traffic in first
four months
Up to 20%
higher conversion from
the Learning Center
compared to other
referrers

16. #AdvocateArmy
Customer experience
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
comes first
Build an online community
with a seamless experience

17. #AdvocateArmy
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
70%
Of content online is
story telling
40%
Increase in web traffic

18. #AdvocateArmy
May 2014: Launched a unique
employee advocacy program
powered by Dynamic Signal
with 200 initial subject matter
experts (SMEs).
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
Powered by

19. #AdvocateArmy
Cut the Email Clutter
and Get to What
Really Matters 146K Employee Shares to Date
That prince never shows up with
money, but wastes a lot of time
#email #NewWayToWork
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
Amber Armstrong
@ambarmstrong
Amber Armstrong
1,357 Shares Per Day
(90 Day Average)
2,976 Shares on October 22nd

20. #AdvocateArmy
188M Impressions to Date
1.44M Impressions Per Day
(90 Day Average)
3.85M Impressions on October 23rd
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

21. #AdvocateArmy
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
200
IBM Employees
146K
Shares
188M
Impressions
603K
Clicks
Estimated Cost of 600K Clicks via Paid Advertising: $300K - $1.2M

22. #AdvocateArmy
Employees Multiply Through Internal Influence: IBM Verse
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
1
Communicate
via Social
2
Drive Peer-to-Peer
Participation
3
Give a Carrot,
Make It Visual
323 IBM employees shared IBM Verse
content on #NewWayToWork hashtag
www.ibm.com/verse
146K
Shares
23M
Impressions
RESULTS
65K
Clicks

23. #AdvocateArmy
Engaged Employees add Credibility Externally
Once employees are engaged, they can use their external influence to drive credible awareness.
Thanks for providing your email confession! We're moving into phase 2 of the
#NewWayToWork campaign : External! We need your social power to
amplify the message on our new email solution. Here's how:
.Internal: When and IBMer asks you about your Connections photo, please
point them to Maria Winan's blog. You can also register for the livestream
and the webinar.
.External: We are creating black bar photos for you. Find your photo! On
Monday Nov 10th, please update your Twitter and Facebook pictures to the
black bar photo. Please also post the below photo and help us drive
registrations for our livestream where you can hear how IBM is inventing a
#NewWayToWork. Don't see your photo? Email Nicole Gerentine/Austin/IBM
and yours will move to the top of the list.
.
Sample tweet: Be the first to hear how #IBM is creating a #NewWayToWork:
Remote event viewing at 11 ET Nov 18th http://ibm.co/1zF5W50
Facebook image:
IBM_LOB_MailNext_WhyCensored_Facebook01_11.7.14.jpg
Twitter image: IBM_LOB_MailNext_WhyCensored_Twitter02_11.7.14.jpg
For the social superstars: We have images in many different colors - and
even cover photos!
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick
1
Provide Education
and Great Content
2
Give Employees the
Right Tools
3
Recognize Success
Added 100 new IBM employees as advocates
Many that were previously uncomfortable with social,
now in the top 10 on the internal IBM Leaderboard
RESULTS

24. #AdvocateArmy
Technology for Marketers
Easily source, curate and distribute sharable
content to employees and employee groups.
Then track, measure and reward top advocates.
Tools for Employees
Mobile and web apps that help employees
easily find & share approved content, relevant
to their personal and professional interests.
Powered by
@colleeni @ambarmstrong @sfemerick

25. #AdvocateArmy
Thanks for Joining Us!
Presented by:
@colleeni @ambarmstrong
@sfemerick