AT&T developed a social advocacy program to empower employees as brand advocates, addressing initial barriers such as perceived risk and lack of engagement. The training included resources like videos and infographics, contributing to over 3,000 participating employees and 40 million social impressions. The program aimed to foster authentic storytelling, enhance employee engagement, and align corporate messaging with employee voices.

1. 11
Train a Social Workforce:
How AT&T Trained Thousands of
Social Advocates

2. 22
Train a Social Workforce: How AT&T Trained Thousands
of Social Advocates
#EngageU
Nicole Alvino
Co-founder & Chief Strategy
Officer at SocialChorus
@Nalvino
Nolan Carleton
Lead Consultant, Programs
Execution at At&T
@ParsleyCarleton

3. 33
Have a Question?
Use the hashtag
#EngageU on Twitter for
questions & comments
Or
Chat with us on
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4. 44
Let’s get started!
#EngageU

5. 55
Poll: At your organization, what are you already doing to train
employees on social media?
- Nothing
- Distributing the social media policy
- Offering social media training webinars or workshops
- Sharing a social media video internally & with new hires
- Other: Fill in

6. 66
Organic Reach on Social Media is Diminishing
• Brands’ posts on social networks reach only 3% of fans — at best — without paid
advertising — Forrester
• 92% of consumers trust word-of-mouth-marketing over brand messaging — Nielsen
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Brand-shared content reach
Employee-shared content reach

7. 77
Employee Advocacy: Your Employees are Your Brand
Engaged employees are responsible for 80% of customer
satisfaction — David Macleod & Nita Clarke
90% of an employee’s social audience is new to the brand
— Dell Study
Employee-shared content receives 7x the engagement of
brand-shared content — Based on SocialChorus Implementations
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80%
90%
7x

8. 88
Train a Social Workforce: How AT&T Trained Thousands
of Social Advocates
#EngageU
Nicole Alvino
Co-founder & Chief Strategy
Officer at SocialChorus
@Nalvino
Nolan Carleton
Lead Consultant, Programs
Execution at At&T
@ParsleyCarleton

9. 9
What inspired AT&T to start a social
advocacy plan?
#EngageU

10. 1010
Innovation: It’s Who We Are, Not Just What We Do
• We can’t lead as a brand
without employees leading
too
• Employees already help tell
our story through their own
experiences with AT&T
• Authentic stories from
employees create a better
customer experience
#EngageU

11. 1111
#EngageU
Nolan Carleton, AT&T
@ParsleyCarleton
“If half of your workforce is already
out on social talking about you, you
want to be a part of that
conversation.”

12. 12
What were your initial barriers?
#EngageU

13. 1313
Perceived Risk and Time Were Major Barriers
• Lots of sensitive brand material
• Fear from employees: “How do I speak
to the AT&T brand publicly?”
• Fear from leadership: “Is putting our
workforce on social media to talk about
us a good idea?”
• Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn was
blocked for most employees
#EngageU

14. 14
What are AT&T’s goals for employee
advocacy?
#EngageU

15. 1515
Life at AT&T is Evolving
AT ONSET: Top Down Messaging
• Amplify stories that were sitting on media newsroom page
• Give employees something to share that had cohesiveness
with corporate messaging
EVOLUTION: Messaging By Everyone
• Facilitate employees finding and expressing their own voice
to demonstrate what a great company AT&T is
#EngageU

16. 1616
How did AT&T get started?
#EngageU

17. 1717
Start Small, Market Internally, Remember Your Users
Involvement and training:
AT ONSET: Grassroots, “lets all
jump on a call.”
EVOLUTION: Internal marketing
campaigns
NOW: Train the trainer program
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18. 1818
AT&T Training Tools
• Easy to follow
instructions
• Infographics
• Training videos
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19. 1919
AT&T Training Video Pt. 1: Cover the Program Basics
#EngageU
• What is the Social Circle?
• How does the program work?
• Introduce the opportunity to build a personal brand
• Encourage creativity and personalization

20. 2020
AT&T Training Video Pt. 2: Cover the Do’s & Don’ts
#EngageU
• Explain your brand’s social media guidelines &
policy
• Tips for how to handle negative responses
• Best practice: Advise employees not to engage
or respond to a negative comment

21. 2121
AT&T Training Video Pt. 3: Provide Resources
#EngageU
• Program overview and support resources
• Elicit pride with being part of the program
• Be encouraging and appreciative!

22. 2222
AT&T Training Video
#EngageU
Watch the video: http://bit.ly/ATTtrainingvid

23. 2323
#EngageU
Nolan Carleton, AT&T
@ParsleyCarleton
“Employees and people are
changing and learning new things
every single day, and that’s
dictating the way they digest
information.”

24. 2424
How does AT&T engage employee advocates?
#EngageU

25. 2525
Employee Advocacy Program Core Characteristics
Key Drivers
• It has to be fun
• Make it easy to implement
• Facilitate speed
• Keep it memorable
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26. 2626
How is AT&T measuring their goals?

27. 2727
How AT&T Defines Program Success
• Increased participation from all users: technical savvy,
casual users, and new users
• Evolution to natural daily engagement vs. one-time
corporate initiative
• Bi-weekly emails evolved to semi-weekly emails with
content driven by employees
#EngageU

28. 2828
AT&T Employee Participation
#EngageU
• 3,000+ employees joined
• 40 million social
impressions
• New employees added
every day

29. 2929
#EngageU
Nolan Carleton, AT&T
@ParseleyCarleton
“We’re turning our external social
internal, and we’re turning internal
social external.”

30. 3030
Employee Advocacy: Benefits Company-wide
• Social Media Marketing: Increase awareness
• Human Resources: Attract top talent
• Sales Professionals: Drive leads
• Communications: Engage employees
#EngageU

31. 3131
We build enterprise-branded
apps suitable for every employee
Our apps empower employers to
deliver the right content and
company news to the right
employee, at the right time, in
any location
Employees love how easy it is to
be in the know

32. 3232
Poll: What do you need to get your leadership onboard?
- Successful pilot to show results
- Case studies & benchmarks from similar brands/industries
- Compliance with legal, IT security & HR
- Brandable mobile app on every employee’s device
- Other: Fill in

33. 3333
Have a Question?
Use the hashtag
#EngageU on Twitter for
questions & comments
Or
Chat with us on
ReadyTalk!
#EngageU

34. 3434
Train a Social Workforce: How AT&T Trained Thousands
of Social Advocates
#EngageU
Nicole Alvino
Co-founder & Chief Strategy
Officer at SocialChorus
@Nalvino
Nolan Carleton
Lead Consultant, Programs
Execution at At&T
@ParsleyCarleton

35. 3535
Interested in Learning More?
Download our ebook:
How to Train Employee Advocates
http://bit.ly/trainingemployeeadvocates
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Register for our upcoming webinar:
Beyond Social Media: The Playbook for Creating
a Winning Employee Advocacy Program
http://bit.ly/WinningEmployeeAdvocacy

36. 3636
Thank You!
#EngageU