Xylos Cites Employee Advocacy as a Top Source of Website Traffic

Xylos delivers inspiring ICT solutions that contribute to the success of organizations. From modern workplaces to smart applications and cloud migrations: the company focuses on innovation thanks to the specialized expertise of its consultants and offers strategic advice tailored to the needs of the end users.

Increasing Website Traffic with Advocacy

Like many other B2B companies, Xylos wants to drive qualified traffic to its website. The company recognized the potential of employee advocacy, among other communication channels, to generate traffic. But without a dedicated platform, Xylos' efforts to engage employees and amplify brand content weren't very effective.

Shares would appear only sporadically. The distribution process was also far from perfect - Xylos' marketing team would usually send out an email about company news or events, with a few suggestions on how employees can share this information on social. Even if it would yield results, Xylos' marketers had no way of measuring social engagement data siloed between employees' personal accounts.

To take full advantage of advocacy, Xylos had to adopt an end-to-end solution that would allow them to distribute content at scale and track overall performance.

2-in-1 Platform: Social Publishing & Employee Advocacy

In early 2017, Xylos' marketing manager Rachel Young and her colleagues were looking for a social publishing platform that can accommodate their needs as a B2B company. The final round came down to Oktopost, Hootsuite and Sprout Social.

That's when Xylos learned that Oktopost also offers a built-in employee advocacy solution. Oktopost's seamless content distribution and integrated workflows allow to manage advocacy programs without adding much work to a social media routine. That made Xylos' decision easy: they went with Oktopost.

Diverse Content for Different Advocates

To revamp advocacy, Xylos' marketing team has started educating employees on the benefits of participating in the program: be it positioning yourself as an industry expert, growing your professional network or building rapport with potential customers. Oktopost provides various tools to tailor an advocacy experience to suit a specific goal.

In the beginning, we got a lot of "I'm not really on social media" or "I don't feel comfortable promoting business content". So we decided to hold a series of social media workshops for our employees. We covered the benefits of being active on social and what you need to pay attention to. Tips and tricks, dos and don'ts. We also showed the advantage of profiling yourself as an expert by getting that content from us and posting it in your name.

Xylos' sales team use advocacy as a social selling tool: they share case studies and other bottom-of-the-funnel content that targets leads. Today, more and more sales professionals rely on social media to close deals and create lasting business relationships. According to this LinkedIn report, salespeople who excel at social are 51% more likely to hit quota. Oktopost analytics supports social selling by providing data on how advocacy influences actual sales.

HR personnel use Oktopost to spread "fun content" and brand messages (e.g., Xylos winning the Great Place to Work award), which helps promote company culture where job candidates might see it. Xylos' advocates can easily customize topics within Oktopost to see only relevant content and filter out the rest.

Building Two-Way Communication

One of the ways Xylos keeps employees invested in advocacy is by asking them to suggest content for the program.

As part of Oktopost's test group, the company had early access to the suggestion feature - and immediately fell in love with it. Sending, accepting and managing content suggestions within the platform makes the whole thing much easier for program admins and the marketing team.

This feature has helped the company to build two-way communication where advocates feel comfortable not only to share brand-generated content but also to initiate a conversation on subjects that interest them.

Boosting Motivation by Sharing Results

Xylos has found that sharing program results is another effective way to boost advocates' motivation. The company sends out a bi-monthly newsletter (and a weekly update for the marketing team) that brings participants up to date on overall analytics (impressions, clicks, conversions and more), in addition to individual engagement statistics that are available in advocate profiles.

These updates help advocates identify the hottest topics and formats. But more importantly, knowing their actions have a real impact prompt them to return to Oktopost and share more, amplifying Xylos' social reach even further.

Advocacy Brings the Most Traffic

Because of the great results Oktopost brought to Xylos, the company has doubled the number of advocates since launching the program. Advocacy has also become a significant part of the company culture: earlier this year, Rachel Young hosted the Best Social Media Advocate Award for Xylos' employees.

We decided to name Xylos' best social media advocate to celebrate employees who are sharing a lot, suggesting content and generally most active. Everybody had a lot of fun, and the winner was awarded a huge Facebook thumbs-up sign.

One of the immediately visible results for Xylos is a follower count: Oktopost has helped the company grow its corporate accounts' direct audience more than twice.

As for business metrics, employee advocacy has become one of the top sources of website traffic. Since joining Oktopost, Xylos' advocates went from generating around 15% of all social clicks to staggering 45%. This proves that if you have the right tools to manage and measure employee advocacy, it can be even more effective than traditional marketing vehicles.