0:00
Will
Hello everybody and great to see those in the chat letting us know where you are from. Good morning if you're based further west. Good afternoon if you're based further east. And welcome to today's webinar entitled beyond the Preparing for the Employee Advocacy Motivation Dip. My name is Will and I lead the solutions team in EMEA at Oktopost and I'll be your host today. Before we dive into the webinar, before we introduce our fantastic guest that we have on our panel here, I just want to go over a couple of quick things so we would love to hear from you during the session today. And so if you have any questions, please do drop them into the Q and A into the chat and we'll make sure to get to them in the end when we come to the Q and A section. And as well as this, don't worry, everybody will get the recording after as well. So we do also have a couple of little treats for you today. If you check out the resources bar, you'll find more content on how to manage the employee advocacy dip, which is the focus for today's session, which include examples from octoposts, advocacy competitions, a podcast episode with Matt from Aveva. So shout out to Matt if you're here in the channel and a blog on managing the employee advocacy hype cycle. And you'll also be able to find links to our guests LinkedIn profiles as well in the speaker tab. If you'd like to connect, connect with them. So with that we'll kick things off. So yes, hello everybody and thank you again for joining us for today's webinar, the Employee Advocacy Motivation Dip. So this happens to every program you start off with really engaged, excited advocates. We're really looking forward to getting involved, starting to grow their professional brand on social media, sharing content that has been crafted and curated for them by the admins of the program. And then naturally participation starts to drop. Okay? And you're not alone in that it happens to most programmes and every programme leader runs into it at some point, whether you are a small company that is just starting out or a large enterprise that has been running advocacy for a long time. And really that's exactly what we're getting into today. So we've brought together two fantastic expert advocacy leaders to unpack why that dip happens and what high performing programs do differently to keep momentum going. So we'll talk about how to re energize advocates, bring quieter voices back in and keep things moving long after launch. So everybody, this is a very open conversation so please do grab your coffee and settle in and feel free to jump into the chat. So you might want to introduce yourself, share a bit about your program as we go, what's working, what's been challenging. And as you'll find as we go throughout, you'll find that a lot of people the same boat and it's a great chance to swap ideas. And as well as that, please do feel free to drop your LinkedIn profiles too, so you can connect with each other as part of the. As part of the program as well. So, without further ado, I'm going to hand over to our panelists to introduce themselves. So, first of all, I'll start off with Kira, if you could do a quick introduction, tell us who you are, where you work, what you do, and how you typically recognize when your employee advocacy program is entering a motivation dip. So starting with you, Kira, and then on to yourself, Megan.
3:26
Keara Klose
Sure. Hi, I'm Kira Kos. I am the social media manager at TTech Digital. I've been there for about four years now and I've been the social media manager for about two and a half, three years, I think, if I'm remembering correctly, day to day, I manage all of our social media profiles across all of our channels. And I also am the sole manager of our employee advocacy program, which I started in 2024, manually, without a tool. And then outside of that, I think how I can recognize when the program is entering a dip. I do use Oktopost employee advocacy tool and I do. I mean, they're very often in like our dashboards and our analytics and stuff. So, like, when I see the charts start to go straight down, I know we're in a dip or like a valley. So, yeah, excellent.
4:12
Will
Thank you, Kira and yourself, Megan.
4:15
Meghan Perkins
Thanks for having me, Will. Hi everyone. I'm Megan Perkins and corporate communications manager at Key Factor, a cybersecurity company focused on digital trust and identity security. And so over there I work on public relations and social media. And one of my big projects is our employee advocacy program, helping our employees amplify the company voice as well as their own personal brands. The first, I've been in this role for two years and the first year we were using Oktopost and had a very limited set of people, 30 advocates, max. And then in the last year we relaunched the program to more than 150 people. And during that relaunch I noticed a couple signals for the motivation dip. You know, when we relaunched, we had some very early champions who took to it very excitedly and then, and then kind of dropped off and then we had another group that maintained their consistency, but they were just so good at it that they were always at the top of the leaderboard and it wasn't distributed across our advocate. Participation rate just kind of dropped a bit. So having Oktopost as a tool to keep an eye on that and refresh as needed has really been very useful.
5:36
Will
Excellent. Thank you very much. Okay, so let's get started with the questions. So what I'm going to do, just to start off with quite a nice easy one, is just to help set a bit of context to utilizing your marketing tech stack. So Megan, starting with yourself, what tools are part of your current tech stack when you're utilizing your employee advocacy program?
5:57
Meghan Perkins
Sure. Well, of course there's Oktopost. We have teams. We're not a slack company. We use Microsoft and I also our CRM is HubSpot and of course for social media graphics, Canva always helps to create different looks. Of course I have templates from our design team because I'm not a great graphic designer, but I do what I can.
6:26
Will
Wonderful. Sounds good. And the same question to yourself, Kira.
6:30
Keara Klose
Sure. Yes, obviously Oktopost for both social scheduling, like my end on the back end, and employee advocacy. We also are a Microsoft Teams company, so we use teams. Our CRM is Marketo, which Oktopost now has an integration for to connect the two, which is great. Then outside of that, I also heavily use Canva and templates from our design team. And my new favorite right now is descript, which is a video editor that, because I am not a video editor, actually lets you edit by editing the transcription that loads when you put in the video instead of like manually editing the video, which is amazing.
7:07
Will
Wonderful. Sounds good. And great to hear such a wide variety of of tech stacks to help you manage your program. So let's move on to the first question for you individually, Kira, this is coming to yourself. So how do you know when it's truly a motivation diploma versus something else? How can you spot those signals? What is it that stands out to you to know it's actually a motivation dip versus something that it might not be?
7:33
Keara Klose
Sure. So I think, as I've kind of learned, I've never run an advocacy program before the one that I'm doing currently. So I think as I've learned throughout the years, sometimes it is truly a dip. And like people are either really busy with stuff going on at work or like the thing that I sometimes forget is like, oh, like why is, why is it tanking all of a sudden? It's like, oh, it's Christmas, or like, oh, everyone's off for like the 4th of July or something like that. So I think putting it in perspective of, like, what's going on at your company, is there, like a big sales kickoff or something going on where people aren't in the office, they're not on their laptops, or is it around a holiday or something like that? I think it's important to keep in perspective for, like, maybe it's not a dip, and maybe it's something like globally or worldwide or like, company wide that is kind of taking people away from their computers and their employee advocacy board.
8:22
Will
Excellent. Thank you very much. And kind of sticking with yourself, Kim. And then we'll come on to you, Megan. So now that we've understood what it is, that actually signals a dip. Okay, it's not content, it's not seasonal. Now what? So how early should advocacy leaders start planning for this dip and what proactive steps make the biggest difference to softening its impact? So again, we'll start with yourself, K. And then we'll come to you, Megan.
8:50
Keara Klose
I would say, I think I wasn't prepared for the dip because a lot of my advocates were pilot program members from, like, the 10 that I had started with manually. So everybody was really jazzed about it, and I was really jazzed about it, and people were using it. It was great. And then understandably, like, all things, people get busy and it's not as new and shiny anymore. So there was kind of a dip. So for anybody starting an advocacy program, I would say basically, you should plan for a dip pretty much at all times. Like, just kind of be prepared for it. And I think for softening the impact, the thing that I really try to do with our advocacy board, we are really big on, like, brand awareness. And then also we're like a very partner integrated company. So making sure that content in there is relevant to all of the advocates that we have on our advocacy board. So we started with 10 and then grew to like 50 and then grew to 100. So I just make sure that the board is categorized, that people know that they can select the categories that they're interested in. So, like, if they don't ever want to see something about a specific category, they can uncheck that box. So that way it's the most relevant to them. So that way they're feeling like they're getting the most out of the advocacy board. And I feel like sometimes that can help with the dip because if they don't categorize it Sometimes they'll log in and be like, oh, none of this applies to me. I don't necessarily want to share. And it's like, okay, that's all right. Let's teach you how to like, adjust and how to edit your board specifically for you.
10:07
Will
Yeah, I agree. And I think relevancy is such an important thing here when it comes to content for advocates because if it's not relevant to their interests, then it's going to immediately switch them off. Fantastic. Megan, what about yourself from your side of things? How early do you think advocacy leaders should start planning for this step? And then again, what proactive steps make the biggest difference in making sure that it has the least impact possible?
10:31
Meghan Perkins
I would echo what Kira said. Be prepared for the motivation dip at all times. Like plan from the beginning and forevermore. So when we relaunched our advocacy program, you know, we tried to build it on long term sustainability. And a couple of ways we went about that to be proactive for the dip was to make sure we had a core group of advocates who were consistently active. And so, you know, moving our program from 30 to 150 advocates, we knew that we could rely on those 30 to build up the community and set an example the newcomers in the program. And then we also had a recognition program with monthly prizes and any name that got a monthly prize would be added to the raffle at the end of the year for the grand prize. And you know, we also have a teams channel to share best practices and shout outs. And we have an E like a weekly email that goes out to advocates that highlights best practices and wins. And then another practice that I've been trying to champion from the beginning is, you know, the advocacy program is not just for amplifying the company, it's also for amplifying yourself, setting yourself up as a thought leader in your network. It helps your own career success. I've had co workers come to me saying that this advocacy has helped them secure conversations and deals and interviews with people that they had never expected. So I really champion that idea.
12:09
Will
Excellent. Great. And, and one of the things you just mentioned then about having that core group of 30 at the beginning, I think makes such a difference as well, that bit of a flywheel effect that internal champions can have to help the wider organization. So yeah, fantastic point. Then we see that with a lot of our, our fellow organizations as well. Okay, moving forward, Megan, this question is for you. So sticking with yourself, how do you re engage inactive advocates without seeming like you're policing them? So, you know, they've not Posted in a few months. How do you reach back out and make sure that they feel supportive rather than you're simply trying to police their participation in the program?
12:50
Meghan Perkins
That's a really, really great question. Like I said, I, I like to prioritize that as a personal benefit and versus it being a company obligation. And so I like to reach back out just in a very friendly, casual manner. Like, hey, I see that you haven't been on in a while. Is there a certain type of content that you want to see? Are you, do you want to set yourself apart from the other advocates because they're all sharing the same content? I'm happy to curate something for them. So them what's top of mind for their customers? What are they hearing from co workers or people in the industry, other thought leaders and target a specific topic that they want to address and help them craft it around their voice. And then I always remind them, you know, you can edit any post in Oktopost, you don't have to use the copy that's already been provided. And you know, Oktopost also has the, the AI tool to help you edit the copy if you don't know what to say yourself. So I think that's always a good place to come from. And then another avenue is at the start of our advocacy program we secured executive sponsorship and leadership buy in. And I think having that has been really useful. When advocates see their leaders engaging with the platform, it encourages them to do as well. And so this cross functional collaboration has led to us adding more advocates and keeping them more engaged in the long term. So I would definitely say remind them that advocacy is for their own personal benefit and then also try and secure executive sponsorship.
14:33
Will
Excellent. Yeah, I think that's such an underrated point. I think executive sponsorship so important setting that example but also kind of highlighting good practice as well. So really, really great point there. Okay, moving forward then, Kira, we'll start with yourself on this one. What are three practical things every employee advocacy leader can do to make managing and sustaining their program that little bit easier? So Kira, we'll start with yourself and I'll come to you Megan.
15:03
Keara Klose
Sure. So I feel like I have way more than three. I'll try to narrow it down but for three practical ways. I think the first one is definitely making sure that people feel like they're part of the advocacy program. So from a management perspective, I always encourage people as well. Along with what Megan said about you can edit these, you don't have to take what I've curated in there for you and just post it. I encourage people to edit it, to have it be in their own voice and stuff like that. I also have reminded people about the suggestion, the little suggestion box in Oktopost. So if there's something that they want to see that is not already in there, I'm always kind of like, hey, if there's something I don't know about that you want to be on the board, please submit a suggestion. And that has been really helpful to have people kind of contribute and kind of have their stuff be on the board along with stuff that I'm providing. And I think outside of that, because I am a one person organic social team and a one person employee advocacy team, I also will not duplicate exactly, but I'll double up on like a corporate post and then an advocacy post, but like tweak it slightly or I'll use one of my different, different colored canva templates that I have from our wonderful design team and just kind of change up the imagery and tweak the messaging a little bit. So it's similar information but a little bit different for the advocacy board versus the corporate page. And I also really like, in Oktopost there's a repost, like you can add a repost of your pages post to allow advocates to share that instead. And that's kind of a good way to like, I don't know, I kind of like to keep it fresh for the advocates as well. So it's not like the same kind of posts every time that they log in there. So I think varying it slightly, whether that's the message or the way that they're sharing in there is important. And then I think my third one, I don't know if this counts as like the management of like actually doing the back end stuff, but for the sustainability, I find that the leaderboard really makes people competitive in there, which is great. But outside of that, what I do every week or even every month is like reach out to like our top three or our top five advocates and kind of be like, great job this month or great job this week. Like, just wanted to let you know you were top. You were the first advocate, you were top three, you were top five, that kind of thing. And I feel like that internal validation kind of helps and they're like, oh, it is making a difference. Or you know, I've had people, same thing, reach out to me and be like, hey, I. I had people reach out to me to like learn more about this Oktopost story. I posted, like, thank you so much. And it's it's just, it's really cool to see the impact that social can have when people use advocacy to its advantage.
17:40
Will
Excellent. I love to hear that. And yeah, and one of the things you mentioned there about the suggestions tool as well, I think is such an underrated lever for keeping engagement going. It helps people feel part of the program overall if they feel like they're also contributing content. So, yeah, absolutely. Fantastic point. Megan, the same to you. What else would you add to that? What are three practical things every employee advocacy leader can do to help manage and sustain their program?
18:04
Meghan Perkins
I mean, I loved her answer so much. I'm going to try to give different responses.
18:09
Keara Klose
Sorry.
18:10
Meghan Perkins
No, it was great. It was great. So I would focus on community. So making sure, like I said, having that core group, even when you expand into a larger group, it's really important to have a place where everyone can share ideas and celebrate wins. So we have a teams channel where people can drop their latest and greatest in there. And that's where we announce our monthly winners. And then another thing that I really wanted to prioritize when I relaunched the program was to make sure sharing was easy. And so the easier it was for employees just to find and personalize content, the more likely I figured they would be to participate. And I think that has proven true. You know, of course the Oktopost has the teams integration and the tool itself is very intuitive. A lot of people have come to me and say that, like, they are able to navigate it very easily, very early on. And so it's been really useful for this program. And then I'd say the third practical thing that anyone and everyone should do is just regularly refresh the program. I think here may have said this, but just a reminder, you know, small changes in the content you're offering, new campaigns, or even like how you're doing gamification. I know Oktopost does like different like programs for winners and prizes. Like they did one based on the Olympics one time, like within their own company. That's at least what my Oktopost rep had said. And I really like those ideas and I tried implementing them on my own end. So I would definitely recommend people always be refreshing how they approach the advocacy program to keep that motivation up across their advocates.
19:57
Will
Excellent. Sounds good. And I think you, you read my mind there with the next question, Megan, which is actually talking about gamification and such a important part of a program, making sure that there's an element of friendly competition to this. So, Kira, why don't we start with. With yourself. What kinds of contests or competitions have you run when it comes to advocacy and what have you actually found drives? Participation.
20:23
Keara Klose
Sure. So right now I actually have not done any kind of like competition outside of the leaderboard in Oktopost Advocacy. So we have a lot of salespeople in our Oktopost employee advocacy program and I think just that competition, because obviously all the advocates can see where they stand on the board and it has the little trophies with like the top 1, 2, 3. I feel like, honestly, that does make people pretty competitive, which is awesome. This year I also have been working with my boss and the larger marketing team and I think I'm going to try to start doing. And Megan, I don't want to steal your answer, but I know you've kind of done more around like company swag and gamification and stuff like that, but that's kind of where I want to head is like more external, like physical prizes for like the top three or, you know, the top three of the quarter or something like that. So more to come on that I'll be excited to kind of share, share my results on LinkedIn once we do that. Once we do it.
21:18
Will
Fantastic. And then Megan, yourself, what kind of contests or competitions have you yourself run to actually drive participation with the program?
21:27
Meghan Perkins
Sure. Well, like Kira said, leaderboards can be very motivating. But I realized a few months into the program that the leaderboard has to be designed very carefully. So when we relaunched the program, we had the same people at the top of the leaderboard month over month. And it kind of created a motivation dip from our other advocates who were not getting the same kind of point system even though they were sharing just as much. And I realized it was because the people at the top of the leaderboard on our team were the people with the largest LinkedIn networks. So they just had more people, more engagement with their post time over time. And I wanted to make sure that our advocates were continuing to participate and participate in with best practices. So instead of rewarding network size, I switched it to effort. So I no longer offer the monthly prizes according to the leaderboard. It's shifted to who's putting in the best effort, who's putting in the best consistency or strategy. Like month over month it might be like who is the best networker, who is engaging the most with company like other company coworker posts, or who is the person who edits and creates their own copy the most. And so that has really shifted the participation in our group because now we're rewarding best practices and it's just made it more Inclusive and
23:08
Will
excellent. That's such an important part. And yes, Kira, go for it. You've got an extra part there.
23:13
Keara Klose
Yeah, I also, for the leaderboard, you can really tweak what people get points for and I also very quickly realized that pretty much the exact same thing. So I think our advocates right now the top way to get the most points is to do an Oktopost story suggestion and also to edit the post. So like not just click in and post what I have, but to actually edit it. So I also am rewarding effort and kind of going above and beyond. Just like I do sell it as like, oh, it's just two clicks, but it's kind of like if you do more than those two clicks, you're going to get way more points on the leaderboard.
23:45
Will
Yeah, so important. And I think, I think you're, you're very right there. Everybody's got a different level of audience. You know, those have been part of LinkedIn for a long time. Other social media sites probably benefit more from when people react to their stories and gain more points. So Megan, Kira, the points you mentioned there about rewarding effort, so sharing, editing, making suggestions, etc. Etc. Really, really important when it comes driving engagement of those that maybe have been a little bit unsure as to whether they want to take part. Megan, I just want to quickly stick with you around kind of the incentivisation side of this, as I know you mentioned this briefly before. How did you go about securing leadership buy in to invest in advocacy programs, prizes and rewards? And what would you suggest for anybody who can't actually secure budget?
24:38
Meghan Perkins
Well, leadership buy in usually requires demonstrating impact. So with our advocacy program we were able to exhibit impressive year over year growth. Like our sessions increased 200%, our posts increased 400%, you know, potential reach grew to 30 million. And this is all in comparison to what a brand channel can, can achieve on its own. It just amplifies the brand awareness and voice so much more. So that's where, you know, executive sponsorship came in and offered incentives to continue this recognition for advocate participation and best practices. But I would say you, you know, CURE is a great example. You don't need budget to have incentives or to have great participation in a program, you know, highlighting advocates internally in a teams channel, weekly call outs in the group, email, just saying like what a great job they're doing and highlighting their best practices and celebrating their wins. Because it all goes back to the same idea that advocacy is not just for the company, it's also for your personal brand. And our advocates Say that this activity has driven conversations with prospects and customers and it just has elevated their own personal success.
26:01
Will
Brilliant. Excellent. Kier, I'm going to come back to yourself. So we've spoken about the importance of leadership in programs, whether that is taking part in the program or actively encouraging it. If leadership stops actively participating in advocacy, how quickly does that apathy tend to trickle down through the program?
26:22
Keara Klose
Yeah, so unfortunately it does tend to trickle down pretty quickly. I feel like if people's leaders and like the larger people managers are not actually using the tool and aren't championing. Championing the tool, I feel like it does kind of lead to understandably a motivation dip because, you know, if it's like nobody you know and like your immediate work group is doing it or especially like your boss isn't talking about it and reminding you about it or using it themselves, I feel like it's kind of like, well, why would I use it then? So we have seen a little bit of a dip there when leadership might not be as active or might not be mentioning it as much. But I think outside of that, there are ways around that where again, I just kind of try to reach out to people. If I do notice that there's a dip, kind of remind people that they do have their own voice there. And then outside of that, when I started our advocacy program, like I said, I started my advocacy program without Oktopost. I was doing everything manually. So I had a teams chat with 10 people that I was literally copying and pasting the text and putting the image in and then people were downloading it and stuff. But the great thing about the pilot program is I had some really great kind of star advocates who wanted to be part of that. And then I kind of rolled them into the Oktopost advocacy program. And then I was able to during, and I know we're going to talk about this a little bit later too, but I was able to then during our Oktopost trainings, kind of bring on those champions as like early adopters and people who had used it. So it was people at our company who had already been part of it, who had already been through it, talking about, you know, how easy it was and how much their LinkedIn network grew and you know, how many opportunity calls they were able to book because of the stuff that they were able to post because of the advocacy board. So even if you can't get leadership buy in, there are ways around it where like, you know, pick, pick your champions. Pick, pick people who will help you kind of get that message across.
28:09
Will
Of course, of course. And then is there anything else kind of you want to add to that, Megan, or. Or Kira? Anything further?
28:19
Meghan Perkins
I would say yes. Like leadership definitely impacts how people approach the program, which is why it was so important when we were able to get executive sponsorship at the beginning of the program and have the leaders express to their teams like, hey, this is a really useful tool. It's going to help not just you and the company, but also your sales ops. So it has been definitely a boost for our program to have that leadership buy in.
28:52
Will
Fantastic. All right, Kira, you mentioned the word then trainings just before in your answer. So how important are trainings and workshops one to one support in keeping advocates engaged? And have you found that hands on help, like helping employees craft posts or optimizing their profiles makes a measurable difference? Kira will start with you and then Megan, I'll come to you afterwards.
29:21
Keara Klose
Sure. So I do think it's really important to kind of have that hands on support. I don't necessarily think it even needs to be like a one on one thing because, you know, as my employee advocacy program grew, there's almost 100 people in there now, so it's a little less feasible to do like 101 on ones. But what I've kind of learned through starting when we first launched it, Oktopost was great and kind of jumped in to help us train our like initial advocates and stuff like that. And I think sometimes it's helpful to have people from the tool presenting it to your company. Even though like I'm trusted at my company as the social media person and the employee advocacy person, it's like, oh, they're from the tool, like they really know what they're like. They made this thing. So I feel like that definitely helps. And then outside of that, I think providing resources, whether it is just a quick call to like walk somebody through or like they get locked out of their account, like helping them reset their password and just resending. And then outside of that, I have a lot of documentation. So I presented on our company all hands about Oktopost and resharing and stuff like that. So I literally just clip the video and that's on our internal Internet for people to be able to view and follow me step by step through the video. And then I also have written instructions. So those are kind of like a short and sweet way to kind of send people things like, hey, if you're stuck, take a look at these and then let me know if you have questions, which is helpful if you're in kind of a time crunch or you have a lot of advocates that you can't meet with all the time.
30:42
Will
Of course, of course. And Megan, what about yourself?
30:46
Meghan Perkins
Yeah, I echo a lot of what Kira said. You know, training is very important, but I also wanted to approach a program where I wasn't overwhelming our new advocates, so wanted to make onboarding as simple as possible. And so I also made a short tutorial video, just walking through it very quickly and then also created like a one pager document with like the instructions line by line in case people prefer to learn better reading versus seeing. And so I just want to be able people to be able to start quickly with no pressure and like, with like a formal training meeting where they have to set aside time. Like I want them to be able to come to it on their own terms and on their own time. And so these resources were sent out when we first relaunched the program. And then I also include them as resources in the weekly email I send to advocates that also has, you know, the latest stories and best practices and winners. And that email also acts as a gentle reminder to post once a week. And when new people join the company and want to be an advocate, I share the same material with an open invitation for any questions. And anytime that they need to meet with me, you know, support is available. But I didn't want to make the training mandatory because it will just help motivation.
32:06
Will
Of course. Yeah. And I think from kind of taking both of your answers there, it's about meeting people where they're at, whether it is live training, whether it's material like you've mentioned as well. Some people want a lot of hand holding, some people want to learn it on their own. And I think it's working out what is best for your, for your team, for your advocates to help drive engagement and probably doing a mixture of all of them for different people. All right, so we've got two more questions and then we're going to come on to the the Q A. So Megan, starting with yourself, how can feedback loops help sustain motivation for advocacy programs? And what does an effective system for gathering and acting on advocate feedback look like over where you work?
32:49
Meghan Perkins
Well, I think feedback is essential to creating and sustaining that motivation for your program because it means that they're part of the community and that they're being heard and you know, this tool is meant for them. So you want your advocates to feel a part of that and their feedback is essential. And so when we relaunched our program last year, you know, I always had like an open door policy. You can always reach out to me at any time, but also sent out a survey at the end of the year, you know, on what's working and what's not. And we received a lot of helpful feedback, some of which we were able to implement immediately and people were appreciative of that. And then if any new people join the company in after onboarding, I always do like a 90 day check in to see if they have any initial feedback or questions or they want support using this tool. It's so important to remind your advocates that they are part of a community and that we are here for them.
33:48
Will
Fabulous. Kira, same question to yourself on feedback links. How have you used it to help sustain momentum and what does it look like in terms of implementing an effective system?
33:58
Keara Klose
Sure. So I'm totally stealing Megan's idea about the survey. I actually have not done that yet and I think it's a great idea so I'm going to do that. But I think outside of that too really just like those one on ones or even like group meetings kind of with like you know, a certain team of advocates. And I'm lucky enough to be kind of connected across the org to a lot of different like cross functional and like cross departmental things. So like I kind of hear things through the grapevine of like oh like somebody thought like this was kind of weird or somebody would have preferred this. So like I think it's kind of being tapped into like your internal teams as well. So like I feel like sometimes advocates might be scared to like tell you things. So like also asking other people what they hear about the advocacy program and then trying to implement that as part of making it better because yeah, I think the thing too, like, well obviously I'm the manager of it and I really wanted to succeed and we've seen a lot of really good success for which I'm grateful. Like it is because of what the advocates are doing in there and because of their motivation and their posting. Like I can't sit in somebody's house and like make them click the thing. So like I'm grateful that they're willing to do that and that that makes all the difference for the program.
35:07
Will
Excellent. And great to hear that you're both listening to your teams and taking their feedback on board. Again, such a crucial part of the of every program. Okay, so we're going to come to our final question before we move on to the onto the Q and A from the audience. So Kira, we'll start with yourself. Looking back, if you were rebuilding your advocacy program today, knowing what you know about the motivation dip, what's the number one thing you would do differently from day one?
35:40
Keara Klose
I think what I would do differently from day one one, I think I would put less pressure on myself. Like, it was so scary to start this as somebody who had never done it. Like, I kind of knew what I was doing. The tool made it easy for me to kind of like manage the, like posting and stuff. But I think I was so stressed out about like, like, is it going to be successful? Is it going to work? Like, I think it's okay to test things and try them and like, it's not going to be at 110, you're not going to have a million impressions immediately. It's going to take time to build, just like organic social does. So I think I would have been a little kinder to myself and a little more chill about like, oh my God, is it doing okay? So I think one, give yourself grace. And then secondly, I think I would have spent a little more time like before I actually launched it. I feel like I kind of got the buy in, got the tool, launched it and then I was like, oh my gosh, I don't think I have enough content. Like I had content, but I felt like maybe it wasn't enough content. So I think I would have done a little more backloading before officially. Like, I wish I would have taken like a week or two in between of like getting it, getting people signed on and then like really doubling down on like the content and stuff. But hindsight's 20 20. You learn, you learn as you go. And that's okay too.
36:53
Will
Of course. Of course. Megan, same question to yourself again. Knowing what you know, if it was day one again and you knew about the motivation dip, what would you do differently?
37:04
Meghan Perkins
Sure, I, I really love what Kira said. You know, you have to give yourself kindness and grace. You know, everyone, we, we're all a little too hard on ourselves sometimes. And that's kind of leads into my answer for this response for this question is I think having community is so important for a program like this. A place, a place where people can share their questions, their concerns, their wins, their best practices, and feel like they're part of a community because when they feel they're part of something, that participation and motivation are just so much more sustainable because they genuinely enjoy how they, how the program is going and the camaraderie they have with their co workers.
37:51
Will
Excellent. Both fantastic points. And I think, you know, it's all about making sure that you don't feel like you've got the pressure on your shoulders and you both mentioned this, you're taking on a lot of work and you've got to give yourself an element to also enjoy it as well, haven't you? You know, it's building out a program. It's going to bring benefits to the business, but also benefits to the advocates as well. And that's a lot to take on your shoulders. So making sure you give yourself that time, that breathing room and in the end just having the, the confidence to know it will go well. And that's a, you know, that's a really, really important part. Okay, so that's the end of our initial questions. What I would like to do and you've seen it in the chat. If you do have any other questions for our panelists, please do submit them into the Q and A functionality on Zoom. And please do start to send them in now. Thank you to everybody that has started to send them through already. What you can do is you can connect with us on social media by scanning the QR codes that you see on the screen there or obviously searching for our names on LinkedIn. So please do connect with us if you are interested as well. We're all here to answer questions that you may have about the employee advocacy program in general, but most importantly, the motivation diploma as well. Before we come on to the the Q and A itself, one more thing that I do want to very quickly cover, and this is for customers that are part of Oktopost, is that we do have our B2B employee advocacy program Leadership course. So what you'll learn first of all is how to prioritize the key aspects of the program before launch, how to onboard advocates with excitement, the power of early wins, and how to achieve them, what to do when engagement dips, tips to scale your advocacy program, and how to track and measure impact. So for anybody that is a current Oktopost customer, please do reach out to your account manager and they'll be able to speak you through how to take this free course that is part of Oktopost and a really great way to make sure that you can learn exactly what to do, both for overall your advocacy program, but also when it comes to the motivation dip as well. Okay, so we'll move on to the Q A. What I will do is stop sharing my screen so I can bring us in to the into the conversation. All right, so we'll start with the first question. Megan, I'll send this one to you. How do you keep things simple for your team? Okay, this question comes in saying that, I find that my advocates get overwhelmed and then also they have their regular day job. So what do you do to keep things simple for them?
40:43
Meghan Perkins
That's a really great question. Definitely. I mean your content needs to be visually compelling as well as have engaging copy. I always like to provide built out copy that is that they don't have to worry about, but if they want to, they can adjust the customize it to their own voice as well as use that little AI tool. I also think making the content more available to them helps. So in the teams channel like once a day I'll add like the latest story in there and be like, hey, this just got added. Feel free to share. Or I also have a weekly email where I list out in different sections like here's like key factor news, here's a lot of people love to repost the job postings. That's a big one on our team. So I always have like a job section and like upcoming events and so having that content shared with them, it's just a gentle reminder like hey, just share once a week. And it just makes it that much easier because they can click that URL and go to the post and just hit share.
41:53
Will
Excellent. Fantastic. Kira, anything you want to add to that?
41:56
Keara Klose
Yeah, sure. I think the other thing too that I love about Oktopost specifically is the featured story option. I love that I can just click that little star and then it pretty much automatically sends people the email of like hey, this is a featured story. So I think if people are overwhelmed with like the regular board or like a lot of updates and stuff like that, I try to save the featured story like star for stuff that's like really big or like really a really big news or really big webinar we have coming up or something like that. So I feel like if I would be like if you do one thing like just share the one featured story that I sent this week, that kind of thing. Like I think sometimes taking it in smaller chunks might be easier than like oh my gosh, I logged into the board and there's so much in there. So like maybe just start with a featured story or two.
42:42
Will
Fantastic. And then another question sent in. Kira, I'll send this one to you is how often do you check your analytics and how do you act to help with that with the program engagement?
42:53
Keara Klose
So I check our employee advocacy analytics at least once a week. If not like two or three times a week. I am in those dashboards all the time and I think when I notice that participation is down or impressions are down or something like that. It's either like, okay, I need to tweak the content or I need help from some of my internal teams to kind of remind people about Oktopost. Or maybe I need to do some more exciting things in Oktopost to get people to share. But yeah, I'm in our analytics all the time, so it's great.
43:25
Will
Yeah, Fantastic. All right, Megan, anything you want to. Want to add to that as well when it comes to analytics?
43:32
Meghan Perkins
Well, I was going to say I'm a little bit more conservative in how often I look at it. I do like a monthly report for our team and so it's towards the end of the month and then that impacts how I approach it for the incoming month. Like, hey, okay, we had a dip this month. Let me reach out to leaders and make sure that they are posting because then their employees see it and they get inspired. So. Or I need to like change up our gamification. And so I don't check it a couple times a week. I wish I could, but I just, I don't have the time for that.
44:07
Keara Klose
You also aren't social only, like, I. I'm social, so I'm social all the time. I feel like it's a little bit easier for me because. Yeah.
44:15
Meghan Perkins
Thank you. We need to be kinder to ourselves.
44:17
Keara Klose
You're welcome. You.
44:18
Meghan Perkins
Thank you.
44:20
Will
Okay, so just looking at some more questions that we've got. So one of the ones that's come in says we're relaunching our advocacy program. And one thing I'm thinking about is how we keep up with enough relevant content for each different user group group. What advice would you give, please? So this comes back to that relevancy for different groups of advocates. Would any of you like to start with that question?
44:47
Keara Klose
I. I can. I think we have a lot of different, like I said, categories across like our partner ecosystem and stuff like that. So I think I kind of try to keep an eye on our events calendar as like a marketing team and like, make sure at least the relevant events are in there. Like, hey, we're going to be at this booth during this month and kind of trying to make sure that's spread across all the partners that are having events that month. And then outside of that, I do try to meet with our kind of partner managers and like our partner experts about like, hey, is there anything really going on that is newsworthy or something that we should be talking about? And again, I really, I think because I did the manual employee advocacy program for so long, I really do try to guide people to. With the teams integration. Because I was like, you can just do it. You can even do it in teams. But like guiding them to. Okay, put it in the suggestion box in Oktopost. Because, like, to be honest, I just get so many, like, emails and teams chats and all kinds of things. So, like, the more I can encourage people to get in the tool to like, get what they want out of it, the more I also feel like they'll use it once they're in there. So, like, it's a, it's a. I don't want to say it's not a ploy, but like, I just like to kind of get people in there and suggesting things and that kind of thing. So I think it's inviting people to share with you and then also kind of keeping your finger on the pulse of like, what's going on, trying to make it relevant.
46:08
Will
Of course. Megan, anything you'd add to that?
46:12
Meghan Perkins
I mean, she hit it spot on. I mean, for us, I, I just have one advocate board and people can choose their region. So we. I have different content for each region. So each individual user, when they sign into their account, they click. I'm. I want all global. I want just apac, I want just Americas or emea. And so because we have like different events in different locations and sometimes like the content itself is irrelevant or it might be the content has been produced in a different language. And so only our French audience would want to share that. So that's how I have differentiated the lists of how people can target the content that they want to see.
47:03
Will
Excellent. Thank you. I'm kind of sticking with content, but we'll talk a bit more now about self empowerment. This is a question that's coming from Oren. So Oren's asked, how much time do you invest in educating your advocates on self empowerment? So, such as writing their own posts, publishing insights from events, for example, and if so, how effective has it been? Megan, is that something you can give us an answer to?
47:33
Meghan Perkins
I might have to volley over to Kira. I think she's. She does a really great job of this as she's explaining a couple other answers. And for me, like, I don't necessarily have the time in order to promote it as much. I would love to, especially with like the seasonal dips. So maybe once my bandwidth shifts, I can do that more.
47:58
Will
Of course, of course. Yeah. And Kima, what about yourself?
48:01
Meghan Perkins
Sure.
48:02
Keara Klose
So I think I have been a little bit successful with this with like, kind of those star advocates from like my pilot program. I've kind of made them the champion role in Oktopost so they can actually write their own and stuff like that. But I find, honestly, I think social has just seen such a shift, which is awesome. But people are still viewing social as kind of like it was 10 years ago, especially on like LinkedIn, where our largest audience is and where our employee advocates are. And it's kind of like, oh, like, I don't know if I can talk about that. Like, I don't know if I should share anything outside of just like my resume on link. So, like, I think I'm kind of positioning Oktopost on the employee advocacy board as like, this is phase one. This is phase one of like, hopefully getting you comfortable enough to see, like, you can post and nothing bad happens and something good might actually happen if you post and then kind of encouraging people that way to kind of get them started. And then it's kind of like, oh, this is fun. I really like it. Oh, would you like to jump on a call and talk about what you could post about from takeaways from the conference that you went to? I know this isn't specifically for the advocacy board, but I do kind of reward our SMEs and stuff that are at our big flagship event. So I will do the thing where I'll ask about the takeaways and then I'll tag them in the post and then that's kind of like the hey, if you share with me, I'll share it with our audience kind of thing and then you can repost it. And by the way, you can do this yourself as well on your own LinkedIn when you're out and about at the next conference or something like that. And then I will also do a version of that post into the Oktopost employee app because we're all about repurposing here as team of one.
49:30
Will
So yeah, excellent. Love that. All right, so welcome to a question from Tatiana, which is I work in a company that is not competitive among the employees. Any suggestion for community orientated companies? Megan, I'll pass that one over to yourself.
49:50
Meghan Perkins
Sure. I really love this question because one of our top performing groups of content is our people content. Whether it's just photos of our employees at events or we also have monthly winners in our company. And so people love to share the latest. We call them key contributors because our company is called key factor. And so people are those get the most shares out of anything. And as I said earlier, job postings are really great. Everyone always wants to invite people to the company. So anything that's like people and culture oriented really gets some the most action and engagement in our advocacy program. And so I would suggest connecting with like your people in HR team and see what's coming up. Are you doing anything like did you do anything for International Women's Day or will you have a volunteer day and can do some on site social media engagement? I think those are all really strong for anyone to share. It doesn't have to be strictly thought leadership that is available for advocates tickets to share.
51:03
Will
Fantastic. Okay, we've got a couple of questions now around gamification. This definitely seems like a really pertinent topic so I'm going to come to one now from Aaron which is around senior leaders and motivation. So Aaron's essentially asked about how can you make sure that senior leaders stay motivated to take part in a employee efficacy program when utilising the leadership board. So just to give an example, some senior leaders may make one post with a couple of interactions but that single interaction could have fetched a lead or a client. Whereas other people might do really well on the leaderboard with lots of engagement but may not bring in any revenue or business. Okay. It doesn't necessarily bring in the results when it comes to leadership engagement using the leaderboard itself, especially with executives, what could you do to try and make sure that they stay motivated? How can you keep senior leaders engaged in the program? I don't know if either of you want to start with that or have got any advice on how you'd, how you tackle that particular question.
52:08
Meghan Perkins
Sure, I'm, I'm happy to go for it. So I'm very lucky in that I have our CMOs full support in this program and so she has made a great effort in reaching out to other heads of organizations throughout key factor whether it's you know, our CRO or heads of even engineering and, and our people team and making sure like hey, this is something that we really want to promote. It's a fantastic tool. It's an easy tool. If you, if you start using it then your team will too and set that example for them. And I think having that, that leadership buy in and support is just so important and critical for a program like this. And I was lucky in that it didn't take much convincing to get my CMO on board. But if you need to work a little harder, I would go back to the analytics. The metrics like show what kind of proof and impact it has had and not just quantitative but qualitative like I've had co workers share with me like I always secured this opportunity because they saw my LinkedIn post, like that kind of feedback is valid too. And so I would share that with leadership and show like, hey, this, this has many benefits, not just to the company, but to your team as individuals and to the bottom line.
53:37
Will
Excellent. Thank you. I'm gonna ask one more question on on gamification and we'll come to come to another one as well. So what kind of incentives reward programs do you do when you end up with the same three winners each quarter? So this user said, we are trying to shake things up and get more excitement. We tried bingo last quarter. Excellent. Love that. But it didn't gain much traction. So mega.
