Archive for Brand advocates
Small Companies Unleashing Their Employees on Social Networks
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Altimeter's Jeremiah Owyang via CrunchBase
More employees of small companies are advocating for their companies on social networks than their much larger competitors.
That’s what the Altimeter Group found in its recent survey of 140 companies. By ratio, smaller companies in the 1-5k range had one 1 out of 195 employees publishing compared to 1 out of 356 in companies with 100k or more employees (see graph below).
More flexibility, less red tape
More flexibility, less red tape, and evolving cultures may be among the reasons.
As I wrote in a post 7 Steps to Making Your Employees Brand Ambassadors, the internet allows companies to empower their employees to promote the company and its products. Small companies can’t compete with the monster advertising and social media budgets of their biggest competitors. But small companies can enlist an army of their own employees to go viral with positive comments on social networks.
I’m glad to see this happening and as the company’s web strategist, Jeremiah Owyang, said in announcing the survey results, “Over time, expect all ratios to drop, as a prolific next generation rises into senior roles. We’ll be measuring this periodically, but for now, I would assert that more employees will be using the official accounts over time, as the younger generation learns their way around the business, climbs up the ladder, and is granted ability to publish.”
The director of operations for Gunwel Associates, a boutique tax and bookkeeping firm with only four employees, wrote a post earlier this year, describing how his firm is building customer loyalty and attracting new customers through the activity of its employees on social media. As Christopher Sheehan wrote, “If you’re not connected then you must get connected…becoming active in social media can and will grow your business as well as build client loyalty. We’ve seen it happen.”
So let your employees publish, you big companies out there. Small firms are nipping at your heels!
Altimeter research on employees on social networks
The CEO as Chief Communication Champion
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The buck stops with the CEO when it comes to employee engagement. This is especially true when it comes to trust and believability. For internal communications to be meaningful, it is important for the CEO and his executive team to lead by example: “Don’t just do as I say, do as I behave.” Most employees are craving leadership – they want champions they can trust to lead them in new directions.
The CEO must also be the CCC – Chief Communication Champion of the company. As I’ve written before, she needs to ensure that other executives are truly leading the development of a Culture of Communication – meaning that all corporate communications are reliable, truthful, timely and contain the full story. The CEO should establish a system of rewards and incentives to instill new behaviors. A healthy two-way communication will lead to better performance. For employees to be truly engaged with the company and each other, they need to know that:
CEO Leadership is Key to Employee Engagement
• The CEO is the visible leader of corporate communication
• Executive behavior in support of positive communication is rewarded
• Employees are rewarded fairly
• The company values employees and actively engages them as brand advocates for the company in customer interactions and on social media networks
During bad times – such as layoffs, a hostile takeover, a product recall – those CEOs who are truly CCCs will have earned the trust and commitment of employees to work through any crisis.
Employee Social Media Communities Not Top Priority for Companies
Posted by: | CommentsOrganizations are not tapping social media’s full potential, according to a Deloitte study I just came across. It was released at the end of 2009 so I don’t expect that much has changed since then.
Entitled “2009 Tribalization of Business Study,” the survey measured the responses of over 400 companies, including Fortune 100 organizations, that have created and maintain online communities today. The communities ranged from fewer than 100 members to more than one million members.
Marketing continues to be the primary driver of online communities, according to the study, with the following business objectives. See if you can guess what’s missing.
- Increase word-of-mouth (38 percent)
- Increase customer loyalty (34 percent)
- Increase brand awareness (30 percent)
- Improve idea generation (29 percent)
- Improve the quality of customer support (23 percent)
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Employees can be your best brand ambassadors
EMPLOYEES. That’s what missing in this study, conducted in conjunction with Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications Research. The study reports that while companies are using communities to engage with customers, partners and employees, only 20% of respondents have set up formal “ambassador” programs, and these give outsiders preferential treatment in return for being more active in the community.” Any rewards for employees being active social media ambassadors? I discussed this last month in my blog “Make More Money Through Employee Engagement.”
Companies are missing a big bet if they don’t engage their own employees as brand advocates for the company. They are the ones “touching” customers every day and should be rewarded accordingly. Give employees a chance to become more active in social networks, and they will boost the metrics most important to their companies – the ones that ring the cash register.
