Father Christmas - probably the best brand ever?

The John Lewis advert is live, it’s gone all chilly, some of us have even had snow and it’s dark by 4.30pm, so officially it is nearly Christmas.

But this is not going to be about baubles and tinsel. Although we are in the business of PR, Christmas is not about being fluffy, but for many of us means the biggest sales opportunities, the highest peak in sales if we get our stock levels and product choice right and the busiest time of the year.

Retailers particularly will have been working up to this 12 week period for most of the year as will those in hospitality, advertising agencies, toy manufacturers, online and off line fashion outlets, wrapping paper suppliers -the list is endless of the knock on effect on sales for the time to be merry.

As a marketer, it is also a time when we see the best ever brand coming to life again - Father Christmas. Now we all know how brilliant John Lewis is at owning Christmas - We are Social reported that The Bear and the Hare advert had prompted 86,300 mentions on Twitter after three days of airing.

However, think about Father Christmas’ brand credentials -it is pretty safe to say 100% of the population over 3 years of age know who he is, what he looks like, what he wears, where he lives and most of them his real name - St Nicholas that is. And unlike a lot of Christmas fads - Cabbage Patch Dolls, Furbies (although I am told from the best authority (my 6 year old) they are back big time), and Rubiks Cubes, Father Christmas has never gone out of fashion.

Like the best brands he is flexible in his approach - in certain countries in Europe he delivers on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. Like the best brands he engages with the customers on a bespoke level - who hasn’t written to Father Christmas listing what they want for Christmas? And like the best brands he is consistent - he is the giver of all presents and always wears his brand colours. Overall, he is a brand genius.

At Antelope, we reckon he is not only the best brand ever but he really is the guardian angel of brands as unlike others he is not in it for money, popularity or promotion - everyone loves him and knows him already. Instead, this mythical brand ambassador allows all those other brands in our crowded marketplace the opportunity to promote themselves via his Christmas vehicle for free. Brilliant.

So next time you hear the faint jingle of bells, see a flash of red or a big white beard, remember to give him a nod of thanks as Father Christmas’ real gift is giving marketers everywhere the Christmas window of opportunity.

Value or Vortex?

Thought Leadership, Blogs, Ed Ops and Opinion Pieces

This came back to me again recently as I met a colleague in another industry and after explaining we spend a lot of time drafting thought leadership for clients, she asked me ‘What exactly is a thought leadership piece?’. Thought leadership, editorial opportunities (if you are journalist side), opinion pieces whatever you call them, they are a key to your brand’s arsenal of communications.

More than ever ensuring that clients understand your brand’s point of difference, the depth of your experience and expertise of your team is essential, especially in recessionary times when budgets are limited and value for money becomes even more a priority.

So, what is thought leadership? It is actual what it says on the tin - thoughts from leaders. However, simple that sounds, there is a skill to making thought leadership engaging, interesting to peers and something that people want to read.

1. Make it your own: if there is a one rule to follow when it comes to copy, it is to make it your own opinion. Leaders don’t normally have a problem with having an opinion, but often when they write they tend to feel more comfortable backing someone else’s thoughts or just repeating them. Having your own opinion, saying something different, is what makes you stand out, what makes people want to work with you.

2. Make it stand up: Having an opinion is great. But substantiating it is even better. This could be done though examples, great way of weaving in a project you might be working on, or through statistics, or just running the opinion through to a likely conclusion.

3. Make it short, but not too short: remember that thought leadership is not a thesis or your final year University dissertation. It is good to be thorough in your opinion but making it a 5,000 read will limit your audience and only really attract those probably already invested in the subject. Up to 650-800 words is normally a good length to get your views across.

4. Make it accessible: back to my first ever job, using industry language if you are looking for a broader audience will mean expecting readers to google words or industry phrases along the way, losing the thread of your argument. Make it clear and simple.

5. Make it interesting: with some estimating that the average person sees up to 5,000 messages across their day, you need to grab attention and hold it. Giving your copy a title that will entice readers in, using storytelling techniques to help them relate to examples and having headers or breaking the copy into bullet points will all help the reader. All these things can be learnt and good communication consultants – like us!

Far from a nice to do, thought leadership signposts people, whether that is potential clients or potential members of staff – and brings an understanding about who you are and what you stand for as well as promoting your services and brand. Which of course is the first step on a relationship – whether that is a client/supplier/consultant or employee/er.

Pix with thanks to Yannick Pulver

Having your say

We spend a lot of time talking to clients about how to build your expert voice. How to have a voice in often crowded marketplaces and how to build awareness and credibility through communications strategies. While it is not very often a client’s aim is to challenge and provoke, this particular contact is using his platform to express himself, build awareness of what he believes in and substantiate his claims with others’ thoughts.

Understanding the benefit

For many the journey starts around wanting to support a new business drive, understanding that people are the reason other people buy and how communications can help the sales pipeline. For others, it is around someone in their marketing or corporate comms team identifying them as a key stakeholder hence spokesperson for their company.

Finding your voice

The next piece of the puzzle is understanding your voice. I realise that sounds crazy when everyone has a voice, and therefore this part should be easy. Yet, often this is the most difficult part. That’s where a content strategist can come in useful, people who understand the difference between a personal voice and a professional, yet authentic voice. It’s a bit like Beyonce with her alter ego, Sasha Fierce, or Eminem with the Real Slim Shady or even Fat Boy Slim aka Normal Cook. All have a business voice, which is totally their own but isn’t their personal voice.

Finding your voice fits with your professional brand – what is it you want to be known for – is it your sustainability credentials? Your ability to weave diversity and inclusion into everything you do? Having your values at the forefront of your voice is what gives it authenticity.

Knowing what to say

Once you know your voice and your voice is based on your values then knowing what to say should be easy. All you need to do is align your values to your business. So if your value base is around being authentic in the workplace, then you can start to blog or comment on what real life is like in a working environment, perhaps undertake a ‘Day in the Life’ or ‘Dispelling the Myths’ piece.

Knowing what not to say

This one oddly is often harder. Once many embrace having a voice and they feel they have started a conversation with people, some feel they have an open mic. Our golden rule is Think of your audience. Imagine you were at a conference and you meet other colleagues in a breakout session, what would you share with them. Remember if you are on social media, or posting an article online, many of the audience will not know you well, they might not read the nuances you intended in that post, the humour, the irony. Keep it professional, which doesn’t mean it has to be corporate speak, and remember the aim of the communication – to reinforce your values, to show your clients and potential clients that you know your area of expertise, to support your new business drive.

Knowing when to say it

To have a consistent voice, plan your content so you have biweekly, monthly and annual articles scheduled, be aware of events that fit into that content and monitor and comment on others’ posts and articles. Saying things once might resonate with someone and of course if what you say goes viral might reach many. But as a general rule of thumb, post, sleep, repeat. But like if you were speaking to someone in real life, don’t just repeat the same message verbatim, but highlight your messaging through different examples (via a project or a service), or through comment on others’ posts, or through a report, a thought leadership piece – there are lots of ways to get your message across. Of course, working with a content specialist can help you do all of this strategically with a well planned content calendar as well as highlight quick win opportunities.

Back to my contact on Linkedin. He does all of the above really well. He knows his voice, is authentic in it. He knows what he wants to say and what subject areas interest him. He isn’t diluting his message by posting about the weather, or his kids’ activities in the half term but showing his hand firmly through his comms. And he is regular in this comms – posting at least three times a week. The outcome? We know what he believe in, what he stands for. Not everyone might 100% agree with him, but he is provoking a conversation to be able to put his side across, and temper others’ views with his own responses. And gaining great interaction and engagement with it.

Has long form content had its day?

As the analogue to digital natives take over the workplace, some would believe that times have changed and where there were once words, we have now moved to image led communications where a meme or a viral video can encapsulate far more than a para of copy.  Raising the questions ‘Is there still a place for long form and the written word in the world of comms?’.

This is a dilemma we are seeing daily with clients – how to communicate in the modern world where attention span is short (apparently) and the only way to really generate engagement is through creating content aka Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

So let us stop you right there. And quote Ben Padfield, Managing Director & Executive Producer, RWD Films & RWD Studios (the irony that he is in the world of film is not lost here) in a recent opinion article on The Drum’s website:

“Today’s rules of engagement are simple: if you want an audience's attention, you need to earn it. It’s not just about spreading content across channels and how quick you are to grab their attention. It’s equally about the value you can deliver once you have it.”

And that’s the nub isn’t it? It is about supplying content that meets a demand for interest, for engagement. It’s not the format, it’s adding value with your content.

The way we see it – long form content done well still has a big role to play in the world of comms. We still live in a world where education relies on books, where reading is seen as a leisure activity and where students qualify by writing thesis, dissertations and essays. Why? As sometimes long form is the best form.

When it comes to having an opinion, sometimes it takes longer than a few words, a few images to express that opinion. We know that this can be done via a longer video but it can also be explained via the written word and images to accompany. It doesn’t need to be either/or.

And when we do manage to hold the attention for more than a few minutes, it does make a difference to how we shape others’ opinions - about us, about our industry and sometimes about the world. And if their opinion is different it helps us start a conversation, a dialogue, which in turn could lead us the ultimate goal of collaboration or a new win. And surely that is the end game?

 Image with thanks from https://unsplash.com/@aaronburden

Reading the Room

However, what marketing and communications specialist hasn’t been fascinated at how the world has reacted? Not just here in the UK, but worldwide. And wider than just the Royals Brand Inc itself but all brands and their reaction to the news.

Ever since the first news that William and Harry were heading up to Balmoral, comms departments went into overdrive – should we add a statement onto our socials and website? What do we say to staff/clients/customers? Some were natural leaders – those who had a link with the Queen through a Royal warrant, or patronage. Others came out of the woodwork with their photos of the Queen taken during her 70 years’ worth of service – some with themselves, family members or those in their organisations. Others floundered between ‘Is this right for my brand? Is there a direct connection? What should I do?’ Many waited to see what competitors and those in their sector looked to do.

And this is where you needed to read the room. It was very much around who your target audience are, what values they uphold and where your brand sits. With the majority of us in business in the UK never having experienced a death of a monarch, let alone such a long serving one, there was no rule book to follow. Although we all knew it would come, and the Palace and HRH’s Comms office would have been preparing for this for years, there was definitely a sense of waiting for public reaction. And the public did react. From 15-hour queues to see The Queen’s coffin lying in state to the 4 billion that watched the funeral worldwide.

So, what were brands to do? And moreover, what about those working for brands? Some organisations stopped their social media during this period of time, as a mark of respect. Some told their staff to also stop posting during the mourning period. Some felt offended when they saw life going on as normal, some with more Republican leanings, felt aggrieved that life wasn’t going on as normal.

Of course, it goes back to authenticity. If your brand held up the values of Britishness, of British heritage and all that stands for, it was right to metaphorically stand in silence. It is likely that your target audience -regardless of age, gender and background as as we saw the outpouring crossed the divide – would have felt that was appropriate. For those whose brand values are more unconventional, irreverent, then maybe a nod to the news would seem right, but more than that possibly feel like exploitation.

It's back to not jumping on the b(r)and wagon but ensuring that your brand values remain strong – which of course is what the monarchy’s showed in true colours throughout the news of the death and mourning period of Her Majesty.

The Why of Employee Advocacy

We have just finished business planning with quite a few of our clients. For us this means sitting down and plotting out different strands of content: who might want to talk about what and when and discussing how the employee advocacy programme aligns with the corporate communications strategy.

In one such meeting, there was particular discussion around one stakeholder who wasn’t as active as they could be and whether we should look at their role not as an advocator but more of a supporter of the programme - see our Social Tribes All Sorts blog explaining these roles. As we were running through the strategy, it made me realise how far we have come and how far we still have to go in terms of people understanding the role of employee advocacy.

Put simply, employee advocacy is the promotion of a business by those who work in it.

And one of the most important strands of an employee advocacy programme is content.

This part most people understand.

However, the disconnect often comes when a team member feels that content isn’t their thing, but is more the responsibility of their marketing team, or doesn’t have the ability, confidence, time or inclination to be involved - see our blog on Changing Behaviours and Challenges.

So, why bother?

A recent study by Hubspot found that getting your employees to advocate on your organisation’s behalf had three clear benefits:

- It positively impacts sales as raises brand awareness and favourable impressions of the organisation

- It supports recruitment and retention within an organisation

- It aids in PR crises and issues.

Here’s a few other stats to back up the case:

• 93% stated that they trusted a brand or service that they had heard of from a friend or family compared to just 38% via an advert

• 78% of respondents agreed that social media empowered them to reach prospective customers more effectively than other media

• Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing.

Having worked with companies across the board, we know these stats back up the reality. Antidotal evidence from Antelope includes:

• Being approached on behalf of clients for them to speak as an influencer on radio and at events following one of their articles being read online.

• A potential customer that our client had been unable to engage with for months, reacted to a post one of our clients had written on their LinkedIn.

• Over 8,500 views on one post on socials for one client - now we know not all of these will be potential customers, but some will, or could be influencers.

Employee advocacy and content marketing work hand-in-hand. They are part of the new arsenal of sales development working as an integral part of marcomms. They bring credibility to the individual and your brand, supporting your sales pipeline and possibly acting as a lead magnet to open a conversation with new clients and reinforcing existing clients why they should work with you.

And how amazing that many organisations will have access to not just one or two people who can help them with an employee advocacy programme, but many - from different seniority, job roles and regional offices. Capturing these enthusiasts, giving them a structure to their comms and complementing it with a corporate comms strategy can be the springboard to future success.

The What of Content Creation

I recently read that we are no longer on or offline but now just live our lives digitally. We reach for our phones before our loved ones and scroll Insta to see what everyone is wearing before we get dressed. Which is why social media platforms need to have a content strategy, a plan of action.

Corporate content is often driven by marcoms and corporate comms departments, but how do you find personalised content tailored to senior stakeholders? And how do you make the strategy personal yet still align to your corporate messaging?

At the Antelope Social Club, we support clients by creating personalised content that not only echoes corporate messaging, supporting your business development pipeline, but is personalised to the individual. Here’s a few pointers on themes to think about when it comes to an employee advocacy programme:

Industry events

The easiest way to ease a senior stakeholder into starting to talk on socials is to reflect on an event they attended for work. This could be an industry event, such as the British Council for Offices annual conference or a cross industry summit such as COP26. However, rather than recapping on all the speakers, the programme and where the event was held, all things that anyone who was interested in the event can find online, the aim should be to reflect the expert opinion - what they thought of the event, why they attended, what resonated with them and why.

Projects

What the majority of our clients want to talk about is their great work. Normally how they do this is via the projects they have undertaken and the clients they do it for. However, it’s not always that straightforward. Firstly, clients often operate under non-disclosure agreements (NDA). Secondly, employee advocacy programmes require personal platforms, so shouting about a part in a project will look more like bragging than sharing a success. So, if a project isn’t under NDA, totally use this as a hook to talk about the team’s experience, the how and why the company were involved, but with a personal spin why it was great to be involved, what value you added.

Industry themes

Like a key industry event, there are often key themes that resonate across sectors. These themes can sometimes be across more than one industry – eg. sustainability – or specific to one – for example in construction MMC (modern methods of construction). Many of these themes might also be key criteria that organisations might have to show on a public sector tender document or as be a prerequisite for an investor round of funding for a project.

Often talking about an industry theme is a great way to showing that your stakeholders understand the importance of it in your marketplace, and the challenges and opportunities it might present. But to really resonate and not just look like you are tick boxing all the buzzwords of the moment, own opinion and own voice has to come into play.

Macro and Micro issues

Which brings us onto macro and micro issues. Having an opinion about the state of world affairs can be good, but in context. Summarising a global issue – eg. cost of living crisis – then explaining the impact on a market and then providing a solution (if there is one) or a long term view is adding value. Having a political rant about Brexit is no good to anyone.

Likewise talking about things happening within your own company can be great content fodder. However, it needs to be appropriate, interesting and informative. So, talking about a change of layout in the office isn’t going to be of interest to anyone unless they work there, but shaping it into a piece around different working trends and how commercial fit out specialists can adapt the space to make more flexible and agile is spot on.

Personal Events

And then we get to personal news or events. This is where we see the largest expanse of grey. Many looking to grow their personal brand, replicate what they have been doing for years successfully on Facebook or Instagram – sharing their personal stories. Now, we are all for storytelling – it is the most effective way of attracting people to your posts, and then keeping their interest to find out what happened, and whether there was a happy ending. But, where many go wrong is that the personal doesn’t link with the professional. Great business content needs to make someone feel like they could work with you. It doesn’t mean they need to know how great your daughter did in her ballet exams, your favourite biscuit as a child or your inside leg measurement.

Remember the gold rule of employee advocacy is to remember that content is like a business conversation but via a social platform rather than face-to-face. However, when you have the conversation it might not just be with your work colleague that knows you well and sees you day in, day out, but also with a host of people you might have only met once or are yet to meet. Tailor your conversation accordingly, don’t be over familiar, don’t assume knowledge, and remember the golden thread of etiquette - don’t talk sex, politics or religion.

Ultimately the best content ideas will come from those stakeholders you want to engage on behalf of your company. The reason why they have their roles, the advice they give to other members of the team and clients and their views on the working world – that’s what you want to capture and communicate. Social media is purely the vehicle to giving them that voice.

Pix courtesy of Nick Fewings @jannerboy62 with thanks

Overcoming the Fear

Like many others, my eldest son has just finished his A’ levels. In the six months lead up to them we have seen him bounce between doubt and uncertainty, complete distraction, pure boredom and occasional joy. It was like the longest ever car journey of ‘Are we there yet?’, Or like being sat in a traffic jam thinking ‘When is this ever going to end?’

During this time, he has faced fear of failure, lack of confidence about his abilities, whether or not he can, or ever would, know what moments in pure maths really are (google it I still don’t!). He has questioned whether it is really worth taking A’ levels and going to college and even implied he can just stay at home and live with (and off) us forever. All feelings that no doubt many sitting important exams have had too.

It wasn’t lost on me, that actually these were the very things I wrote about last month around the challenges that senior stakeholders need to overcome to create robust employee advocacy campaigns. That entering into the unknown, something that you feel you are going to be judged on, that will be rated by your peers and others in your wider community, is pretty scary whatever part of the journey you are on in life.

And yet like exams, there are some simple ways to overcome these fears.

1.     Education

Learning about something takes the fear out of it. We once had a headmaster who advocated for the Joy of Not Knowing. Although we weren’t sure we wanted our children to come back from school joyful about not knowing, we did understand that the premise of his educational strategy was that the students needed to ask questions and have conversations to increase their knowledge. And this is so true when it comes to employee advocacy. The more senior stakeholders see and talk to peers about what they are doing and educate themselves on the why and how, the fear dissipates.

2.     Be open to learning

We know babies learn to talk and walk by watching their parents, siblings and other children around them, honing their mobility skills by observing and trial and error.  Practice makes perfect and potty training isn’t called training without a reason.  Even if you are born with an aptitude for something, training can make the difference between being good and being great. In many organisations those who want, or should have, a social profile, might often be those who are not digital natives, or who social media is not intuitive to them. They are also often the group that could feel that their training days are behind them. However, like all forward-thinking leaders, being open to learning and seeing it as an ongoing journey will help them adapt and move with the times.

3.     Handholding

Which is where handholding comes into its own. Sometimes a more one-to-one approach to learning or collaborative creation is a way of gentling easing in those who might fear, be under confident or who need some polishing of their content creation skills. This is where the Antelope Social Club can help by working with senior and middle management to guide, suggest and propose and often help craft and draft thoughts into copy.

4.     Showing the Benefits

The proof of the pudding is of course in the eating and in our experience once the post has gone live and generated some engagement and interaction, the ‘author’ will begin to see the benefits. Who doesn’t like the dopamine of watching the likes increase by the minute? But far more than ego posting, what is better than hearing feedback from colleagues, clients, and those in your industry to your opinions, possibly opening a door with a potential client that you haven’t been able to get hold of before or even reconnecting with a key influencer? Sure, these engagements often don’t come in the first post, but we have evidence that they happen.

Remember, employee advocacy or personalised social media content strategies for senior stakeholders in your organisation are just the digital version of having a conversation with a potential client at an event, sending an introductory email or going back even further, leaving your business card at the door. Without making that move, there is a chance people don’t know you are there, what you do and how you can help them solve their business challenges.

To chat to us about how the Antelope Social Club can help you with your employee advocacy programme through personalised social media campaigns tailored to individual stakeholders in your business, contact hayley.lee@antelopecomms.co.uk

Changing Behaviour and the Barriers to Social Employee Advocacy

I was talking about behaviour the other day with a new client of the Antelope Social Club. And how sometimes it takes some stakeholders longer to believe in the power of social as more than endless chitter chatter but as a real way to engage with potential customers, adding value to your brand, credibility and showcasing those who work for you.

At Antelope we know this as we been supporting professionals with their communications for decades and have seen how platforms such as LinkedIn are now working effectively as social selling vehicles, especially if your employees are actively advocating on it. Only recently a client of ours emailed me to say that one of their posts had had over 8,500 views. Now of course some of those views will be from colleagues, some from friends and some competitors. But there will still be a few, if not a lot, that could be potential clients, or are clients and by reading that post, will be influenced, even if subconsciously, with what you are saying.

So, what are the boundaries for stopping companies and key stakeholders in increasing their profile on social media. In our experience, they mainly boil down to:

1. Fear. Fear is the biggest obstacle to action. Worrying that what they write won’t reflect who they are, won’t show them in the light they want. Fear, like in other situations, paralyses them, so instead they do nothing.

2. Lack of skill set. Where many have the desire, they feel they don’t have the skill set. They might be able to write a tender document, or an email to a client, but don’t feel they have the ability to draft a few paragraphs that reflect something that happened at work, their professional values or reflect on an event they have been to.

3. Lack of confidence. Hand in hand with lack of skill set and fear comes lack of confidence. When people aren’t scared about how they will be perceived, sometimes it is their confidence that holds them back. Surprisingly, this is often the more senior stakeholders than younger, digital natives team members.

4. It’s someone else’s job. We see this a lot at Antelope, where social media traditionally has fallen under the remit of marketing and comms departments, some stakeholders feel like it is not their responsibility, and leave it to others in their team.

5. Lack of understanding the benefits. And then there are the naysayers.

All these boundaries are easy to overcome with education, training, hand holding and of course showing the benefits of social employee advocacy. Which is why we set up the Antelope Social Club to help those who want to have a presence on socials and those whose role would benefit through having one.

Yet changing behaviour generally takes time. The old marketing rule of 7 - that someone has to see or hear something seven times before they get to purchase stage - was the cornerstone of many advertising campaigns. The rule of seven of course was created pre-digital days when the amount of promotional ‘noise’ that people heard, or saw was confined to their radio, TV and newspapers (and possibly a passing billboard). Today, there is no doubt the cacophony of noise can be overwhelming. Which is why a voice that you trust, that talks your language, that talks about things you are interested in, can make you stand out from the crowd.

And that’s why having a voice in socials is so important. And that’s also why we believe that employee advocacy or having a robust content strategy through your social platforms that is tailored to key senior stakeholders, is so important in the customer journey. And yet many organisations, although have a corporate presence and strategy, still haven’t aligned their stakeholders’ socials with this strategy. Instead of a ‘nice to have’, it is now a ‘must have’ in your arsenal of marketing disciplines and one that can amplify your brand credentials, bring credibility to your individuals and hand-in-hand support new business development.

Photo with thanks by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Social Tribes Allsorts

Although we are not a fan of stereotype, using the tribe-based strategy to understand behaviour can be a great way of helping you with your employee advocacy planning. Having recently launched our Antelope Social Club, here are some of the tribes we have identified within organisations:

The Influencer

An influencer is what it really says on the tin – it is someone who influences others’ thoughts and actions. Not many people get to social influencer status, and many will not aspire to this status either. As a rule of thumb, influencer status needs credibility both off and online and is for those disruptors who are shaping our future ways of working.

The Thought Leader

And not everyone will strive to be a thought leader although these are the people within your organisation who can illustrate your areas of expertise and why clients and talent want to work with your organisation. They also give the opportunity to showcase the great people you have in your team and should work as a talent magnet, to attract new and fresh people to your organisation.

The Commentator

The commentator can be twofold – sometimes it is a role of the thought leader who will add comment on others’ posts as one-way broadcasting alone is never a good thing. Other times, it is a standalone comment from someone who has an opinion but isn’t a thought leader so could be someone in your organisation who wouldn’t want to write their own posts but is happy to comment on others’.

The Supporter /Promoter

Not everyone will feel comfortable having a voice and being an advocate – so maybe their role is more one of amplifying. This is where the supporter or promoter comes into play. They can be your advocates of your employee advocates, so acting as your own organisational ecosystem. Your thought leaders let people know the why and what of your company – their values, the skillset, the expertise – and the supporter/promoter promotes their articles with likes, comments, and other engagement to widen the audience and share their opinions.

The Observer & the No Show

And then there are the observers and the no shows. The observers serve a purpose as although they might not be adding to your advocacy online by liking engaging, or sharing content, they might be doing this offline by talking to stakeholders, pointing people to posts or recommending that they should follow or connect with you. You will see their silent footprint by views and other metrics on your posts.

The only tribe that doesn’t serve a purpose are the no-shows, those that don’t show up, are not active on social business platforms but have a front door with no-one behind the scenes. If you have any of these in your organisation, we recommend you either ask them to delete or re-engage in a way they feel more comfortable with (ie one of the above).

Social Advocates Allsorts

Of course, the trick for marketers is to have the right mix of all these tribes, except the no shows. Too many thought leaders will lessen the impact and credibility of those you have, so having one or two who really pack a punch with their content is far better than 20 whose thoughts are hit or miss. Having only commentators that have an opinion on others’ thoughts might mean you have some great talent who understand the key challenges in your sector but not anyone who can lead the charge. And having lots of observers is great but will do nothing for your online brand presence, SEO or help people find you and your services online. So, what does good look like? In our book, good looks like identifying a mix of advocates or possible advocates, building a thread for each of them within your advocacy strategy, reviewing with them their roles regularly and of course adding and subtracting to your brand advocates as talent flows through your company.

And it is worth remembering that tribes are not always linear, and like all collective groupings, individualism will always front out as will movement from one tribe to another. However, understanding your employee engagement structure helps you plan who are those in those tribes, whether you need more of one tribe than other and how you can support these different tribes for the greater good of your organisation’s collective voice.

Photo with thanks to pixabay.com