Welcome to Social At Scale where you’ll hear how employee advocacy drives ROI from real humans making an impact for their business and industry.
“As someone who’s lived it for the last 15 years and grown companies in double-digits: social is a secret weapon if you can get it right.“
In this episode, Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL and serial-acquisition executive spells out the current challenge all companies face right now.
Getting new customers.
Attracting and retaining talent.
And ultimately: moving up and to the right – growing.
“The number-one thing you judge a CMO on, there’s a thousand different metrics out there, but it’s just: are you growing?“
This episode is chocked full of inspiring anecdotes of how the social URL and the social IRL interface in what Jed predicts is the future paradigm: hybrid networking all the way.
38% of fully remote workers would prefer a hybrid work, with 53% expecting hybrid work, while 24% expect to remain fully remote. Only 12% of workers intend to return to the office.
Gallup, Slack
In this episode Jed and Cameron explore:
- Overcoming hesitation from leadership about using social media
- Why personal content performs best
- Connecting with everyone you come in contact with
- Executives engagement predicts advocacy program success
- Why LinkedIn is still Jed’s favorite social media platform
- Awareness and recognition for social ROI and business growth
- Employer branding for HR and talent acquisition
- Why negative posts on social media are rare and nothing to fear
- Hybrid is still 1.0 and now’s the time to invest in advocacy
Watch the full episode
Three lessons from the episode:
Key takeaway 1: buyers need to see authentic voices
Understandably the bigger the company, the tighter their brand guidelines when it comes to employees sharing content on social media.
Hesitation unchecked will hold any brand back however, but as Jed points out there is another proactive force that must be harnessed: employee authenticity.
We all read reviews before buying goods, or dining in or even ordering takeout. Why would B2B be any different? Seeing authentic voices associated with any brand, product, or service is table stakes for success.
Tapping into the authentic force of your people is where EveryoneSocial shines by amplifying employee voices and humanizing your brand sentiment.
Jed goes goes so far to say that EveryoneSocial is critical to their success, allowing IGEL to “enter the psyche of big companies like Microsoft, VMware, and Citrix.”
As the saying goes: if you confuse, you lose. And without employees advocating for your brand, how do buyers know what their options are if they don’t even know you exist?
Recognition begins with employees engaging on social, and the buyer’s journey begins with experiencing the authenticity of your employer brand.
Key takeaway 2: share personal things and failures too
It’s gotta be real.
You have to believe in it and own it. Pictures that tell a human story often speak to us all and thus perform best.
According to Jed, CEO of IGEL Technology, what performs best in his experience are personal posts. Again, returning to the importance of authenticity (executives are not exempt!) even failures resonate with buyers and candidates.
Buyers and candidates love to snoop out a company’s leadership, and Jed routinely hears this from people he interviews including buyers. “They’ll go on my LinkedIn page, same thing with customers”.
Sometimes a personal post can immediately result in a real life connection. Such was the URL meets IRL case when Jed posted a selfie before an event in Newport.
Thirty minutes later, he was shaking hands with one of that post’s Likes, resulting in a new business opportunity.
But how can you be authentic and regimented with social media posting? When asked what his personal content cadence is, Jed prefers to keep things ad hoc.
“What’s your routine? I don’t have one honestly! I post on the inspiration of the moment.“
Key takeaway 3: embrace hybrid and connect with everyone
In large part because of the ways the pandemic changed how we socialize, the cost of acquiring new customers has only gone up over the years.
Jed asks the obvious question in response to this problem.
“Why wouldn’t you harness the power of your employee social base?“
As if this was ever not true, but all employees have to think like business owners now. We’re all responsible for growing the business.
Encourage your employees and teammates to put themselves out there on social media – LinkedIn and Twitter are perfect places to start.
Ideally leadership buys in with an advocacy platform like EveryoneSocial that fosters the growth of employees’ personal brands as well.
When your people win on social, you win.
If you’re a recruiter or owner who is looking for proven ways to win in the War For Talent and grow your business, shoot us a line.
