Could you please introduce yourself for our readers?
I’m Olivia Messina, the social media and community manager at Oktopost. I’ve been with the organisation for about 10 months, and I’m passionate about humanising B2B brands, building communities, and personal branding. I manage all social accounts, head our employee advocacy programme, and host Oktopost’s B2B social media podcast, Behind the Post. My guests and I break down what goes on behind the perfect posts you see on your feed, and what it takes to spark creativity and generate a highly-engaged audience. Outside of creating content and managing socials, I can be found developing my personal brand as a fashion and lifestyle content creator, reading, or training for my first marathon.
What are you going to be speaking about at Ignite USA?
Your brand can’t go it alone! My session will give you the keys to unlock the greatest asset at your disposal to bring your corporate vision and values to life – your employees. I will dive into the importance of giving your employees a voice and harnessing their networks to amplify and humanise your brand in an authentic way. I will share step by step how you can create an employee advocacy programme, onboard advocates, and keep the momentum going.
To go back to basics, why is brand, and brand authenticity so important to buyers of today?
Brand authenticity is in demand as never before. It’s a crowded and noisy marketplace and lacklustre corporate brand messaging doesn’t grab attention and certainly won’t evoke emotion. Especially in B2B marketing, we are all human! At the end of the day, you don’t always remember what a brand said, but you remember the people. Having an authentic approach helps form relationships and creates a sense of trust. It makes you stand out. When you feel connected to an individual, you start to develop trust in the brand they represent. Today’s buyers want to buy-in to brands first before taking the leap to direct engagement!
It’s no secret that ‘boring to boring’ B2B often lacks the deeper level of emotion that B2C has. Why has B2B been so slow to adopt this emotional, human type of approach?
I believe B2B has been slow to adopt this emotional, human type of approach because we might still be questioning “What does it truly mean to humanise a brand and how can we scale it?” It’s not something that can be automated and it takes a thoughtful approach.
From a social perspective, I think B2B organisations traditionally saw social channels as awareness only and used it to broadcast – pushing content and offers indiscriminately and just got lost in the noise. Smarter brands have woken up to the fact that social media is often the best place to spark relevant connections, start conversations and build engagement, even before someone becomes an MQL on your website.
Do you think organisations have been slow to realise that their greatest asset lies with their employees? If so, why are we waking up to that concept only now?
I believe organisations have always understood that their employees are their greatest asset and hold so much power. They know the brand inside and out and experience it everyday. I think more and more organisations are waking up to the concept of leveraging their employees in today’s heightened use of social and technology. Social media is one of the top growing marketing channels and brands so brands are waking up to the idea of using social media to help hit their business goals.
This is ever more important in the B2B buyer cycle. People consult social media before almost any decision, reaching out to their network or following key influencers to get answers that they trust. Each employee has their own network with deeper relationships than a brand could ever achieve. Developing a personal brand and becoming a thought leader/expert in your domain helps establish credibility and allows you to form deeper connections with customers, prospects, and your community. Brands should be looking at their own employees and capitalising on people who are actively doing this.
What are some of the wider key issues surrounding your session? What will marketers benefit from attending?
I think one of the wider assumptions about employee advocacy from an employee’s perspective is them taking part in a programme and them sharing posts on social media isn’t adding value. While in actuality, it’s extremely valuable and when you have a high volume of advocates sharing your brands message online, you can reach 10X more people. In my session, I will go deeper into this amplification and walk through how to onboard your employees and get their buy-in.
You’ll learn all about power of amplifying your brand with employee advocacy and how to:
- Outline your programme strategy.
- Choose your initial advocates.
- Gain employee buy-in.
- Launch your programme.
- Measure programme results.
- Maximise employee engagement.
What are you most excited for by attending Ignite 2022?
I’m most excited to be surrounded by inspiring leaders and truly learn. As a young professional in the space, I’m looking forward to hearing new perspectives and gaining fresh ideas. I’m particularly excited to attend “Building an Employer Brand to Withstand the Great Reshuffle” with Katie Martell, Ashlee Gerow, and Hanady Khourshid. As a social media manager, I’m not only marketing to customers and prospects, but to future talent too. I’m hoping to leave this session with key employer branding insights that I can use in my overall social media and employee advocacy strategy.
Everyone is busy and we don’t have as many opportunities to truly learn. B2B Ignite is filled with so many inspiring leaders and it’s the perfect opportunity to briefly step away, learn from the best, and leave with a fresh perspective!
