The document describes an employee advocacy program at IBM in Asia Pacific that trained 500 employees across several countries to become social leaders. The goal was to empower employees to represent themselves authentically on social media to build trust and drive business results. Employees were coached to identify their areas of expertise and passion to guide their social content. Initial results included $81 million in customer wins and pipeline attributed to social leadership activities. The program utilized training, coaching, and recognition to inspire employees and measure social media impact on business and engagement outcomes.

1. Success Story
UNLEASH your employees
DISRUPT from within
GROW your business
Social leadership delivers business results,
drives employee engagement andbuilds trust
IBM CognitiveSystemsforCloudAsiaPacific andThe DigitalConversationalist

2. What happens when you train 500
IBM employees across Asia Pacific
to be social leaders...
...by putting integrity, authenticity
and focus on individual
eminence at the heart of the
strategy?
Magic happens…

3. You’ll learn… the secret sauce
• RESULTS? We know it works
• WHY? The challenge addressed
• WHAT? Getting advocacy right
• HOW? The approach

4. Measuring social success
Measuring ROI for social media activity
is challenging. Employees own their
“data” on LinkedIn and engage across
multiple social media and blogging
platforms.
Our approach to measure success was
through surveying individuals post-
training, who demonstrated active
involvement on social media over a
period of time.
These socially active individuals are
engaging intelligently, sharing thought
leadership content aligned to their
professional passion, connecting with
the right people, and/or creating their
own content.
Results

5. US$81
million
These results are conservative and are based on self-reported
feedback from IBM's most active social leaders. Based on
feedback from less than 10 active individuals, we established a
direct correlation between social activity and customer wins and
pipeline.
Wins
US$24 million
Pipeline
US$57+ million
The
results
so far…
Customer wins & pipeline

6. Some numbers from
LinkedIn blogs
500+ employees
trained across APAC
26 workshops
121+ coaching
124 blogs
published on LinkedIn
by employees
Blog responses
5,337++ which is
people engaging publicly
with blogs – comments,
likes, shares
Estimated potential
exposure for bloggers
based on readers
actions?
2.7 million and
beyond

7. Who does
your
audience
trust…
Who has
more social
clout &
motivation…
Who brings
leads…
Results…
15%
of consumers trust
company posts on
social media
49%
of consumers
trust regular
employees
77%
of consumers will
purchase after
hearing from
someone they trust
67%
of engaged
employees say they
actively advocate
for their company
10x
More connections
of your employees
vs your company
followers
78%
of engaged
employees would
recommend their
company’s product
5x
Increase in web
traffic from
employee social
25%
Increase in leads
from employee
social
7x
More frequent
conversion of
leads
8x
Increase in share
rate of content by
employees vs by
the brand
30%
Increase in
engagement with
content
20x
Increase in revenue
& operating income
Why does it work?
Because it’s all about trust

8. Drivingbusinessresults
1. Significant business wins/pipeline
2. Opened previously closed doors to prospects
3. New partnerships and alliances
4. Growing belief in the effectiveness of strategic social
selling
5. Bigger networks globally, opening doors to opportunities
for IBM and its employees
6. Social networks are more engaged with IBM employees
who have eminence
7. Deeper relationships with existing customers
Findings based on employee feedback

9. Drivingclient &employee engagement
1. Clients learning about IBM from the content employees are
willingly sharing
2. Clients actively seeking insights from IBM’ers, requesting
them to discuss topics in their next blogs on LinkedIn
3. Employees say they are more engaged with IBM by
becoming known as thought leaders in their professional
fields, as well as in their passions
4. Speaking invitations to industry events + invitations to guest
publish
5. Belief that IBM is on the right track as a business of the
future
Findings based on employee feedback

10. Drivingclient &employeeengagement
1. Growing self-confidence and belief they are in control of
their careers
2. Employees are learning more as they create content
and actively seek world-class content to share with their
networks
3. Employees are more confident in growing their networks
across social media, providing more access to key
decision makers
4. Increased internal visibility within IBM, which increases
confidence in future opportunities
5. More loyalty to IBM
Findings based on employee feedback

11. Content marketing efforts generate 3x
as many leads as traditional marketing,
and costs 62% less
Demand Metric
Challenges
Traditional marketing activities are no longer delivering
results that companies, such as IBM, want to achieve.
Brands are also struggling to effectively engage
employees to actively take part on social media.
At the same time, marketing and sales teams are
often experiencing frustration with each other.
Marketing isn’t delivering content that effectively
supports sales leaders; who in turn aren't providing
insights that marketing need for content development.
At IBM, the leadership team are addressing these
challenges, by engaging employees to become a
content creation army, believing that the value of the
organization lies with their people.
The question becomes: how can we help the
individual team members discover and own their
passion ? How do we motivate them to demonstrate
their best to their digital community? This in turn will
elevate the best of IBM – its employees - to its clients
and markets.
Building a social leadership culture can help reduce
silo friction by making everyone responsible for
building customer trust, inspiring employees to be
more externally focused, and building more internal
unity focused on delighting the customer.

12. The power of
employee
advocacy

13. Employee advocacy
Employee advocacy is becoming a strategic
imperative for senior leadership teams.
Acknowledging that employees are individually and
uniquely powerful on social media – as influencers
in their own right – will be deemed a strategic
asset, especially in the B2B space.
The collective power and potential impact of active
and intelligently engaged employees is now
understood, as research indicates the most trusted
resource within any business are its people.
However, historically, businesses have only
focused on elevating the most senior people, in a
controlled and measured way. That time is
over. The fundamental shift – due to social media -
is to employee voices, not brands. But to make an
impact and be heard, individual credibility is
paramount.
Senior leadership teams expecting employees to
become megaphones for the brand run the risk of
failure, hurting both brand and employee
reputations.
Getting employee advocacy right

14. Employee advocacy
The challenge? Employee advocacy is often
positioned as a one-sided affair – to benefit the
brand. However, digitally-savvy employees – the
ones you want representing your company – won’t
buy into this because they understand and value
the power of their own social leadership position.
Employees say they resent this expectation,
because it lacks integrity, is insincere and they
would rather do nothing than participate this way.
Leaders who get employee advocacy right,
understand they must inspire employees to own
their voice, become social leaders, support them
and celebrate the champions.
Championing employees, across every level of the
organization, and supporting them for the long-
term, is a game changer. When leaders understand
this opportunity, they bask in the glow of powerful
employee brands, enjoying higher employee
engagement, attracting and retaining the best
people, gaining customer and employee trust, new
customers, business wins, partnerships and more.
It’s completely transformational for employees and
business.

15. Top business blog published by IBM employee
263 likes
5 comments
30 shares

16. Transforms IBM’s voice to one of "technical expert"
Drives 10x engagement on posts versus IBM brand posts
Drives 8x engagement when pushing posts to brand assets
versus paid media
Engages with locally matched influencers – participating in
influencer forums and hosting VIPs
Client ambassador
Co-owns MeetUps as
teacher and expert;
Speaks at various internal
and external industry
events;
Gains access to new
accounts and clients.
Content creator
All Star LinkedIn profile &
Pulse blog;
Shares expertise in various
technical and industry
communities;
Co-creates content with
marketing team.
Imagine a team of
Gerard's…
Gerard Suren Saverimuth
Cognitivesolutionsellingleader,cloud evangelist,
cricketer,hobbyistphotographerwithzestoflife

17. NishanWeerasinghe,
Director of Marketing, IBM Cognitive Systems for
CloudAsia Pacific
“Before we started, I had poked around social engagement for some time. Knowing that it was the
right thing, but I couldn’t see a way to scale it across my business. I also knew I could utilize
these tools better personally.
“At the time, I was hearing a lot of push back and cynicism from colleagues – all of which made
perfect sense to me. There was a LOT of nonsense on social media, and it continues to this day.
“This approach addressed those concerns. It was about getting employees focused on
whatever area they cared most about – tying in personal passion – and then it offered
structure, so employees had a place to start and most importantly, it was from a place of personal
integrity. That was the critical piece for me.
“No employee wants to be a mouthpiece for a brand – no matter how much they love working
for a company. Helping employees identify what they want to be known for and then owning that
voice as a first priority, with IBM benefiting off the back of this, it completely matched my belief that
we could unleash our employees, and they would handle themselves with integrity, attracting
customers, talent, partnerships, and be more engaged themselves.
“This has been borne out time and again since we started this program, and I couldn’t be more
delighted with the results we are seeing, right across the board, from customer wins to more
engaged employees. It’s been inspiring to be part of this change for IBM in Asia Pacific”

18. The approach

19. To inspire employees to become leaders
on social media. With integrity and a
service mindset being a core tenet of
participation, employees are empowered
to represent themselves first and IBM
second, with the goal to create an army of
brand ambassadors and content creators
in their own right.
Goal

20. Top blog aligned with a personal message
450 likes
101 comments
9 shares

21. The starting point
Our goal was to find social champions and inspire
employees to own their voice on social media.
Employees know the customer and customer
challenges. They know your business. They
understand the problem you solve. They know
your partners and what they offer. They know you
and love you. They are the most motivated
influencers you have to get business results,
because they are measured on business results.
And most importantly, they want to get involved
and be amazing.
Working together in partnership, social leadership
training was available to employees across IBM in
all markets in Asia Pacific. It was delivered in
Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the
Philippines and India.
Job titles included senior executives to sales
leaders to technical sales to function roles like HR
or marketing. All were invited to attend, because
social leadership has multiple outcomes – not
just sales.

22. Social media guidelines
All employees had access to IBM’s
very simple social media guidelines
and were encouraged to review them.
Two other focus areas for participation
on social media were:
1. Always abide by the company
values in how you conduct yourself on
social media
2. And THINK
• T – is it True?
• H – is it Helpful?
• I – is it Inspiring?
• N – is it Necessary?
• K – is it Kind?

23. The team
Nishan Weerasinghe,
CMO, IBM Cognitive
Systems for Cloud Asia
Pacific
Tara Moody, Portfolio
Marketing and Influencer
Strategy, IBM Cognitive
Systems for Cloud Asia
Pacific
Sunny Panjabi,
Marketing Manager,
Content & Social, IBM
Cognitive Systems for
Cloud Asia Pacific
Andrea Edwards,
Founder and CEO, The
Digital
Conversationalist

24. Starting with the right mindset
The most important starting point - to encourage employees to become social leaders - is the
right mindset.
To build a strong, powerful and impactful social leadership position, it’s quite simply about
everyone being world-class.
It’s about being of service to your audience for each of your social leaders.
It’s about sharing information that is going to transform people you want to transform.
It’s about creating, finding and sharing the best knowledge you can and getting it in front of
the right people who will benefit enormously by reading or watching it.
To lead, brands must empower employees to own their voice, and employees must be
focused on a topic that is relevant to them personally and aligned to their ambitions or
dreams. When professionals participate in a focused way, this is how they become thought
leaders – which should be the purpose of being present in the first place.
Focus, passion, intent and a mindset of service is the key to success.

25. Top blogs published by IBM employees in 2017
171ikes
29 comments
35 shares

26. Through my social leadership activity, clients that
had “closed doors” to IBM have opened them.
They are learning about IBM solutions from what
I’m sharing on LinkedIn and senior decision
makers have been reaching out to me directly on
LinkedIn to discuss how IBM can help them.
We have moved rapidly towards a sale from this
initial outreach, and today I am privileged to work
with my clients as a trusted strategic advisor on
their technology strategy.
It’s been incredible and it all started based on how
I was participating on LinkedIn: social leadership
with a mindset of delivering value, being
consistent and serving customers is the cutting
edge of sales today. I’m committed.
PaulJamieson
IBM cognitive infrastructure sales – Telstra
account, Australia
Eric Schnatterly
Vice President, IBMcognitive system for cloud
platforms,Asia Pacific
I have used social media to make
connections and progress opportunities
and close deals. I continue to use social
selling to make new network
connections, resulting in increased
business development and new pipeline.
Examples include new opportunities with
MSP's and AI start-ups, as well as
mutual opportunities with IBM Alliance
partners.

27. The 3-Step Journey to
Social Leadership
Get Started
Empower the
employees
Drive Leads,
Grow Business
Launch
Train
Coach leaders
Inspire
Support
Motivate
Amplify work
Recognize stars
Holistic approach
Industry leadership
Flat structure, siloes down
Business results, engaged
employees
Step
01
Step
02
Step
03

28. In the first year, we focused on Step 01, with the main goal of the
training to inspire employees to embrace this opportunity and own
their voice. The training offered both structure and freedom.
We found that 30 per cent embraced the opportunity immediately
and made it a priority, even when all are time-challenged.
We helped employees find their focus, a starting point, and most
importantly, inspired them to do the work themselves.
When an employee is inspired to be a social leader, they do not
want to outsource their voice.
Launch,train,coach, inspire

29. Summary of the program
• Full or half day training and 1-on-1 coaching
– Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, India,
Philippines and Singapore.
• Open discussion around the broader content
and social media landscape – beyond IBM
and technology – including tackling cynicism.
• Defining what each employee wants to be
known for – identifying their eminence.
• Updating social media profiles – with a focus
on LinkedIn.
• Getting started on social media
professionally.
• Introduction to video and blogging,
discussions on relevance across all social
media platforms.
• 1-on-1 coaching and support following
training.
• Celebrating the champions internally.

30. A program like this will attract cynicism internally and
externally until its value is proven. We always faced it
upfront and started training with the question:
Who is cynical about social media and
taking a social leadership position?
Every time, there were cynics.
Two reasons consistently emerged:
One: there is already so much noise; how can I possibly do
anything of value that is not just adding to it?
A beautiful, perfect question and one valued above all
others, because it demonstrates a level of thought that to
be present, you have to deliver value. There’s enough
noise. We all know it and it’s getting louder every day.
We loved hearing IBM professionals appreciating this. It is
the right place to start and the right question to ask.
Tackling cynicism honestly

31. First: we must all stop doing things that no longer serve us
or our company. We continue because everyone knows
how to do it and the company knows how to measure it.
Individually, and as teams, we need to take a step back and
ask: what no longer serves us? What isn’t getting us the
results we need? And where can we get those results today?
Second: identifying where to start. There are many tips and
tricks to help employees be efficient, and the most important
message is that no professional has to spend an
enormous amount of time to be present and engaged on
social media.
Once focused, we recommended all employees make a
commitment to share two articles a week that are aligned to
what they want to be known for. The only rule is that the
content has to be so excellent that by sharing it, it adds to
their eminence in the field they want to be known for.
Once in a rhythm, employees start to become trusted
contacts that share awesome information!
Two: it takes so much time, how do I fit itin?
Tackling cynicism honestly

32. Top blogs published by IBM employees in 2017
166 likes
30 comments
155 shares

33. KateMorphett
Client Manager, IBMDigital Business Group
ChristianRaetzsch
Vice President, CTO,IBM,Asia Pacific
“My network has more than doubled, with
reach beyond Singapore and AP into
Europe, Central Eastern Europe, Russia,
Africa, US. Head-hunters are reaching out to
me.
Visibility and reach as a professional, a
strong personal brand that translates into
personal "value" as a subject matter expert
(... personal growth and compensation...).
This is more important than ever, in a vibrant,
dynamic and very disruptive world, where
mediocrity and standard jobs will increasingly
be covered by smart systems and machines
(applied artificial intelligence).”
“We should take "building a personal brand"
seriously and feed the content of IBM into
social channels because that is how we reach
customers. If everyone's message reaches
influencers or clients, those messages should
be considered a key part in how we sell.
“I was impressed when a client called me and
said: "I saw the article you posted from IBM
about Robotics Process Automation. We are
interested, can you bring the team to present
to us?" It is a good to start to the year 2018
when a client calls and asks this.”

34. The starting steps we defined
One requested task: share one piece of company
content a week (if possible), because employees
benefit by the association with IBM and vice versa.
By sharing company content, IBM benefits,
experiences the results of employee advocacy, and
starts to support employees. But employees were
only encouraged to share company content they
love. This is their profile, not the companies, and
we must always be proud of what we share.
Engage with your community
on social media
1
2
3
Define your focus
Make a commitment to sharing
content aligned to that focus

35. All enterprises are overwhelmed with information channels
and it is challenging to break through the clutter to get
attention on social leaders.
We identified two areas for success.
Excellent internal communication channels, so
employees can share their work internally and have it
supported by colleagues. We also focused on delivering a
monthly newsletter, to celebrate successes, share
positive feedback, showcase blogs published, and motivate
others to seize this opportunity.
We kept the momentum going, long after the training and
coaching.
Support, motivate, amplify work & recognize
stars

36. The most important part of this training, was the focus on the
#GivingEconomy. It's the "secret sauce" of the program as a way to
motivate employees to "own" their own voice.
How does it work? Many believe social leadership is a tool to push views.
It’s perceived as narcissistic, a place to show off, and it’s all about
“me”. The majority of professionals do not like this aspect of social
media.
The Giving Economy mindset changes this thinking. The idea is you will
be more successful and build a more powerful social leadership
position, if you spend most of your time helping others succeed. There
are many ways to do this, including: sharing colleagues' awesome
content; engaging in colleagues' posts on social media; publicly praising
team members for a job well done; writing references/endorsing skills and
more.
To be a leader on social media, the greatest focus must be on helping
others win, and in return, you win too.
The Giving Economy was a central tenet of the social leadership training,
fully embraced by IBM employees, and is the most powerful and effective
way for anyone to build their eminence – especially for leaders of
businesses – because it motivates and inspires employees to stay on task
and keep building their social leadership position.
A 'Giving Economy' mindset

37. “The Giving Economy message definitely resonated with me deeply and was the core
vision of this program that convinced me to be a committed social leader. Before I thought
of social leadership this way, having a presence on social media always felt selfish or
narcissistic. The idea that you succeeded by helping others succeed, yes, that was
something I could passionately get behind, and I am delighted that we have 500 IBM
Ambassadors in Asia Pacific with this mindset.
“Being a social leader is a very meaningful part of my professional life today, and to be part
of the pioneering team at IBM in Asia Pacific that got this off the ground – and trust me, it
hasn’t been easy – is one of my greatest career journeys to date. I can’t wait to see what
we do next, all with this mindset of service at the core. It’s exciting.”
Tara Moody,
Portfoliomarketing andinfluencer strategy, IBMCognitive
Systems for CloudAsia Pacific

38. This step is the big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) and we
were delighted to start moving towards this in our first
year. A critical element of succeeding in a program like
this is not to have any unrealistic goals. It takes time to
build and succeed.
So while we did not flatten the hierarchy or pull
unnecessary siloes down, we have started this process.
Can we claim industry leadership? The individuals
involved are certainly building their industry leadership,
and collectively, it will become more powerful.
Have we achieved a holistic approach across the
business? Again, we have just started.
With business results and engaged employees, we have
succeeded – more than we hoped for.
Holistic approach, industryleadership, flat structure,
siloes down, businessresults, engaged employees

39. Top blogs published by IBM employees in 2017
108 likes
48 comments
14 shares

40. Deepthi Anne
Technology Solution Advisor
SinisaNikolic
Director Systems for cloud andCognitiveplatforms at
IBM
I have reconnected with previous
clients and that has allowed IBM to
engage and be invited to meetings.
This is goodness, and we are yet to
count the $$ on that impact. I have
also had a couple of interesting client
meetings where they said it was very
nice to meet me as they have read my
blogs. That was a very nice interaction.
“Writing blogs has changed the way my
customers look at me. More than a seller,
they now view me as a technology
advisor.”

41. Employee
focus &
benefits

42. 20%
20%
30%
30%
Leadership
Mentorship
Foodie, lifestyle,
mindfulness
Customer
Issues
Roles HR,
marketing
A broad look at topics IBM employees wanted to
be eminent in

43. Customer issues
30% of senior
executives/sales/BDMs
seek to talk about the
customer issues they
are hearing about every
day and help customers
solve them
Leadership
20% seek to inspire
and talk about
leadership or
mentoring the next
generation
Job functions
30% are in job functions
and they want to be
eminent about their role and
what they’re learning/how
they’re evolving/disruption
relevant to their job function
(e.g. HR, finance,
marketing)
Personal passion
20% are lifestyle or
foodie bloggers, into
health and wellness,
mindfulness,
spirituality, etc
Drilling down into eminence

44. What does it deliver IBM?
Category 1 – Customer issues, critical for
marketing to champion. They are speaking directly
to customer issues from a place of experience and
empathy. They are an asset to any business.
Category 2 – a leadership/mentorship focus
attracts great talent and inspires employees. With
50 per cent of the workforce set to be millennials by
2020 (and millennials caring most about company
culture) these voices give that insight.
Category 3 – job function leaders are critical. By
taking an industry stance in their own right, they
position your company as an industry leader who
hires industry thought-leaders within job functions.
They attract the best talent in their field. They
revolutionize their field.
Category 4 – passion focus is often disparaged,
because many struggle to understand how it
matters… They make your company cool. It says
your company is digitally savvy. They open doors to
customers. Your company empowers your people.
It positions your company as a business of the
future. You company cares about the whole person.

45. So how does someone talking about food
benefit a technology business?
When professionals link their social leadership position to
something they are passionate about (connecting mind and heart)
they become committed, because they are doing it for a greater
purpose. This purpose is their why and we started by helping every
employee define it = the critical starting point to create a social
leadership culture.
Passionate social leaders open doors to customers, because it
builds trust in the quality of employees, and we are all in the trust
building business today. Customers want to know your people.
Previously closed doors are opened.
Millennials want to work for your company, because they want to
work with people who are passionate and care for something
bigger than themselves.
Employee social leaders take first-time conversations deeper,
faster. It’s the ultimate door-opener. Not to mention, it makes your
company cool.

46. Shamini Prithivi Raj
Helping public sector clients in Malaysia achieve
their technology goals
Marco Leoncelli
Complex Solutions Lead – Global Financial
Markets
“I am a foodie blogger and since the
training, it has been very welcoming and
a lot of acceptance so far. Previously,
IBM colleagues did not value my
personal branding so much and did not
feel that it is important.”
“I genuinely feel my presence in the
social media world and professional
community has been enhanced
following The Digital
Conversationalist coaching and
IBM’s investment.”

47. Top blogs published by IBM employees in 2017
19 likes
14 comments
6 shares

48. Far-reaching results
and benefits

49. “It has been a huge privilege to be involved with this team, driving social
leadership for IBM across Asia Pacific. I have personally learned and gained
so much from my own social leadership position, but to watch people come
out inspired and taking action, then seeing the results, has been amazing.
“We took a chance when we started this, however we all understood and
believed it would be a breakthrough initiative for the business, so I am really
happy it has borne so much fruit. We couldn’t know what to expect. There is
no example coming before to reference, so I am proud that we can be that
reference for IBM and the business world”.
Sunny Panjabi,
Marketing Manager, Content & Social, IBM
Cognitive Systems for Cloud Asia Pacific

50. Have you secured any speaking opportunities?

51. Social selling
muscles
When looking to build social selling
muscles in sales teams, it’s all about
inspiring sales leaders to be actively
engaged and leading on social, so
they earn the right to open doors to
customers, because they are
consistently delivering value to their
community. This is "the in" with
customers today.
IBM’s social leaders are now being
invited to partner with customers to
help them define their technology
strategy. All directly linked to their
social media activities.

52. Top blogs published by IBM employees in 2017
88 likes
11 comments
29 shares

53. Challenges and what
we learnt

54. 1. Securing leadership support from the start is critical - the digital revolution
starts at the top, and they give permission to employees by becoming
social leaders themselves.
2. Set realistic expectations. Employees will embrace it over time, but
initially, participation rates will be around 25 to 30%. The biggest
challenge is self confidence and making it a priority.
3. It’s hard work for the team driving it – especially at the beginning before
success can be demonstrated.
4. Getting people to commit time to attend the training can be very
challenging, especially sales staff.
5. After the training, you need ongoing communication and a team available
to provide advice/coaching, as well as a supportive culture that celebrates
successes and learns together – no one person can know everything
social, so this sharing and learning is vital.
6. As the wins and successes come, it’s important to share with leadership
teams and to celebrate the champions.
7. Internal recognition of social leadership as something of value versus
being seen as unnecessary or a “time waster” is critical.
8. Building social leadership into the ethos of what it means to be an
employee is a huge change management initiative.
9. Management support is critical for employees committed to building their
personal brands. Employees want encouragement and recognition.
LessonsLearned

55. Shalaka Verma
Asia Pacific Technical Leader – Storage and
Software Defined Solution at IBM
“Social leadership is important because technology is best acquired via reference, references OR
opinions of people with a personal brand count. I have experienced that even though my pitch is the
same, people who have gone through my blog, even on unrelated subjects, tend to listen more
attentively than a completely disconnected audience.
“I happen to get lot of queries on the blog OR because I am known to be knowledgeable in a domain.
“Personally, this journey has been rewarding. I have realized that commitment to writing makes you a
committed learner. So this year I have written, but more importantly, I have read and learned a lot.
“I think social leadership was always important, the sphere of influence is what has expanded. Earlier,
you would communicate with your colleagues, managers, direct reports, OR maybe with industry
colleagues, whom you come in contact with during the course of your work. Your credibility with them
mattered to achieve the intended outcomes.
“But now there is a means and possibility of connecting with people with whom you may not be dealing
directly for your work. Nonetheless, your credibility with those people influences your ability to drive the
outcomes in your immediate influence. So taking advantage of platforms to connect with an expanded
sphere of influence is essential for technical professionals, especially the leaders and game changers.”

56. Tools, tips & technology
to help employees
succeed

57. Tools needed to support a social leadership culture?
This is an ideal list and it’s important to start with what you have right now, and grow as the
culture and demand grows. We recommend:
• Access to a world-class image library;
• Design support for content design, infographic
creation, etc;
• Video creation and editing support;
• Website and blogging platform support for
employees serious about blogging;
• SEO support and training, design classes, video
creation training, etc;
• Professional writing support – some people have
great ideas, but can’t capture them;
• Professional editing support; and
• A company showcase site to feature the content
created by your employees – recommend a
customer-relevant content site and a ‘your people’
site, which is perfect for HR/recruitment, as it
provides access to company culture.

58. Tools continued…
• An excellent employee advocacy site, so employees can easily
share and be recognised for sharing great company stories.
Make sure the company information is excellent so employees
are proud to share it;
• An automation site so employees can schedule content, which
helps them manage time or to tackle security restrictions;
• A collaboration platform for internal sharing and to build
awareness of your champions and your program;
• Integrated CRM system with social platforms – especially
LinkedIn;
• Relevant and unifying hashtags, to help you measure impact;
and
• A social measurement platform. However it is challenging to
get a complete picture across all platforms. For public platforms
like Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and maybe Facebook (if
security settings are not private) you can measure data.
However for LinkedIn, you need to buy its services or you can
only measure public data.
Note: The core focus with IBM is on LinkedIn, but it is not the only
relevant social platform. Employees need to find the social
platform they are comfortable to work on, but LinkedIn is critical.

59. Top blogs published by IBM employees in 2017
52 likes
36 comments
7 shares

60. Two final important take-aways
1
LinkedIn solves a huge content hurdle for regional teams
Employees can easily publish content – both written and video – on LinkedIn. In fact, the
content opportunity is LinkedIn's greatest asset - because it helps professionals overcome
corporate obstacles to getting their voice heard.
However, if you decide to make LinkedIn a primary focus for social leadership, you must invest
in it. You will need LinkedIn Navigator for sales, leadership, marketing and social leaders
and Premium for everyone else. You should also consider LinkedIn Elevate to amplify
company content and employee content, as well as to measure results. Additionally, you can
open Elevate up to your business ecosystem – partners, agencies, and more…
However, employees will engage on the social media platforms they are comfortable with. This
means you need to be in a position to see, support and measure it all. In Asia, there are many
social media platforms specific to countries. Facebook is a professional powerhouse in the
Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. WeChat in China, etc.. One-size does not fit all.

61. Two final important take-aways
2
Get set up for employee feedback and sharing
Encourage employees to share what’s working, what’s not, what new social platforms are
available, and how to use them.
No one person has the full perspective on all opportunities available, because there are so
many different social media platforms. There is also no ‘one-way’ to be successful. Some are
professional and educational, others funny or inspiring, and some are cheerleaders. There is
value across all successful styles. They magic is authentic participation.
Look for your SnapChat or Line champions, or someone achieving great business results from
using WhatsApp intelligently, or even MeetUp Groups success. The creativity of someone
passionate about a particular social media channel should not be underestimated.
There’s so much value in internal experience, so ensure your micro-experts share to help
others grow. Just this would be completely transformational!!

62. Jaswinder Singh Saini
Managing Consultant for Storage & Hybrid Cloud
(AWS) at IBM Systems Lab Services
• Clients regularly check my links, blogs and technical videos and share their inputs
• People have connected with me after going through my posts to share their queries
• I have received calls from Clients and EX-IBMers appreciating the details shared and how it
helped them
• I am working on a white paper for IBM Storage Systems and its now part of my annual KRA
• Clients have requested that I focus more on some pain points they are facing, and the new
blogs will include those points
• Overall it has helped boost my confidence and made it possible to connect to more people
Even though its only been a couple of months and there is a lot that needs to be done, I can see
the difference and my Social Selling Index rose from 29% to 60% immediately after the training.
Building a Social Leadership profile has
helped me in multiple ways…

63. Tara Moody,
Portfolio marketing and influencer strategy, IBM
Cognitive Systems for Cloud Asia Pacific

64. Conclusion

65. Conclusion
Driving Results
IBM employees in Asia Pacific have embraced this opportunity and
early successes have helped create a more powerful social leadership
culture.
Why?
Thoughtful employees will never agree to become a megaphone for a
brand – help empower them to own their voice first.
What? The "secret sauce" is...
...Employee advocacy that prioritises the employee first and your
brand second. This is a fundamental reason IBM succeeded – it had
real meaning to employees, personally.
How?
Helping employees to find what they want to be known for – their
eminence – is the right starting place. This focus-area does not have
to be business related, it needs to be something the employee is
passionate to own and champion.

66. The Proof is in the
Pudding
In an era when employee engagement is at an all-time
low world-wide in the business world, IBM social leaders
said they felt more engaged in the company and more
loyal to the brand. They also said they felt more in control
of their careers.
We are delighted they felt this way. Social leadership
changes the game for business.

67. Disrupting your business starts from within.
IBM is reaping exponential rewards by
harnessing the voices of its talented employees
and helping them become world-class social
leaders that:
• Engage with their audiences
• Create their own content
• Help customers authentically
• Build meaningful interactions across
their digital communities
The Digital Conversationalist
This is smart at work.
Long known for putting its employees at the heart of its
brand, IBM is reinventing itself by using platforms infused
with digital intelligence. Its core ethos, summed up by
one of its employees, is "a smart world is built by smart
people". IBM has harnessed the knowledge of its
experts, augmented by systems, processes and
operations that learn.
This is a smarter way of doing business, brought to the
world by a new IBM.

68. www.andreatedwards.com
AndreaTEdwards
AndreaTEdwards
AndreaTEdwards
Andrea Edwards
AndreaTEdwards
Andrea Edwards
The Digital Conversationalist
The Digital Conversationalist

69. Divya Sharma
Country HR Leader at IBM Philippines
NCR – National Capital Region, Philippines
I am not a digital native - never was. I am sure that a lot of people will identify with
this. When you can't dance, you say I have two left feet, when you cannot be
effortlessly social, I am not sure what that is called. Perhaps its clickophobia or
photo phobia or something similar… I am not sure the word has been created yet.
I always marvelled at the way my sister, who was five years younger, naturally
photogenic and socially savvy, used Facebook to connect so effortlessly. I was
envious, but I knew I could never be her. I struggled through years of self-
conscious awkward smiles, while she happily clicked away looking more gorgeous
with every post. And then, much to my horror, came vlogs. When I had to do one, I
never wanted to see the end product. It was terrifying. I wanted to crawl under the
bed at the very prospect.
My story - From 41-70 SSI – My inflection point
to social

70. Over the years, I have been on social media but never active, only looking and
checking in once in a while. I’ve never used it actively as a medium to get heard.
With that said, over the last few years, I have started to see its importance and the
power of this significant communication medium. It is awe inspiring. It can be used
to inspire, improve and help, however, as powerful as it is, it can also be abused. It
gives power to the masses - as Salma Hayek recently said in her blog - Women
are talking today because, in this new era, we finally can! It’s not just women
either, it’s anyone who cares enough to take a stand, everyone can be heard. We
are headed towards a truly transparent world, but unfortunately, not everything is
pretty. Fake news, trolls, folks pulling each other down, doomsday news…
BUT, there is also tremendous opportunity to do good, to build credibility and make
a positive difference. I really like that anyone can now be a star. Social media can
be inspiring, uplifting, engaging and help make the world a better place. That’s
tremendous. Never before in history have the masses had so much power.
So now, coming to how I have gone from an SSI of 41 to 70 in six months is a
story of developing a new habit and getting out of my comfort zone. The training
session with Andrea Edwards, The Digital Conversationalist, aligned to what I had
started to sense - what I describe above. It is up to all of us to take up the
challenge and I did. It has started to slowly pay off too, plus I no longer feel
hesitant or afraid of the unknown.

71. I now feel confident to state my opinion and champion the causes that matter to me,
to IBM and I feel empowered. It’s no longer restricted to marketing and
communications - all of us can make a difference. I believe that I can now stand up
and narrate my own story and make it personal. I don't need comms to make slides
for me or a speaking engagement. With my ability to demonstrate my knowledge
and experience, I have started to grow my network and have more people reaching
out to me and connecting with me than ever before.
When I started, I had 500+ LinkedIn connections, but now I have over 1700! I no
longer feel doubt when inviting folks to connect, because the worst thing that can
happen is they will not accept! A number of speaking invitations have also been
lined up for next year, as well as client visits with the sales team - all very exciting
and inspiring!
Henry Ford said - whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right.. It’s
ultimately what we tell ourselves. I have always been a believer in I can and yet
again, I have! (humbled)
One of my nephews summarized it well, after seeing me make the shift on LinkedIn
- It'll be great to see you in the list of most powerful women in the world and
amongst influencers! All the best! Yeah I always thought you were pretty introvert
and was rather surprised to see the change, but change is good in this case!
So all fellow clickophobes - you are not alone, but you also can! Fingers crossed -
there is a world beyond the sky, so reach out high!