How we ran our employee advocacy competition at Oktopost

As the vacation season approached and the tip of This fall drew close to, we confronted a problem acquainted to all worker advocacy program leaders—how do you keep engagement strong when staff are winding down, wrapping up their work, and getting ready to sign off for the vacations?

Our reply: lean into the season’s festive spirit with a bit friendly competition.

Right here’s how our Vacation Advocate Problem got here to life, the way it delivered outcomes, and how one can replicate its success on your personal worker advocacy program.

Step 1: Efficient planning

Each nice initiative begins with a strong plan, and our competitors was no totally different. Right here’s how we laid the groundwork:

1. Setting objectives and goals

Our major aim was to extend each attain and engagement throughout our advocacy program. 

To attain this, we selected a month-long competitors, giving our advocates loads of time to take part whereas staying aligned with our end-of-quarter targets.

2. Selecting a theme

A well timed theme can work wonders in participating advocates. At Oktopost, we love seasonal themes, so we tied the competitors to the festive vacation spirit, making it thrilling, enjoyable, and related.

3. Securing a price range

Not each competitors wants a price range, and in case your staff can’t allocate one, that’s fully high quality! Artistic, no-cost rewards like social media shoutouts, firm swag, studying and growth alternatives, or recognition throughout city halls and all-hands conferences could be simply as efficient in motivating your staff.

For this competitors, as we wrapped up the yr, we selected to safe a price range to fund prizes and add an additional layer of motivation. Whereas a price range can increase engagement, it’s the popularity and sense of enjoyable that really make these initiatives a hit.

Step 2: Structuring the competitors

1. Choosing the groups

We break up our advocates into 4 groups primarily based on departments, guaranteeing a mixture of camaraderie and pleasant competitors:

• Group Gross sales
• Group Buyer Success
• Group Product and Operations
• Management Group

Every staff competed for the highest three spots on their leaderboards, tracked utilizing Oktopost’s built-in point system. Advocates wanted a minimal of 1,500 factors to qualify for prizes, guaranteeing constant engagement all through the problem.

2. Including a bonus spherical

No Oktopost competitors can be full with out a twist!

In true vacation spirit, we added a raffle bonus. The highest 5 advocates from every staff had been entered into the raffle, and 4 winners had been randomly chosen to obtain money donations for the charity of their selection. We seen this impressed and motivated our advocates, as they knew their efforts might contribute to a significant trigger.

3. Choosing prizes

For the principle competitors, we rewarded our top-performing advocates with present playing cards. For the bonus spherical, our winners obtained the charity donations we talked about above.

Step 3: Setting all of it up in Oktopost

We used Oktopost’s Advocacy Board to handle the competitors seamlessly:

Group assignments

Every advocate was assigned to their respective staff, enabling them to see their standings in real-time through the leaderboard.

Level system

We designed our level system strategically to encourage high quality engagement. 

For instance, extra factors had been awarded for enhancing their posts than for merely sharing them. This strategy incentivized advocates to personalize their content material, which aligns with greatest practices for social media. Equally, we awarded additional factors for suggesting content material to our staff. This not solely helped us generate ready-to-share posts extra effectively but in addition made advocates really feel deeply concerned in this system, reinforcing that their contributions are valued.

Step 4: Launching the competitors

We kicked off the competitors with a vigorous 15-minute company-wide assembly to formally launch it. Throughout this session, we defined the foundations, detailed the purpose system, and rallied everybody to deck their feeds with vacation cheer.

We introduced a festive and concise deck that outlined all the things advocates wanted to know—guidelines, rewards, and how you can take part. Visuals and clear directions helped construct pleasure.

Step 5: Celebrating our winners

No competitors is full with out a celebration! Taking the time to acknowledge advocates efforts not solely exhibits your appreciation but in addition builds pleasure for future challenges. Right here’s how we wrapped up our Vacation Advocate Problem:

1. Saying the winners

As quickly because the competitors wrapped up, we revealed the winners the very subsequent day by way of:

• An organization-wide electronic mail that highlighted the achievements of the successful advocates and their contributions to the competitors’s success.
• Social media shout-outs celebrated their contributions, boosting morale and inspiring future participation.

2. Gathering suggestions

To maintain bettering, we additionally requested for suggestions. We despatched out a fast survey to all advocates, inviting them to share their ideas on the competitors and the advocacy program as an entire. Their enter helps us fine-tune future initiatives and make sure that each problem is extra participating and impactful than the final.

By celebrating their onerous work and listening to their suggestions, we closed the competitors on a excessive observe, leaving our advocates motivated and able to maintain advocating!

Vacation cheer throughout

The Vacation Advocate Problem wasn’t simply enjoyable—it delivered spectacular outcomes:

• 129% enhance in advocate posts
• 77% enhance in attain, hitting 1.49 million
• 29% enhance in engagements, with a staggering 2.4K engagements from advocates alone

The vacation season could be difficult for sustaining engagement, however with creativity, considerate planning, and the correct instruments, worker advocacy can thrive—at the same time as staff wind down and put together to step away for the vacations.

Our problem proved that a bit pleasant competitors paired with a significant trigger can ship each measurable outcomes and a morale increase on your staff.

We hope our story conjures up your subsequent advocacy initiative. Comfortable advocating!