How we ran The Okties employee advocacy competition at Oktopost

Are you able to imagine our Monetary Controller gained our worker advocacy competitors? That’s the great thing about advocacy: it brings out champions you’d by no means count on.

He claimed the No. 1 spot on his leaderboard AND took house an Oktie award. Shout out Kfir Rotbart 😉

So right here’s how it began. As the brand new yr started and Q1 obtained underway, we discovered ourselves dealing with a well-known problem: how can we re-energize our advocates after the vacation slowdown?

Our reply: Kickstart the yr with a spirited competition that introduced our advocates collectively and reignited their advocacy vitality. With everybody returning to work, shaking off the vacation mindset, and easing again into routines, it was the right second to spark recent momentum.

Right here’s how The Okties took form, the way it drove significant engagement in Q1, and how one can carry the identical enthusiasm to your individual advocacy program.

Step 1: Efficient planning

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

1. Setting objectives and targets

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

To attain this, we determined to check out a six-week-long competitors, kicking off on the finish of February, giving our advocates loads of time to ease again into work and take part.

2. Selecting a theme

Shock, shock. We love a theme at Oktopost. This time, we tied the competitors to The Oscars, which happened in March 2025, and rebranded it to The Okties – sure, actual trophies have been awarded. Extra on that quickly.

3. Securing a price range

Not each competitors wants a price range and in case your staff can’t allocate one, that’s completely okay. Artistic, no-cost rewards like social media shoutouts, firm swag, studying alternatives, or recognition throughout city halls may be simply as highly effective on the subject of motivating your staff.

For The Okties, we secured a small price range for prizes, which added an additional layer of pleasure. However whereas a price range may also help amplify engagement, it’s the popularity, pleasant competitors, and shared sense of enjoyable that actually make an advocacy initiative profitable.

Step 2: Structuring the worker advocacy competitors

1. Choosing the groups

We saved issues acquainted by sticking with our ordinary staff setup, dividing advocates into 4 teams based mostly on their departments:

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

Every staff competed for a spot within the prime three on their respective leaderboards, tracked utilizing Oktopost’s built-in point system. To maintain the competitors significant and engagement regular, we set a threshold of 1,500 factors to qualify for prizes, encouraging advocates to remain lively all through the problem.

2. Including a bonus spherical

In fact, no Oktopost competitors could be full and not using a signature twist, and The Okties have been no exception.

This time, we launched seven prestigious Okties awards, every crafted to highlight and reinforce the important thing behaviors we needed our advocates to construct and maintain. Each class was designed with intention, aligning recognition with the strategic objectives of our program.

Right here’s the complete awards lineup:

• Greatest Engagement for the advocate who generated probably the most engagement on a submit
• Greatest Supporting Advocate awarded to our LinkedIn account’s primary fan
• Field Workplace Hit for driving the very best variety of clicks to our web site
• Greatest Authentic Screenplay recognizing a standout, champion submit
• Rising Star given to the advocate who confirmed probably the most development through the competitors
• Greatest Editor for the advocate with the very best submit edit ratio
• Greatest Ideas for submitting probably the most related content material concepts to the board

These classes added construction, goal, and somewhat further enjoyable, motivating advocates to take part in ways in which additionally helped us transfer the needle on core advocacy metrics.

3. Choosing prizes

For the principle competitors, we rewarded our top-performing advocates with present playing cards. For the bonus spherical, our winners obtained an Oktie trophy to show proudly on their desk.

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 actual time through the leaderboard.

Level system

We constructed our level system to reward significant engagement.

Advocates earned extra factors for modifying posts than merely sharing them, nudging them to personalize content material, one thing we all know performs higher on social media. We additionally gave further credit score for suggesting new content material concepts, turning advocates into co-creators and strengthening their connection to this system.

However what actually made this competitors stand out have been the tailor-made awards. The Greatest Supporting Advocate award, for instance, sparked a surge of engagement on our company LinkedIn web page. Edit ratios hit a brand new excessive as advocates aimed for Greatest Editor. And Rising Star gave our quieter voices the boldness to take part, proving that with the proper incentives, everybody has an opportunity to shine.

Step 4: Launching the competitors

We launched The Okties with a high-energy, 15-minute company-wide kickoff that set the tone for the competitors.

Through the session, we unveiled the foundations, walked by means of the purpose system, and rolled out the digital purple carpet to generate pleasure. A transparent, visually partaking deck outlined all the pieces advocates wanted to know: easy methods to earn factors, what awards have been up for grabs, and easy methods to become involved.

Most significantly, we made it enjoyable and inclusive: everybody was robotically nominated for all seven award classes. It was as much as every advocate to resolve how far they’d go to assert their highlight.

Step 5: Celebrating our winners

No competitors is full and not using a correct celebration. Recognizing your winners is a should.

Taking the time to highlight advocates’ efforts not solely exhibits appreciation but additionally fuels motivation for the following problem. It reinforces that their contributions matter and retains the momentum going.

Right here’s how we introduced The Okties to a detailed:

1. Asserting the winners

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

• An organization-wide electronic mail sharing the outcomes of our competitors and highlighted the achievements of the profitable 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 a complete.

Classes from our competitors

Like all good competitors, The Okties got here with a couple of surprises, and some studying moments alongside the way in which.

One factor we observed? Our advocates weren’t as lively in submitting content material solutions this time round. Perhaps it was as a result of they genuinely preferred what was already on the board, who’s to say?

Ultimately, we determined to not award the Greatest Ideas Oktie. We shared this transparently with our staff, sharing that it’s a class we’re warming as much as once more.

It was an ideal alternative to set expectations for the long run whereas reinforcing that there’s at all times room to develop. Regardless that this wasn’t what we anticipated, particularly since content material solutions are often one in all our strongest areas, it reminded us of one thing all advocacy program leaders know: advocacy has its ebbs and flows.

When you’re noticing comparable patterns in your individual program, you’re not alone.

An evening at The Okties

The Okties wasn’t simply enjoyable; it delivered spectacular outcomes, and we made this recognized all through our total group:

• 140% enhance in advocate posts
• 106% enhance in attain, hitting 2.51 million
• 167% enhance in engagements, with a whopping 4.3K engagements from advocates alone

We hope The Okties conjures up your subsequent advocacy initiative. Comfortable advocating!