12.17.2020 Tribal Impact
2024 is the year AI at work gets real. According to Microsoft, use of generative AI has nearly doubled in the last six months, with 75% of global knowledge workers using it. Users say AI helps them save time (90%), focus on their most important work (85%), be more creative (84%), and enjoy their work more (83%). Put simply, employees want AI at work, and they won’t wait for companies to catch up.
This is why we put AI at the heart of our 6th Social Business Exchange event this year. How can we use the power of AI to transform employee advocacy and social selling? From training to posting, employee generated content to authentic influence.
Sarah Goodall, CEO of Tribal Impact
During the day, we learned how AI can help employees create engaging content, personalise prospect outreaches, optimise results, and enable teams. We also discussed the challenges and risks of AI, such as ethical dilemmas, data privacy, and human oversight.
With a variety of professionals in the room (including social media leads, CMOs, employer branding and sales enablement) we wanted to ensure that everyone understood the impact of connecting the dots between disparate programs. As I said on the day, my trousers brought the spots, the audience connected the dots!
Vineet Tandon, Director Global Talent Marketing at HCLTech
1. B2B Buyers Choose Brands That Win Mindshare
Jennifer Shaw-Sheet delivered the stand-out stat of the day: 86% of B2B buyers start with a list of 3.4 (on average) brands they prefer. 92% will go on to purchase from one of those brands.
She gave her latest LinkedIn download with an eye-watering message to sales leaders - to win, you need to be front-of-mind and on THAT list and it's not just the job of marketing!
This emphasises just how important it is to be online and present on a regular, consistent basis. At Tribal, we call this Network and Nurture – it's how you stay front-of-mind with those buyers that aren’t yet ready to buy and build your pipeline for the future.
Jennifer Shaw-Sweet, EMEA Lead B2B Institute at LinkedIn
2. Invest In Your Employee Influencers For Maximum Impact
Danielle Guzman shared how a small number of expert employee influencers can drive as much (if not more) clicks and impressions as global brand channels or broader Employee Advocacy Programs.
Empower colleagues to share their perspectives, providing the necessary tools and know-how to be effective on social media. Marsh McLennan emphasises how optimising LinkedIn profiles, developing personalised content, and using AI prompts to guide employees with their content is key to scaling advocacy.
Danielle Guzman, Enterprise Head of Social Media at Marsh McLennan
3. Employees Tell The Best Stories (When They Know How)
Empathy, authenticity, and trust came through loud and clear for all the sessions. In an era of AI, where creating content has become easier, we discussed how employees maintained their credibility with the assistance of AI.
Check out Jody Nwaelene and her inspirational story as an engineering intern at Microsoft. She spoke eloquently about her journey using LinkedIn in her first role, proving that employees don’t necessarily need deep technical expertise and 20+ years in the workplace to have a voice and carry influence.
Jody Nwaelene and Lee Welch from Microsoft
4. Using AI – Creator Or Enabler
We also heard from Tribal’s Chief of Growth, Felipe Torres who hosted an interactive session, challenging us to think deeply about using AI as an Enabler and/or Creator.
To get the best from AI, he showed us how to work interchangeably between both “Do it for me” and “How do I?” methods to help refine our content and sharpen our messages.
AI use in the workplace accelerated 47% in the past quarter, with more than 1 in 4 UK desk workers reporting they have tried AI tools for work as of January 2024. (Salesforce).
As Felipe highlighted, it’s not a battle between AI-generated or human-generated content, it’s a battle between good content and bad content.
Felipe Torres, Chief of Growth at Tribal Impact
5. Executive Reputation Management Unlocks Wider Advocacy Success
Sara Atkinson, from Ciena, shared the journey, highlights and challenges that come with activating executive leaders online - a program that aims to foster deeper connections with customers and enhance the customer experience.
Sara Atkinson, Head of Field and Channel Marketing (EMEA, APAC, Japan, India) at Ciena
Leaders are most exposed when it comes to authenticity, ensuring their voice resonates in a way that is consistent with their offline brand. It starts with each executive being clear on their audience, their message, and their content strategy. From here, the consistency of posting and tone-of-voice become important. Finally, educating executives on the importance of engagement – showing them how to listen and engage with stakeholders.
6. Be Cautious Of Gen AI Bias
Finally, Vicki Saunders highlighted the risk implications of AI, and how users should be wary of bias. A recent article from Bloomberg highlighted the impact of bias when generating images through platforms such as Stable Diffusion (the AI took behind Canva) and DALL-E.
Stable Diffusion shows just 7% of doctors in the US are female, yet data from the US Bureau For Labour shows that women make up 39% of this profession are women. Whilst most of these platforms are trying to rectify and adjust against bias, it’s important that those using these tools (employees) are aware of the risks.
Vicki Saunders, Founder of The EVP Consultancy
Technology is evolving so fast, it’s vital that we enable our employees to learn, adapt and be aware of the risks that come with using AI. As our employees build their professional brand, under the umbrella of the company brand, they must take caution around content generation.
To our speakers and panellists, thank you for sharing your experience and expertise so generously and candidly.
Wendy van Gilst, Certified LinkedIn expert and Personal Branding For Business counsultant
To our attendees, this event is for you and about you. Without the connections and conversations, this event would never happen.
Finally, our tribe. Every year they manage to create an amazing experience which allows us all to grow and learn. This year was exceptional. Thank you, team. It’s incredible what we can achieve when we dream big together.
From left to right: Sarah Goodall, Andy Lambert, Rachel Burdus-Cook, Malin Liden
If you found this summary interesting, you can register your interest for next year's event here.
