IAG: How to take your Viva Engage channel from good to great. I’ll show you how!
APAC | Viva Engage Festival 2023
In a hybrid working model it is more important than ever your senior leaders are posting and fostering a sense of community on the platform.
Learn about the why and gain critical tips and insights to power your journey.
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But now we'll be welcoming our next speaker to the stage. We're going to be joined by Trinity Pollard from IAG, who is their specialist for digital communications and channels. And Trinity was actually one of our finalists for this year for the Viva Engage Community Champion Award, and has just made a really significant impact to the overall community engagement at IAG.
So congratulations again to Trinity. And one of the number one things we're asked about at SWOOP, I would have to say, is how do we drive more senior leadership engagement? And I know Trinity has some fantastic insights to share on the topic. So welcome, Trinity.
Thank you so much. Thanks, Emily, for that wonderful introduction. I know it's been a long afternoon, everyone, so stay with me.
Slides are all good. I'm going to start with the acknowledgement of country before we kick off. So I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I'm joining today and pay my respect to their elders past and present.
And I'd like to extend that respect further to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people we may have on the call with us today. So the question, why your senior leaders need to be on Viva Engage? It's a big one. So welcome to an amazing buckle up your seatbelts talk on how to get them on and how to measure your success.
After we're done today, I'm going to ignite a spark in you that will help you transform your Viva Engage channel to the next level with your leaders underpinning and embracing internal comms like never before. So I think before we start, it's good to frame up who I am and also who IAG is. My name is Trinity, for those of you who don't know me on the call, and I'm a digital channel specialist.
I work in a small team of three amazing humans, and we look after all the digital channels. And of course, one of those is Viva Engage. We sit in the employees comms team and sit inside the bigger corporate affairs and sustainability team.
One thing I'm personally passionate about is data, and that stems back to my early career at the ABS. I love measuring how things are doing with channels. That's one thing you really want to do is you really kind of want to measure how things are going.
SWOOP has that, which is great. When I'm not managing channels, you can find me at the gym, playing football, getting lost in the world of TikTok and spending time with my family and friends. I do love to communicate digitally.
And for those that know me well, I've treated to wonderful kinds of memes in the group chat. Digital comms is very much part of my blood, and I relish the always being on. Who is IAG? We're the largest insurance group in Australia and New Zealand.
You may know some of our brands, such as NRMA Insurance, CGU, and AMI in New Zealand. We have about roughly 12 and a half people in Australia, spread over Australia and New Zealand. And our purpose is to make the world a safer place.
That is whether you're a customer, partner, an employee shareholder, or part of the community. And we aim to deliver on this strategy. So before we kick off and we get into things, I really want to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of culture and Viva Engage.
The two sit side by side, they run parallel. And if you don't spend the time within your organisation, focusing on culture, that negative sentiment will come out in your communities. So I really want to call that out, is the two, you cannot separate them.
As you can see here, we've got a cover photo from our careers month last month, and that was a fantastic event where we all kind of came together. So I really encourage you to kind of use images of your real people, avoid stock images when you can, because that really will bring your organisation to life. So why do you senior leaders need to be on Viva Engage? The credibility of your network is built with your senior leaders and how they engage on the networks.
It's not always easy to get your senior leaders and your CEO on there. And I want to take a moment here to acknowledge this as a comms professional. It's hard, it's really hard.
And you may be met with, I don't have time for socials, they may not see the value, it is not part of my job, and they're all really hard objections to overcome. So how do you overcome these? You need to ask your leaders whether they want visibility. Let's face it, work has changed forever, one of those big town hall events where we all came together and we could see, touch and feel our leaders presence.
You may have even shared the lift with your CEO and thought, gee, he or she is tall. Those interactions, the world has changed, hybrid working and work from anywhere policies, they've changed the nation at work. And for Gen Z, some will never know the pain of being in an office five days a week.
So this is why the visibility is still important. And by having your CEO and your senior leaders on there, automatically boosts their visibility. It makes them approachable, it opens two way conversation opportunities.
And you do not get these opportunities with things such as email. This makes Viva Engage even more relevant than when we knew it as the band formerly known as Yammer. Viva Engage can help employees feel energised and connected to their leaders and their workplace.
This is the why. You need your senior leaders to buy into the value. And as comms professionals, you can write the posts and you can post as a delegate, but you really want your leaders to come on the journey with them because that's how you find their authentic voice.
Being on Viva Engage as well, your leaders will build better connections, your CEO will be more trusted. And many people say they prefer to work for a company where their leadership is active on socials. Again, this is the why and the benefits of the definitive.
I know Emily touched as well on the good guide of the 3-2-1 rule. It's all about balance. So highly recommend having a content calendar, but within that, for every post you make, commit to making two replies and three likes.
And just on that one, I kind of want to call out, never underestimate the value of a like from a senior leader. That level of connection and touch can go a long way to an employee's journey. You may be a Sydney CEO, but those who can improve your reach to Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart.
If you're in an international company, your CEO or senior leaders can be making posts in New York and London. So just alone, those likes can really kind of perpetuate that reach massively internally. So I'd like to share a little bit about what we've been doing at IAG.
Nick had a dedicated community already in 2022, but in 2023, we made some small tweets to kind of get it to the next level. One of those was auto-following the entire company to Nick's channel. And that was to make it inclusive, to make everyone included.
But we had seen at IAG the announcement feature be a little bit overused. So when people kind of received the announcement feature, they didn't come to the channel. They kind of were seeing it more as spam.
So we really wanted to use true organic engagement. We wanted people to come to the community, to Nick's, when they felt like it, to feel empowered and to come. And we had good success with that.
I really want to point out as well, do not use Viva Engage like you would on email. It is a different medium. So find that authentic voice.
Use photos as well. Photos. Work with your CEO to find some photos.
Have some fun with it. One of the really great things that come out of Nick being really visible and using the platform is it's encouraged other senior leaders at IAG to jump on board. Again, that builds the credibility of your network and encourage others.
Nick's posts reach about 75% of the company, which is about on par with his email reach. So considering the likes, the comments, the shares, and that kind of two-way engagement, it makes Viva Engage such a powerful medium over email. And like our other speakers have said today, tag people.
That's a really great way to get them and bring them into the conversation. So as I said, I love data and I like all my things to be data driven. And this is where SWOOP comes in.
So you've got your leaders, you've got your CEO, you're on there, but they always want to kind of see charts and graphs. They want to see how they're tracking. So using the Influencer Report can help you with this.
So the Influencer Report will be made up of 10 people in your company. And ideally, you want your CEO to be the number one person. And that will also be made up of other senior leaders and employees across diverse range of business segments.
You'll start to see the internal comms people drop off the lists and also the community managers. And this is a sign that your community is starting to thrive and your network. The definition of the Influential People Report is influential people are people that many others engage with, which ultimately, from an internal comms perspective, is a gold star.
If your senior leaders are doing this, you're well on the way. At IAG, we're passionate about data, very passionate. We track all our things.
So SWOOP data, you can track your top 10 posts, your campaigns. You can go into seven days, you can go into one day, you can go into six months. So really use these metrics.
Your CEO and your senior leaders will really kind of really get on board with it. As well, having that CEO is number one, that will just kind of really embrace your whole network. I can't emphasize that one enough.
So in the nature of merch and giveaways, I'm going to throw to our first poll. Thanks, Fran. On how many people Nick has engaged with in the last six months? Wondering if some people are underestimating Nick Trinity.
I don't want to give it away, though. Shall we randomly select a winner for this poll once we get the answer? So let everyone answer that one now. We have some Viva Engage merch up for grabs.
Trinity's got a good haul here. So you're going to want to answer this poll. What's the first, what prize are we giving away for this one? So we have an awesome Viva Engage sleeve here.
And we also have a Microsoft cup. All right, Fran, do you want to choose someone at random? I shall randomly select someone. And we've got Lucy Biggs to the main stage.
Lucy Biggs, you have won your grand prize. Congratulations. Lucy, we'll reach out and we'll make sure that we can get the merch to you.
Excellent. So again, on data, you want to be strategic in your posting. You want to get the most out of your posts.
And this is a general nugget of gold you can share with anyone who wants to improve or nail their VivaFlex. So a lot of people think Monday 9am is the best time to post, or is it Tuesday? So let's go to poll number two. We've got another cup and another laptop sleeve to give away.
So at IAG, when do we think is the best time to post? Monday through to Friday. Just wait to get some more answers in there. Although I'm liking these.
It looks like a quick excitement is building. Everyone's going to be responding now. I wonder how varied it would be across different organisations too.
People might vote for what works in their organisation, but it might be a little bit different at IAG. That's a very good point, Emily. Yes, this is specific to IAG.
So let me know when we have a winner. We have Kim Logan. Congratulations.
We've got a laptop sleeve and cup coming your way. Who doesn't want a VivaEngage sleeve? So at IAG, as you can see, we've got the activity by time. This is the enterprise view from SWOOP.
So the best day of the week and the heaviest traffic on our network is Thursday and Friday. And I can't tell you how happy I am about that. I was never a Monday 9am person.
So knowing if you can strategically post on a Thursday or Friday, you can let your senior leaders know that they're going to get the most bang for their buck on their posts. Appreciate not always that you can post. Sometimes things are time sensitive and they do need to be on a Monday at 9. But if they don't, you can use the enterprise view to see on your organisation when the best time will be to post.
Like I said, and Emily touched on, that'll be different for every organisation. So really use SWOOP's data to make that informed decision. So stay with me.
I know it's been a long afternoon, but to close today, I want to summarise the takeaways that I've got for you. So number one, pay attention to the culture of your organisation. This sentiment will impact how successful your Viva Engage platform is.
You cannot separate the two. Number two, your senior leaders want to be on there as they want the benefits, and that will underpin your credibility of the network. So senior leaders, increase visibility, number two.
Three, SWOOP analytics to report back on data. You've got the fantastic influential people. You really kind of want your CEO and your senior leaders and the other people in your organisation on that.
Use the enterprise view, the time of day, what posts perform the best and why. Use the data to continue to create an improved mindset so you can continue to get better and better. Number four, the content calendar.
Consistency is key. And use the 3-2-1 approach. So for every post, make two replies and three likes.
Also, have fun. Work with your senior leaders to find their authentic voice. Don't use Viva Engage like email or more kind of corporate.
Really kind of work, find that authentic voice and have some fun. It is an internal channel. Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone on the call today.
I appreciate it's a very busy time of year. So thanks, SWOOP, for hosting this wonderful melting pot of ideas. I've really enjoyed listening to all the speakers.
If you'd like to know more or you'd like to have a chat, my digital door is always open. And feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. Thanks, everyone.
Thank you so much, Trinity. There's been so many great examples shared. If you can't take, if you haven't taken inspiration yet from any of our presentations, I'm sure you'll be able to take something away from what Trinity's had to share today.
Now we can get into a few questions. So if you have any questions about leadership engagement, it's a question we're asked about all the time. Please do get your questions into the Q&A.
But we'll start with a quick question here for you, Trinity. Do you think you can train a CEO who is just not good at talking to people to get comfortable and to get great at engaging with people in Viva Engage? What do you think? That's a great question, Emily. And thanks for the question.
I think coaching is really important on Viva Engage to coach people, particularly people and leaders who may not be confident. It's not their natural place. So really spend that time coaching, a bit of handholding in the beginning and build their confidence.
You might find you're helping them write a lot of their posts, building their confidence. But eventually, once you work with them to find their authentic voice, you'll find that they'll feel more comfortable and they'll be more confident moving forward. Excellent.
And then I'm just wondering as well, like on that sort of coaching piece, do you have any sort of top things that you would advise to leaders? I know you've obviously spoken about the one, two, three rule. How do you approach that? I think spend regular time. Consistency is the key with Viva Engage.
And we know leaders are really busy, particularly CEOs, senior leaders that often at off sites and things like that. Make a regular time with them with coaching and commit to it and stick to it. Cover off things, include photos, photos with all the posts, tag the other senior leaders, lead by that example.
It may feel really artificial and clunky to begin, but I ensure you that it'll become authentic and it'll become natural over time. And how much time would you suggest a CEO needs to sort of set aside each week to be engaging on Viva Engage? What's the realistic time investment you think? That's a really good question. I think as well for comms people, you can kind of identify a lot of those conversations as well that are happening on the network and ones that the CEO and your senior leader should partake in.
So once you have that kind of coaching and that one-on-one time with them to present those conversations that they'd like to get in. Time figure, it's kind of always a kind of a hard one, but I would say half an hour a week if you've got that time or fortnightly will help you with that consistency. Nice.
Now I'm going to just do another quick call out to the audience to see if anyone has any questions they'd like to pop in the Q&A. I'm also more than happy at this point, if anyone wants to jump off mute, if they want to turn their camera on to ask a question directly, because we do have a few more minutes as well. So any other questions that we'd like to ask Trinity about leadership engagement and Nix News community perhaps? I'm wondering if anyone else has like a dedicated CEO community that you might have any questions about.
I'll just give everyone another few minutes to perhaps add anything to the Q&A. Or if you want to raise your hand, happy for you to use the raise hand function. Trinity, I'm sort of just sitting here wondering if you've had situations where you kind of, there's been difficult questions raised where, you know, your CEO has come to you and said, Trinity, like, I wish that they hadn't asked this.
So what's, you know, how do you, how do you deal with those if they've had, they've come across? How do you deal with some of those difficult questions? Thanks for the question, Clive. I think it's, I think it's really good to kind of, you know, if it is a constructive question and it is something that everyone is wondering, you can see it from the CEO perspective or the organisation's perspective. This is actually really insightful that people have come to this.
This is not something that we thought of. So I think being open to those questions, because you can learn so much. Email communication is not going to give you that insight.
You're kind of talking at people. There's no engagement. But yeah, those questions are really valuable.
So I would look at them, not as a difficult question, but as a valuable question. I really like that approach. I'll just see if we have anything else that's popped up.
Otherwise, we'll have a few extra minutes. I'm not sure if we have our next speakers almost ready to come onto the main stage. So I'll just give it another few minutes to make sure that we're all sorted.
I made a plug in the chat just for the Propel Group's report on LinkedIn behaviours from CEOs. And they've actually done a similar report for public sector leaders in Australia. And I think there's so many parallels about how organisations are using, we've engaged internally.
And then that whole culture you talked about, Trin, how do we, if it really is a mirror of the organisational culture, we've engaged. I think often LinkedIn can be a mirror of your, like if you're an individual posting of your own, like almost your own digital personality, right? So how much are you willing to be vulnerable and share? And what's your tone? Do you only publish annual reports? Or are you using these other social channels to show who you are? So yeah, just a plug for those. So our friends from Propel Group have done some amazing work on analysing CEOs.
I'm actually not sure whether IHE or CEO is also actually on LinkedIn, but I wouldn't be surprised because oftentimes these two things go together. Very true. Amazing.
Meet the speakers:
Trinity Pollard
Specialist, Digital Communications & Channels
IAG
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