Financial services: embedding a new strategy through social conversations

We supported the internal comms team at every stage of what was an extremely fast-paced project.

First, we developed a comms strategy. As part of this, we identified the groups of people who’d be crucial to building a successful Yammer community. We defined their roles and created objectives and planned activity for each.

We also recommended that the company create a group of “Yambassadors” to champion Yammer and encourage other employees to use it more. We led the recruitment activity with 70 ‘Yambassadors’ enthusiastically taking on the role.

With the financial services industry being tightly regulated, the company was keen to make sure employees used the network appropriately. 

We assuaged concerns by producing a half-page policy document that was praised for its clarity, concision and use of straightforward, non-legalistic language. The policy was supported by an animated video that was included in the CEO’s communication.

We developed the creative concept ‘spark something today’ to promote Yammer and the different ways of using it. Employees arrived to find the building transformed with promotional materials. Yambassadors were also on-hand wearing branded t-shirts. For the first 30 days, a new ‘Spark Plug’ – a clever tip for using Yammer – was posted to the all company feed.

Throughout and post launch, we acted as the company’s community manager, encouraging conversations on Yammer. We also created ‘how-to’ guides and reported to the executive committee on use of the network.