Siemens: Our employees are brand influencers

Siemens considers its employees to be the brand’s “number one thought leaders”, according to Ophelie Janus. The tech giant’s global head of thought leadership describes staff as “influencers in their own right.”

When considering how to harness influencers within B2B, she advised companies to start with their own employees. Speaking on a panel at LinkedIn’s B2Believe event yesterday (15 October), she described colleagues as “your greatest assets” when it comes to thought leadership. 

She defined employee thought leadership as shaping a community around the areas relevant to the brand, which in Siemens’ case are AI and the industrial metaverse – a digital environment simulating real-world systems such as factories and transportation systems. 

Janus referenced the LinkedIn B2B Institute’s 95:5 rule, which finds 95% of B2B buyers are out-of-market at any one time. However, she believes harnessing colleagues as thought leaders on social media and at events helps Siemens stay “top of mind” and considered trustworthy when B2B buyers come to purchase.

Is the time right for B2B brands to embrace influencer marketing?

Using the analogy of selling trainers, Janus explained brands in the fitness space need to talk about running as that’s “how you shape your community and consistently engage with them”.

“Siemens is not selling sneakers, we’re selling the industrial metaverse which you can’t even really use right now, so we focus on developing long-term, visionary content,” she added. 

Fellow panellist Imogen Coles, head of influence at Ogilvy, explained employees are posting on social media whether you want them too or not, and they are only going to become more visible. In which case, Coles advised companies to harness employees as influencers and take control of a situation that could otherwise be scary.

Janus explained Siemens is “super structured”, with clear guidelines for employees acting as influencers. Coles recommended a meeting with human resources and the legal team to ensure you are “clear on the rules” for employees engaging on social media as brand ambassadors.

Engagement impact

In order to measure the impact of engagement, Siemens runs a global corporate ambassador programme analysing the number of colleagues present on LinkedIn versus those who are active, so they can track the impact of their posts and activities. 

Janus described this as a “precision game”, whereby the team look at the quality of the interactions and conversations ambassadors engage in on social media. The marketers track top of funnel measurements, like how social media interactions are building awareness and education for the areas Siemens specialises in.

Fellow panellist and chief customer officer at research firm System 1, Jon Evans, has first hand experience of being an employee-influencer. When he launched his Uncensored CMO podcast in 2019, Evans went through performance reviews and was “on the edge of getting fired for a long time”, as he was often making the podcast rather than sitting in budget meetings.

However, he explained that as the podcast grew in popularity, the business learnt how “powerful it was to have a personal employee profile”. He explained that for System 1, prioritising employees as thought leaders has a direct impact on inbound customer enquiries.