Interview Petra Bernhardt
"Corporate influencers increase the value of a brand"
Petra Bernhardt, Social Media Leader at IBM DACH, knows how corporate influencers can be used to build reach. Photo: IBM
Petra Bernhardt, Social Media Leader at IBM DACH, talks about how corporate influencers can be used to build reach. Photo: IBM
Petra Bernhardt, Social Media Leader at IBM DACH, in an interview about the IBM Corporate Influencer Programme, the added value of brand ambassadors at events and why personal branding is the linchpin.
tw tagungswirtschaft: The influencer market is booming. It is expected to grow to more than 22 billion US dollars by 2025. More than a quarter of marketing managers in the DACH region now rely on influencers in their strategies. A new facet has recently emerged. Companies are building up so-called corporate influencers to boost brands with authentic content. IBM is one of them. Ms Bernhardt, what is the idea behind the IBM Corporate Influencer Programme?
Petra Bernhardt: We are convinced that a brand cannot communicate its portfolio to the outside world through marketing messages, paid media and brand social channels alone. We have many very well-trained employees, but they cover smaller areas along our portfolios. We couldn't place them all individually via marketing. We would need a huge amount of budget for that. That's why we started early on to develop employees who are interested in becoming corporate influencers in order to make ourselves visible to the outside world. I don't just mean visibility on social media channels. We have many colleagues who are speakers at events, for example, or who go to customers and present themselves there. Developing into a brand ambassador or corporate influencer is just the logical next step.
How did the IBM Influencer Forum come about as a result of the programme?
The IBM Influencer Forum was born out of a spontaneous idea after the Covid pandemic. I wanted to bring our internal and external influencers together to promote dialogue. At IBM, I also work with external influencers, i.e. paid collaborations. So the idea came up to bring together our corporate influencers as well as external influencers and personalities from our customers at an event. I wanted to prove that social media is not only necessary. That our programme is not just aimed at C-level or IT managers, but that employees from other business areas can also be influencers. For the first forum, we went to IBM headquarters and visited our IBM Quantum System One. That gave a massive push in the market and the participants were enthusiastic. Since then, I've done this twice a year. Either at IBM or at other companies, which then act as hosts. The aim is to network, exchange news via LinkedIn and meet up again. Of course, it reflects on the company that hosts it.
What makes a good influencer in B2B? How do they differ from classic influencers that we encounter on Instagram and TikTok?
Influencers on Instagram and TikTok are mostly active in the B2C sector, often with classic product placement and much more push. Our external influencers in the B2B sector are opinion leaders, experts in their fields and often also keynote speakers. They are convinced of the products they support. That makes them credible. One example is our influencer for artificial intelligence, who places IBM watsonx in an excellent position. We also have a great influencer for sustainability, Zackes Brustik, who knows the subject inside out. His podcast #GewinneZukunft is absolutely worth listening to! It's the same with corporate influencers. My main topic here is personal branding: it's about our employees positioning themselves as experts. Telling their own story. Showing what they can do instead of just randomly posting company content.
"Our external influencers in the B2B sector are opinion leaders, experts in their fields and often also keynote speakers. They are convinced of the products they support. That makes them credible."
Petra Bernhardt, Social Media Leader bei IBM DACH
How do you motivate your employees to become corporate influencers? And then stay that way?
I focus on the topic of personal branding. When I give my keynote speech, I do it as enthusiastically as possible. I try to convince my budding corporate influencers to do it for themselves. Within their working hours. For their own benefit. But with charisma for IBM. So I want to address intrinsic motivation. Attempts with giveaways had not worked.
You mention on your LinkedIn profile that you are an expert in event surround concepts. What tasks do your corporate influencers take on at events? Do you assign tasks?
I don't assign any tasks. That's not my place. Before an event, in which we normally invest a lot of money and manpower, I organise short training sessions. I explain to the participants how to publicise the event in advance. And I give examples of questions to ask: Why should someone attend the event? Why am I at the event? What great thing am I doing at the event? During the event, the influencers should document what is happening and share their impressions. Even when it comes to competitor contributions. After the event, they should then post a summary. So it's also about accompanying an event that is important to us through the perspective of another person and thus increasing the value of an event.
So, does the corporate influencer increase the value of an event solely through their reach?
My answer to that is a resounding yes. The investment we made in our participation and the social media content provided by the IBMers present at the event helped to disseminate the topics we presented much more effectively. Even for customers and interested parties who were unable to be there.
Influencers can create valuable reach for an event. However, the example of Gamescom in Cologne shows that they are not a limitless tool. There were so many influencers "in the way" of the participants during the event that this even became a topic on the ZDF heute Instagram channel. Here's the Instagram post.
Copyright: Screenshot
How do you measure the success of corporate influencers? Can the activities be converted into costs and benefits?
This cannot be measured in traditional cost-benefit categories. There are companies that run similar programmes full-time. They look after their influencers continuously and want to be able to track their results on LinkedIn. It works differently for me. I offer impulse training and then let the employees decide for themselves whether they want to continue. I then offer more in-depth sessions, which has worked well. And open office hours, where I bring news but also answer any questions. We don't monitor who posts what. We respect the private nature of our employees' social media channels. I measure success more by the growing participation in our internal communication channels, such as our Slack channel, which started with zero participants and now has 1,000 voluntary subscribers.
Photo: Georg Strohbücker, ClicClic
"We don't monitor who posts what. We respect the private nature of our employees' social media channels. I measure success more by the growing participation in our internal communication channels (...)"
Petra Bernhardt, Social Media Leader bei IBM DACH
What three hacks do you have for a good post?
A good post first needs a hook - the first sentence has to be right, because then "show more" is displayed on LinkedIn. Then a good structure is important: What is the post about? A few bullet points as solution points and a meaningful image should be included. A link can also be included directly in the post, even if the algorithm doesn't like it that much.
Keyword Chat GPT and creating content for social media with the help of AI: In your experience, is that a good or rather a bad idea?
It depends on how confident someone is when posting. I think you can definitely get good ideas from tools like watsonx, ChatGPT or PerplexityAI if you can't think of anything. But I'm more Team "Real". I write my posts myself because I know what I want to say. I recommend that people find a place where they can jot down ideas so they have a content plan. If you don't want to do that, you can use AI, but that's a matter of taste.
Where do you set limits in the design of posts and the personal brand of your corporate influencers if they are to communicate in the spirit of IBM?
We have Business Conduct Guidelines and Social Computing Guidelines that set out clear rules, or rather guard rails. It's about not disclosing confidential information, remaining polite and adhering to general business principles. Otherwise, our employees have great freedom to express themselves. Our IBM corporate value "Trust and Personal Responsibility" plays a central role here.
Have you ever had something go really wrong? Have you ever had to intervene?
No, we are a well-trained team and our employees know what they can and cannot do. One topic that I always bring up is image rights. It's important to always get permission from the people pictured before publishing a photo. That's only fair.
In conclusion: What are your three learnings from the IBM Corporate Influencer Programme?
Let me add a few wishes. Firstly, I would like all employees to take part in the programme. Secondly, we extended the programme to C-level at IBM last year. This means that our management is now also involved in the programme. That makes a big difference, because they are already achieving greater reach through their own efforts and, of course, motivating employees to get started. Thirdly, I hope that every company will start a programme like this. Together with external influencers, this will be the future of social media marketing. Paid media will remain important, but for real penetration and brand consideration you need people who represent their company authentically and credibly to the outside world.
New for our international readers:
For the first time, we are offering an English version of our magazine in addition to the German edition. The translation was made with the help of AI and is currently in the test phase. We’d love to hear your feedback on this new service!