Finastra Sets a Leading Example in Social Selling

Working at the forefront of digital transformation in the financial services sector, Finastra is no stranger to the importance of social business on both an individual and a company level. “Employees want to be seen in the online space,” explains Alex Rapallo, Digital Marketing Specialist.

“Whether that’s a sales guy looking for prospects or from a career point of view, people want to be sure that they’re showcasing themselves well. Nothing is better than engaged employees talking about their company with the outside world,” adds Martin Häring, CMO. However, one of the key challenges facing companies is making sure individuals have both the means and the confidence to adopt social media as part of their daily professional activity.

“Regardless of the industry you’re in, there’s a blurring between personal life and work life,” notes Nicola Hamilton, Director of Corporate Communications, “between what’s a corporate message and a personal opinion.” This is why Finastra set out to implement a dedicated tool that would make it easy for employees – and for social sellers in particular – to access and share relevant, company approved content.

Sociabble: Simplicity Meets Scalability

When looking for an employee advocacy platform, Finastra’ main priorities were simplicity and scalability.

“Our management told us that if it required more than three clicks to publish content, they weren’t going to use it,”

explains Häring, “so simplicity was key.” Rapallo adds, “We were looking for a tool that was simple, scalable and fast. A platform people could sign up to in the knowledge that content would be tailored to their needs.”

The company has found these qualities in Sociabble, an employee advocacy and social selling platform that aggregates brand, third-party and user generated content (UGC) onto themed channels from which employees can share on their own social media accounts. “With Sociabble we are getting a leading platform,” notes Häring.

Users win points for their sharing activity, and have access to a personal dashboard that tracks individual performance and the engagement generated among end-user audiences. Administrators have access to individual and collective performance metrics.

The speed and simplicity of the Sociabble platform is enhanced by the fact that it is available natively for Android, iOS and Huawei HarmonyOS. “People like to do things on the go, so the app is a really important feature on that front,” notes Rapallo. “It gives employees the extra reassurance that in order to use the tool they don’t need to be in the office, they don’t have to be at their desk.”

Channel Structure and Content Variety

Finastra uses Sociabble’s themed channel structure to organize content according to the company’s business and solution lines, allowing sales teams to opt into the channels that relate to their specific area of activity. “Registered users can instantly see all of the different channels available, and content is in nice bitesize chunks,” explains Hamilton. What’s more, adds Rapallo, “Sociabble has enabled people to gain access to content that’s maybe not in their direct remit, but that they can share with their clients in order to drive cross-selling.”

Giving employees the opportunity to suggest their own content, and to submit third-party content for approval, is also key for Finastra. “It’s not a one-way process,” notes Rapallo, “it’s a two-way dialogue with employees. We get a lot of content ideas through from them, and statistics show that third-party content really does boost overall engagement on the platform.”

Sociabble has also enabled Finastra to draw attention to employer brand content; to showcase the stories taking place within the company. “One of the channels we have is Life at Finastra, and that’s really used to celebrate people, and what people are doing within the organization,” explains Hamilton. Though much of this content is available to share externally, sharing functionalities can be deactivated for certain posts.

Launching the Sociabble Platform at the sales kickoff

As sales teams constitute the primary user group, Finastra chose to launch the Sociabble platform at its global sales kickoff. In addition to teaser emails sent during the leadup to this event, an introductory video was shown live on stage in front of around 600 people, while a designated booth allowed employees to discover and sign up for Sociabble. “The event was the launch pad,” notes Hamilton, “but we’ve had ongoing activities to get people engaged since then.”

These onboarding activities have included one-on-one training with senior members of sales and management teams, as the company is aware that no employee advocacy initiative will reach its full potential without the impetus of executive management. “This is not just a marketing exercise,” explains Häring, “it’s a company-wide initiative that needs to be triggered from the top and then ripple through the organization.”

Häring goes on to explain how the benefits of employee advocacy and social selling are being felt at all levels of the company. “For management, social media was a gimmick beforehand. But now, it’s really taken very seriously. They see that they can reach their community in a much more effective way. For middle management, Sociabble allows them not just to post company content, but also to promote their own thought leadership on behalf of Finastra.

And for all employees, Sociabble has enabled them to become much more aware of what’s going on within the company. It’s extremely interesting to see how many people have learnt about what we are really doing, what our strategy and thought leadership is. There’s a clear educational element to the platform.”

KPIs: Reach, Lead Generation and Sales Enablement

Though an increased reach on social media is the primary KPI Finastra has attributed to its employee advocacy and social selling program, it isn’t the only one; another key impact is lead generation. “Every month, our 500 users are creating a reach of one million, which is very powerful,” notes Häring.

“We can also track if people have registered for an event or downloaded a report off the back of a Sociabble share,” adds Rapallo. Sociabble fits into a three-way social selling strategy at Finastra, the other two elements being one-on-one interaction and social listening.

“Using Sociabble alongside other social selling tools such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator gives our teams the first step in the right direction,” notes Rapallo. “When employees share content and see that people engage, they now have the confidence to engage with those people one-on-one.”

Customer Success Support: Data and Idea Generation

Administrators of the Finastra Sociabble platform receive dedicated support from the Sociabble Customer Success team, including KPI Dashboards that detail user engagement metrics, as well as individual and collective performance data. Support also includes recommendations concerning content structure on the platform, and how to make the most of engagement features such as campaigns, challenges and custom newsletters. “The data and idea generation that we receive from the Customer Success team is really useful,” notes Rapallo.

Häring is quick to point out that “two thirds of the whole buying process within financial services is not with a vendor, not with a physical person that you speak with. It is based on research, on websites, it’s communicating through social channels.”

This is something Finastra has understood, and that has enabled the company to cement its position as a leader in digital transformation and social selling.