“Because we started using Apostle, we saw a huge increase in employee interaction and engagement." - Walter Young, Marketing Program Manager at Canon Europe.

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About Canon Production Printing

Canon Production Printing is a leading innovator of printing and workflow management products and services.

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Problem

“The reason to start working with Apostle came from a curiosity to find ways to increase employee engagement within Canon,” said Walter Young, Marketing Program Manager at Canon Europe. Canon often works with experienced sales people who are not as comfortable with social media. While resources were readily available for download and post to social media, little effort was made. After a small internal investigation, it turned out that many people did not yet know exactly how social media channels worked and were afraid to express themselves there. In short, there was a demand for a simple solution, so that employees could share social media posts via their smartphone, at any time, with a few clicks of a button. “We found that simple solution with Apostle. We can easily prepare all posts with photos, text, and CTAs in them. The texts can also already be translated into the desired language. In addition, the CTAs can also redirect to the right websites in the right countries. All the employees have to do is click 3 times and the message is on their page.”

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Approach

Apostle’s easy-to-use platform ensures the desired, higher employee involvement in the organization. In the beginning, Canon offered all kinds of webinars to explain to people how to create an account, how to get started with the platform and how to create posts. All recordings were saved so that employees could re-watch or view them later. Already after the first webinars, the feedback came that these training courses were unnecessary, because employees found the platform so easy to use. From a user perspective, therefore, a huge success.

Canon's approach is successful: the platform allows them to be active in twenty countries, place content in various languages and are actively involved with employee advocacy on a large scale. Scheduling everything with just one platform: Apostle. In order to further optimize the reach in different countries, Canon wants to focus on intercultural differences and keep putting out authentic content together with their employees on social media. 

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Results

“Because we started using Apostle, we saw a huge increase in employee interaction and engagement. People who were 'social media shy' beforehand realized that it was not scary and difficult at all. Especially because we do all the work for them”, Walter says with a wink. “A great result. The involvement of these employees was the main reason for using Apostle and therefore also our first measurable success.”

“It is difficult for us to check whether the social media post placed via Apostle actually leads to the purchase of a product. Our sales cycles run from six months to two years, in that timeframe there are a lot of different influences. The best alternative to look at the results of this process is paid social. If you look at the cost of paid social and how much we spend on Apostle, I personally think we get more visibility for every euro we spend on employee advocacy, compared to every euro we spend on paid social. I do not mean we have stopped with paid social, we still do, but I am comparing the advantages now especially in that area. Another advantage worth mentioning: with employee advocacy we really build a valuable relationship with the customer!”