Q&A Panel (All APAC speakers)
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How are you boosting participation (moving people from reading to posting)?
Medibank (Kat): Run mini campaign series with a clear audience, hashtag (e.g., #GeoStorytelling), monthly themes, and light prizes. Enlist adjacent teams (change/readiness) to like/comment/share and lift momentum.
Both (Kat & Sam): Coach posters to add calls to action (ask a question, invite replies, tag people). Results vary—keep iterating and learning what your audience actually responds to.
Takeaway: Run targeted, time-boxed campaigns with a single hashtag and a small incentive. Co-opt champions to seed replies, and design every post to invite conversation.
Do incentives work?
ACC (Sam): Mixed results. A pet-photo Christmas comp went off; Fraud Awareness Week with a gift card didn’t (≈2.2% engagement).
General: Incentives help only when the topic already has emotional pull or relevance.
Takeaway: Prizes are octane, not engine. If the topic isn’t inherently engaging, no voucher will save it.
Storyline: on or off?
Medibank (Kat): It’s on but not promoted. Exec’s monthly video under Storyline got less engagement than posting in the business unit community—fewer followers = fewer eyeballs.
SWOOP benchmarking (Laurie/Cai): Usage and impact are generally low; many top networks either ignore it or switch it off to avoid mis-posting.
Takeaway: If you keep Storyline, set expectations. For reach, post in communities; for personal updates, use Storyline with followers. Otherwise, turn it off and reduce misfires.
Recognition & “influencers”
Medibank (Kat): Monthly Influencer Awards (no prizes, just recognition) boosted quality and surfaced new voices. Use SWOOP’s Most Engaging Post to spotlight great examples—even from outside the top 10—to model “what good looks like.”
Leaders: Maintain a separate behind-the-scenes leaderboard to create friendly competition and coach consistency.
Takeaway: Make recognition a ritual. Publicly celebrate strong posts and privately benchmark leaders to nudge behaviour.
Managing noise & information overload
ACC (Sam): Early signs of overload in All Company. Plan: redirect recurring topics to existing or new site-specific communities (e.g., 23 locations) so local content doesn’t flood everyone.
General SWOOP guidance: Use personas and a single editorial calendar to throttle volume and sequence messages.
Takeaway: Move from “blast everyone” to targeted communities. Back it with calendar discipline and clear community purposes.
Where does Viva Engage sit vs intranet/email?
ACC (Sam): Map the channel mix (inspired by Reece): Teams = work, Intranet = source of truth, Viva Engage = conversation/visibility. Cross-link chunky items: publish detail on intranet, post a short hook on Engage.
Medibank (Kat): Same approach—always link back to the intranet for the authoritative version.
Takeaway: Give every channel a job. Use Viva Engage for human conversation and discovery; keep the canonical information on the intranet.
Who should publish: comms account or people?
ACC (Sam): Prefer subject-matter experts and leaders to post in their own name; comms advises and amplifies.
Medibank (Kat): Same. Comms doesn’t post as “the team.” Consider personas (e.g., “News with Ned”) only if you’ll invest in growing the following.
Takeaway: Default to real people, real names. It builds trust and drives replies. Use branded personas sparingly and with a plan.
Announcements: when and how often?
Medibank (Kat): Very sparing. Mostly CEO-level; prefer pinning key posts instead of blasting everyone.
ACC (Sam): Temporarily exec-only announcements to drive adoption; plan to dial back once behaviours bed in.
Takeaway: Treat announcements like a limited resource. Pin where possible, announce when necessary, and cap the volume.
Benchmarking leaders (quick tip)
SWOOP feature: Use Individual/Personal Benchmarking to compare leaders on activity, replies, mentions and personas; turns coaching into a data-led conversation leaders actually respond to.
Takeaway: Put evidence in front of leaders. Benchmarking plus small habits (ask questions, @mention) = faster cultural lift.
Meet the speaker:
Cat Owen
Medibank
Jordan Gilliland
Reece Australia
Sam Parker
ACC New Zealand
