Scaling success: How Hymans Robertson transformed social media with Oktopost

Meet Hymans Robertson

Hymans Roberston is an independent partnership helping millions across the UK build better financial futures. With over a century of history, Hymans Roberson provides services to organizations and individuals in pensions, investments, and insurance. Hymans Robertson is B Copt certified, present in four UK offices, with over 90 partners and 100+ years of experience.
Hymans Roberson specializes in Risk Transfer, Actuarial Consulting, Defined Benefit Pensions, Defined Contribution pensions, Public sector pensions, LGPS pensions, Corporate Rewards and Benefits, Longevity, Pension Consultations, Master Trusts, and Pension Consolidation.

The challenges

The team at Hyman's was facing several challenges before implementing Oktopost. Here are some of the key challenges they faced:

Underutilized employee advocacy potential

Despite having a large employee base (initially 1081 employees in 2021, later growing to 1409 in 2024), the company wasn't fully tapping into its employees' professional networks to amplify the reach of its content. Employees weren't actively sharing or promoting company content, limiting the potential reach to prospects and clients. The marketing team saw this as a missed opportunity to increase visibility and build trust through authentic professional employee voices.

Content overload without effective distribution

Hyman's had a high volume of content to distribute but lacked a structured, scalable way to share it with their employee's extended social networks. Without a streamlined system, the ability to effectively scale, manage, distribute, and maximize the value of this content was limited, reducing marketing efficiency and impact.

Legacy tools falling short

Hyman's was using a different social media management platform before Oktopost but found it lacked key functionalities, particularly:

• Advanced analytics (not detailed enough to provide actionable insights)

• Integration with Microsoft Dynamics to tie social media activity to broader marketing and sales efforts.

• Social listening capabilities that aligned with the company's needs.

These limitations hindered their ability to measure the true impact of social media efforts and advocate for further investment in these channels.

Social media team efforts, such as building individual employee profiles or creating personalized content with team members, were time-consuming and not scalable. For example, a manager worked individually with one person in the investment services team to grow their profile through weekly calls. While these efforts were effective for specific individuals, they were resource-intensive and couldn't scale across the entire employee base.

Fragmented tools for advocacy and social media management

While exploring employee advocacy, they trialed alternative advocacy tools with 20 employees, which yielded good results. However, they realized they needed a more advanced and integrated solution that combined advocacy with social media management in a single platform. Relying on separate tools for social media and advocacy risked inefficiencies and made it harder to master a system or centralize data tracking social media activities and impact.

The Oktopost solution

Empowering advocates with easy-to-use tools

Advocates embraced Oktopost's user-friendly tools, including the Teams integration and mobile Advocacy app, making sharing and engaging on LinkedIn simple even with their busy schedules.

The introduction of AI-generated post suggestions also boosted ease of use, inspiring advocates to personalize their posts with minimal effort. Key Oktopost features are the Teams integration, the Advocacy mobile app, and Advanced AI tools for post-editing and personalization.

Advocates love the Teams integration and the advocacy mobile app. It's convenient, especially for those who prefer engaging on the go. And with the advanced AI tools, they can easily personalize posts without feeling like marketers. Nina Humphrey, Senior Digital Marketing Executive

Scaling employee advocacy quickly

Nina successfully scaled the employee advocacy program from an initial pilot of 20 advocates to 125 - 140 active participants in just four months through targeted onboarding, internal communications, and continuous engagement.

The program has driven significant increases in traffic from social to the website, with social's contribution to web traffic growing from 3.8% in 2021 to 14% in 2024, a 268% increase.

We started with just 20 people, but in four months, we scaled to over 100 advocates, and now we're consistently maintaining a group of 125 to 140. It's been incredible to see how much we've grown and how much traffic we're driving to the website, 14% of users now come from social.Nina Humphrey, Senior Digital Marketing Executive

Engaging and retaining advocates

Hyman's creative approach to engagement, including internal articles, competitions, raffles, testimonials, and regular updates on performance, has kept advocates motivated. Hyman has achieved strong advocate retention by gamifying the program and celebrating top performers.

The engagement strategy to keep advocates active includes a monthly newsletter about the program's success, top-performing highlights, charity raffles, and AI-generated updates.

We've built a program that excites advocates through competitions, testimonials, and regular updates. It's about creating a sense of community and showing the value of their contributions. Nina Humphrey, Senior Digital Marketing Executive

Benefiting from Oktopost's continuous innovation and product experts

Oktopost's commitment to innovation and partnership with LinkedIn ensures the platform is always ahead of the curve. Its advanced analytics, AI tools, and seamless customer support make it a trusted partner in Hyman's marketing efforts.

Together with their Account Manager, the Hymans team and Oktopost ensured a shared journey towards social media goals and a commitment to mutual success through personalized support and collaborative strategy.

Oktopost is always innovating, and their partnership with LinkedIn means we're the first to get new features. Their team makes us feel seen and supported. It's like having an extension of our team. Nina Humphrey, Senior Digital Marketing Executive

Future plans and vision

Hyman leverages daily Microsoft Dynamics integration, advanced analytics, and Teams integration.

The Hyman team is very focused on retaining active advocates by strengthening advocate engagement and improving key metrics like web traffic from social media.

Special emphasis will be placed on creating more content for advocates, increasing the variety of content, including videos, podcasts, and personalized thought leadership pieces.

Advocacy growth is planned by elevating profiles of key thought leaders on LinkedIn, particularly in areas like pensions policy advocacy.

Further including social media activities with broader marketing campaigns

Our focus now is on retention, keeping advocates engaged, and driving even more traffic. We're also exploring new content formats like videos and podcasts to amplify our voice and make social a key driver of our campaigns. Nina Humphrey, Senior Digital Marketing Executive

The results

Elevating social media as a strategic priority

Social media evolved from a "nice-to-have" to a core part of Hyman's overall marketing strategy. Social is now integral to PR campaigns, corporate messaging, and thought leadership efforts, ensuring alignment across business units and with key campaigns.

The transformation is that social media is now included in the planning stages of major campaigns, focusing on making content engaging and accessible across teams.

Social media is at the forefront of our marketing efforts. It's now a key driver of our campaigns and a tool for amplifying thought leadership across the business. Nina Humphrey, Senior Digital Marketing Executive

Advocating for change beyond marketing

Social media has empowered key employees to become thought leaders, amplifying voices in meaningful policy discussions. For example, a current campaign highlights Hyman's work advocating for government pension reform in the UK, positioning the firm as a leader in driving societal change.

Example: Partnering with Callum Cooper, Hyman's head of pensions policy, to amplify his voice on LinkedIn and in the press.

One of the campaigns I'm most proud of is supporting our pensions policy team in advocating for government reform. Social has become a platform for meaningful change, and it's amazing to see the impact we can have. Nina Humphrey, Senior Digital Marketing Executive

Measurable business results

Oktopost's analytics provided actionable insights, helping the team focus on metrics that matter, like link clicks and web traffic. The robust power of Microsoft Dynamics and the Oktopost Power BI integration enhanced reporting capabilities, enabling visibility into which advocates and content were driving conversions.

Social web traffic increased from 3.8% in 2021 to 14% in 2024 and will reach 20% in the future.

In just a few years, we've increased social-driven web traffic from 3.8% to 14%. The analytics and integration with Microsoft Dynamics from Oktopost give us the insights we need to prove ROI and keep improving. Nina Humphrey, Senior Digital Marketing Executive, Hymans Robertson

By scaling their advocacy program, engaging employees, and leveraging Oktopost's advanced tools, Hyman's transformed social media into a strategic marketing channel, delivering measurable business results while driving meaningful industry change.

We scaled from 20 advocates to over 125 in just four months, and that momentum has continued. Seeing the level of engagement we've achieved across the business is incredible. Nina Humphrey, Senior Digital Marketing Executive, Hymans Robertson