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The one slide that made our exec team see advocacy as a growth engine Want to get leadership to buy into customer advocacy??Show them the influence of just ONE advocate. I use a simple slide to demonstrate this impact to executives — seeing it mapped out changes everything. Here's what ONE advocate can do: ??Leave a 5-star G2 review?→ Influences thousands of buyers ??Join a use case interview?→ Becomes powerful sales enablement content ??Participate in betas?→ Helps shape product development ??Speak in a webinar?→ Generates $X in pipeline from one session ??Complete analyst questionnaires?→ Influences market positioning (like Forrester Waves) ??Champion your tool when they switch companies?→ Unlocks expansion opportunities From?awareness to expansion, a single advocate touches nearly every stage of the buyer and customer journey. ?Real results from the slide. One advocate: - Influenced GPI Customers' Choice distinction - Drove significant pipeline from a single webinar - Triggered a sizable expansion opportunity when they moved companies Now ask your leadership team: What if we scaled this to 10, 50, or 100 advocates? The result? A?compounding effect?on growth AND these activities cost almost nothing. But building this engine requires three key steps: ? Proactive advocate identification (NPS, Sales & CS relationships, community) ? Nurture & engage them with meaningful opportunities?(speaking, reviews, betas) ??Celebrate and recognize them?(shoutouts, success stories, exclusive programs) ?? Link to the slide template in the comments?(with some info redacted, of course). What about you? How are you proving the impact of advocacy to leadership? Or what has been your biggest challenge in getting buy-in? Drop your thoughts below.

??Success is never a solo journey—it's built on the dedication, passion, and teamwork of incredible people. ?? Last week, F5 pulled off an amazing #AppWorld2025 event. For me, however, the real magic wasn’t just in the event itself—it was bearing witness to the months of planning, the late nights, the problem-solving, and the collective drive that brought it all together. ?? To the #CustomerEngagement team: I cannot thank you enough. Your hard work, creativity, and commitment made this event a success, and I feel incredibly grateful to work alongside each of you. From the big-picture strategy to the smallest details, every effort you put in showed, and it made all the difference—to our customers, partners, and F5 ecosystem of attendees. ?? I’m so proud of what we accomplished together, and I can't wait to share some of the highlights (stay tuned for more photos!). ?? Here’s to teamwork, to celebrating wins, and to pushing boundaries together! Life is, indeed, sweeter on the inside! #BeF5 #Gratitude #Teamwork #Success #ThankYou

?? Question for my network: Who is doing customer success stories well? ?? I love looking at great examples of success stories, case studies, testimonials, use-cases. It's inspiring to see companies being bold and showcasing stories in innovative ways. ?? Because, we can all chuck words on a page - but who is bringing the numbers to life? Who is managing to cover both the statistics, and the human angle? Who is highlighting the customer instead of the product and features? Who is using images, graphs, charts, icons, colour effectively? Who is truly customer obsessed?????? Send me recommendations in the comments. ?? And Happy Friday all!!

PSA: ?? Advocacy isn’t a “nice to have”—it’s a revenue engine. If your company is still viewing advocacy as a soft metric instead of a business-critical function, you’re leaving serious money on the table. ? Deals close faster – When prospects see real customers winning with your product, they move through the funnel with confidence. Advocacy removes friction and speeds up decision-making. ? Retention improves – Customers who feel valued don’t churn. A strong advocacy program strengthens relationships, reducing the risk of losing high-value accounts. ? Acquisition costs drop – Every advocate-generated referral is a direct reduction in CAC. Happy customers attract other high-quality buyers—without ballooning your marketing spend. ? Revenue grows – Engaged advocates renew at higher rates and are more receptive to upsell opportunities. Plus, when they move to new roles, they bring your solution with them. ?? Cutting advocacy isn’t cost-saving—it’s revenue-limiting. If you're trimming budgets, start by doubling down on what drives real, measurable impact. The companies that prioritize advocacy will dominate the market while the rest struggle to keep up. Advocacy is the growth multiplier you can’t afford to ignore. ??

Finding advocates at scale is one thing. Finding advocates who meet specific criteria is another. Welcome to?Day 3 of our Deep Dive into how to build an advocacy pipeline from scratch! Today, we’re focusing on how to structure an advocacy pipeline around persona. Why is this important? - Requests for customer references and webinar speakers sometimes require specific qualities: ? A specific title ? A specific use case ? A specific industry To ensure you have engaged customers in these key areas, you need to understand how people WANT to be activated. So how do you build a persona-based advocacy pipeline?... 1?? Partner with CS/CX to find 8-10 happy customers that fall into different buckets - If your business strategy is to drive you up-market, focus on large mid-market to enterprise customers. - If you’re going after agencies, find a handful of agencies of various sizes to meet with. 2?? Meet with key contacts to learn about them - The goal for the admin/POC is? to help inform your customer marketing strategy, and maybe walk away with a new advocate. - Offer an incentive like a gift card (boring), free credits/a small feature upgrade, or a nice gift. 3?? Ask the right questions:? “Tell me about your experience with our tool so far?” → Assesses their technical proficiency. “How do you connect with other folks in a similar role to learn?” → Reveals where they network (your referral channels). “Can you think of any specific moments where our tool solved a quick problem, or helped you personally in your role?” → Identifies “aha” moments you can build automations around. “What other tools do you love using & why?” → Shows who else they advocate for and where you can draw inspiration. “What incentivizes you to advocate for a tool publicly? If you don’t typically like to advocate, what’s the reason?” → Uncovers what drives or prevents advocacy. By the end of the call, you’ll have planted the seed for a new advocate. ? 4?? Sealing the relationship Advocacy should feel natural, not forced. If the customer likes your vibe, they’ll OFFER to lean in. Here’s your closing question:? “ I’m building an advocacy motion from scratch, and I’m really excited we met. Would you ever be open to testing some advocacy initiatives with me?” Most people want to help - it’s human nature. Give them the opportunity, and they just might become one of your strongest advocates. - Apply what you’ve learned to your outreach strategy at scale. - You’ll discover new behaviors, channels, and engagement preferences for different personas. - You may also make some new BFF's

New website, who dis? We are so excited to FINALLY go live with a new website for Orca! For the first time since we launched 5+ years ago, our website accurately reflects our business and brand, it answers our most commonly asked questions (??), and it actually educates visitors about the application. Interactive demos, additional screenshots, videos, and more coming very soon. But for now, check it out to learn more about all things Orca, AI, Slack, Scheduling, and even - why Orca?

Forget Onboarding: Focus on What Really Improves Community Engagement Many onboarding efforts in online communities fail. They overload new members with unnecessary steps, overwhelming them with information they’ll never use—while completely ignoring the real reasons people don’t engage. Instead of adding more onboarding tactics, simplify the experience and focus on what actually moves the needle: → Personal messages → Event sign-ups → Digest emails Why Most Onboarding Journeys Are a Waste of Time The reality is, most communities don’t need complex onboarding. → Most members are transactional. They come to ask a question, get an answer, and leave. → You can’t force people to engage. The reason most don’t participate isn’t because they don’t understand the platform—it’s because they lack the time, motivation, or confidence. → Information overload kills engagement. People are bombarded with emails, notifications, and pop-ups. The majority of onboarding emails go unread. So instead of more steps, cut the clutter. What You Should Stop Doing Immediately → Automated email sequences. If you send onboarding emails, keep them minimal. Focus on highlighting value (like upcoming events), not explaining how to use the platform. → First-badge notifications. Nobody needs a pop-up celebrating their first post or like. → Welcome emails that get ignored. Unless it’s personal or surprising, it’s better to remove it entirely. → On-site tutorials. Most users click through these without reading. If needed, make it opt-in or move it to a troubleshooting section. Think about it: When was the last time you joined a community and actually followed an onboarding guide? If a platform isn’t intuitive, people leave rather than learn how to use it. What Actually Improves Community Engagement Only five onboarding tactics consistently improve long-term engagement: → Genuine personal messages. A real, well-researched message (not a template) from an actual community manager makes a difference—especially in smaller communities. → Encouraging people to follow groups or members. Giving new members something to subscribe to (like groups, topics, or specific people) keeps them engaged. → Getting members to sign up for events. This is surprisingly effective. A scheduled event creates a reason to return and engage. → Introduction threads (for smaller communities). They work—but only if done right. Instead of generic intros, ask people to share something others actually care about. → Ensuring members get digest emails. Email digests keep people coming back. If your platform doesn’t support them, it’s a major red flag. Final Thought: Less Is More Most onboarding strategies are about adding more steps. But the best results come from removing friction. → Cut the unnecessary steps. → Make engagement easy. → Highlight real value (not features). If your onboarding process is longer than your community’s core value, it’s already too much.