1. Employees are blocked
• Reach: No impact
• Influence: No message
2. Employees have access but aren’t trained
• Reach: Marginal impact
• Influence: Accidentally on message
3. Trained spokespersons
• Reach: Limited impact
• Influence: Corporate message
4. Trained team of spokespeople
• Reach: Significant impact
• Influence: Broad corporate message
5. Employees are trained and encouraged to participate
• Reach: Maximum impact
• Influence: Authentic message
Source: Monte Lutz, senior vice president of digital public affairs at Edelman, based on research from Jeremiah Owyang, partner of customer strategy at Altimeter Group