I sat down with Christina Garnett, Senior Marketing Manager, Offline Community and Advocacy at Hubspot last week, here's what I learned.

Good culture starts with hiring.

Most organizations look to hire talent with at least some knowledge of the product and values. HubSpot takes this one step further. Often, new hires are long-time superfans of the organization, making hiring for culture fit easy.

This mentality can be summarized in the phrase: “The mothership called me home.” Devyn Bellamy, a long time fan of HubSpot, was hired on after getting every single HubSpot Academy certification, hanging out at HubSpot events around the country, and getting on a first-name basis with every employee he meet.

“They already know the product, they are already involved in the community, and they love it already” said Christina.

Gamifying The Community Experience

Christina emphasizes that there isn’t just one way to bolster advocacy. She compares it to a choose-your-own-adventure-novel.

“Advocacy should feel like a pick-your-own-adventure novel. Everyone advocates differently, so it’s best to lean into each individuals’ personal strengths. We don't want to exclude anyone based on how they best advocate.”

Choose your own adventure. For example, a user may advocate by tweeting about their experiences, an Engineer may advocate by taking user feedback and implementing it into the product, and the marketing team may advocate by plugging into conversations in different departments to really understand audiences.

What sets apart HubSpot’s advocacy program is the crossover of departments and community - both internally and externally. Product marketing and values are one big loop that glues it all together. When you are open about discussing gaps or missing opportunities, it’s much easier to get customers and users involved and excited.

For the full interview, the link is below!

https://www.hugo.team/behind-the-team/how-hubspot-turns-stakeholders-into-advocates