Employees are your biggest megaphone.

Your employees are your best megaphones, but how do you engage with them as ambassadors for your brand? I’ve built and scaled employee advocacy programs that play an impactful role in a brand’s awareness.

Employees are your #1 resource - companies large and small alike can use employees as megaphones to share company-centric content with their networks. Employee Advocacy is the promotion of a brand or company that an individual works at. 

Advocacy is just a piece of the puzzle that can help you not only bolster your own personal brand, but help grow your company.

 

How to launch an advocacy program

  • Find the right tool:

    I have successfully launched Sprout Social’s advocacy tool (formerly known as Bambu) at three companies. Each company saw immense growth in brand awareness.

    Other tools I have compared Sprout to include Hootsuite Amplify, Oktopost, and DSM8.

  • Build a comms plan:

    Once you have a tool, the next step to launching an employee advocacy program will be building out an internal comms plan.

    When will you launch? What promotions do you need to build for this? Will you have FAQ or any internal documents needed to share with the organization? Will there be a company wide email?

  • Increase adoption:

    Gamification: When launching and activating employees in a new advocacy program, gamification is a great way to boost engagement and adoption of the tool.

    I have ran many gamification programs with giveaways from gift cards and company swag to big-ticket items like xbox, Nintendo switch, and more.

  • Get managers and execs involved:

    Eventually you will need other members of the SLT team to become advocates for your program. Working with execs and other organization leaders will showcase the onus is not just on you - but getting employees active is a group effort.

Why is advocacy important?

  • Extend the reach of your company

    • Company branded messages had a 561% reach when shared by employees compared to branded channels.

    • 800% more engagement on posts shared by employees, when compared to the same posts shared by official brand accounts (Social Media Today)

  • Your prospects are watching

    • 91% of B2B buyers are active on social media (SuperOffice) and 75% of B2B buyers use social media to support purchase decisions (Linkedin)

    • 74% of people trust content shared by people (employees) over content shared by brands (company pages)

    • 90% of B2B buyers are more likely to engage with salespeople who are seen as industry thought leaders (Tribal Impact) and 82% are experienced increased trust as a result of thought leadership content (LinkedIn)

  • Advocacy helps with recruitment and retention of employees

    • Companies with a successful employee advocacy program are 58% more likely to attract, and 20% more likely to retain, top talent (LinkedIn).

    • 79% of job applicants use social media in their job search (Glassdoor)

    • Employees at companies that invest in personal branding initiatives are 27% more likely to feel optimistic about their company's future

    • Highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability (Gallup)

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