First of all, let’s be clear on what employee advocacy is. Simply put, your employees advocate your brand in their own circles. In this respect we are using social media as the platform but there are many ways it can be expanded, such as branded clothing and company celebrations.
Formal employee advocacy strategies
Picking up on the trend, your forward thinking, proactive, outside the box company may have a strategy in place for maximising and capitalising on employee advocacy, but, as a normal company like us, you probably don’t… However, it is extremely useful to have an agreement in place with your staff that they react to, comment on and share company profile stuff. I pinched this Venn diagram (because everyone loves a Venn), from Bambu Blog as it perfectly demonstrates why.
Increase impressions and engagement
Promotion of your business is often less engaging than other types of content, but when you need to spread the word, your employees can help. Encourage and help all your staff to get on LinkedIn. They may well prefer to keep their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles private and personal, but with LinkedIn as the ‘business end of social’, it makes it the perfect place for employee advocacy to happen. Did you know, ‘people are 16x more likely to a post from a friend than a brand’? Bambu blog
Tip: Use our blog for creating a LinkedIn profile, step by step.
If your company page has 1,000 followers, a single post has the potential to reach 1,000 people. If one of your employees shares that post to their 500 followers, then the reach climbs to 1,500, plus some of their followers’ followers if they like it too…
In reality, it doesn’t work quite like that, but if all of your staff can support the promotion of your company updates, your reach will go up, simple.
Tip: Consider giving your staff a few minutes each day, maybe on a rota, to use their own social media platforms to like, comment and share on behalf of the company.
Big up your employees
Advocacy works both ways. People love to be recognised for a job well done, even if it’s just a pat on the back and instigating an employee advocacy strategy is just another way to show them the love. You could help here by recognising work anniversaries, birthdays, thanks for conducting meetings and events, and celebrating sales or performance figures.
Employees and their friends will definitely react!
Start your employee advocacy strategy
So, want to get on with an employee advocacy strategy? Read the inspiring blog from Bambu and Sprout Social to discover even more benefits to a formal programme, and how to implement one, but if you want quick hints, here you go:
Choose a coordinator
Set goals and KPIs
Talk to your employees and get them excited to take part
Get your employees on LinkedIn
Get going!
Good luck with this, and do let us know if you see a healthy difference in your numbers after a few months…