In today’s business world, employer branding is vital to a company’s success. Many companies have invested heavily in their branding, but there is one key ingredient that is often overlooked: employee advocacy. Employee advocacy is when employees use their personal social media networks to talk about their employer and promote the company’s products or services.
There are many benefits of employee advocacy, including improved brand awareness and reach, increased sales, and improved employee morale. However, before you can start reaping the benefits, you need to understand what employee advocacy is and why it is so important.
What Is Employee Advocacy?
Employee advocacy simply means when employees use their personal social media networks to talk about their employer and promote the company’s products or services. It is a way for employees to publicly endorse the company they work for and generate positive word-of-mouth marketing.
Employee advocacy can also mean employees sharing company content on their social media accounts. This is often done through corporate social media accounts or employee advocacy platforms, which are software programs that allow employees to share content with their networks.
There are many different ways that employees can advocate for their company, but the most common method is through social media. Social media advocacy platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn provide employees with a large audience to reach with their positive messages about their employer brand.
Employees can also advocate for their company offline, through word-of-mouth, or by wearing company-branded clothing. However, social media is the most powerful tool for employee advocacy because it allows employees to reach a large number of people with positive messages about their employer.
Types of Advocacy
There are two main types of employee advocacy: Online Employee Advocacy and offline advocacy.
Online Advocacy
Employee advocacy online is when employees use their personal social media networks to talk about their employer and promote the company’s products or services. This can be done through corporate social media accounts or employee advocacy platforms.
Offline Advocacy
This is when employees talk about their employer to friends, family, and acquaintances. This type of advocacy can be just as powerful as online advocacy, but it is more difficult to measure.
Difference Between Networking and Advocacy
It’s important to understand the difference between networking and advocacy. Many people think that they are the same thing, but there is a big difference.
Networking is when employees build relationships with other professionals to further their careers. Advocacy, on the other hand, is when employees use their social networks to talk about their employer and promote the company’s products or services.
The main difference between networking and advocacy is that networking is focused on the individual, while advocacy is focused on the company. Networking is about building relationships, while advocacy is about talking positively about your employer.
Why Brands Should Consider Employee Advocacy
There are many benefits of employee advocacy, but the three main benefits are improved brand awareness and reach, increased sales, and improved employee morale.
Improved Brand Awareness and Reach
One of the biggest benefits of employee advocacy is improved brand awareness and reach. When employees share positive messages about their employer on their social media accounts, they are effectively marketing the employer’s brand to their social media connections. This can help to increase brand awareness and reach for the company. The increase in brand awareness brings about the potential for an increase in sales.
Improve Employee Engagement and Morale
Employee engagement can be referred to as the level of employee enthusiasm and commitment to their job. When employees are engaged, they are more likely to be productive and to stay with the company for a longer period.
Employee advocacy can help to improve employee engagement and morale because it allows employees to publicly endorse the company they work for. This can make employees feel proud to work for the company and increase their level of commitment to their job.
Affordable Marketing Technique
There are many marketing techniques that companies can use to improve their brand awareness and reach. However, employee advocacy is one of the most affordable marketing techniques because it doesn’t require a lot of resources.
All you need to do is provide your employees with content to share, and they will do the rest. This makes employee advocacy an ideal marketing technique for small businesses or startups that don’t have a large marketing budget.
Since it doesn’t cost anything for employees to share positive messages about their employer on their social media accounts. This makes employee advocacy an extremely cost-effective way to market your company.
Reaching a Niche Audience
Another benefit of employee advocacy is that it can help your marketing department reach a niche audience. When employees share positive messages about their employer on their social media accounts, they are effectively marketing the company to their networks. This can help you reach a target audience that you might not be able to reach with traditional marketing techniques.
Easy to Implement
Employee advocacy is one of the easiest marketing strategies to implement. It involves very little resources and can be done quickly. All you need to do is provide your employees with content to share, and they will do the rest. Many employee advocacy platforms make it easy for employees to share positive messages about their employer on their social media accounts.
There are many benefits of a strong employee advocacy program, but these are some of the most important ones. If you’re looking for a way to improve your brand awareness and reach, consider implementing an employee advocacy program. It’s an affordable and easy marketing technique that can have a big impact on your business.
How Employees Can Benefit from Advocacy
In addition to the benefits that brands can enjoy from employee advocacy, there are also many benefits that employees can enjoy.
Become Thought Leaders
Thought leadership: As a thought leader, it is important to be able to see the big picture and have a clear understanding of the latest trends in your industry. You also need to be able to provide insights and solutions that can help solve problems and improve processes. To be successful, you need to be able to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions that are not only effective but also efficient.
When employees share positive messages about their employer on their social media accounts, they have the opportunity to position themselves as thought leaders in their industry. For example, if an employee is passionate about the company’s mission, they can share blog posts or articles that they have written about the company on their social media accounts. This can help to position the employee as a thought leader in their industry and increase their visibility.
Advanced Networking
Another benefit of employee advocacy is that it can provide employees with advanced networking opportunities. When employees share positive messages about their employer on their social media accounts, they are effectively marketing the company to their networks. This can help employees connect with potential customers or clients who might be interested in the company’s products or services.
Having Early Access to Company Perks
Company perks are another benefit that employees can enjoy from employee advocacy. For example, some companies offer their employees discounts on products or services when they share positive messages about the company on their social media accounts.
Employees who are advocates for their employer often have early access to company perks. For example, if a company is launching a new product, employees who are advocates for the company may have the opportunity to test out the product before it is launched to the general public.
Better Personal Branding
Employee advocacy can also help employees to better their branding. When employees share positive messages about their employer on their social media accounts, they are effectively marketing the company to their networks. This can help employees build a positive reputation for themselves and improve their branding.
A good example of personal branding is if an employee is passionate about the company’s mission, they can share blog posts or articles that they have written about the company on their social media accounts. This can help to position the employee as a thought leader in their industry and increase their visibility.
Personal Growth with Organizational Growth
Personal growth is another benefit that employees can enjoy from employee advocacy. When employees share positive messages about their employer on their social media accounts, they have the opportunity to grow along with the company.
For example, as the company’s reach and visibility expand, so does the reach and visibility of the employees who are sharing positive messages about the company on their social media accounts. This can help employees to grow their networks and expand their career opportunities.
How to Launch an Employee Advocacy Program
Now that you know the benefits of employee advocacy, you might be wondering how you can launch an employee advocacy program that will not only work but also encourages employees to begin their employee advocacy journey at your company. Here are a few tips:
Define Your Goals
Goals are important for any marketing initiative, and employee advocacy is no different. Defining your goals for your employee advocacy program will help you to measure your success and determine whether or not the brand advocacy is working for your company.
Before you launch an employee advocacy program, it is important to define your objectives. What do you hope to achieve with your employee advocacy program? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Drive more traffic to your website? Generate more leads? Once you have defined your objectives, you can develop an employee advocacy plan to achieve them.
Select the Most Suitable Type of Campaign
There are many different types of employee advocacy campaigns, so it is important to select the most suitable type for your company culture. Some common types of employee advocacy campaigns include social media campaigns, content sharing campaigns, and employee referrals.
In case you choose social media campaigns, decide which platforms will work best for your company. For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, LinkedIn might be a good platform to focus on. But, if you want to generate more leads, Facebook could be a better option.
Provide Incentives for Participation
One of the best ways to encourage employees to participate in your employee advocacy program is to provide incentives. Some common types of incentives include gift cards, paid time off, and extra vacation days.
You can also offer prizes for employee advocates who generate the most leads through their employee networks or share the most content by carrying out promotional efforts on employee advocacy platforms.
Training for Advocacy
When you launch an employee advocacy program, it is important to provide training for your employees. This will help them to understand what is expected of them and how they can best participate in the program. Employees should be trained on how to use the company’s social media platforms, how to share content, how to utilize an employee advocacy tool, and how to generate leads.
Ask for Authentic Advocacy
When you ask your employees to advocate for your company, it is important to ask for authentic advocacy. This means that you should ask your employees to share their own experiences and stories about your company. Employees should not be asked to share fake reviews or testimonials. A good example of authentic advocacy is an employee sharing a photo of themselves with a product they have consumed or used in the past.
Provide the Resources for Advocacy
When you launch an employee advocacy program, you should provide your employee advocate with the resources they need to be successful. This includes access to social media platforms, employee advocacy tools, content to share, such as company news, also post company culture on social media channels, and training materials. You should also make sure that your employees have the time they need to participate in the program.
Track Advocacy Program Performance
It is important to track the performance of your employee advocacy program. This will help you to see what is working and what is not. You can track the performance of your program by looking at the number of sales leads generated, the amount of traffic driven to your website, and the engagement of your employee’s personal social media accounts.
Evaluate and Improvise
Once you have launched a successful program, your employee advocacy program, it is important to evaluate its performance and make changes as needed. For a successful employee advocacy program evaluate the results of the employee advocacy strategy and see if you are achieving your desired objectives. If not, make changes to your formal employee advocacy program and try again.
While evaluating, ask yourself these questions :
- What type of branded content is getting the most engagement?
- What social media platforms are generating the most leads?
- Who are the top performers in your program?
- What changes can you make to improve the performance of your employee advocacy programs?
These questions will give you an idea of how to improvise your employee advocacy strategy.
Tracking the Success of Your Advocacy Program
There are a few key metrics you can track to gauge the success of your employee advocate.
Participation Rate
The participation rate is the number of employees who are actively participating in your program. This can be measured by the number of employees who have signed up for the program, the number of employees who have shared content, and the number of employees who have generated leads. The participation rate can be calculated by dividing the number of employees who have participated in the program by the total number of employees.
Engagement Ratio
The engagement ratio measures the amount of engagement that your content is receiving. This can be measured by the number of likes, comments, and shares your content receives. The engagement ratio can be calculated by dividing the number of engagements by the number of employees who have shared the content.
Reach Ratio
Reach ratio measures the number of people who have seen your content. This can be measured by the number of impressions your content receives. The reach ratio can be calculated by dividing the number of impressions by the number of employees who have shared the content.
Queries Received
Queries are the number of questions or comments you receive from potential customers. This metric can be used to measure the interest that your content is generating. Queries can be tracked by setting up a Google Form or using a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. Queries received are a good measure of the success of your employee advocacy program. It can be calculated by dividing the number of queries received by the number of employees who have shared the content.
Good amount of queries received can help you understand if your content is valuable to customers and can help you generate leads.
Employee Feedback
Employee feedback measures the satisfaction of your employees with the program. This can be measured by conducting surveys and collecting employee feedback. Employee feedback can be used to improve the program and make changes as needed. Examples of an employee’s feedback include: “I love the program and I think it’s helped me connect with customers.” or “I think the program is great but I would like to see more content about our products.”
Employee advocacy is a great way to improve your branding and generate leads. By providing your employees with the resources they need to be successful, you can create a powerful marketing force for your business. If you are not already using employee advocacy, consider implementing it into your marketing strategy. It could be just what you need to take your business to the next level.
Conclusion
A successful employee advocacy program is a great way to improve your branding and generate leads. It is important to track the performance of your employee advocacy program and make changes as needed. By providing your employees with the resources they need to be successful, you can create a powerful marketing force for your business. If you are not already using employee advocacy, consider implementing it into your marketing strategy. It could be just what you need to take your business to the next level.
To be successful with employee advocacy, you must provide your employees with the resources they need to be successful. You should also make sure to track the performance of your program and make changes as needed. Evaluate the success of your program by looking at the participation rate, engagement ratio, reach ratio, queries received, and employee feedback. Use these metrics to improve the performance of your employee advocacy program.