Your company probably has a few thousand likes on Facebook, and shares content with fans there.
The average individual Facebook user, according to the Pew Research Centre, has about 200 friends. If 100 employees shared company-related content with each of their 200 friends, that’s 20,000 people. And that doesn’t even include additional social circles on sites like Digg, Tumblr, and Reddit.
Do we have your attention yet? This is what employee advocacy is all about, and it can make a massive difference in the results of your marketing campaigns.
What is employee advocacy?
Employee advocacy involves leveraging a company’s employees – its most valuable asset – to help increase exposure, build brand awareness, and ultimately, help generate revenue.
It is, in short, the promotion of an organization by the company’s own staff in a genuine, authentic, and trustworthy manner, and done so at the will and desire of the employees themselves.
Typically with employee advocacy, staff members are given a platform to share relevant and interesting content that they feel is most applicable to their personal social circles, and that helps promote your brand. That could include articles, promotions, deals, and information on upcoming products or services.
Employees may be incentivized to participate through things like internal recognition, virtual badges, conference tickets, prizing, or gamification.
With a great company culture, and genuine passion for the brand, chances are employees will be none too eager to participate in advocating for your brand.
Why is employee advocacy important?
Employee advocacy helps build trust with staff, empowers them to be voices for the company, and turns them into credible spokespersons and experts for the brand.
Having employees as advocates can help attract new customers and engage existing ones, create a more personal relationship, and keep employees themselves more engaged. When employees share support for a brand, they help to humanize it.
According to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Report, an overwhelming 92 percent of consumers worldwide trust earned media, including recommendations from family and friends, over other forms of advertising.
The Edelman Trust Barometer for both 2015 and 2016 found that people deem information shared on social media by a company’s employees more credible than content shared by even the CEO.
How do I create an employee advocacy program?
Start small with the most passionate, socially-active employees, who can draw others in over time.
Once ready to move forward, appoint an “ambassador” – a single point person to lead the charge and manage your social media advocacy program, presenting simple guidelines (e.g. be polite, be transparent) and social media best practices. The ambassador should provide advice and counsel to advocates as needed.
Through an advocacy program, curate and load approved content from which employees can choose and share if desired. Being mobile-ready can help, so employees can access and share content from any device and location, and at any time.
Social media is the most common medium for employee advocacy, though it can also take place through e-mail, chat, forums, discussion boards, and other online spaces. But don’t forget to promote advocacy offline, too, by offering employees company-branded swag, organizing get-togethers and outings, or simply praising top advocates for their efforts.
Most important, a program should deliver value to the audience, and inspire employees to want to be vocal advocates for your brand.
Which major companies have invested and what are their results?
Companies across various industries and company sizes have had success with employee advocacy programs.
IBM worked with Dynamic Signal’s VoiceStorm software on its #NewWaytoWork program, which gave 1,000 employees the opportunity to share six pieces of content daily. The result was 120 million digital impressions, and 141,000 clicks to campaign content through employee shares.
Working with Hootsuite Amplify, Topgolf saw 42 percent adoption of its employee advocacy program in its first week, a 31 percent increase in content shared via the platform, 66 percent increase in reads of content shared, and 220 percent increase in total likes of content shared.
Launched last year with Dynamic Signal, Pitney Bowes’ program, called The Insiders, generated 68,000 shares, 44,000 reactions, 215 million impressions, and 141,000 clicks through the activities of over 500 employees. Those are just a few of many examples.
What metrics should I use to measure success?
Many advocacy programs can merge content sharing, publishing, monitoring, gamification, and analytics in one.
Ideally, an employee advocacy program would tie back to an overall marketing strategy to measure impact. But the most common and critical measurements include metrics like conversion rate, active participation, top contributors, organic reach of content shared, and lead generation.
Consider how much traffic was driven to the company website, and how much did the company’s own follower base grow because of the program?
Sales and ROI are key – merging advocacy metrics with existing sales metrics can make it easier to pinpoint the exact ROI from an employee advocacy campaign.
Consider also delving into more granular metrics, like shares, clicks, and reactions, which can provide useful insights to help you tweak the program for its subsequent stages.
Bottom line
Employees are right under a company’s nose, yet many businesses overlook just how valuable they can be as loyal, trusted, and passionate brand advocates.
What’s more, some are already advocating anyway – Weber Shandwick reports that 33 percent of employees share messages, pictures, and videos about their employer without any encouragement at all.
With the right program and approach, employee advocacy can become an integral, and successful, part of any marketing strategy.
Want to incorporate employee advocacy into your marketing strategy? Download our free marketing plan template to get started!