By definition, employee advocacy is the promotion of a company’s messages by its employees.
Employee Advocacy mainly takes place online, with social media as the medium for brand ambassadors.
Employees have extensive networks of friends, followers, and connections on social media who can be reached and influenced with a click of a button. By sharing valuable content to their networks, employee advocacy can increase the company’s reach and credibility by generating meaningful conversations about the business. At the same time, employees are also building their personal brand online.
Put simply, Employee Advocacy is knowledge sharing for people within and outside the organization.
There are 4 advantages of Employee Advocacy:
(source: socialmediatoday.com)
- Reach – Employees have the potential to reach more people than the sum of their corporate social media channels. Advocacy may span beyond the platforms companies are using because employees may be active on networks their employers don’t use.
- Credibility – Compared to advertising and marketer-generated content, employee-generated messages are perceived as more credible and trustworthy
- Employee engagement – An employee advocacy ties employees more closely to the company and has the potential to increase employee engagement. Employees rally around the idea of making a difference and therefore find more meaning in their work.
- Personal brand development – Employee advocacy not only empowers employees to act as brand ambassadors, but also helps enhance their personal brand.
In addition, 85.6% of employees in firms with a formal employee advocacy program say their involvement on social media for professional purposes has helped their career.
Essentially, using employee advocacy helps spread your message, drives better communication and has the potential to increase sales and customer retention.
Elements of creating an employee advocacy program are:
- Set guidelines
- Plan the launch
- Devise a content strategy
- Choose your toolbox of platforms / networks
- Provide employees with training
- Provide incentives for participation
- Measure performance and results, on an ongoing basis
If you’re serious about generating credible brand awareness, implement an employee advocacy program sooner rather than later and start reaping the benefits.
A deliberate and strategic employee advocacy program is a smart social media play for any kind of company looking to expand its reach inexpensively – and with authenticity.
If you’d like help designing and implementing an employee advocacy, click here and start growing your business.
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