Your people are your most valuable asset – not only in providing your products and services, but also through the potential for them to become employee advocates. Here’s how to design, launch and offer training for a powerful employee advocacy program through social media.
Word of mouth is one of your most important marketing tools. Why not use it in your employer branding strategy? Employees aligned with your mission, vision, and values are a powerful force to promote your organisation as a great place to work, attract future talent, and personalise your brand.
Employee advocacy refers to employees promoting your organisation as an employer of choice. There are a number of ways to go about this, but the most effective strategy is through social media.
According to Hootsuite’s guide to creating an employee advocacy program, “Word-of-mouth remains the top influencer for buyers. Studies show that employees are more than twice as trusted as a CEO, senior executive, or activist consumer. Cisco notes that employees’ social posts generate eight times more engagement than posts from their employers. People are 16 times more likely to read a post from a friend about a brand than from the brand itself. In addition, employees often already have social media profiles. And it’s likely that they’re on some platforms that your brand isn’t.
“Plus, employee advocacy is as effective for small businesses as it is for large corporations…[An organisation of] 20 means a potential reach of 5,000.”
This strategy is beneficial for both employees and employees alike. Aside from promoting your benefits, your people are empowered to shape the type of people attracted to your organistation, and build their personal network and brands.
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to launch an employee advocacy program without engaged people with shared vision and trust in your brand. It’s beneficial to start with a strong workplace culture.
As Hootsuite explains, “For employees to become brand ambassadors, they need to love more about their jobs than just their paychecks. In one study, 18 per cent of employees said that corporate culture would increase their loyalty and engagement with a company.
“This is especially true of millennials. In 2016, a Fidelity study found that workers in that generation willing to take a pay cut of up to $7,600 for ‘an improved quality of worklife’.”
Develop authentic relationships with your people to build a high-trust culture. This beneficial in encouraging people to share idea and fosters authentic communication.
Find a way to link your people’s work to your overall mission and vision, and articulate this in a way that helps them understand how their contribution goes towards a higher purpose.
Get your people onside
Why should people participate in your employee advocacy program? Think about the type of things that would motivate and benefit them. For example, they can build their professional brand as a thought leader in their field and gain more recognition on social media.
Hootsuite recommends the following to win your people over:
- Recognise their work. In a recent study, 72 per cent of businesses said that recognition for high performers had a significant impact on employee engagement. An “employee of the month” program or notice in a monthly newsletter sound old-fashioned, but can still be effective. So can setting aside time in team meetings to recognise certain employees. And certainly, few people are above accepting gift cards, bonuses, and even company swag.
- Ask employees what kinds of incentives they would like to see. The more engaged employees are in the process, the more they will feel like they have a stake in the program.
- Ask, don’t mandate.
- Make advocacy a game. Create a leaderboard to show metrics on who’s getting the most impressions or engagement. Make a hashtag around a new development in the company. Then organise a draw among team members who create posts with that hashtag.
- Make advocacy easy. Give them something interesting or fun to promote. This could be a new product announcement or a humorous video.
- Recognise individual talents or accomplishments. Everyone is a micro-influencer in their own right. Perhaps someone is a renowned food blogger, or an expert on all things Apple.
- Show enthusiasm. Remind your team about the program and give updates on new, shareable content. Enthusiasm is contagious, so play up your brand initiatives and goals.
Set KPIs
How will your people know they’re achieving success? Without an organised process, you won’t be able to track results to inform and tailor your strategy.
“The more you define your specific goals, the more your employees will be able to help. If your goal is to increase awareness, ask employees to post more about the brand. If it’s a new product, create shareable content about that product. If your target is [gaining your] share of voice, seek out and organise employees who use several platforms and/or post often.
“Other goals might include improving organic reach, increasing traffic from social media, and expanding your demographic. For each, look at how employee advocacy can help.”
Define social media guidelines
Employees need to understand both your message, and the best way to communicate it. This will ensure your brand messaging is consistent. (“You don’t want one employee adopting an irreverent tone, while others take a more formal approach.”)
Help them understand the best language to use, how often they should post and how they should respond to comments.
If you already have a social media policy, share it with your people. If you don’t, it may be a good idea to create one. Make your guidelines short and easy to follow!
Set up training and implementation guidance
Your people’s social media competency and following will differ, so ensure you clearly communicate best practices across all areas of the business and levels of seniority.
“Be consistent in offering new and shareable content. This helps employees also be consistent and create new social media sharing habits. Offer a mix, if possible, of fun, shareable content, and industry trends.”
Appoint advocacy leaders
Your leadership team should be leading the charge, however, you can outsource advocacy roles to your people. Some of their responsibilities may include communicating your program’s missions and goals, and creating incentives. These leaders should communicate their messages to a small group of people, who in turn pass the message on.
Proactive advocacy leaders will minimise people dropping off from the program after the initial excitement wears off.
Track results
Of course, with any brand initiative
Summarise your results to demonstrate ROI. Consider the following:
- Top contributors. Which individuals or teams are sharing the most? Which advocates are generating the most engagement?
- Organic reach. How many people are seeing the content shared through your employee advocates?
- Engagement. Are people clicking links, leaving comments and re-sharing content from your advocates? What is the engagement you’re getting per network?
- Traffic. How much traffic did the content shared by employee advocates drive to your website?
Take advantage of word of mouth as a recruitment marketing tool, and your people build their personal brand with great content. Design a robust program, offer training and guidelines, and measure results. Employee advocates who share your mission, vision, and values are a powerful force to promote your organisation as a great place to work, attract future talent, and personalise your brand.
Source
Employee Advocacy on Social Media: How to Make it Work for Your Business
Hootsuite