While PR and marketing pundits frequently describe the benefits of influencer marketing, they rarely mention one group of highly effective and widely available influencers: employees. Employee advocacy — urging employees to post brand content on their own social channels — offers a cost-efficient and authentic way to spread company PR and marketing messages.
A Sprout Social survey shared with Mobile Marketer reveals that 71 percent of social media marketers now use employees as influencers or advocates or want to in the future, yet only 19 percent of marketers have a budget for influencer marketing. Because employees are already familiar with the brand and its goals, companies can readily expand their reach and stay on-message through employee advocacy.
How to Encourage Employees to Become Brand Advocates
Convincing employees to share company content online poses a major initial hurdle for an employee advocacy program. Employees frequently ask: “What’s in it for me?” These tips can help overcome that obstacle.
Through social media listening, identify employees who already defend the organization online and share the brand’s content. Once you’ve trained them to use their social profiles, you have your internal leaders who you can then use for a larger program, advises Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group.
Some organizations offer monetary or physical rewards to top social media performers, but Brenner says the best incentive for employees is bolstering their personal brands. Especially in B2B fields, employees can establish themselves as industry experts when they share informative, thought-provoking content that mentions their company.
Avoid initiating the program through HR or upper management, cautions talent consultant Lars Schmidt. Employees may resist. “Employees may be skeptical if HR or leadership pushes them to act. If they see their peer participating, they’ll be more compelled to follow suit and your initiatives can grow organically and authentically,” Schmidt warns.
Showing them examples of employee advocates from competitors can also help convince your own employees to participate.
The key is to explain how they have a vested interest in the organization’s success, experts say. Collect and share testimonials from sales representatives who have seen an increase in revenue due to social media marketing, advises Andrew Caravella, vice president of strategy & brand engagement at Sprout Social, in a Convince & Convert article. Identify new employees who learned about the position through social media.
Create content such as blog posts, videos, and case studies for employees to share with their personal networks. Suggest how they can best share content on each network but encourage them to edit and rephrase posts to match their personal voice.
Monitor & Measure Results
Devise a measurement plan and select metrics that align with the organization’s primary business goals. Possible metrics include: share of voice, social connections for company accounts, reach, traffic, lead generation and sales. Not-for-profits may wish to track donations or number of new clients that result from social media activities. “Like anything else in communications, at some point you need to know whether this is working,” says Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert.
Summarize results in a format similar to a social media campaign report, but with an additional focus on employee engagement, recommends Hootsuite. Track the percentage of team members who participate and their level of social media expertise. This data will help you adjust how you promote the effort and encourage employees.
While an employee advocacy program on social media can take some effort – and some patience – it can produce significant benefits.
Bottom Line: PR and marketing teams can tap their employees to develop effective, authentic brand advocates. Employees make especially superb brand advocates since they already know the company’s products and mission. These tips can help PR and marketing teams convince employees to share company content online and encourage them to become brand ambassadors.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
