Employee Advocacy on Social Media: An 8-Step Guide

Content shared from personal handles are more likely to capture a reader’s attention than branded content. So, it makes sense to leverage employees’ networks on social media, to increase reach. In this article, we discuss:

• Interesting stats on employee advocacy programs
• An eight-step methodology to get started in 2020
• How technologies like LinkedIn Elevate could play a role

Employee advocacy is an effective way of expanding the organic reach of a company’s messaging. It can create new customers – as individuals in employees’ direct network are more likely to be converted by content shared by them personally, as opposed to branded communication. It also helps to strengthen your position as a preferred employer. Social media has made employee advocacy easier than ever before, opening up a new set of channels for interactions.

How can you take advantage of your workforce’s potential to influence possible candidates? We share an eight-step guide for 2020.

Learn More: 4 Ways Employee Advocacy Platforms Help Improve your Employer BrandOpens a new window

Why Start an Employee Advocacy Program?

To start with, one could ask why you need an employee advocacy program in 2020. Let’s look at an important LinkedIn dataOpens a new window point: only 3% of employees share company content, but this is responsible for a 30% increase in the content’s engagement activity.

A recent surveyOpens a new window on the State of Employee Advocacy Programs on Social Media reaffirms this finding. According to this survey of 400+ marketers, 73% of respondents said that they find posts shared from personal profiles to be more persuasive than those shared by a brand. Only 13% said they would prefer brand communication over personal messages.

In other words, it makes sense for the company to invest in an employee advocacy program that leverages employees’ personal networks to:

• Engage the consumer base from a variety of touchpoints
• Convert your salesforce into domain experts
• Establish your employer brand to simplify inbound recruitment

8 Steps to Run a Successful Employee Advocacy Program on Social Media

Social media makes it easy to launch an employee advocacy program and measure its results. Here are the eight steps you need to follow:

Step 1. Goal-setting

This is the first and most important step to build a strong base of employee advocates. Consider the possibilities of social content sharing like an increase in the number of followers, more inbound applications, faster time-to-hire, etc. Communicate with the various stakeholders across your sales, marketing, and recruitment functions to define a strict KPI as well as a permissible margin for error.

Step 2. Channel selection

Based on the KPIs you selected, choose the channel for content dissemination. For instance, if your employee advocacy program is focused on recruitment KPIs, LinkedIn is the way to go. If, on the other hand, you’re sharing topical thought pieces to trigger interest, Twitter might be a better idea. At this stage, you can also implement a social media analytics tool to start recording the program’s outcomes.

Step 3. Internal influencer identification

Take a leaf out of the marketer’s playbook to find influencersOpens a new window among your workforce. These will be individuals with a reasonably large number of followers, and a high engagement rate. However, a huge follower base doesn’t always make a person the best employee advocate – keep an eye on the hashtags they use to analyze how relevant their profile is to your area of operation.

Learn More: How Employee Advocacy can Boost Talent Acquisition and Reduce Recruitment CostsOpens a new window

Step 4. Marketing the value of advocacy

Your employees must perceive some sort of value add from joining your employee advocacy program. This will include non-monetized rewards such as company recognition, as well as monetary incentives. Interestingly, the survey we cited above found that non-monetary incentives can be more effective than monetary ones! To market these facets, launch an internal email campaignOpens a new window across the company.

Step 5. Influencer onboarding

At this stage, you are ready to onboard selected (and interested employees) into your advocacy program. Explain your KPIs in detail, define their role in the process, and convey how their contribution makes a difference to the company. Ask about their areas of interest to personalize your content library. This ensures that participants are genuinely invested in the content and aren’t merely chasing incentives.

Step 6. Content curation and hosting

This is the foundation of any employee advocacy program’s success. High-quality content is bound to get more attention, thereby leading to more conversion for both customers and candidates. Look at your influencer’s content preferences to curate the perfect library. You could also ask the influencers to act as authors, further strengthening the connect. Host your content in a dedicated blog under your company’s domain, or consider MediumOpens a new window if you’re looking for a cost-effective option.

A simple hack would be to ask employees to share your posts on social media, thereby amplifying your voice and theirs.

Step 7. Employee advocacy program launch

Now you’re ready to take your program live. Start with internal emails to remind influencers about content updates, particularly in their areas of interest. You could even hold weekly meetings where they come together to discuss what they liked most and which areas are open to improvement. Employee advocacy should blend in seamlessly with your larger marketing/recruitment marketing strategy, necessitating collaboration between HR and marketing.

Step 8. Measurement and review

Employee advocacy on social media makes it easier to monitor the metrics in real-time. Historical reports, generated every month or quarter, are also useful. Go back to the analytics tool implemented in step 2 and review the impact of employee-shared content. Did you meet your original KPIs? Did you fall short in one aspect, with surprising success in another? The answers will inform future programs.

Learn More: 3 Branding Problems You Can Solve using Employee Advocacy PlatformsOpens a new window

Can Technology Play a Role in Optimizing Employee Advocacy in 2020?

Digital tools are central to employee advocacy programs. From social media platforms to email marketing and analytics, you can leverage a host of technologies to increase participation and ensure results. This is precisely why employee advocacy solutions are so popular, bringing together all of these elements under one roof.

LinkedIn ElevateOpens a new window is a good place to start – the chances are that your company is already on LinkedIn, making the process fast, simple, and scalable.

By leveraging the right technology and the eight-step methodology we discussed, you’re on your way towards turning the most influential employees into vocal brand advocates. Factor in their personal preferences, constantly track KPIs and don’t be afraid to pivot in a new direction!

What, according to you, is the best way to get employees to buy into advocacy programs? Tell us on FacebookOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We’d love to learn from you!