Employee advocacy can be a powerful tool for brand growth. According to a recent poll, employee advocacy increased brand awareness by 79% and brand loyalty by 33%. If your brand is not leveraging employee advocacy, it could be missing out on its full potential reach.

With your employees being the most significant untapped marketing resources and the fact that they are already on social media, they can be great brand ambassadors. After all, they have a good understanding of your business, its products and services. In this article, we will look at how you can use employee advocacy to take your brand to the next level.

What is Employee Advocacy?

Employee Advocacy involves employees of a company promoting it on various forums, such as social media, personal networks, and community events. It is a powerful social media marketing method because the employees are already passionate about the company, to the point where they become its passionate brand ambassadors.

Employees can post a wide range of advocacy content and values on their social media accounts, including blog posts, job postings, industry news, and more. While this concept has been around for a long time, social media has helped to popularize it. Unlike in the past, when professionals would meet at networking events to share information about their companies, today's employee advocacy mostly occurs on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok. 

This new shift has employees turning into influencers and thought leaders for their companies. At times, the employees may do this on their own accord. At other times, companies may give incentives to their employees or provide support to their employees to build their brands. A well-designed company advocacy program can help amplify a brand's reach and enable it to leverage its company’s trust to boost sales.

Why Employee Advocacy is Quite Effective

This marketing strategy is effective for several reasons, such as:

Higher Level of Trust

There is no doubt that in this social media era, people’s trust in brands has gone down, as they now trust other people more than businesses. When they hear about a brand from their friends or industry peers, they are more likely to trust the information compared to when a brand markets itself.

You will agree that you are more likely to trust information coming from a personal experience or an article written by someone rather than a faceless company, only represented by a logo.

New Source of Business

In our previous point, we noted that employee advocacy can help develop peer-to-peer trust, resulting in a higher level of brand awareness and increased self-esteem, which in turn, contributes to a business's bottom line. When your employees start creating content for your brand, the impact can be substantial, leading to faster customer acquisition. Studies indicate that 64% of companies with employee advocacy programs suggest that it helps them acquire new business.

Leverage Employee Networks

You can imagine a situation where your brand has 20,000 followers on social media. If you have 50 employees, all with an average of 10,000 social media followers, it means your employees will have a bigger reach than your brand. When you consider that these employees have already gained the trust of their audience, you realize that you will have more impactful campaigns through your employees.

Benefits to Workers

Employee advocacy programs also benefit workers. On top of the cash incentives they get, employees are also likely to be provided with a steady stream of content to post. They may be given guidance and coaching on how to improve their social media presence, which can help bolster their profiles.

Brands can empower employees to become reputable thought leaders and establish a strong personal brand. In some cases, the brand creates content on behalf of employees, and therefore, all employees simply publish on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter. This position can provide them with an advantage in social selling and career advancement. 

Key Employee Advocacy Statistics to Know

If you are not sure whether employee advocacy is the right option for you, here are several statistics you need to know about:

1. Over the last decade, the interest in employee advocacy has increased by 191%.
2. 93% of social media users agree that they trust the recommendations of their family and friends more when choosing a brand.
3. A PostBeyond report indicates that brand messages often have a 561% higher reach when employees share them compared to the brand's channels.
4. According to a Social Media Today report, employee posts usually receive an 800% higher engagement than brand posts.
5. A Hinge Marketing report indicates that 79% of businesses with an employee advocacy program agree that it resulted in higher visibility. 
6. A Marketing Advisory Network report indicates that leads get a seven times higher conversion when the employee's social media develops them.
7. A LinkedIn report indicates that a brand with an effective employee advocacy strategy has a 58% higher chance of attracting talent. It's also 20% more likely to retain talent.
8. 44.9% of brands agree that their web traffic increased as a result of employee advocacy. 
9. A Hinge Marketing report indicates that 32% of brands experience an improvement in their search engine rankings as a result of employee advocacy programs. 
10. The Hinge Marketing report states that 29% of brands see their customers also become brand advocates as a result of employee advocacy.

Steps in Creating an Employee Advocacy Program

If you are getting started with an employee advocacy program, here are the steps you need to follow:

Engage Your Employees

Unless you have a positive and engaged workplace environment, it can be hard for your employees to act as your brand advocates. The only reasons why your employees will agree to act as your brand advocates are that they buy into the vision of your brand and recognize that they are a part of it. Additionally, it can also help if the brand is already marketing itself to employees. 

Therefore, before you encourage your employees to become brand advocates, determine if they are satisfied with their current department. Consider whether the employees are pleased with the support they are getting from the company. Other questions to ask yourself are:

• Do they feel like they are part of the company? 
• Are they happy with the direction the company has taken?
• How satisfied are the employees with the leadership of the company?
• Are the employees satisfied with the career progression opportunities in your company? 
• Are the employees getting feedback from their managers?

These questions will help you determine if your employees are happy at your organization. You can also identify areas that need improvement in employee engagement. With employees who are supportive and engaged with your business, you have a strong foundation for your employee advocacy program. 

Building a Positive Company Culture

A company’s culture resides in the genetic code of your company. It's a reflection of the brand’s personality and helps shape various aspects of an organization, such as decision-making, customers, employees, and brand sentiments. Unless your company culture aims for a dynamic social presence, employee engagement and innovation, it might not be effective. There are several steps you can take to build a positive work culture. These include:

• Determine your organization's mission and values. The company's mission and values reflect what is essential for the company and its personnel. This could be something like sustainability or innovation. Consider which among your values your employees rally behind. Consider also the values that will reflect entrustment and positivity among your employees.
• Foster relationships and collaboration. Ensure there are opportunities for employees to get to know one another at the workplace. You can do that through workplace events and team lunches. Stronger company relationships foster collaboration, leading to increased customer retention and enhanced workplace satisfaction.
• Be flexible. If employees wish to take on responsibilities outside of work, they should do so without fear of repercussions. This can be key in improving the work-life balance and enhancing the morale among employees.
• Promote inclusivity and diversity. When you build equity, inclusion, and diversity, you can easily create a positive work culture. Ensure your recruitment process reflects diversity and inclusivity. Educate your employees about the potential for unconscious biases and take the necessary steps to prevent them from occurring. Also, implement a strategic training program to foster an inclusive work environment.
• Create opportunities for growth. Ensure your employees have the necessary tools and resources to continue their learning and development. You can leverage the performance management program to help align your vision with the employees' expectations. Works and luncheons can also be essential channels for growth opportunities.
• Lead compassionately. When you show empathy at the workplace, you can make your employees feel seen, heard, and appreciated. Therefore, when your employees are going through tough times, listen and support them. 
• Reward outstanding work. When your employees perform in an exemplary way, appreciating them can help them feel appreciated and valued. This can also help foster a work culture where friendly competition leads to better performance. You can recognize your employees in various ways, such as yearly awards, bonuses, team shoutouts, paid time off, and monthly employee of the month awards.
• Be clear and transparent. When employees are engaged, they fully immerse themselves in your business. You should support them by providing them with transparent and clear communication. Ensure they thoroughly understand the company's performance and the key decisions it is making. This helps the team feel valued. You can provide your employees with monthly or weekly updates using company meetings and a newsletter.
• Have clear goals. Ensure your employees fully understand what is expected of them by clearly communicating the department and company goals. When you set goals for employees, you provide them with a sense of purpose. Goals are also key in tracking and monitoring performance.
• Embrace employee feedback. It is also essential to get regular feedback to address and resolve any issues that may arise within the company. This can also be a great way to make your employees feel seen and heard. 

Employee Advocacy Goals

Ensure you understand what you are trying to achieve with an employee advocacy program. If necessary, you can even have multiple goals, with each goal having its success ingredients. Some of the top goals can include:

• Amplifying the reach of your brand on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, or TikTok. 
• Attracting top talent.
• Social selling.
• Positioning yourself as an employee as though a leader.

Your choice of goal is what will determine the strategy you use. 

Set the Right KPIs

Another key step in an employee advocacy program is setting the right KPIs to measure the program's impact. Some of the major KPIs you should track are:

• Employee adoption. You can use these metrics to track the number of active users compared to the employees you invited to the program.
• Potential reach. This metric will show you the number of people who are potentially reached by the content shared through your employee advocacy.
• Share rate. Shows the number of shares done by employees in comparison to the total active users.
• Interactions. Measures whether the employee's connections, friends, or followers are interacting with the content.
• Click-through rate. Shows the number of people who clicked the employee posts. This metric can be a crucial indicator of the advocacy program's engagement rate. 
• Earned Media Value (EMV). This metric illustrates the amount of dollars you save from the employee advocacy program compared to using paid media. This metric will show you the monetary value that the employee advocacy program is bringing. 
• Website traffic. Consider the traffic you are getting from the channels where employees are posting their content.
• Conversion rate. You can go a step further to uncover the value you are getting from your website traffic by tracking the conversion rate. The action can be anything from buying or downloading an ebook to signing up for a program, and more. 

Ensure the goal can be accurately measured using key social media analytics.

Create Clear Employee Advocacy Guidelines

The next step should be to create your social media policy. If you already have one, you can proceed with updating it. This will act as the code of conduct or guidebook for your employees when they post content on social media. 

The social media policy will outline the types of content employees can create and what they should avoid. This will also help alleviate the fear among your employees that their content could land them in trouble. However, you should avoid making the social media policy too restrictive, to the point that it loses interest. Instead, create a policy that empowers employees to be creative on social media. 

Get the Support of Key Players

Unless the employee advocacy program has the support of key industry players, it can be hard for it to be successful. Therefore, you will need key players such as:

Managers and Executives

Remember that the managers and executives will be giving the approval for resources. Additionally, these individuals set the tone for the company. Studies indicate that the most effective employee advocacy programs are those championed by the company’s president and CEOs. 

Additionally, when employee advancement is championed by the company’s executives, this helps increase its adoption rate. The more people taking part in it, the more powerful it becomes. 

Cross-Department Support

You also need to ensure that you have the support of other departmental managers and heads. This is important, as departmental leaders will also help set the tone in their respective departments. However, it is essential to remember that different departments have distinct key performance indicators (KPIs), thus employee advocacy programs should be aligned with these specific KPIs. 

For instance, you can demonstrate to the sales team how employee advocacy can help increase their sales. When they see the value to their department, they will fully support the employee advocacy program. Therefore, before you can reach out to different departments, ensure you fully understand their goals. 

Employee

There cannot be employee advocacy without their support. These are the most important people to onboard. When convincing them to join the program, show them the value they will get from the program, such as: 

• Growing their networks.
• Improving thought leadership.
• Supporting their career growth.

Spend time gauging different departments to understand which ones will get the highest value from the employee advocacy. You can now recruit your employee advocacy team, starting with the departments that will get the most gains.

Implementing the Employee Advocacy Program

Now that everything is set, it's time to move on to the most critical part: rolling out the employee advocacy program. When doing that, consider a channel where you can bring the team involved in the employee advocacy program, such as Slack, email, Team Sync-ups, and town halls. You should then set up a hub or channel where employees can pick up the content to share and provide their feedback.

Take the time to train employees on the advocacy program to help them understand the goals and drive visibility to their social media pages. They can also set up the workshops for the training program. Consider designating an employee to oversee the employee advocacy program.

Employee Advocacy Content Creation Strategy

One of the factors that will impact the level of success of your social media advocacy program is the quality of content you will be posting. You may also have various types of content you want to use, such as blogs, ebooks, and behind-the-scenes content. However, avoid focusing on branded content only and instead have a combination of good quality content, such as:

• Spotlight on employees in the branded content. Use internal insights and quotes.
• Leverage customers. Ask for their contribution in providing insights, expertise, and advocacy.
• Leverage third-party content. If there is a source that your employees love to read, you can utilize it for your employee advocacy program. 
• Employee-generated content. 

Remember that an employee advocacy program doesn't mean you have a posting bot. You need to engage your employees by making them active participants in the program. This is important as employees can only advocate for content they share. Overall, ensure that your employee advocacy content consists of a mix of branded and unbranded content, as well as employee-generated and third-party content.

Provide Incentives for Employees

Ensure you provide incentives for your current employees to support the program's continued growth. You can even take the reward mechanism a notch higher and use things like rankings and leaderboards to increase competition. For instance, you can use rewards such as gift cards for your reward program.

Consider ways to attract new advocates and re-engage those who were previously inactive. If some employees achieve a particular milestone, such as creating a specified number of views, consider creating an award to recognize their achievement.

Collect Employee Feedback

Your employees play a crucial role in the employee advocacy program, and it is essential to understand their perspective on the program. Remember that a drop in the employee advocacy program can negatively impact your brand's advocacy efforts. Therefore, take the employees' involvement seriously.

Ensure that employee advocacy also focuses on the employee's growth. These should remain the center of many areas, such as content creation, and the strategies you are building for content sharing.

Final Thoughts

Employee advocacy remains one of the most effective but underutilized strategy for building brand awareness and conversion. When well done, it can create a buzz around your brand. Since the friends and family of your employees trust them, they will begin to view your brand in a positive light. If you are wondering how to use employee advocacy to take your brand to the next level, our detailed guide will help you.