Do you have an Employee Advocacy strategy in your organization? If you haven´t yet implemented one, 2022 might be the year to start thinking about it. In this article, we have gathered seven tips on how to succeed with Employee Advocacy and ensure a successful startup for your Employee Advocacy strategy.
It is no wonder that Employee Advocacy is one of the big buzzwords in marketing. By activating employees, you can enhance the reach of your company’s posts and reach people you would not have before.
Get management on board
To start with, management should set an excellent example for the employees regarding social media usage. Moreover, the management team must represent itself on LinkedIn, etc., complying with its ambitions.
- To succeed with Employee Advocacy, it is crucial to create an understanding of it by emphasizing the low costs and potential organic reach when employees engage in company content compared to paid ads on LinkedIn.
- Show them how it will lead to increased visibility for the company in the future.
The strategy to succeed with Employee Advocacy
In addition, if you want to succeed with your Employee Advocacy program, you need a clear strategy and relevant goals. There are no correct answers in terms of goals, but they could include:
- Increased visibility
- Increased website traffic
- Increased social engagement (likes, comments, shares)
- Lead generation (emails, meetings)
- Conversions (registrations, sales)
- More qualified applications.
Goals must reflect what the overall purpose is. However, it does not necessarily mean that you should set specific goals for when and how much each employee should generate or share. For instance, it could indicate what is expected for your program to succeed. There is a big difference between attracting employees, positioning themselves, and creating sales.
Create a SoMe-policy
Since the employees’ personal profiles are used, it is essential to develop social media guidelines. However, it does not have to be a strict set of rules, but simply some “do’s and don’ts” for social media use in a professional context.
If you want to learn more, read this article: The complete guide for a SoMe-policy
Leader for your ambassador team
In order to succeed with Employee Advocacy, the next step is to find one or more qualified leaders who want to join the program. Some responsibilities for the leader could be:
- Create interest around the Employee Advocacy program
- Share ideas and spar with the employees
- Collaborate with the employees and bring new ideas to the table
- Keep an eye on how the employees are doing.
The ideal leader for your ambassador team should engage, motivate, lead others, and be strongly represented on social media.
Volunteer ambassadors to succeed with Employee Advocacy
In order to succeed with Employee Advocacy, the employees should feel involved and responsible. Instead of rolling the program out to everyone at once, you can start with the employees who have shown interest in participating. Preferably, choose some employees from relevant and different departments. The most important thing is that your ambassadors are motivated. It will not be successful if you push them into doing something they do not want to.
Recognize personal development
To ensure engagement and motivated employees, you should reward and recognize them regularly. In addition, create a place where you can share success stories and possibly showcase your ambassador team’s employees’ results. Moreover, consider contests where the best employees are rewarded, for extra motivation.
Share content to succeed with Employee Advocacy
The next step is to provide relevant content for your employees to share – articles, infographics, videos, podcasts, etc. When working with enriching content for the ambassadors, here are some tips:
- Use a “content hub” or a place where the employees can find and share approved content easily
- Give your employees specific links, pictures, and perhaps some inspiration on what to write in their posts
- Inspire by showing examples of social media posts
- Invite key employees to participate in content planning
- Allow employees to contribute with content.
In conclusion, when it comes to succeeding with Employee Advocacy, the relevant content varies significantly. It could be anything from news regarding the company, enriching articles, employee stories, reports, job postings, case studies, etc.