How To Encourage Employee Advocacy On Social Media

Post written by

Adrian Fisher


Many companies make the mistake of overlooking one of their most significant potential marketing assets: their employees. Employee advocacy, the promotion of a company by its team members, plays a critical role in an organization's social media marketing strategy. 

Encouraging employees to promote companies on social media significantly extends the reach of a brand's messages and increases online engagement. According to a study by The Marketing Advisory Network, brand messages reach 561% further when shared by employees versus the same message shared by the brand's social channels. Furthermore, the same study reports that brand messages are re-shared 24 times more frequently when employees share content. 

People trust the content that employees share more than they trust content coming directly from a brand. The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer reports that a company's employees are its most trusted resource. Employee advocacy is vital more than ever. However, many businesses face obstacles when it comes to motivating employees to promote and share company content on social media. 

Here are five tips for unlocking employee advocacy in an organization. 

1. Provide helpful tips and training.

Many companies assume employees require little or no training for social media. However, having a LinkedIn profile doesn't mean they automatically know the best practices of promoting the company. 

Companies can increase employees' willingness to participate by providing training. They can also help them drive better results by regularly sharing tips that offer guidance on:

• Potential topics and links to share

• Best days and times to post

• How often to post

• How to optimize social media profiles

• Relevant social media channels

• A list of appropriate hashtags

• Suggested captions for sharing content

Educating employees will make them feel more confident and comfortable promoting the company on social media.

2. Give employees reasons to share.

Even after staff members receive training, they might still need some motivation to share content. Companies should show employees what's in it for them and how they benefit from being active on social media. 

Sharing helpful and relevant content boosts the company's brand awareness. However, it's also important to let staff members know that it helps them build their personal brands and establish themselves as thought leaders. 

The key is to motivate employees so that they support and participate willingly in promoting the company, not because they feel forced to do so.

3. Make content easy to share.

Employee advocacy is one of the best ways to increase a company's audience engagement of content. Therefore, it's essential to make it as easy as possible for team members to find and share company and industry content. 

For instance, companies can use an internal hub or cloud to make content readily available at employees' fingertips. They can also send out weekly email digests of shareable content or encourage employees to follow the company's LinkedIn page.

For instance, I actively share my company’s content on my LinkedIn profile. This makes it easy for my employees to find and share company content on their profiles. Now, not only does my network see the content, but so do my employees’ networks, increasing the company’s reach and content engagement.

4. Recognize employee advocates.

A little recognition goes a long way and makes employees feel appreciated for their efforts. It's a great idea to recognize the most active staff members for their accomplishments, whether it's a verbal thank you, a gift card or a complimentary lunch.

Top advocates add significant value to the company, as they have the potential to increase traffic and boost brand credibility. They also serve as an excellent example for coworkers. On top of recognizing and showing appreciation to the most active employees, companies can ask them to help teammates navigate social media. Many employees will find it rewarding to help others.

5. Measure the impact.

Companies won't have any idea how their program is performing without measuring results. Not only is it essential for companies to see the fruits of their labor, but employees need to know, too. 

Measuring social media efforts can be challenging, especially when individual team members are involved. There isn't a central place to view everyone's contributions. Therefore, it can be a good idea to take more of a team approach, looking at results collectively rather than assessing individual performance.

Companies can report key performance indicators like an increase in site traffic due to social shares or an increase in company page followers as more of the team becomes active. Perhaps there's been an increase in social interactions on blog content pieces as a result of staff engagement. 

Measuring social media success is a vital part of an employee advocacy program. Companies can find out what's working best and encourage employees to do more of it.

Employee advocacy requires effort, but the payoff is tremendous. Companies that are not leveraging employee's networks are certainly missing out on the opportunity to extend their reach and increase brand awareness. With enough motivation, guidance and recognition, companies can unleash the potential of their most significant asset and reap the rewards of employee advocacy.
