Understanding Employee Advocacy to Tap into Brand Awareness and Social Engagement

In a report published by the Content Marketing Institute, 89% of B2C marketers and 92% of B2B marketers use social media platforms as their primary channel for distribution of content. Wonder why? Social media marketing when done right has the potential to generate new leads, increase brand awareness and revamp conversion rates.

Unfortunately, consumers no longer completely trust the marketing campaigns shelled out by brands. Customers prefer testimonials over sponsored advertisements. Fortunately, in order to get your marketing message out there- all you need is the right person in the right way at the right time. People who are employee brand ambassadors work best!

Employees are well-positioned to create a bridge between the brand and the potential audience. This is when employee advocacy steps in.

What Is an Employee Advocacy Program?

Employee advocacy programs are generally inclined towards the growth of a start-up brand. Employee advocacy translates into transforming your employees to become brand ambassadors on social media. This can be done by encouraging them to share content about your brand on various social media platforms.

Employee advocacy isn’t an entirely new concept. According to the JEM State of Employee Advocacy Survey, 24% of the respondents say they want to launch an employee advocacy program for their brands whereas 55% say they already have implemented one.

Also Read: Primer: What is Social Media Intelligence in 2018?

What Are the Benefits of an Employee Advocacy Program?

Company employees are generally perceived to be biased in their opinion. Therefore, choosing employee brand ambassadors from outside the sales and marketing teams would be beneficial.

They would provide an authentic point of view regarding products and services. Moreover, their willingness to endorse and personally vouch for a product shall further validate the company.

Extra training provided to the chosen brand ambassadors would benefit potential customers and the brand. The more employees know of new launches, the better they can curate personalized experiences.
This personalization will help deliver a hands-on customer experience on a product’s functionality.

Below Are Ten Ways That Can Help Entrepreneurs Assist Employees into Being Social Ambassadors to Benefit a Company;

• Cultivate Loyalty

Spending time with employees and engaging them in routine conversations is being open to understanding their cultural fit. The more employees that are acquainted with you and your team, the higher are the chances that they would want to become advocates.

• Notice the Details

Be the leader who recognizes people and their personalities, their woes and their reigns. Building a rep like this will almost always lead the toughest of employees to be loyal thus leading to advocacy.

• Follow the Recognition Culture

Develop a work appreciation culture in your networking space. A positive outlook on the work front is necessary to pursue any kind of engagement with the employees. Ensure that recognition rewards are prevalent as the driving force behind all individuals or any team effort.

•  Channelize Strategies

Effective social media marketing requires strategized planning. Choose networks that are regularly used so that it becomes a common platform for all employees and corporate individuals. Engaging online on a steady medium will boost visibility significantly. It also becomes a channel of communication for the team thus multiplying opportunities for social ambassadors.

• The United Hashtag

Unique hashtags are a definite way of skyrocketing team efforts and company contributions. Hashtags are also an indulgent method of cultivating a brand identity in the web world. Mark hashtags in posts dedicated to employee efforts, product recognition, and product reviews to further heighten engagement and create unanimous appreciation.

• Engage Humanely

Keep the internet slang and trolling aside. Courteous greeting, respectable conversation and building a professional environment is the key to harboring relationships online and offline.

• Invite Criticism

Being humble by creating an equal platform for positive and negative feedback is an integral part of launching an employee advocacy program. Inviting critical feedback on product launches, the work environment, and other services is important to understand the need for coexistence.

• Behavior Model

Project the behavior you want to inculcate in the workforce by being a role model for the same. No employee is going to respect the value and appreciate business norms if there is no engagement from the opposite end. What you give is what you get!

• Customize the Cookie-Cutter Approach

There is a fine line between automation and carelessness. Nothing makes content compelling if it’s left to be reused over and over again. Content uploaded must be updated and improvised across various channels to expand your social media approach. Whenever possible, make it easier for your social ambassadors to revamp social media content so that the audience on the outside has an interesting perspective occasionally. For example, you can begin a click-to-share link with a post so that the message can be quickly populated on the social channel by an individual.

• Incentives and Rewards

Last but definitely not the least; make sure that your social ambassadors have something engaging to look forward to so as to be kept in the loop. Reward the active champions with a symbolic reward or something much more enticing. Encourage friendly competition and make each interaction as transparent and interactive as possible.

Conclusion

Integrating social media brand ambassadorship into the company culture increases effectiveness for overall performance results. It also garners a positive outlook; thus augmenting brand reach, awareness and transparency into every pore of your marketing campaigning. With their help, building a level of trust with the target market results in a unique and reciprocated voice.

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