Thanks to modern technologies, businesses continue to search for new effective ways of brand promotion and establishing credibility among target consumers. To rank them in relevance, each of these approaches can be analyzed to determine its applicability to today’s technological-driven business environment; one is employee advocacy.
This strategy entails using employees’ social media profiles to advertise their employer’s brand, products, and ethos. More personal, less corporate – platforms like LinkedIn focus on the individual aspect, and therefore, employee advocacy has become the backbone for businesses trying to humanize their efforts.
What is Employee Advocacy?
Employee advocacy is the process of endorsement of a company through the promotion of its posts, culture, achievements, or even content through social platforms by the workforce of the respective company. And unlike many other forms of marketing communication, employee advocacy harnesses the company’s people as promoters of the company, brand, products, services, etc.
Their engagement in such aspects as sharing real-life experiences and facts can significantly influence the perception of a brand.
The Use of Employee Advocacy in Digital Media Marketing
Trust and Authenticity:
The research shows that customers believe recommendations and opinions of their peers and acquaintances rather than messages that come from brands. Promoting content through non-paid posts based on employees’ association with their employers is more credible, relatable, and convincing than official posts. Such organic engagement fosters trust in a company’s services or products among the target market.
Increased Reach and Engagement:
Many employees have a personal connection list that is much more extensive than the company’s followers in its official account. When they share posts in that capacity, it can put the company out there to a whole new level. This kind of engagement can play a significant role in helping a brand get more recognition in society. Employee posts generate 8X higher engagement than when the brand posts on its own social media platforms.
Enhanced Recruitment and Retention:
Employee advocacy needs to be used for marketing and the recruitment and retention of employees. Once the existing employees highlight the excellent features of the specific company, possibilities, culture, satisfaction, or interesting initiatives, others become interested. It gives potential employees an accurate picture of the organization; hence, most would prefer it. Also, it can be noticed that employees engage in advocacy programs enough to be loyal to the company, thus increasing retention levels.
Boosts Thought Leadership:
When employees forward relevant industry articles, company news, or interesting articles for colleagues to read, they not only make themselves look professional but also help promote the company as a contributor to the industry’s knowledge. In the longer term, this reaps benefits such as credit and placing the organization on the right side of authority in its areas of specialization.
Cost-Effective Marketing:
The so-called ‘word of mouth,’ or, more specifically, the promotion of a company by its employees, falls under the category of the cheapest forms of advertising. Instead of promoting themselves through paid advertisements at a very high cost, firms can utilize resources. Whenever possible, an organization should encourage employees to share relevant content because it may get high returns with little cost.
Employer-sponsored / Facilitated Employee Advocacy in Social and Digital Media
We anticipate an optimistic future of employee advocacy as per the developments of existing social networks and platforms and the growing adoption of new marketing innovations, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. Here’s how it is likely to evolve:
Integration with AI and Automation:
It will also assist in figuring out which content is most appealing to certain audiences so the employees are more able to share certain posts. Automation tools will also help in planning this week’s post on the scheduler to go out at a specific time and personalized content based on the individual employee’s liking.
Expanded Use of Video Content:
Video is already a content type that rules in digital media, and employee advocacy will gradually leverage it even more. The employees will probably publish more intimate, behind-the-scenes videos that depict life within the company or a new project. Such videos can make the brand friendly to audiences and promote better and closer relations with them.
Gamification and Incentives:
To increase employee engagement, companies might offer direct incentives such as gifts, promotions, and bonuses for employees participating in advocacy programs. This could assist companies in penetrating their markets even further while ensuring that their employees are motivated.
Niche Platforms and Private Communities:
As such, LinkedIn and Twitter will remain dominant, but there will be significant growth in the rise of special interest and private Group networks and communities as domains for employees’ advocacy. These platforms entail chances for employees to share knowledge in front of somewhat more focused crowds.
LinkedIn revealed that companies with a ‘high number of employees sharing high-quality content and thought leadership’ are 58% more likely to attract talent.
Increased Data and Analytics:
The future of employee advocacy will not be of the future because it will become more formative and formalized; it will depend on data. To manage advocacy programs, companies will employ advanced analytics to monitor the effectiveness of the campaigns, the engagement level of the advocates, and the most valuable content.
Key Terms in Employee Advocacy
Social Selling:
Social selling is the process of identifying, engaging, and nurturing prospects on social media platforms. It is an extension of what an employee advocates and can help generate trust from future customers.
Brand Ambassadors:
Individuals who embrace advocacy programs in their workplaces are usually called brand ambassadors. These people represent the company because they have a personal attachment to the brand and can popularize it to their acquaintances.
Gamification:
Gamification is implementing game features, for example, scoreboards, points, or gifts, in the performance of advocacy programs.
To ensure a successful employee advocacy program, consider these best practices:
Training and Support:
It is also important to understand that not all employees have the natural tendency to share content about their employer. There is no better solution than providing training on how to properly use social media in a business/professional context. Employees can learn such knowledge in recurring professional workshops or online meetings that are held as webinars.
Curate Shareable Content:
Ensure that the employees have constant and appropriate shareable content relevant to the company’s objectives. This could be a blog, a press statement, or even a customer success story. Provide ready-made posts or forward them via internal communication means to help the employees share this content.
Statistics Shows:
● Salespeople leveraging social media for sales, a key component of employee advocacy, are 51% more likely to meet their sales quotes
● 86% of employees in employee advocacy programs said it positively impacted their careers
Encourage Authenticity:
Although sharing content is a good thing to foster among the employees, one must also encourage genuine work. This means employees should be allowed to contribute some of their perception and ideas into the posts. It will go a long way in coming across as more sincere to their audience/clients and trying out various communication techniques.
Measure Results:
Employ suitable analytical methods to measure the success of your advocacy program. Track the interaction rates, clicks, and conversions from the posts shared by the employees. Such data can be rather useful in adjusting a particular business model in the future.
Ask Out of the Box: FAQS
Employees advance the company’s authority and operate with content that concerns the company’s aims, principles, and organizational systems. Their posts also assist in spreading the brand’s message further and making it more popular among people whom the brand has not previously reached.
Some ways participation can be encouraged include training people, rewarding or motivating people, and providing a platform for easy access to shareable content. Other forms of motivation that involve incentives are also applicable motivating factors, such as gamification.
To answer the question with a simple ‘Yes,’ it is possible, and employers from different sectors, regardless of their size, should consider encouraging it. Employee advocacy does not require one to have a big company or be a famous celebrity; even a small business can practice it and help develop trust, improve engagement, and increase the number of customers.
Conclusion
It will be more effective to delegate the tasks to motivated and enthusiastic employees since the results can be outstanding and benefit the company’s aim of building credibility, expanding coverage, and gaining more authority. As Bullzeye Media Marketing and many other organizations advance this strategy by utilizing employee advocacy for the internal workforce and their clients, this strategy looks brighter than ever.
Hence, authenticity, AI tool integration, and moving to thought leadership, organizations, and marketing departments can alter the marketing mix and drive the business’s long-term success using the employee’s voice. Bullzeye Media Marketing remains a good example proving that employee advocacy is not another form of marketing strategy; it is the actual scenario of how employees can strengthen the bond of trust in different companies while promoting the products and services needed by the market.
