Franco: 4 Steps to Launch a Successful Employee Advocacy Program

But what if I told you some of the strongest resources were your own colleagues?

Employee advocacy is more than a buzzword. At its core, a social media employee advocacy program is the promotion of a company through the lens of its workforce. A recent study found more than 73% of people find posts from personal accounts to be more persuasive than posts from brand accounts.
Whether your team begins sharing updates on the latest product innovations or company culture moments, through an employee advocacy program, your organization’s content will be catapulted in front of a new, larger audience – many of which may be unfamiliar with your brand. Here are four steps to help your employee advocacy program succeed:

#1: Define the “why”

Before implementing a new program in your social strategy, it’s important to outline your KPIs to accurately measure success. Common metrics when launching employee advocacy programs include:

• Improving organic reach and engagement
• Increasing social media referral traffic to your website
• Strengthening brand awareness
• Supporting recruitment efforts
• Reducing marketing costs

While there are countless benefits for your business, a Hinge Research Institute study shows 86% of employees involved in a formal advocacy program said their involvement in social media had a positive impact on their career. Communicating the personal and professional benefits to your team can help drive interest and passion. Benefits include:

• Keeping social channels populated
• Creating new opportunities to engage prospects and connections
• Positioning themselves as industry thought leaders
• Company-sponsored participation incentives

#2: Set your team up for success

The key to a successful social program requires thoughtful planning and consideration. Investing in an employee advocacy software (such as GaggleAMP, Sprout Social Bambu or Hootsuite Amplify) is crucial to keep things organized, consistent and simple. Outline best practices, content and participation expectations and formal policies/restrictions upfront to eliminate guesswork and confusion down the road.

#3: Program launch and maintenance

Many employee advocacy programs fail due to poor internal communication and lack of accessible content. Once everything is in place to launch the program, consider doing a soft launch with a small group of beta testers to work out any kinks before bringing the program to the whole group.

Driving consistent participation requires a steady cadence of content. Utilizing content from your organic social calendar is a great place to start. Employee advocacy software makes it simple for employees to like and share company posts directly to their personal pages without leaving the platform.

Frequent communication will ultimately lead your team to success. There should be a program liaison available to answer questions, sort through employee-generated content (bring on the company culture!) and provide updates on incentives and opportunities.

#4: Improvement & incentives

Launching anything new requires time to refine. Keep track of which content is resonating best with participants and their audiences.

In addition to the many personal and professional benefits presented to employees participating in your advocacy program, offering other incentives can generate excitement and overall performance. Spark some friendly competition between coworkers through initiating a leaderboard and quarterly prizes.

At the end of the day, employees will participate because they want to, not because they have to. Launching an employee advocacy program on social media is not only a great way to boost your business goals, but also flourish and grow as a team.