How Employee Advocacy Helps Boost Your Brand’s Reputation for Thought Leadership
When embarking on an employee advocacy initiative, you leverage social media shares from staff members to promote your company.
Not every team member makes a suitable employee advocate though. You want those who generate positive exposure and raise awareness for your company, rather than people who merely show up every day, do their job, and go home. There’s a chicken-and-egg aspect to this, however, employees who share team wins with the general public are more likely to become engaged employees over time.
In today’s market, businesses everywhere are competing for buyers’ attention. As attention spans continue to shrink and competition continues to grow, thought leadership – through consistent sharing of valuable and informative content – can make all of the difference regarding brand visibility.
But only relying on your corporate social media efforts to handle all of it isn’t enough these days. Using your staff members’ brands to support the leading brand offers a mutually beneficial arrangement for you and your staff.
Here are some of the most potent ways that employee advocacy can help turn your brand into a trusted authority.
1. Content Adds to Your Expertise
Your employee advocacy program gives you a chance to expand your content.
When employees are also contributing to your brand’s content on the official website, and across social media, you are given additional opportunities to show potential customers expertise in your industry or niche. Whether they write the content themselves or merely share particles from other sources, they are working with you to educate others, improve visibility, and start a discussion.
Employee-generated content is a form of user-generated content that helps support the authenticity of your brand. Employees can provide insights that won’t be found on websites or branded social media pages.
2. Voices That Amplify Your Social Media
Your employee advocacy program should encourage your team to be present and active online, especially on any social media platform where your audience can be found. Your branded social media efforts are often hidden by platform algorithms trying to get you to pay for more exposure.
When employees are discussing your business, it helps amplify your social media, which makes it easier for your audience to see content.
It doesn’t mean your employees have to be talking about your company. You don’t want to sound like a broken record or a constant sales pitch. Employees can use social media to show their expertise and talent, which adds to their credibility, as well as your brand image. When your team participates on social media, they can provide value to your audience by sharing their knowledge and experience.
3. Something Unique to the Marketing Mix
Who knows your company just as well as you do? Your employees. An employee advocacy program encourages them to connect with current and potential customers. It also allows you to add personal flair to the overall marketing plan. You can use content your employees create online as part of your marketing material. Keep your employees in the loop on your organizational goals, and this will make it easy for them to share industry or branded content with their personal touch.
While it’s true that sharing ideas will not turn your brand into a thought leader overnight, it will help build your social media presence. Keeping everything consistent also allows employees to develop their brands, which can help strengthen the overall corporate brand. Each employee on the team comes from a different background with different experiences and knowledge level.
Even though they may be working in the same industry and doing the same type of work, it doesn’t mean they have the exact same things to share. Two different perspectives on the same task or event can provide insights that the audience will love.
Investing in Employee Advocacy is Investing in Your Company
Though you won’t be able to build an employee advocacy program instantly, taking the time to invest in developing a robust employee advocacy program will help speed the process of establishing thought leadership. Without thought leadership, your content has to fight harder to stand out from the competition. Once you have set considered leadership and trust, you will see sales occurring faster, more customer loyalty, and an increase in customer lifetime value.
The right employee advocacy program will lead to more knowledgeable employees who are more engaged, and more likely to be right brand ambassadors who recommend your company to their friends and family. When your audience sees employee advocacy, they learn your company is knowledgeable about the industry and that you employ intelligent people who know what they’re talking about.
