Social media is a powerful marketing tool. That’s no secret.
At the end of 2017, 1.37 billion active users visited Facebook on a daily basis and Twitter reported there are 330 million monthly active Twitter users. If you are a business, you simply can’t afford to NOT be on social media promoting your business.
So, you get your business on social media. Then what? Many companies spend the time and effort to develop their business page, but then draw a blank when it comes to a very important step—finding an audience. Why not start with your natural team of brand advocates? Look internally and start with your employees.
The benefits of turning your employees into brand advocates
Social amplification is the name of the game. You want your social content to be shared to gain exposure for your brand. But, you also want to create trust so that you earn loyal customers that continue to return time and time again.
According to Pew Research, a mere 5 percent of web-using adults have a large amount of trust in information they receive from social media. However, the same survey revealed that 76 percent have some level of trust in the recommendations of their friends. As a result, your audience may not trust what they are seeing from your business, but they will trust what they see from their friends. This is why you need employee brand advocacy.
In addition to creating that trust, there are some additional benefits to employee advocacy. Employee brand advocates:
- Help build your audience: When employees are empowered to share your brand’s content on their personal accounts, their audience becomes your audience. Using employee advocates expands your reach organically.
- Encourages the culture of your business: So much about a company is obvious from its culture. When you encourage employees to take an active role in brand advocacy, it helps to reinforce your culture and promotes employee engagement. It also illustrates to your audience that your employees care about your brand and that your business supports employee growth.
- Improves the perception of your company: Employee advocates are a great addition to your overall audience. If your employees are encouraged to participate, this promotes trust in your brand.
- Doesn’t require a large investment: Most businesses love improving social amplification, especially when it doesn’t come with a large price tag. Employee advocacy is a cheap way to grow your influence.
Encouraging your employees to help grow your social presence is a smart business decision.
How to encourage your employees to become brand advocates
Typically, employee advocacy doesn’t happen naturally. It should be encouraged, taught, and nurtured. Try these simple methods for turning employees into brand advocates:
- Create shareable content: Approach content creation with employee sharing in mind. Avoid blatant promotional material and seek to educate.
- Encourage employees to create: Give your employees a chance to create content about your company, and then have them share it on their own accounts.
- Teach employee advocacy: Take the time to explicitly teach your employees about brand advocacy and the benefits of social amplification for them and for your business.
- Make employee sharing a part of your culture: Ultimately you want your employees to care about your business. Promote social sharing as a part of your company culture and show them that you appreciate their participation.
- Measure the success of your efforts: Numbers speak volumes. Make sure you are tracking the progression and success of your employee advocacy efforts. This will help you determine how to make modifications to your campaign.
Take an active role in your employee advocacy efforts and reap the rewards of your improved social amplification.
