What are the benefits and challenges of creating an employee advocacy program in your organization?

1 Benefits of employee advocacy

One of the main benefits of employee advocacy is that it can amplify your reach and influence on social media, as your employees have more connections and credibility than your official corporate accounts. According to a study by Hinge Marketing, an average employee has 10 times more followers than a corporate social media account, and their content is shared 24 times more frequently. This means that you can leverage your employees' networks to increase your brand visibility, generate more leads, and drive more traffic to your website. Additionally, employee advocacy can enhance your brand reputation and trust, as people tend to trust recommendations from their peers more than from brands. A Nielsen report found that 92% of consumers trust word-of-mouth and referrals from people they know, while only 33% trust online ads. By sharing positive and authentic stories about your organization, products, services, or culture, your employees can act as credible and relatable ambassadors for your brand, and influence the perception and decision-making of your potential customers.

2 Challenges of employee advocacy

Creating an employee advocacy program is not as simple as asking your employees to post about your organization on social media. To ensure its success and sustainability, you need to overcome several challenges, such as lack of motivation and participation, lack of guidelines and training, and lack of measurement and evaluation. You need to motivate and incentivize your employees to share your content voluntarily, provide them with clear and consistent guidelines and training, and equip them with skills and tools to create effective content. Additionally, you should measure the impact and performance of your program, define key metrics that align with your goals and objectives, collect feedback from your employees, use the data to improve your program, and communicate the results.

3 Tips and best practices

Creating a successful employee advocacy program in your organization requires following some tips and best practices. To start, select a pilot group of enthusiastic and influential employees who can serve as role models and champions for the program. It's also important to have a clear vision and purpose for the program, and align it with organizational goals and values. Additionally, empower and trust your employees to be creative and authentic in sharing content, while respecting their personal preferences and opinions. Finally, engage and appreciate your employees throughout the program, create a community of sharing and learning among them, reward their successes, and show them the impact of their advocacy. By doing so, you can boost your brand awareness, reputation, trust, and loyalty on social media, as well as improve employee engagement, retention, and recruitment. However, be aware of the challenges that may arise and take steps to ensure the success of your program.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?