How can employee advocacy improve social selling?

Employee advocacy is leveraging a simple thing, people trust and engage with people more than faceless brands. So, employee advocacy is simply, getting your team to spread the word - but authentically. This means; ?? They represent you, but in their own way ?? They post content with their spin, not propaganda ?? They do it in a way that connects with their audience It's more than just reposting, it's creating a team of ambassadors.

Imagine if everyone at your company is authentically: - sharing wins both internally and externally - talking about the problems they've solved for their clients - sharing the wins of THEIR clients and partners - talking about how much they enjoy working at ACME company that generates - brand awareness - differentiation - word of mouth - FOMO People will be lining up wanting to work with ACME company. People care about WHO they work with now, it's not just about the brand anymore. And if they see that the employees at the company are this excited about what they're doing, it's going drive their NEARBOUND strategy and increase sales through their networks and relationships.

Employee advocacy is a compelling strategy that taps into the wealth of knowledge and expertise within your organization. Your employees are often the unsung heroes behind product and service development, having firsthand experience with the challenges, dedication, and innovation that go into creating these offerings. There's no one better suited to narrate the product's story than those who have been an integral part of its journey. In the realm of social selling, leveraging employee advocacy is not only about promoting the product but also giving employees a platform to showcase their invaluable contributions to the organization.

Que tus empleados compartan los valores y contenidos de tu marca sin dudas es muy beneficioso para la empresa. Pero esto no será posible o efectivo si esas personas no tienen construida una sólida marca personal. Sí. La gente le compra a la gente. Sí. Las personas basan un buen % de sus decisiones de compra en las rese?as de otros. Sí. Que un empleado 'hable bien' de la empresa, sus productos, servicios o cultura sin dudas es positivo. Pero lo será más aún si esa persona es profesional: - con su perfil en la red - con su historial laboral - aporta valor mediante posteos, o comentarios de otros colegas. Al final, ese empleado será más 'potente' para sí mismo y para nuestra empresa si desarrolla su propia marca personal. win-win.

People buy people. Sharing content and posts from page will only go so far, getting your employees to use there profiles to share the content will go further. If you imagine how many followers or connections one employee has, then times that across your workforce. Thats an impressive reach. And thats a reach that is free from advertising costs. Thats the beauty of employee advocacy, your team being advocates of your brand and messaging.

When the people in your organisation (who are not your sales people) connect and engage with your target customer base, it helps your team’s social selling. Peers connect better with peers and senior execs are more likely to get a positive response. Employee advocacy like this brings brand awareness. Next step is the social selling. Sales also connect with those people; they are more likely to be accepted, and they will find a warmer audience willing to communicate. Employee advocacy first, followed by social selling is more strategic and worth the effort. Particularly if you have large complex sales pipelines.

There isn't a one size fits all, but generally there are three types of employee advocate: - Ambassadors - they help tell your brand story in a more humanised way. - Thought leaders - they help share deep insights to connect to your core audience and influence markets - Backers - committed members of the team who share and support others. The key is mobilising the right people into the right types of roles. It's important to celebrate a communicate the valuable contribution each member adds, so they see and feel that their part is meaningful.

Employee advocacy programs are a win-win for both employees and brands and should be a consideration for modern brands. From a brand’s perspective, these programs serve as platforms for the proliferation and amplification of brand content and messages, resulting in higher reach, engagement, and conversions that lead to attributable sales. From an employee’s perspective, sharing brand content from a first-person viewpoint on personal social channels positions them as subject matter experts, enhancing their personal brand. Social selling, supported by a robust employee advocacy program, is effective because it’s based on the psychology of social influence - people tend to trust what other individuals say more than statements made by brands.

According to Nielsen: “33% of buyers trust brands, whilst 90% of customers trust recommendations from people they know.” This illustrates why employee advocacy is so key. If you can harness the power of your workforce to authentically share their insights and expertise then it will really add value to a social selling programme. But the key thing here is authenticity - not just getting all your employees to share the same ‘cookie-cutter’ company post with no additional commentary!

Employee advocacy is about transforming your employees into an army of industry influencers on platforms like LinkedIn. Social selling is widely misunderstood, misinterpreted and often misses the mark entirely. Social selling is about building your own personal brand and leveraging that to build relationships and connections with people relevant to your professional mission. When done well, employee advocates can utilize social selling to benefit their own careers as well as help their businesses grow.

It’s vital to understand that different people need different levels of support and to build that into your programme. A blended solution, maybe including one-to-one coaching, larger webinars, short on-line learnings and quick ‘how to’ guides might be one approach. People prefer to learn in different ways - and they have different levels of social media experience and competence too which needs to be reflected in your programme. It’s also good to start small - maybe with a pilot programme with your early adopters to showcase the value before you launch a wider programme? This can highlight valuable learnings about who requires what support.

Start with a strategy. Then up-skill your team on the key principles of social selling (Personal Brand, Network Growth, Building Influence and Creating Content). Then measure what really matters to your organisation. Conversations that convert to commercial ones. And finally, ensure a personal change model is deployed that teaches the individual how to manage the personal change required to do social selling effectively.

Here’s some thoughts I had. 1. Clear Guidelines: Establish specific guidelines for employees to follow when sharing brand-related content on social media. These guidelines should cover content types, frequency, and branding standards. 2. Employee Training: Provide social selling training to interested employees, teaching them effective techniques, content curation, and best practices. 3. Measurement and Improvement: Use analytics to measure the impact of the program, and continuously adapt and improve the strategy based on data and feedback.

Employee advoacy is very important. Even things like ERG groups and also climate awareness intiatives are now vital and social selling allows for education to be both internal and external for such things. Topics like neurodiversity which I am very close to did not have the voice it once did and the data to support the benefits that brings to workforces, diversity and also productivity and sales. An amazing book on this area is Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed

Strategy is key and should be the first step: initiatives must have well-known goals to be achieved. This is what I call the Spice Girls' question: what do you really want, really, really want? The second step must be to provide training to skilled employees and help them empower their personal brand by helping them create amazing content that would add value.

Here is my take on best practices for employee advocacy for social selling: 1) Measuring (Goal & KPIs) 2) Making it fun (add some gamification or competition) 3) Being authentic 4) Getting everybody on board, trained, aligned and measured. At all levels and departments. Marketing, Sales, Operations... Individual contributors to the CEO Of course, it is best to start small with enthusiasts or champions but in the end, everyone should contribute.

In my experience, I've found that supporting employees in becoming effective advocates goes a long way. Beyond the basics, providing training and resources is essential. Investing in their social selling skills, offering them relevant content, and giving them tools to measure their impact can make a real difference. When you equip your team with the right knowledge and resources, they can authentically engage with their networks, ultimately leading to better results in our employee advocacy program.

What are the best practices for employee advocacy for social selling? A: Training, implement the brand's culture and core, but never on a "brainwash mode"... ;)

Best practices for employee advocacy in social selling can help your team effectively leverage their personal networks to promote your brand and generate leads. Here are some key recommendations: Clear Guidelines and Training: Provide clear guidelines for social media use and content sharing. Employees should be aware of what is acceptable and what isn't. Voluntary Participation: Encourage employees to participate in the advocacy program voluntarily. Content Quality and Relevance: Ensure that the content shared by employees is high-quality, relevant, and aligned with your target audience. Diversity of Content: Provide a variety of content types, including blog posts, videos, infographics, and product updates.

First of all my best advice is to be honest. As Simon Sinek said, start with your Why and when you dig deep enough you will find it. Honesty in social media is crucial I think and when the employee finds the 'inner voice', then starts the social selling itself. Let it say like this but it's not really selling... it's communicating for a reason. For a true purpose.

In the end employee advocacy IS social selling and social selling is employee advocacy. Okay, sometimes there isn't a product or a service to sell but a workplace culture or maybe a thought. Participating employees are still "selling" it with their social actions. Obviously sales department has more serious ideas about selling, but it is good to remember that everyone is selling something and they may need support while doing it. Not necessarily sales support though.

I've worked with a few corporations that adopted Employee Advocacy. They were in different industries, and they faced various levels of objections from employees to join LinkedIn and partake in the program. One decided to adopt a policy where all employees were to have an online presence; the others chose to invite employees to join the platform, train them on how to use it properly, and become company advocates when they saw the results of the Advocacy Champions, more and more employees decided to join. Often, companies try to force the game and face the opposite of what they desire. The right approach always wins.

When you combine employee advocacy and social selling, you create a powerful synergy that can significantly boost your marketing and sales efforts. Here's what happens: Increased Reach: Employee advocacy expands your content's reach beyond your official brand channels. Enhanced Credibility: Content shared by employees is often perceived as more authentic and trustworthy. Personalization: Social selling involves building one-on-one relationships with prospects. Content Creation: Employees can contribute to content creation, offering fresh perspectives and industry insights. Thought Leadership: Employee advocates, by sharing their knowledge and expertise, can establish themselves and your company as thought leaders in your industry.

Don't just focus on leadership! You're better off seeking out subject matter experts throughout the organization and working with them to build their personal brand. Find the people who are already engaged on social versus those who do not have an interest but probably "should" be active (Most C-Suites, I'm looking at you!). Today those people may be more junior-level employees without a large sphere of influence, but down the road, they could be leading the department and have thousands of engaged followers. Eagerness + enthusiam > seniority