Don't Ignore Employee Advocacy In Your Influencer Marketing Strategy

This past year my small team (and I mean small) at Microsoft that work on the Bing Ads product realized a number of different factors in how technology was changing human behavior in terms of engagement with content, connection with companies and overall how people were engaging (or not engaging) with non-people entities ("brands").

We launched an employee advocacy program using Sociabble and realized quickly how many people were excited to participate. Most were already sharing information with their connections of what we were up to as a product and our overall culture and vision. As a challenger brand to Google in the search marketing space, Microsoft employees are the biggest differentiators in terms of how we show our story more than simply tell it.

Too many brands have built social media marketing too much like the organizational charts that were created around the railroad systems of the 19th Century rather than how communications works in a decentralized model in the 21st Century.

In hierarchical organizations those with VP and SVP titles hold all the power and influence. But in the new flattened world of communications those with the biggest reputation, connection, persuasion and influence hold the trophy.

When did all of this begin to change? Well in 2007 smarter corporations realized that new communication platforms were taking root and thus maybe brought on one or two people to explore how to utilize this area to their advantage. Over time these social media departments expanded to social media teams that handled all communication efforts for the brand in an official capacity.

While this worked for those early years as people wanted to possibly engage directly with brands they utilized (or let's be honest, liked the brand because they gave them a coupon for the like), brands pivoted into basically using many of these communication channels as an extension of their advertising campaigns. This has left many of these platforms riddled with ads or "branded" content. In any case, it left little room for people to engage with other people. It dehumanized the essence of what connects people with people in a global manner in this mobile era.

Many of these corporations in 2016 are probably still operating in this capacity. Social media departments exist to push content and everyone else can simply do their job and leave it up to "that team" to handle the communications and content.

But the new reality is this system is becoming as antiquated as that 19th Century org chart I mentioned earlier in this post. In fact, because brands literally abused channels and treated them as ad networks, it's left some companies to figure out how to humanize this situation all over again.

There are many discussions and topics on what value influencer programs have. Some brands feel they should have never paid influencers for some of their programs and other literally ignore people who are more influential than the CEO in social channels because they don't follow the hierarchy that was accepted for so many years in corporate ranking.

As brands will continue to be ignored more and more and influencers you pay may run into the same issues of all paid endorsements (not trustworthy) it makes sense for employees to be the new advocates. Besides, who works at a company anymore in the 21st Century without believing in what that company stands for? Sure, plenty of people work at jobs they hate but those people are the least likely to want to be an influencer for their company.

Business has crossed a chasm and there's no going back. Your biggest influencers work right there in your company ranks and have the ability to be your biggest advocates more than an endorsed stranger who happens to have influence but doesn't know your culture and probably doesn't use your products if they are being paid.

Stop looking for the next shiny big thing and realize employees who are transparent, authentic, personal and love working for you should be social advocates beyond the four walls of your offices ASAP.

Geoffrey Colon is the author of Disruptive Marketing: What Growth Hackers, Data Punks, and Other Hybrid Thinkers Can Teach Us About Navigating the New Normal, host of Disruptive FM the weekly marketing podcast for eccentric minds and works at Microsoft. Follow him here on LinkedIn and SlideShare.