How your competitor saves time while winning your business.

Over the last few months, I've noticed a pattern. Many companies are falling behind competitors because the idea of launching employee advocacy or thought leadership programs feels too overwhelming.

And well… you are right.

Implementing these programs has a cost in effort and financial investment. But what if investing time upfront in these strategies could save you significantly in the long run?

Let me explain...

Employee Advocacy and Thought Leadership are keys to growth.

First lets be clear about the definition of both terms.

Employee Advocacy (EA) programs help employees become brand ambassadors by encouraging them to share company and expertise related content on their personal “social” channels. This extends reach beyond traditional marketing, increases trust, and boosts engagement without extra effort. It humanizes the brand and taps into new networks.

Thought Leadership (TL) programs position company leaders (and therefore the company) as industry experts. By sharing insights through various channels, they build credibility and trust. This attracts clients, strengthens brand reputation, and creates opportunities, giving the business a competitive edge as a trusted industry leader.

It seems expensive, but...

According to a recent Edelman study on consumer trust, 63% of surveyed 18–34-year-olds trust other people's opinions about brands more than the brands' own statements.

Now that is a statistic by itself that should make you rethink your strategy, but there is more!

Employee advocacy is a time-saver

Employee advocacy means everyone shares company, industry and expertise related content with their own network via social, online and offline media. And yes that takes up a lot of work but the payoff is huge.

Here’s why:

• More people, less work: When everyone in your organization shares content, you’re no longer relying just on your marketing and advertising efforts. You’ve got a whole group of people helping out, spreading the word. This means you get more eyes on your content without putting in more effort.
• Better engagement and much faster: People pay more attention when content comes from someone they know, like and trust. When your employees share updates, you’ll reach more people, faster, and with less effort than if your marketing team did it alone.
• Keep the Content Flowing: Once everyone is up and running with the program, they’ll keep sharing regularly. This keeps your brand active and visible, without marketing having to constantly push out content. Less stress, more results.

Thought Leadership makes you peerless!

Thought leadership is when the experts on specific topics in your organization become the go-to experts in the industry. They share their knowledge on social media, in podcasts and articles. They might even speak at events, or write a book. Once they’re seen as industry experts, it’s a game changer.

Here’s how:

• Instant trust: When they are seen as experts, people trust your brand more. It’s easier to close deals or land clients when people already know and respect your company. Less time convincing, more time getting things done.
• Boost company knowledge: Thought leadership isn’t just about impressing people outside your company. It also means your company is constantly learning and sharing valuable info with each other. That keeps everyone sharp and saves time on constantly training or looking up new trends.
• Stronger reputation, less effort: A strong thought leadership presence means you don’t need to shout as loud to get noticed. When people already know your employees and company as industry leaders, your marketing team can spend less time creating content and more time on other important projects.

The big takeaway here is simple: Spend a little time now to save a lot of time later.

By putting effort into employee advocacy and thought leadership today, you’ll save hours (or even days) down the line. These programs let you reach more people, build trust, and keep your brand top-of-mind, all without requiring tons of extra work later on.

Here are 10 tips to get started:

1. Make it easy: Simplify content creation for employees. Provide ready-to-share posts and bite-sized content. Incentivize participation with rewards or recognition. When employees see the benefits and ease of involvement, they're more likely to engage actively. Have a look at our new SAAS tool Narify.
2. Start small, scale up: Begin with a pilot group of enthusiastic employees. Their feedback will help refine your approach before expanding. This allows early adjustments, avoiding wasted time on ineffective strategies. Small wins build momentum, attracting more people to join.
3. Don't expect, Train: Conduct regular training on personal branding, best practices, content creation, networking and industry trends. This empowers employees to create high-quality content confidently.
4. Management buy-in! Nothing significant will happen without the right example being set. For this strategy to work, not everyone has to buy in. But your company's leaders definitely have to!
5. Leverage User-Generated Content: Encourage employees to share their own experiences and stories related to their expertise, company or industry. This adds a personal touch to your brand's narrative.
6. Cross-departmental collaboration: Collaboration between departments is key to create diverse and comprehensive content. This can lead to unique insights and perspectives. For you and the audience!
7. Provide guidelines: Develop and distribute clear guidelines, checklists, frameworks, etc. to ensure consistency and professionalism across all employee-shared content.
8. Use the right tools: There are plenty of tools that make it easy for employees to find, create and share content. Many tools, like Narify even have integrated A.I. to help so creating content becomes effortless.
9. Share success: Regularly track and share the program's success metrics. This demonstrates the impact of their efforts and encourages continued participation.
10. Integrate with culture: Align the advocacy and thought leadership programs with your company's values and culture. This ensures authenticity and resonates with both employees and audience.

Ready to take the first step?

I'd love to schedule a consultation to discuss the best first steps for your organization.

Please be aware that these programs only make sense if your organization has at least 10 people working for it or even better, more.

To set up a meeting at a time that works for you, simply use this scheduling link:https://calendly.com/martijnholtes/meeting-martijn