Newsletter 12: Unleashing the Power of Employee Advocacy.

Social media has become a powerhouse for brand promotion and customer engagement in the past few years. One contributing factor to this success is the emergence of employee advocacy programs. The essence of employee advocacy lies in colleagues posting work-related content on social media, which comes with benefits like reaching a broader and more relevant audience, as well as enhancing brand image and engagement.

In this newsletter, I'll explore the behavioral changes needed to unlock these benefits. We'll delve into the Fogg behavior model, which plays a vital role in encouraging and sustaining employee advocacy programs within organizations. When understanding this model it becomes easier to pull the right strings to activate your colleagues for the desired behavior: post work-related content on their personal social media accounts.

First, let’s dive in the Fogg Behavior Model.??

The Fogg Behavior Model?

The Fogg Behavior Model developed by Dr. BJ Fogg, a behavior scientist at Stanford University, is a framework that explains how behaviors are influenced and how they can be changed.?

The model consists of three core elements that must come together at the same moment for a behavior to occur:??

• have sufficient motivation (M);?
• be able (A) to perform the behavior (i.e., have the ability to do so);?
• and receive the right prompt (P) at the right time to be reminded to perform the desired behavior.?

Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Prompt (B=MAP)

Let's take a clear and practical example to illustrate the Fogg Behavior Model:

Behavior: Drinking a glass of water in the morning after waking up.?

1. Motivation (M): This refers to the individual's desire or willingness to perform the behavior.?? In this example, let's consider a person who wants to adopt a healthier lifestyle and has learned about the benefits of drinking water in the morning to stay hydrated and kickstart their metabolism.

2. Ability (A): This represents the individual's capability to perform the behavior.? In our example, the ability could be influenced by factors such as whether the person has access to water, a glass to drink from, and the physical ability to pick up the glass and drink water.

3. Prompt (P): The prompt is the trigger that reminds or initiates the behavior.??It serves as a call-to-action for the individual to perform the desired behavior. For our example, the prompt could be an alarm set on the person's phone, which goes off every morning at the same time, reminding them to drink a glass of water.

Putting it all together:

For the person to successfully drink a glass of water in the morning (the target behavior), all three elements need to converge:

High Motivation (M): The individual wants to be healthier and believes in the benefits of drinking water in the morning.

Sufficient Ability (A): The person has easy access to water, a glass, and the physical capacity to drink water.

Effective Prompt (P): The person's phone alarm serves as a daily reminder to drink water.

Now, let's consider two scenarios:

? High Motivation + Low Ability + No Prompt:

In this case, the person may really want to drink water in the morning but doesn't have water readily available, or there's no glass nearby, or they simply forget about it without any reminder. The behavior doesn't occur.

? High Motivation + High Ability + No Prompt:

The person has the desire to drink water and all the necessary means to do so but lacks a trigger to remind them. The behavior might not consistently occur unless something reminds them.

? High Motivation + High Ability + Effective Prompt:

This is the ideal scenario. The person has both the motivation and the ability to perform the behavior, and the prompt (phone alarm) serves as a reminder to drink a glass of water every morning. As a result, the behavior is likely to happen consistently.

BUT, even when the motivation is high, the ability low and an effective prompt the desired behavior could still occur. In the Fogg Behavior Model, the "action line" separates behaviors that are likely to happen (above the line) from those that are unlikely to happen (below the line). Behaviors above the action line occur when motivation is high enough, regardless of ability. In this scenario, the individual's high motivation serves as the driving force to override the low ability. They might go to the kitchen or another room to fetch water, improvise with a different container if a glass is unavailable, or even develop the habit of placing a glass of water by their bedside the night before.

In summary, the Fogg Behavior Model highlights the importance of simplicity in behavior change. If you want to encourage a particular behavior, make sure to increase motivation, make the behavior easier to do (increase ability), and provide effective prompts to trigger the behavior. By aligning these three elements, you can effectively design behavior change interventions in various aspects of life, such as health, productivity AND brand ambassador programs.?

Empower your brand ambassadors by using insights of the Fogg behavior model?

When applied to employee advocacy on social media, this model reveals how organizations can effectively transform their employees into active and influential brand ambassadors. Therefore, I will explore the relationship between motivation, ability, and prompts in driving behavioral change and empowering employees to become passionate brand advocates.?

Motivation: The Driving Force of Advocacy

Employees are unlikely to actively advocate for their brand without genuine enthusiasm and belief in the organization's mission. However, It’s not necessarily true that your colleagues lack the motivation to advocate for your company in the first place… Research indicates that 67% of engaged colleagues are already enthusiastic about becoming brand ambassadors. That's a great start!

Ability: Empowering Employees to be top-notch advocates!

Motivation alone won't do the trick; employees also need the necessary skills and resources to represent the brand on social media effectively. By simplifying the advocacy process, contribution becomes more natural and consistent. Here are some tips to do so:

?? Provide them with pre-made content, like text, photos, and videos.

?? Equip them with employee advocacy software to post on social media in just a few seconds.

?? Give them clear instructions, instead of only asking ‘could you make a LinkedIn slideshow?’.

Prompts: Activating Advocacy at the Right Time

Prompts serve as the triggers that activate employees to take action. Well-designed prompts can inspire employees to share success stories, customer experiences or actively participate in specific advocacy campaigns. Timely and relevant prompts help sustain engagement and keep the momentum of employee advocacy initiatives going. Think about using email, WhatsApp, or the intranet to send those friendly requests.

So, what is your role in a successful employee advocacy program?

A marketer's role is vital in utilizing the Fogg Behavior Model to activate employees as brand ambassadors and ensure the longevity of advocacy efforts within organizations. By understanding the dynamics of motivation, ability, and prompts, marketers can craft a comprehensive employee advocacy program:

Motivation: Cultivate a sense of purpose and belonging within the organization by communicating the company's vision and values. Besides, recognize and celebrate employees' contributions to reinforce their intrinsic motivation to advocate for the brand. Sometimes you have to appeal to the extrinsic motivation of your colleagues. Think of suitable incentives for the most active brand ambassador, for example. In this article I’ll show you some inspiring examples.?

Ability: Offer training sessions and workshops to enhance employees' social media skills and knowledge. Provide user-friendly advocacy platforms that simplify content sharing and engagement, making it effortless for employees to be active brand ambassadors.

Prompts: Last but not least, let's activate advocacy at the right time with well-crafted prompts.? Set reminders in colleagues' agendas to take a picture of the event they’re attending or remind them to post on social media through familiar communication channels such as Slack and Teams. Furthermore, work-related posts from other employees on social media could also act as prompts. Brand ambassadors subconsciously set the ball rolling for other colleagues.??

With the Fogg Behavior Model in mind, you can turn your employees into rockstar brand advocates and keep those advocacy efforts going strong within your organization. Go out there and spread the word about your awesome brand! You've got this! ??

Sources:

Fogg, B. J. (2009). A behavior model for persuasive design. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Persuasive Technology. doi:10.1145/1541948.1541999

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum.

If you have any additional questions about employee advocacy programs or want to discuss the possibilities for your organization, feel free to reach out to me:?

??+31 6 24111692 or [email protected]

Or schedule a free meeting.

About the Author

Back in 2010, I cried out that I wanted to work on something big, something new, and that I would be able to serve companies worldwide. At the time, I was working in the hospitality industry, but I felt the need to do something different. At home, I got plenty of support, but those around me couldn't quite understand what exactly I wanted to do. My future was already pretty much mapped out, wasn't it? And I was earning quite a bit of money with my previous company, wasn't I? So why take so much risk?

A personal tweet changed everything back in 2011. I tweeted about my trip to New York and got in touch with the director of a large bank in the Netherlands. The topic quickly changed from New York to social media and it resulted in a new client. A new customer with just one personal tweet? The idea for a brand advocacy platform was born.

From an incubator in Venlo, I started my startup to further develop the idea of including personal accounts in the marketing mix. It gave me a great network and above all allowed me to get to know myself as an entrepreneur. As a true innovator and a builder. Before that time I didn't know that about myself. Ultimately, the step into this new world has been more than worth the risk!