How Employee Advocacy Can Help Your Brand Build Trust?

When companies fail to build good relationships with their employees, it can hurt their brand’s reputation. At the same time, it can create recruiting issues and make it difficult to find and hire good candidates.

This is because 55% of job applicants will abandon a job application process if they read negative reviews about the company online. This factor is increasingly concerning for recruiters, as millennials make up more than 50% of the workforce and 81% of them share company information with their peers and friends.

It’s clear that people are sharing and looking up information on employers. So, it’s important for organizations to work on their online presence. One of the best ways to improve your brand image online is through employee advocacy.

Let’s take a close look at how you can leverage employee advocacy to build brand trust:

1. Amplify Your Brand’s Organic Efforts

People use social media to check on their peers and share experiences, opinions, and interests. Which makes it a great platform for employee social advocacy. You can use it to promote your brand without coming across as overly promotional. Tap into your employees’ social circles and reach out to a broader audience.

When your employees are happy with their work environment and feel a sense of purpose, they will want to share their business and professional success with the world. Your employees are connected to their friends and family on social media and, in many cases, may also be connected to popular influencers.

Once an employee shares something positive about your brand, his or her followers are likely to notice. They will see your brand in a better light and this, in turn, can improve their trust in the shared message. When you have a large number of employees, their total social media reach may be greater than that of your brand. By asking them to share content related to your brand, you will reach this massive audience and improve your brand awareness.

You can also let them know that sharing reviews or unique content about your brand is a great way to grow their accounts.

Creating strong brand advocates is now easier than ever with the use of employee advocacy solutions. They are made to simplify the process of motivating employees to share corporate related content.

Employees on Social Media

Here are some ideas that will motivate your employees to share on social media:

• Set aside time for social activities like game days
• Go out on excursions as a team
• Get everyone involved in decorating your office for the holidays
• Organize parties to celebrate events that are not business-related
• Hold interactive seminars for self-development
• Start a “social committee”
• Celebrate birthdays in the office
• Hold an employee talent show

Encourage your employees to share these micro-moments on social media and tag your company.

2. Give Insights Into Your Company Culture

When employees post a photo of their morning office coffee or a work party, it gives the audience an insight into your company culture. It introduces them to your values and shows them what your workplace is like.

Sure, you can post similar photos but when an employee does it, it comes across as more credible and less promotional. It’s a great way to win the trust of your audience.

As an example, Hootsuite employees regularly share photos of themselves working and enjoying office events. If you have a pet-friendly work environment, why not show it?

3. Humanize the Brand

Employee advocacy is a great way of humanizing your brand. When employees post corporate news online, the information will be viewed as more authentic as it’s coming from an employee and not your brand itself.

Additionally, they will have a unique voice that’s different from yours. This uniqueness, and sometimes, void of professional jargon, will make a difference in how the audience relates to your brand.

The humanizing of a brand through the employees can also be done through the company’s official social media profiles. When messaging appears to have a more human touch, people can see the person behind the entity.

Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Modern Life, Search and Devices at Microsoft, tweets photos of their products, employees, as well as events. With such posts, Microsoft fans get introduced to the minds working behind the technology.

4. Improve Your Brand Image

To build trust, you need to make sure your brand image is positive. When employees express their opinion and give positive feedback about your brand and products online, stimulate customers to do the same. With employees endorsing your brand online, your overall perception can become more optimistic very fast.

To improve your image, you can implement an employee advocacy program. As a brand, you can encourage employees to like, share, and comment on your content. However, don’t go overboard with it. If you make it compulsory, your employees may find it annoying. That can actually be counterproductive for you.

Instead, run internal competitions to encourage engagement. You could reward employees who get the most visibility by giving them a voucher, cinema tickets, or any kind of bonus you might find appropriate.

Macy’s Style Crew program uses this strategy to keep their employees motivated. As a part of the program, they’ve chosen 300 employees to become their brand ambassadors.

For each sale made online, they receive a commission. In addition to this, employees get access to products for free.

This program is a great way to drive employee loyalty. If your employees are committed to your vision, they will help you spread the right message. This, in turn, is a great image booster.

Final Thoughts

Employee advocacy programs can boost your brand’s visibility and reputation. At the same time, content created by your employees can showcase your company culture in an authentic way.

It’s a win-win situation for your brand.

The best part is it can instill a sense of pride and community in your employees. If you are still not using employee advocacy, it’s time to give it a try.