Social Advocacy for Business Benefits
Milton Herman
Nowadays companies spend millions of dollars in advertising, social media campaigns and even influencer marketing. But there are other more effective tools to promote your brand, without setting up a skyrocketing budget.
Why you should consider Employee Social Advocacy integration
Advocacy by itself is not a new term to the business, but employee and social media advocacy are interconnected emerging trends, that together are even more influential to the company’s image, reputation and even revenues.
To be an advocate means that you are supporting a given idea, need, person or even a group (M.London, 2010). It’s important for enterprises to aim for employee advocates who understand and support its vision and missions.
Source: Manuel London, (2010) “Understanding social advocacy: An integrative model of motivation, strategy, and persistence in support of corporate social responsibility and social entrepreneurship”, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29 Issue: 3;
Why Employee Social Advocacy?
Research done by LinkedIn gives us some insights on the importance of social advocacy.
- 10x Larger audience : Employee’s social media networks has 10x more connections than your company.
- 2x Higher Content Engagement : Employee shares generate 2x more engagement compared to corporate shares.
- 6x Higher Profits : Employee share generate higher conversion rates which results in 6x higher profits.
Mix-and-match tone doesn’t work
Companies are trying to blend in with people’s feeds – which is filled with actual friends and family photos, posts and funny videos – with their posts and advertisements. They try to make their content as human and personal as possible.
But let’s be honest here…
No matter how many hashtags or emojis or how much ‘human-like’ wording they use, a company’s page will always be seen as a company’s page.
A company’s page should stay professional and reflect the values of the organization, but this doesn’t mean that it can’t be trusted or reliable. The secret is engaging the people inside the company. Business should focus on motivating and embracing the uniqueness of its employees.
Employee Engagement
Time to start or overhaul an engagement strategy? Capitalize on Employee Engagement Opportunities.
Social Advocacy Helps To
Improve Brand Reputation
Business reputation is a mix of customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and a bit of luck. It seems like most companies focus mainly on the client’s perception, but what’s behind the curtains matters as much.
Let’s take one simple example. If an employee wrote an article and she share it on the company’s internal communication platforms, the organization can publish her work on the company’s page, to show appreciation for her efforts. This will stimulate her to share the publication within her person network. Like that the company gains from bigger reach and improves the brand image both in the eyes of the employee and the customer.
Increase Employee Profitability
Social Media increasingly influences the decision making process for buyers. Customers are always looking for trusted advisors, even in the B2B sector.
Let’s look at salespeople as advocates for example. A good sales force is well prepared to answer any question a client might have. They are also very active on social media for their work. Promoting employee advocacy in this case, can help the company increase the number of attracted leads, shorten the sales period and bring new revenue. Salespeople who regularly share on social media tend to exceed their quotas by 45%. Social advocacy increases work efficiency for both individuals and the overall organization.
Attract and retain top talent
The recruiting process can also be influenced by employee advocacy. While the HR department has the main responsibility of finding and attracting recruits they could use some help! Almost 45% of job seekers are more likely to respond to a job posting if they see it on a familiar person’s profile, rather than the official recruiting page. Social Advocacy provides the basis for the successful attraction and retention of top talent, by leveraging trusted peers from within the organisation.
Employee Engagement
Time to start or overhaul an engagement strategy? Capitalize on Employee Engagement Opportunities.