They are fostering their social media influence by employee advocacy. It turns out that using employees as ambassadors is a highly effective way of promoting an organisation. You don’t need to:
- create adverts
- hire influencers
- invest excessively in content
Make your staff brand ambassadors
In the case of Dell, its employee advocacy programme led to the sharing of more than 150,000 pieces of content, reaching 1.2 million users. That translated to 45,000 new visits to the company website. In the case of Norway’s third-largest university, a mere 15 individual shares by students and employees resulted in social reach comparable with the posts that are published on the university’s Facebook page.
Why does this work so well?
According to the website of the INSEAD business school, the reasons are as follows:
- Regular employees are trusted more than CEOs
- 8 in 10 people trust recommendations made by people they know
Make it easier for staff to share company content
What the website also describes is that, contrary to what was believed, consumers may not be more willing to share corporate content of stronger brands, in which case brand strength is not a major factor. However, if the organisation publishes social media content often, employees may be more inspired to repost company-related content. So the fact that a company is active does help.
Provide shareable corporate content, but without pressure
Write interesting blog posts, provide news stories for your staff to share. Allow employees to supply you with content which then, after approval, can also be available for others to share. But keep everything authentic: you should invite – and not order – your employees to participate.
-jk-