DIGITAL MEDIA GHOST
  • Publication
  • #GhostsWriteIt Spotlight
    • Writer Spotlight Submission
  • Services
    • Digital Strategy
      • Content Marketing
      • Law Firm Marketing
      • Social Media Management
    • Ghostwriting
    • Public Relations
      • Social Sabotage & Online Privacy
        • Social Media Policy Template
  • About
  • Publication
  • #GhostsWriteIt Spotlight
    • Writer Spotlight Submission
  • Services
    • Digital Strategy
      • Content Marketing
      • Law Firm Marketing
      • Social Media Management
    • Ghostwriting
    • Public Relations
      • Social Sabotage & Online Privacy
        • Social Media Policy Template
  • About
Search

The Good, Bad & Scary of Employee Advocacy Through Social

6/11/2015

 
by Mary C Long

You need your employees to help you spread the good word about your business online. Unfortunately, the way you’re going about it is failing, or worse – harming your brand, because you’re doing it wrong. Here are some tips to help you do it right!

​When it comes to “employee advocacy” many businesses follow the same path, sending a company-wide email with links to the latest blog post (or whatever content on hand) and a request for tweets, LinkedIn posts and so on. But having employees act as brand ambassadors at all can be scary (and should be extensively considered/planned out ahead of time). Here’s why:

Best case: They share as requested and interact positively with your potential audience.

Worst case: They share nothing, but spend lots of time fighting with people on Facebook with your company name proudly attached to their profile.

To head off the bad, you need to have a solid social media policy and privacy checklist in place that includes clear guidelines for online interactions and sets expectations around behavior on any platform where employees could be viewed as expressing views endorsed by your business.

Moving beyond that, you need to understand your own expectations around social sharing before you can encourage the ‘right’ behaviors. As Mark Organ, founder and CEO of Influitive, points out – many businesses are pretty clueless: 
              
The majority of so-called employee advocacy programs today focus only on social amplification of marketing content. Employees are encouraged or sometimes even forced to post verbatim the latest content and campaigns. But strong-arming employees into sharing company content on Twitter is not advocacy.

So then what is advocacy? Well, businesses need to consider “what actually might motivate their employees to advocate for the company.” Seems obvious, doesn’t it? And Organ offers tips to sort that out:

  1. Provide a truly exceptional employee experience. When 70 percent of employees are disengaged (the reality, according to a Gallup survey of 350,000 Americans), they’re not going to be very convincing advocates. They’re also not going to be effective at inspiring advocacy from other stakeholders in your company, such as customers and partners.
  2. Employees are human too. Understand what motivates them and why by asking what they’re willing to do, how they’d like to do it, and what kind of recognition they would appreciate in return. Don’t be surprised if each employee gives a different answer.
  3. Make employee advocacy easy, fun and sustainable. A great employee advocacy tool allows employees to do more than just social sharing. Ideally, it also features game mechanics to keep advocates hooked over the long term, allows leaders to share feedback on the results of employees’ advocacy, and builds employees’ social capital as they advocate for their company.
  4. Empower employees to be autonomous advocates. True advocacy is what your employees say about you behind your back. Stop taking control of their social accounts and scripting everything they say.

And while letting go and encouraging unscripted social advocacy activity is scary, it’s certainly essential if you want it to work.

If you can’t commit to “doing social” in a way that actually works, you probably shouldn’t bother with it at all, as you’ll be throwing your time and money into a vacuum (the social world is vast, and disorganized efforts are utterly worthless).

But, wait! Organ also offers hope for those unsure of “social” as a strategy, as “there’s so much more your employees can do to help build your company’s brand.” To name a few: 

  • Posting anonymous Glassdoor reviews.
  • Referring high-quality candidates for hard-to-fill roles.
  • Providing feedback on the employee experience.
  • Speaking at or hosting events.
  • Creating content.

Depending on the effort employees commit to any advocacy on your business’s behalf online, the results can be fantastic – or disastrous. It’s up to you, business owner, to understand the power online offers and create requisite guidelines and opportunities to support any employee advocacy efforts.

This post was originally posted on AdWeek/Social Times

IMAGE CREDIT: ADAM GRABEK

Comments are closed.
    Picture
    Become a Ghostwriter!
    Picture
    Contribute to DMG
    Picture
    BECOME A GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
    Picture
    PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS BY GUEST POSTING
    Picture
    ARE YOU A GHOSTWRITER? WE WANT TO KNOW!
    Picture
    DO YOU HAVE A GHOSTWRITING BUSINESS?

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Agency Spotlight
    Business
    Digital Marketing
    Ghost In A Flash
    Ghostwriting
    Media Relations
    Privacy Concerns
    Social Sabotage
    Technology
    Writer Spotlight
    Writing

    Advertising Disclaimer

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

Find your domain and create your site at Weebly.com!
Digital Media Strategy
Content Marketing
Law Firm Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Social Media Marketing
eBooks
Writing
Becoming a Ghostwriter
Blogging
Content Marketing
Ghostwriting Services
Guest Post Guidelines
Media Relations
Online Crisis Management
Personal Brand
Public Relations
Reputation Management
About
Our Team
Our Results
Testimonials
Contact Us
Locations:
New Orleans, LA
Nashville, TN

DMG University
Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Cookie Policy
Digital Media Ghost  @2020
  • Publication
  • #GhostsWriteIt Spotlight
    • Writer Spotlight Submission
  • Services
    • Digital Strategy
      • Content Marketing
      • Law Firm Marketing
      • Social Media Management
    • Ghostwriting
    • Public Relations
      • Social Sabotage & Online Privacy
        • Social Media Policy Template
  • About