Has Your Employee Advocacy Program Broken Down? ~via @PhotofyApp CEO @Katadhin
You’ve probably heard by now that Employee Advocacy is a thing. A really big thing actually that can have significant impact on your business if implemented with care. The ROI stats are compelling. If the 8X engagement over brand-shared content isn’t compelling enough for you, employee shared content gets 7X the lead generation according to Business 2 Community. Simply put, it’s just more efficient.
“If you build it, they will come,” rarely applies in business - Convince and Convert
Employee Advocacy won’t happen at scale just because you really want it to, or because you set up some fancy advocacy program. In fact, many companies report being disappointed with Employee Advocacy programs, and haven’t realized the expected returns after implementing programs even with costly platforms and heavy investments in content creation.
Some of the common reasons for failure include a lack of available content, and employees being unwilling to share branded content on their personal channels. While these may have been initial barriers, the changing nature of social media is quickly making sharing content of all types not only acceptable, but a central way that people communicate. This behavior has quickly been embraced in the business world, especially sharing curated content related to one's industry. The problem with that approach is that everyone is now doing it, and the likelihood of seeing the same article from many folks is becoming a common daily occurrence and diminishing the value.
Corporate content created for the purpose of sharing tends to have the same distribution problem, as the followers from a company heavily overlap with multiple employees. When multiple streams have the same content frequently, it can be very noisy and wears a "spam jacket," even if it’s only a light one. Additionally, tightly controlled content doesn’t actually unlock the most valuable part of an employee advocacy program which is the employee’s voice. Engagement comes from personal connection, not from centralized branding. Sure, there needs to be consistency, but if you are just looking for content syndication, call it what it is and use paid media, it’s more reliable and efficient in that respect.
Like authentic Influencer Marketing, the true value of Employee Advocacy comes from the authenticity of the content created by a person that is known to the network on which it is shared. Both approaches are less effective if the content is canned or the networks aren’t organic. Employee Advocacy works best with Employee Created Content, #ECC. Give your employees the tools, training, and inspiration to make awesome content and make it easy for them to create and share.
Use templates, branded graphic elements and locked fonts and colors, as overlays, to effectuate ‘pre-approve’ content vs. some convoluted approval process. ALL friction created in the process will result in less content being created, and less engagement of employees, who will then feel like they are participating in company communication efforts rather than their own created and shared content. Advocacy is more than just syndicating the company spiel, it is participating in the creation of content. Employee Created Content, a new key to Employee Advocacy.
Empower your Employees and THEY will Power your Brand.
