How to Turn Employees into Brand Advocates on Social Media

For every business, there’s so much value in having employees who strive to work for the betterment of the company.

Even better is when your employees become your own brand advocates, especially in this era where consumers are highly reliant on social media. In fact, leveraging employee advocacy opens up a lot of opportunities for your brand. Research shows that employees have 5x more reach than brand accounts on social media and their corresponding followers are 7x more likely to convert.

So how do you encourage your employees to become advocates of your brand?

This can be achieved by creating an employee engagement social media strategy. Basically, it’s a plan that encourages your own employees to share branded content on their social media channels, amplifying your brand message even more.

4 Employee Engagement Social Media Strategy Tips

1. Establish clear guidelines

The first thing that must be in order is to have a clear social media policy that’s easily accessible to all employees.

Most employees are hesitant to post branded content on their personal channels for fear of potential repercussions. If they’re made aware of what’s allowed and not allowed to be posted on social media regarding your brand, it’s more than likely that they’ll be encouraged to participate in your employee engagement strategy.

Your social media policy should not only clearly set expectations, but it should also have a careful balance between protecting brand reputation and encouraging employee advocacy.

2. Get your employees involved in the planning

When employees are involved and feel that their opinions are heard and valued, they’re more encouraged to have an active role in your social media strategy.

You may send out surveys, select a few employees for a peer group discussion, or establish open communication channels where employees are free to drop in their suggestions for your social media strategy.

An important aspect here is to be transparent about your social media goals so that everyone is on the same page. It’s also helpful to share monthly reports of your employees’ social media efforts. This way, employees know that they’re making a significant contribution to the company.

3. Provide relevant content that they can share

Being brand advocates isn’t just about promoting your products or services on social media — it’s also about giving your employees a choice on what they want to post relating to your brand that is part of your employee engagement social media strategy.

Remember, employees need to feel that what they’re sharing is something of value to their own followers. This is why it’s important to create relevant content that they can share, be it blog posts, informative social media posts, new products/services, job listings, or what-not.

Another thing to consider is that not all employees are comfortable with posting promotional content on social media. One way to encourage them to get involved is by giving corporate “swag” gifts. As the term suggests, these are corporate-branded giveaways (e.g., jackets, mugs, pens, etc.). This way, they can show off their workplace pride in a subtle way.

4. Gamify and incentivize

Lastly, employees need to feel gratified for the effort they’re making in advocating your brand. A fun way to do this is by gamifying your social media strategy. Gamification not only encourages collaboration and engagement within your company; it’s also a good way for employees to balance work and play.

Create internet challenges and have your employees join them. You can also run monthly contests and provide incentives for employees who got the most shares or comments on social media. Whatever you choose to do, the important thing is to make the experience fun and exciting while also meeting your social media strategy goals.

Employee engagement and advocacy go hand in hand in making a positive impact on your company. However, it’s essential to remember that brand advocacy and employee participation in your social media strategy should not be forced but encouraged. For more tips on social media marketing, visit https://www.ilfusion.com/blog.