What Is Employee Advocacy How Does It Really Work Employee advocacy has been one of the most trendy buzzwords in human resources, marketing and sales over the past few years. Despite its growing popularity, a majority of brands have yet to truly activate employees as marketing, sales or recruiting assets. Although the concept of employee advocacy has been around for decades in various forms, the internet and social media have revolutionized it and added new possibilities. Employee advocacy is the promotion of an organization by its staff members. Learn how your business can use its biggest asset employees. With all these changes, brands have to rethink the way they approach advocacy and how employees fit into the company. Whether youre completely new to employee advocacy or part of the 3. Well answer basic questions like what is employee advocacy, dive into tips and tactics to improve your chances of success and much more. Try Employee Advocacy With Bambu. Check out a personalized demo of Bambu, focused on gaining exposure to new, qualified audiences by connecting your brand with the social networks of your employees. See the Product. Click on any of the links below to jump to each section, or dive in from the beginning. So What Is Employee AdvocacyAt its core, employee advocacy is the promotion of an organization by its staff members. An employee advocate is someone who Generates positive exposure and raises awareness for a brand through digital media or offline channels. Recommends a companys products or services to a friend or family member. Represents the best interests of the company both internally and externally. Can help build employee ownership of the organization. Is an expert on your product or service and can be a credible spokesperson for your company. Types of Employee Advocacy. There are several ways for employees to advocate for your brand. You may have used some of these tactics without even realizing you were turning your team into loyal brand advocates. Here are some common types of employee advocacy you can use to turn your team into your biggest supporters Social Media Employee Advocacy. Social media completely changed the way brands utilize employee advocacy. While some of the older tactics like incentivizing and giving away swag still work, the reality is brands need to incorporate social into the equation. Break-free-662x1024.jpg' alt='Stop And Shop Employee Handbook' title='Stop And Shop Employee Handbook' />Technology now makes it possible for employers to keep track of virtually all workplace communications by any employee, on the phone and in cyberspace. And many. As an employer, you have a responsibility to maintain a workplace that is free of sexual harassment. This is your legal obligation, but it also makes good business. Contact Us. Were here to help in any way we can. Whether you need the mailing address for your payments or want to discuss a bill in person, we have. Baltimore Housing is building on our strenghts and investing in our future. We are a forwardthinking organization built on compassion, progressiveness and quality of. Your customers spend a lot of their free time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social networks, so its the prime place to get in front of them. In fact, when you add it up, the average person spends over an hour a day on various platforms. Capturing that attention can be more difficult for brands than individuals. So getting your employees to share articles from your blog, pictures around the office or other types of content can significantly improve your reach. Well dive more into how and why this works in the next few sections. Incentives Recognition. People crave recognition. Taking the time to recognize employees who perform well can also be extremely beneficial for business. A recent study found that 7. This can be done easily by starting an employee of the month program or listing top employees in a monthly newsletter column. Time can be set aside in team meetings to recognize certain employees for their hard work or accomplishments. Public commendation of employees is great way to recognize hard work, and a surefire method to create employee advocates. Financial media company Motley Fool made it a policy for every day to be employee appreciation day. And when one of their team members was called out as one of the most recognized employees on the You. Earned. It platform, they highlighted the achievement in a blog post. Swag. You may have seen people joke about startups slapping their logos on t shirts for employees. However, swag is an old school employee advocacy tactic that still works today. Giving employees free shirts, keychains or other usable items provides people with a way to show off your brand without too much effort on their end. Any time employees wear a t shirt or uses a water bottle, they are advocating on behalf of your brand. The Benefits of Employee Advocacy. Some brands will look at employee advocacy and wonder whether or not its worth the investment. But the reality is with the hiring market becoming increasingly competitive and changes to the way consumers shop, focusing on employee advocacy is more important than ever. In many ways, employee advocacy is like social media marketing. In 2. 01. 7, the thought of not having a presence on Facebook or Instagram seems ridiculous. But just three to five years ago, a lot of brands doubted the benefits and value of social media. Instead, they opted to stick to the old ways of doing things, despite the fact that social media has been shown to be more cost effective. Today, some of the most successful brands in the world invest heavily into social media. Many of those same brands started to invest in employee advocacy programs as well. This isnt just a coincidence. Employee advocacy is still in the early stages, and the brands that jump on board right now are the ones that will reap the long term benefits. In addition to being an early adopter, heres a look at some of the benefits of employee advocacy Increase Your Reach on Social. Organic reach on social media has dwindled down considerably over the past few years. Social. Flow analyzed the organic reach of 3,0. Facebook pages that reach an average of 6. They found organic reach from these publishers dropped a whopping 4. January and May of 2. This shift has led many brands to start allocating more money toward social media ads and boosting posts to push their reach up. However, employee engagement could be a more cost effective solution to organically increase your reach. Lets say a company of 1. Facebook business page. Their potential total reach is 2,0. Now if every employee in that company had an average of 3. Facebook, the total reach of all the employees combined is 3. This calculates to a 1,5. By utilizing your employees social media networks, you have the ability to reach a much larger audience and have your message be seen by exponentially more people. On top of just the number of people employees can reach, they also provide more value. Cisco noted that employees social posts generate eight times more engagement than posts from their employers. The reason it works is because people trust content and recommendations from people they know more than marketing messages from companies. In fact, people are 1. If your posts arent getting the organic reach or engagement youd like, employee advocacy could be what you need to fill in the gaps. Improve Company Culture Retention. Culture is more than just a buzzword used to attract millennial and Gen Z employees. Twenty years ago, company culture was hardly talked about. For the most part, employee retention was all about compensation, benefits and general happiness within a specific role. Fast forward to today, and the story is much different. Company culture is a priority for both employees and employers. In fact, 8. 0 of businesses plan to improve their corporate culture in 2. Companies work hard to attract top talent and good company culture can be a strong differentiator for your brand. This is so relevant that 1. Plus 1. 8 percent of employees say corporate culture would increase their loyalty and engagement with a company. Increase Your Bottom Line. Moonlight Sonata Sheet Music. Employee advocacy doesnt just boost morale around the office. It can also increase your companys bottom line.