Turn your employees to brand advocates

OCTOBER 21, 2014 BY ADEOLA KAYODE

   

 

 

Adeola Kayode

Employee engagement is key in improving productivity in any organisation. And even in the age of social media, your employees provide a unique opportunity to propel your business by providing extended reach, credibility and depth.

Most businesses are looking for ways to promote their business especially on social media but they are forgetting and neglecting an important stakeholder – their employees.

In fact, according to a Nielsen research, only 14 per cent of the sample population researched trust advertising while a whopping 72 per cent will say they trust recommendation from people they know.

That is why you need people to advocate for your company and your product.

Why is employee advocacy important for your business?

Firstly, social media is designed to serve individuals, not brands, therefore leveraging your human employees is huge credibility boost for your business. As brands continue to compete online for attention, the social networks are reducing their effectiveness except based on the nature of their engagement with their target audience.

Secondly, individuals have a “trust factor” that brands don’t have. Brands and their advertising are huge distraction to the primary purpose of people’s engagement on social media – networking.People are far more likely to take advice from their friends who work with the company than respond to an advert. Social and digital media are a combination of not just technology, but also human relationships.

Start with well-defined goals

What do you want to accomplish? I really always begin by asking businesses and individuals about their objectives. You need to know what you are trying to accomplish and how your employees are able to push your brand forward. Making sales isn’t sufficient. It needs to take into consideration your employees’ personal motivation and desires.

Have a framework and policy in place

Getting your employees involved requires a lot of issues to be considered and you may need to ask yourself some questions. What will your social media policy cover? What roles will employees play? What happens when an employee advocate does the wrong thing? How will we engage and train employees? How do you get to secure the buy-in and support for your employees? Your policy needs to be in place to guide execution and to prevent unforeseen and unsavoury events from occurring. It helps to guide efforts for maximum effectiveness, allowing a more focused approach.

Create an awesome work place

The foundation of the challenges where employees are not willing to evolve into brand advocates is because the work place either does not have a company culture that inspires credibility or trust in the mind of the employees or they are not passionate about the job. In fact, the employees simply becomes advocates when they are happy with their work place. Employees are more likely to willingly promote the business if they know they can are happy with their environment and culture.

Set guidelines

Either because of the indiscipline of employees or the natural inclination employees, most organisations have a ban on the social media during work hours. Some companies may not outright ban social networks but block it off their servers. However, you cannot be frowning on social media and expect your employees to smile at you on social media.

If your business needs to engage social media, you need to find and explore the benefits of social media engagement; your employees will need to play a crucial role in your digital and social media marketing efforts. Employees can be content creators, listeners, promoters and brand champions

Identify employee champions

In getting your organisation to be more involved online, you need to quickly identify the champions among them. They can either be the people who are already known to be active on social media or the one with the clout to influence others.They are the kind of employees you do not need to bug and cajole to be active on social media, get the news about your business out there and to encourage others to do the same. If you plan to build brand advocacy into a long-term business strategy you need to consider developing an employee advocacy programme.

Equip them with the requisite knowledge and tools

Empowering your customers with the required knowledge and tools to promote your business is also important. Just as you have identified employee champions, you can also use them as leverage in teaching others on what to do and how it will benefit them personally. Begin by educating your employee advocates on your company’s social media strategy and what your objectives are. It is also the required moment to lay the foundation of your social media goals and the roles they will play. It is also a good time to explain your policies and how to deal with issues that may arise.

Prompting advocacy is no joke

Most employees are only interested in only doing the job they are hired to do, so getting employees to think like advocates requires a lot of work and extra patience, but the rewards are highly significant to your success. While every employee within your organisation may not be ready to advocate on your behalf, they may still have some influencing power. An influencer can use their personal network to amplify your brand message.

If you’re not encouraging your employees to socially promote your brand’s content, you’re missing out on a huge social growth opportunity. Instead of banning your employees from social media sites, accept the fact that they are active on social media and use it to your advantage.

Source:   PUNCH.