What is Employee Advocacy and How Can It Help You?

Entrepreneur in busy office smiling at camera

As originally seen on Forbes

Ten years ago, I started noticing a trend. Companies were finally willing to jump on social media as they realized the potential impact it could have on their business. They could increase brand awareness, bring in clients, and show their expertise to the world.

 These companies went on to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and created a company page. For the first month, they’d post every business day, with their shares ranging from legal discourse to new tax information. But as the months went on, and the page got less and less interaction from other users on the platform, the company would give up.

This created the “Company Ghost Towns.” These pages are littered across every social media platform; pages created with good intentions, but eventually abandoned and left to sit in virtual purgatory.

What’s the problem here? Is it that the companies stopped sharing or that they weren’t sharing the right things?

Honestly, it’s neither of them. The fact of the matter is that a company page (with the rare exception, I’m looking at you, Apple) will NEVER perform well on social media. Nobody is waking up in the morning and wondering to themselves what such-and-such law firm said about whatever new thing came out. They’re just not.

To believe that your company page will be the center of your digital marketing strategy is not just naive, but potentially damaging to your brand and your business.

This is what brings us to employee advocacy. Employee advocacy is exactly what it sounds like; it’s getting your employees to talk about your business on social media.

I may not care what Zippadee Law Firm said on social media, but I do care about business insights from my friend Meghan, who is a partner says.

I don’t think of Zippadee Law Firm when I need a lawyer; I think of Meghan.

 Now, there are a couple of ways to get an employee advocacy campaign going. First off, employee advocacy doesn’t work without content. This can take the form of videos, blog posts, white papers or just articles posted to the website. If you want more information on what types of content to share and how to make it, check out

this article.

Put together an email to send your employees with some of this content and write a little blurb. Something along the lines of, “Here’s some great content we have put together. Feel free to share it out to your socials, it’s a great way to bring in business to the firm.”

Hopefully, your employees like you enough or enjoy the content and give those a share.

But chances are, they won’t. As Thomas Edison said, “We often miss opportunities because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.” With employee advocacy, you’re fighting a battle against human laziness. These employees don’t want another thing added on their already over-full list of tasks.

So what’s the solution? Make it easier.

Employee Advocacy software is becoming increasing advanced and efficient. Some examples include Smarp, Dynamic Signal, and Clearview Social.

Programs like Clearview Social simplify employee advocacy by reducing the “work” to a few clicks a week. Busy employees who wouldn’t have taken the time to copy and paste each company article into all three social platforms can now do a weeks worth of scheduling content in less than ten seconds.

Employees have the audience, and employees have the trust of their peers. That’s why harnessing the true power of social media for your company requires their participation.

The vast majority of companies haven’t scratched the surface when it comes to harnessing their employees via employee advocacy, but it is a growing trend that has seen rapid growth during the pandemic.

If you want to learn more about strategies to succeed on LinkedIn, check out my complimentary LinkedIn Cheat Sheet webinar on April 29th at 1 pm EST. I hope to see you there.

And, as always, feel free to tweet me @adriandayton with questions or comments.

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