Employee Advocacy has been an established concept in the U.S for many years. Companies invested in these types of projects and quickly generated results around employee retention, implication and loyalty. Furthermore, generating new and qualified leads through social networks meant that the power of these projects became indisputable. Europe has followed suit in the last decade, with companies of all sizes recognising the value of Employee Advocacy.
Deploying an employee ambassador program generates visibility and creates new business opportunities. Today, B2B companies all over the world are mobilizing their employees to invest in social networks. By sharing quality content, employees involved in these marketing strategies become the best spokespersons for the brand.
A “win-win” project, where each of the stakeholders reaps numerous benefits. However, to deploy an Employee Advocacy program over the long term, there are some important strategic and technical points that must be followed.
In this article we will present and explain 5 key steps to implementing an Employee Advocacy project.
Employee Advocacy: Turn your Employees into Brand Ambassadors
To promote your brand, who better than the employees responsible for almost every aspect of the business? Indeed, your employees are already your best ambassadors in essence. They know your products and/or services, but also your corporate culture and values. By inviting them to take part in the company’s communications, they convey your expertise on their own social networks. By sharing quality content, they can generate interactions more easily, with an audience who is already market relevant.
Today’s buyers are nothing like yesterday’s. They represent a complex dynamic between digital content but the need for more human and authentic buying relationships. They are much more receptive to a message from a person than a simple corporate social account. As your brand’s flag bearers, employee ambassadors are more credible in capturing the attention of qualified leads and creating commitments.
While Employee Advocacy accelerates business generation, it is also a great opportunity for the employees themselves. By connecting and commiting to this type of project, they cultivate their personal branding, enhance their business expertise and can increase their productivity.
To deploy an Advocacy program, and especially to generate success in the long term, best practices are essential from the very beginning of the project.
Employee Advocacy: The 5 Essential Steps to Deploy a Successful Ambassadors Program
As with any project, organization is the key to success. From its conception to its management, each step of the Employee Advocacy program must be carefully thought out beforehand. A successful project can be broken down into 5 main phases:
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Preparation of the Project
This first step is essential to refine your strategy. It is about asking yourself the right questions before implementing it: what are my objectives? Which employees should be involved in my program? Which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should I focus on? What editorial strategy should I adopt? Which product/tool(s) should I choose?
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Internal Communication
Once your objectives are clearly defined, it is essential to communicate them to your employees. Also listen to them to reassure them about any questions or objections they may have. You must be present to offer your ambassadors the best possible support. The success of an Employee Advocacy project depends on voluntary implication of ambassadors, so getting them onboard early is of key strategic importance!
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The Choice of a High-Performance Tool
The most important step in ensuring optimal management of your Advocacy program over time. Once the tool has been selected and configured, users must be trained before the pilot project is launched.
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Analysis of Results
Throughout the pilot phase, you must be able to analyze the quantitative and qualitative results (number of social shares, traffic generated on the website, most active users, etc.).
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Highlight the Results Obtained
To ensure the sustainability of the program, you need to regularly communicate the value created and share the best practices developed. Based on the feedback from the first ambassadors, you identify the right adoption levers according to each business profile.
Nothing should be left to chance. The success of your Employee Advocacy project depends on these 5 steps.
A Powerful SaaS Tool for Optimal Management of your Advocacy Project
A SaaS solution is ideal for deploying your project and managing it over time. By opting for a tool with adapted functionalities, all the key phases can be executed for a successful project:
- All your marketing content is centralized on a single platform.
- Prepare strategic and impactful content campaigns around keywords.
- Optimize the multi-channel distribution of all your content.
- Measure the performance of your campaigns through aggregated statistics.
To save time and productivity, the use of a unique and intuitive management platform is an undeniable asset in any Advocacy program. Time-consuming tasks, such as recurring content planning, are no longer obstacles. You and your brand can be present across all distribution channels in just a few clicks!
In order to make your brand shine on social networks, a successful Ambassadors’ approach requires activating the right levers. Good preparation, upstream communication, choice of a high-performance tool, analysis and evaluation of the results are key strategic steps in implementing a campaign with long-term impact.
Would you like to know more about these 5 steps and Employee Advocacy? Download our dedicated White Paper:
Jamie Swanson