5 Companies That Have Mastered the Art of Employee Advocacy

By now, every marketeer worth his salt realizes the value of employee advocacy. Using your employees as marketing agents may seem like a fairly easy concept, but there are several ways your plan could fall flat.

Given its nascence, one of the best ways to succeed at an advocacy program is by following great examples.

Here, we list out some employee advocacy case studies of companies in different sectors that have gotten it down to a tee.

1. Food and Beverage

A popular doughnut brand considers their employees their biggest marketing medium. In fact, they don’t invest in traditional advertising at all. They trust employees to spread the word about what’s new with the brand and even asks for their suggestions for social media content.

What we learn from this employee advocacy case study:

Employees are your biggest strength. Beginning small and training them well helps you achieve faster results. This works better than onboarding too many employees and simply dictating what you want them to do.

2. Telecommunications

A telecommunications giant started its employee advocacy program by surveying those employees who were already active on certain social media platforms and asked them to sign up for the brand’s employee advocacy program. The result was, reduced training time and a wider audience reached in a short span of time.

What we learn from this employee advocacy case study:

Employees don’t need to be active on every single social media platform. Brands must encourage employees to promote their content on whichever platform they are active on and comfortable with. Simply having a presence on all platforms but no reach will do your brand no good.

3. Finance

A major finance company kick-started their employee advocacy program by using a comprehensive employee advocacy platform (SocioAdvocacy). This not only simplified managing the program but also saved them a ton of time. The platform also helped them come up with content ideas and ways to keep their employees hooked.

What we learn from this employee advocacy case study:

The most crucial part of executing an employee advocacy program is managing and sustaining it. Great content and enthusiastic employees won’t do you any good if the two aren’t on the same page – literally. An employee advocacy platform is a great way to save hours of managing the program.

4. IT

A little before social media for business really caught on, an international IT consulting firm recognized the power of employee advocacy. To prepare for their employee advocacy program, they started with helping their employees build their personal social media presence. They did so with minimal investment by relying on tutorials on the internet. At the end of the program, employees were also asked for suggestions and even encouraged to create content.

What we learn from this employee advocacy case study:

Executing an employee advocacy program doesn’t have to be an expensive affair. If done right, it can fetch you great results with minimum investment.

5. Retail

A popular online apparel brand gives its employees complete freedom to tweet about their day-to-day operations at work. It could be anything from what their day at the office was like or something new they learned at work. This not only helps them reach out to prospective customers but also attracts future employees.

What we learn from this employee advocacy case study:

Authenticity is the key to success. Directing the employees correctly and giving them the freedom to be their real selves is the best way to execute a successful employee advocacy program.

These employee advocacy case studies offer some great insights to maximize the benefits of an employee advocacy program and we’re working on sharing a few more of these soon.

In the meantime, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Also, see how SocioAdvocacy can help your program grow.