The internet is a funny place.
Yes, it’s a great source of unlimited information, but a video of a cat stuck in a cabinet might still get your attention a tad bit more. I should know.
This isn’t to say that other content doesn’t do well. It just that it’s not about to break the internet anytime soon.
So when one of the world’s leading financial institutions approached us with concerns that their social content wasn’t getting enough attention, employee advocacy seemed like a natural fit. And boy were we right.
Here’s a rundown of the numbers with 2,500 employees in just 3 months –
- Twitter Likes and Retweets of brand content increased 4x and 59x
- Facebook Shares were increased by 7%
- Impressions made on Facebook went up by a staggering 32%
- 0.2% of the total brand following (employees alone) brought in 6x the engagement as compared to the rest.
Remarkable, no?
Here’s how they achieved it –
1. They built a buzz around the program before launch
The human psyche will try its hardest to resist something that is mandated or forced upon. When it comes down to it, it all boils down to a matter of “want”.
When employees actually like working for the company, when they feel a sense of belonging, that’s when they become part of the 50% of employees who proactively share positive information about their company online. From there, it’s up to you to feed them the information you want to have shared.
By eliciting the right kind of buzz, they were able to achieve this well.
2. They chose a customizable and easy-to-use platform
If you start an employee advocacy program without a platform, you’re already making it difficult for fellow employees to get on board.
Of course, there are several employee advocacy tools to choose from, but what you’re looking for, in essence, needs to make life easy for the user and be easily accessible – plain and simple.
Most employees already use several tools, so adding another to that kitty will obviously take some getting used to.
Your best bet is one that is easy to navigate, visually appealing, integrates all platforms and most importantly, fits your budget.
When choosing the platform, some questions you might want to ask are –
- Is the platform accessible on different platforms – mobile, desktop, tablet?
- Are there iOS and Android versions, because well, everything is mobile!
- Does it include the function of push messages/internal email reminders when new content is shared?
- How soon can you see reports?
3. They structured the feed according to departments
There are two ways to approach content marketing. One way you keep putting out mediocre content in bulk, and the other is choosing quality content that may not necessarily be as frequent.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which one performs better.
The goal of an employee advocacy program is to turn your employees into a social media army – powerful marketers and potential sellers. Not puppets.
In order to achieve this, your content should be controlled, organized and relevant to the audience reading (and sharing) it. And the best way to do this is to create specific content plans.
By grouping together employees from specific departments, it becomes easier to curate content according to specific tastes.
A bonus about adopting this strategy is that fellow employees won’t have to waste time scrolling through a ton of content to finally get to something they find relatable.
4. Incorporated gamification into the program
While the management of different departments might see the value in employee advocacy, and may participate willingly, you’re going to need the strength of the entire organization on board if you really want to make an impact.
Although it’s a fine line, the frequency and intensity of participation from employees is seen to have improved when the right sort of gamification or incentive is offered. In fact, some employees even look at a leaderboard purely as a game that builds healthy competition, besides a chance to win some cool stuff.
Read More: Innovative Ways to Incentivize Your Employee Advocacy Program
In Summary…
Yes, an employee advocacy platform can be daunting sometimes. But if you make sure to choose the right platform, share customized & shareable content and keep your fellow employees motivated with the right incentives, you’ll have a winner on your hands in no time!
