7 Employee Advocates Every Company Knows Too Well
You’ve heard about it, worked out the math, and reached a conclusion – employee advocacy is definitely for you.
Yes, the concept of increasing your brand’s social reach with your existing workforce seems like a brilliant and simple enough idea. But before you dive head first into the program, you should read our white paper on the 6 mistakes to avoid when launching an employee advocacy program. Seriously. You won’t regret it.
Once you’ve got the basics out of the way and you’re all set to introduce the program, your next challenge is most likely going to be onboarding your employees.
If our experience with Employee Advocacy has taught us anything, it’s that each program is unique. But we just can’t help generalizing employees based on their initial reactions to the employee advocacy concept.
While some of these employee brand ambassadors will make your chest swell with pride, others will have you quietly laughing in agreement with us.
Here are 7 types of employee brand ambassadors that every company knows all too well –
1. The True Believer
Whether it’s the prestige of working for a reputed company or a steadfast belief in the organization, some employees take pride in sharing updates about their work life. They may form just about 15% of your organization’s workforce, but these True Believers require little or no convincing to get on board with an employee advocacy program.
They are great for the first batch of brand advocates for your business. Not only with they help sustain the program, but their social influence can play a vital part in onboarding other members too.Onboarding difficulty: 0-1/10
Onboarding difficulty: 0-1/10
Sustaining capability: 8/10
Social Influence: 7/10
2. The Cyber Savvy Influencer
In our digital age, there are those who have taken to social media like fish to water. These social media soldiers are on a mission to build up their social presence as thought leaders in their field and sharing company posts only helps their goal.
Onboarding, sustaining and getting great original content ideas for your platform should be a breeze with these employee advocates.
Onboarding, sustaining and getting great original content ideas for your platform should be a breeze with these employee advocates.
Onboarding difficulty: 0-1/10
Sustaining capability: 9/10
Social Influence: 9/10
3. The Reluctant Advocate
This is the majority chunk of your junior and non-marketing/sales employees.
All out to please their seniors, they already have quite a bit on their plates. Adding another ‘task’ to the list might not be as welcomed as with the other groups.
The plus point to look forward to is that they are easily motivated by recognition. Choosing an employee advocacy platform that includes leaderboards that recognizes and rewards the top sharer could be the deciding factor in converting these reluctant advocates.
Onboarding difficulty: 6/10
Sustaining capability: 6/10
Social Influence: 3/10
4. The Boss’s Pet
You know who they are. These select few employees have somehow managed to wiggle their way it into the boss’s inner circle. And although merit might not have been they got there, they seem to have some serious staying power.
The good news is that these Pets live to please. If their seniors want something done, it’s done.
Be careful though; although you might not have an issue with onboarding these employees to the new platform, you might not want to count on them to sustain the employee advocacy program.
Onboarding difficulty: 2/10
Sustaining capability: 4/10
Social Influence: 5/10
5. The Opportunist
The antithesis of a team player, the Opportunist has only one question on their mind.
What’s in it for me?
You’re probably looking at tenured employees who have still not managed the climb up the corporate ladder. They’ve seen a lot of these ‘activities’ take place at work, and will need a little more than recognition to get them on board.
Though the onboarding process might be challenging, a creative incentivization system on the platform will help.
Onboarding difficulty: 8/10
Sustaining capability: 4/10
Social Influence: 3/10
6. The Rebel
Simply put, these are your actively disengaged employees.
Without sugar coating it – they aren’t happy with their job, colleagues and/or the work environment. They are content with simply completing their daily tasks.
We aren’t going to lie; getting these employees onboard with employee advocacy is not going to be easy.
Digging to the root of the matter and figuring out how to engage these employees before proposing advocacy would be the best place to start here.
Onboarding difficulty: 11/10
Sustaining capability: 1/10
Social Influence: 2/10
7. The Optimist
Ever hopeful, these employee advocates can find silver linings even in the stickiest situations. Your marketing, sales and other management level employees would usually fall into this bucket.
Onboarding difficulty: 0/10
Sustaining capability: 9/10
Social Influence: 9/10
Make it your mission to convert as many employees to True Believers and you’re sure to have an army of brand advocates. By focusing on ways to engage your employees and placing emphasis on employee and job satisfaction, you’re a step in the right direction towards achieving this.
So there you have it. Do you agree with our list? Let us know if we’ve missed out on any ‘types’ in the comments section below.