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The Empuls Glossary

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Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy is a strategic approach where employees are encouraged to promote their organization’s brand, products, or services. This can be done through various channels such as social media, word-of-mouth, or even through their personal networks.

What is employee advocacy?

Employee advocacy is the promotion of an organization by its employees. It involves empowering employees to share positive messages and experiences about their company on social media to increase brand awareness and boost credibility.

What do you mean by advocacy?

Advocacy is the act of supporting, promoting, or arguing in favor of a cause, policy, or group of people. It involves efforts to influence decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions. Advocacy can take many forms, including lobbying, public speaking, media campaigns, and community organizing, all aimed at creating change and garnering support for a specific issue or group.

Listen, recognize, award, and retain your employees with our Employee engagement software  

What is an employee advocacy program?

An employee advocacy program is a structured initiative encouraging employees to promote their organization on social media. The program provides employees with the necessary training, tools, and resources to share positive messages about the company on their personal social media accounts.

What is the difference between employee advocacy and employee engagement?

Employee advocacy and employee engagement are related but distinct concepts:

  • Employee advocacy: This refers to employees promoting and supporting their company, often through positive word-of-mouth and social media. It involves employees voluntarily sharing their positive experiences and endorsing the company’s products, services, or culture.

  • Employee engagement: This refers to the level of commitment, enthusiasm, and dedication employees feel towards their organization. Engaged employees are typically more productive, loyal, and willing to go above and beyond in their roles.

In essence, while employee advocacy is an outward expression of support for the company, employee engagement is an internal state of being emotionally and mentally invested in the organization.  

What type of training or resources does the company provide to support employee advocacy?

Here are some examples of training and resources that a company can provide to support employee advocacy:

  • Social media guidelines: The company can provide clear guidelines on social media best practices, including dos and don'ts, to ensure that employees understand how to represent the company on social media.
  • Content library: The company can provide pre-approved content for employees to share on their personal social media accounts. This can include articles, videos, images, and other types of content that align with the company's brand and messaging.
  • Training sessions: The company can offer training sessions on social media best practices, including how to create engaging content, how to optimize posts for different social media platforms, and how to measure the impact of their posts.
  • Advocacy platform: The company can provide an advocacy platform that makes it easy for employees to share content on social media. The platform can include features such as pre-populated posts, analytics, and gamification to encourage participation.
  • Incentives: The company can incentivize employees to participate in the program by offering rewards such as gift cards, recognition, or other types of incentives.
  • Feedback and support: The company can provide ongoing feedback and support to employees who participate in the program. This can include regular check-ins, coaching, and guidance on how to improve their social media skills.

Which is an example of employee advocacy?

For instance, if an employee shares a photo of their team working on a project with a caption highlighting the company's culture and values, it can help them gain more visibility and attract potential customers. The company can also provide its employees with social media guidelines and pre-approved content to share, encouraging them to participate in spreading positive messages about the company.

How does the company measure the impact of employee advocacy?

Measuring the impact of employee advocacy can be done in several ways.

Here are a few examples:

  • Reach and engagement: The company can track the views, likes, shares, and comments generated by employee posts. This can help evaluate the program's effectiveness in amplifying the company's messages.
  • Referral traffic: The company can also track the website traffic generated by employee posts. This can indicate how effective the program is in driving clicks and conversions.
  • Lead generation: The company can track the leads generated through employee advocacy. This can help evaluate the program's effectiveness in driving sales and revenue.
  • Employee participation: The company can track the number of employees participating in the program and their level of engagement. This can help evaluate the program's effectiveness in building employee engagement and loyalty.
  • Brand sentiment: The company can monitor brand sentiment across social media channels to see if employee advocacy is having a positive impact on how the company is perceived by its audience.
  • Cost savings: Employee advocacy can be a cost-effective way to promote the company compared to traditional marketing channels. The company can track the cost savings generated by the program to evaluate its ROI.
  • Employee feedback: The company can collect feedback from employees who participate in the program to understand their experience and whether they feel empowered and engaged.
  • Benchmarking: The company can benchmark its performance against industry standards or competitors to see how effective its employee advocacy program is compared to others in the same space.
  • Long-term impact: The company can track the long-term impact of employee advocacy on key metrics such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, and employee retention. This can help evaluate the program's effectiveness in achieving long-term business goals.

How is employee advocacy recognized and acknowledged within the company?

Recognizing and acknowledging employee advocacy is an important part of building a culture of engagement and loyalty. Here are some ways that companies can recognize and acknowledge employees who participate in advocacy programs:

  • Social media shoutouts: The company can publicly acknowledge employees who share social media content by reposting or giving them a shoutout.
  • Employee recognition programs: The company can include employee advocacy as a category in its recognition programs, such as Employee of the Month or Employee of the Year.
  • Incentives and rewards: The company can offer incentives and rewards to employees who participate in advocacy programs, such as gift cards, extra vacation days, or other types of rewards.
  • Internal communications: The company can include updates on employee advocacy in its internal communications, such as newsletters, intranet, or bulletin boards.
  • Performance evaluations: The company can include advocacy participation as a metric in its performance evaluations to recognize employees who are actively promoting the company and its values.
  • Leadership recognition: The company's leadership team can recognize and acknowledge employees who participate in advocacy programs through personal messages, thank-you notes, or other forms of recognition.

Employee pulse surveys:

These are short surveys that can be sent frequently to check what your employees think about an issue quickly. The survey comprises fewer questions (not more than 10) to get the information quickly. These can be administered at regular intervals (monthly/weekly/quarterly).

One-on-one meetings:

Having periodic, hour-long meetings for an informal chat with every team member is an excellent way to get a true sense of what’s happening with them. Since it is a safe and private conversation, it helps you get better details about an issue.

eNPS:

eNPS (employee Net Promoter score) is one of the simplest yet effective ways to assess your employee's opinion of your company. It includes one intriguing question that gauges loyalty. An example of eNPS questions include: How likely are you to recommend our company to others? Employees respond to the eNPS survey on a scale of 1-10, where 10 denotes they are ‘highly likely’ to recommend the company and 1 signifies they are ‘highly unlikely’ to recommend it.

Based on the responses, employees can be placed in three different categories:

  • Promoters
    Employees who have responded positively or agreed.
  • Detractors
    Employees who have reacted negatively or disagreed.
  • Passives
    Employees who have stayed neutral with their responses.

What are the best practices for employee advocacy?

Employee advocacy best practices include:

  • Empower employees: Provide training and resources to help employees become confident advocates. This includes educating them about the company’s values, goals, and key messages.
  • Encourage authenticity: Allow employees to share their genuine experiences and opinions. Authenticity builds trust and credibility.
  • Create a positive culture: Foster a work environment that employees are proud of and want to promote. This involves recognizing and rewarding employee contributions and maintaining open communication.
  • Provide social media guidelines: Offer clear guidelines on how employees can talk about the company on social media, ensuring they feel comfortable and supported in their advocacy efforts.
  • Monitor and measure impact: Track the effectiveness of advocacy efforts through metrics such as social media engagement, employee participation rates, and the impact on brand perception. Use this data to refine and improve the program.
  • Recognize and reward advocates: Acknowledge and reward employees who actively participate in advocacy, through incentives or public recognition, to keep them motivated and engaged.

By following these practices, companies can build a robust employee advocacy program that enhances their brand and fosters a loyal, engaged workforce.

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