A growing strategy organizations of all sizes use to promote their brand and initiatives is employee advocacy.

Many businesses are using this tactic today in order to extend their reach and speak to audiences they normally wouldn’t have access to. Employee advocacy is statistically proven to result in growth, and can even help with talent pool development. Before we get into these results, let’s answer the question, “what is employee advocacy?

Every organization looks for ways to promote their work, their brand and their specific initiatives. An employee advocacy program accomplishes this through its employees. Companies put programs in place to give employees an incentive to promote their brand and its initiatives, typically through social media. Whether it’s an event, a milestone the company reached, or a special announcement, sharing this information through the individual voices of the employees, rather than directly from the company itself, is more influential to outside audiences.

Employee Advocacy By The Numbers

Company messages have 561% further reach when shared by employees than the same messages shared by a brand’s social channel, according to the Marketing Advisory Network. Additionally, brand messages are shared 24-times more frequently when employees post content.

These statistics show the broader reach of a company’s message, but employee advocacy leaves a deeper impression on the target audience. According to the same research report, 44.5% of people say they are more likely to apply for a job they saw their friend post on social media than they would if they saw the same position on a job board.

Learn more about the benefits of employee advocacy.

The results of a successful employee advocacy program are clear. Promoting a message to a broader audience in a more influential way is more likely to lead to the results you want. This is why companies with employee advocacy programs have a 26% increase in year-over-year revenue, according to the Aberdeen Group.

How To Do It

Almost every organization has employees who are passionate about their jobs and want to promote their place of business, but they don’t always know what to do or how to do it. This isn’t on them. This is on the organization. Businesses need to guide these employees down the right path, showing them what to promote, what the messaging should sound like and how to promote it.

These companies also need the right processes in place. Sending employees an email once a week asking them to retweet a press release is very easy to ignore. Companies need to have a well-designed, clearly communicated strategy in place, and incentives for the employees to hop onboard. Above all, they need a great employee advocacy platform to support these processes.

This is where the right software can help. Companies can notify employees and partners to promote content, retweet or like posts, follow a specific account and more. GaggleAMP was recently recognized as the top employee advocacy solution today by customer reviews on G2 Crowd. We’d love to learn how we can help you get started.

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