Employees do not deserve an empty to half page, but a big chapter in your marketing communication plan. The results of employee advocacy (activating employees on social media) are not the least:
Employee posts average 561% more organic reach than posts shared by the brand itself. That’s good, especially now that organic reach on Facebook is dropping.
Employees make your organization's story more credible. That in turn creates more impact. The Edelman Trust Barometer states that consumers have more confidence in the message of employees than when the same message is shared by the brand itself or the CEO of an organization.
That employees are more credible, you can also see in the results. The business-related social posts of employees lead to 8 times more engagement than the posts of employers.
New business is always a good motivator for your manager. The #EA program we rolled out to various clients shows that 10% of employees we activate on social media already signal a commercial opportunity within two months and pick it up or pass it on to a colleague.
Role of marcom employee: coaching
It may be clear, you can no longer ignore healthcare email list employee advocacy. However, a successful implementation is not achieved within a week. First of all, it must be clear to employees that their activity on digital media contributes to achieving the organizational objectives and even more important: their own objectives and daily activities. Without the whats in it for me it will not succeed.
The second step is to establish a good foundation: guidelines, policies and training that make employees feel comfortable to move freely on social media in a business environment. Achieving this requires another skill from the marketing and communications employee: coaching.
You can compare it to running, but not a marathon or a sprint
LinkedIn Business (pdf) recently came up with a nice metaphor:
Employee advocacy can be compared to running, but not a marathon or a sprint. It is a relay race in which cooperation is essential. To achieve results, training, coordination and planning before the starting shot are necessary. Once running, the group advantage takes the organization further than an individual runner could ever have gotten.