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Is employee advocacy the key to boosting your brand’s trust and reach?

By Matilda Ekström, Communications Consultant
A crumpled blue transparent material forms the shape of the letter "C" against a plain white background.
Did you know that people are three times more likely to trust content shared by an employee than that shared by a company CEO? And that the click-through rate (CTR) on LinkedIn is two times higher for content shared by an employee than for content shared by the company itself? [1] That’s why employee advocacy should always play an integral part in businesses’ strategies for building brand awareness and trust with target audiences.

What is employee advocacy and why is it important? 

Employee advocacy happens when employees promote their company to help build its brand and reputation through different platforms, both on and offline. On social media, this usually involves employees sharing company posts with their own networks, boosting reach and engagement from wider audiences. But as opposed to company content – which is often created and published with the clear agenda of promoting the company content posted or shared by an employee is considered more personal and trustworthy, especially by people in that person’s own network. In fact, 93% of people are more likely to trust content shared by someone they know. If you have already spent time and money on developing a strong social media strategy, leveraging a strong employee advocacy programme can make the strategy work even harder for your brand. 

By having employees share company content, companies can also build a more in-depth, authentic picture of their brand. This is especially true for building a successful employer brand. When employees share their own personal views and experiences of a company, particularly as a place to work, the image of the company goes beyond what the company itself created, adding some personal flavour through authentic experiences and perspectives.  

How to encourage employees to promote your brand  

Employee advocacy also benefits the employees themselves, by empowering them to expand their networks and establish themselves as thought leaders. This can be key for companies to advocate for employee support from those who may have less interest in building the company brand but a greater interest in building their own profile. Another way to encourage employees could be through incentivisation. Rewards could be anything from gift cards and bonuses to shoutouts in company meetings or newsletters. 

For employees to be able to start sharing company content online, they need to know what and how to share with clear guidelines. What type of content is important for the company to share? On what platforms? Are there any restrictions on what employees can and can’t say? To this end, LinkedIn and social media tools such as Sprout Social and Hootsuite offer features perfect for employee advocacy, where you can notify employees of content to share. Easy! 

Measuring success 

As with everything, companies need to define our goals to know if their employee advocacy efforts are successful, and the right data to determine if they’ve reached them. By setting clear performance indicators (KPIs), they can also see what works and what doesn’t, experimenting with different methods until they find what generates the best results. So which metrics should you keep an eye on? 

  • Employee adoption 

If you’re using an employee advocacy tool such as Sprinklr or Hootsuite Amplify, a key metrics to look at is employee adoption, i.e., how many employees actively use the platform. A strong employee adoption figure indicates that your employees have got onboard with the programme and are aware of the content your company publishes.   

  • Share rate 

One of the most important metrics to look at is, of course, the share rate. After all, there’s little point in getting your employees to log into your employee advocacy tool if they don’t end up sharing the content. Your share rate will directly indicate the visibility your content gets.

  • Most shared content  

To be able to continuously improve your content and engage more people, it’s important to understand what works and what doesn’t. Look at what pieces of content employees share the most. The top shared content is likely to be content that resonates with both your employees and their networks. 

  • Reach 

As the ultimate goal with an employee advocacy programme often is to increase your brand’s visibility, it’s of course also relevant to look beyond employee activity. How many impressions has your content actually got 

  • Engagement rate 

Finally, to understand how well your content resonates with your audiences, looking at engagement rate is a must. This metric goes beyond reach, indicating whether your audiences, whom you’re trying to connect with, are interested in what your brand and the content you post. 

Employee advocacy is far from a new phenomenon. However, as disinformation and AI-generated content become more common, it will be even more important for businesses to empower their employees to promote a brand in order to build trust with audiences.  

[1] https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/elevate/Resources/pdf/official-guide-to-employee-advocacy-ebook.pdf  

Get in touch

Do you need help with boosting your employee advocacy? Get in touch with us today. 

Karen LesterSenior consultant
Gabriella BjörnbergDepartment lead, Business
Kimmo KanervaExecutive director