Who knows your brand better than your employees? They’re knowledgable, invested and, clearly, a great representation of your brand- else you wouldn’t have hired them. That’s precisely why employee advocacy strategies can be so effective.
They can generate engaging on-message content, boost brand awareness and increase your qualified leads. In fact, successful strategies go beyond benefitting the brand. They benefit its employees, too. When employees leverage their social media accounts to advocate for your brand, they’re also positioning themselves as industry experts in the online space.
But, if advocacy strategies can be so effective… Why aren’t you seeing results? Here are 3 reasons why your employee advocacy strategy is failing.
1. Lack of Incentives
Listen- it’s in the name: “employee advocacy”. Without your employees, you’ve got nothing. So, you have to keep them engaged in the strategy. Once their interest and commitment start to wane, employee advocacy falls apart.
But, be careful where you’re pointing the finger. How can you expect your employees to stay fully committed if there’s nothing in it for them? As mentioned above, a successful strategy will position employees as experts in their field. But, this doesn’t happen instantly, nor will it be an effective motivator for everyone.
So, you need to incentivise participation. That means making employee advocacy a part of your workplace culture. When employees reach key milestones, like creating a popular post or reaching a certain number of followers, this needs to be celebrated. Acknowledging their hard work is going to keep your employees invested and motivate them to keep going.
Launch an employee advocacy strategy without these incentives- and it’s destined to fail.
2. Authenticity is Discouraged
We all know that consistent messaging is essential for boosting brand awareness. So, it makes sense that you’d want your employees to stay on-brand with their content. But, watch out: herein lies the trap.
There’s such a thing as going too far with your on-brand messaging. It’s great to keep some consistency but if all your employee’s posts start looking exactly the same… You’ll have completely stripped them of their authenticity. That’s a mistake. You want your employees to be individuals, with unique points of view and ideas. This is the authenticity that attracts organic engagement.
So, a balance, then, between consistency and authenticity. Creating suggested topics and templates for content is a great way to keep employees on message. Although, it’s also important to give them the freedom to share these brand messages in their own, authentic voice.
3. Lack of Training
Not everyone is a social media expert- nor should you expect them to be. If your employee advocacy strategy revolves around employees being instantly successful on social media platforms, especially ones they’re unfamiliar with, then prepare for failure. Failure for which you’ll only have yourself to blame.
A lack of training will leave employees confused about what they should be doing, as well as the best way to do it. That’s why providing resources and support is an essential element of a successful employee advocacy strategy. While we’re on the topic, you’ll also want to make sure that your employees have been fully informed about your brand’s messaging, too.
Neglect adequate training and your employees will be left guessing, or, worse- creating content that actively damages your brand, rather than promoting and endorsing it.
If you’re failing to see the results you were hoping for with employee advocacy, then it’s time to re-examine your strategy. Small missteps early on can easily result in huge problems. If you want to get back on track and turn your failing strategy into an effective one, then these changes could make all the difference.
- Incentivise employee participation
- Trust your employees to be their authentic selves
- Avoid knowledge gaps by providing resources and training
