Employee Advocacy: Key elements of employee advocacy that successful programs share

Using your employees as ambassadors for your brand is a fantastic method for getting your name recognition to reach further than you ever thought possible. That being said, there are certain key elements that successful employee advocacy programs share. Learn more about them below.

Formulate a Plan

While it can be tempting to let your employees loose on their favorite social media platform to talk it up about your business. it is not an efficient way of going about this. Instead, decide which social media outlet would be the best place to focus your energies and have your employees stick with it. Using only one platform will make judging the results of your employee advocacy program much easier as well.

Create Training Materials

Before you set your employees loose on your chosen social media outlet to talk up the many virtues of your company, develop training materials that explicitly outline your goals and objectives. While some of your employees will want to use their existing social media accounts, there are others might want to create new ones. In addition to providing resources on how to do so, this training can designate a person as the guru of the employee advocacy program as well as identify ways for employees to determine how effective their efforts are.

Make a Social Media Policy

Even though most employees are not malicious and would not purposely tarnish the reputation of your business, there are behaviors that can reflect badly upon it — and even put its future at risk. Outline some common scenarios such as how to handle complaints, who should talk to reporters and how to determine the difference between undertaking an expert’s stance and simply being a bystander in the conversation.