HR professionals, early recruitment specialists, and employer branding specialists are continuously looking to amplify their brand presence on social media but don’t want the high marketing costs. Employee advocacy has emerged as a powerful tool to do this, especially with a sound Content Strategy for an Employee Advocacy Platform. With your employees as brand ambassadors, you can reach new audiences, increase brand trust, and drive sales. According to a recent study by Forbes, when employees post brand messages, they can reach up to 561% further and that there is 8 times more engagement generated through content shared by employees than content shared by brands! In another study, it was found that leads generated from employee advocacy platforms result in 7 times more conversions.
Employee advocacy platforms require a solid employer branding content strategy to succeed. In this article, we will share with you some content strategy tips on how to take your employee advocacy platform to the next level!
In this article, we will cover the following:
- Why employee advocacy content matters
- Stellar examples of employee advocacy
- How to create a content strategy for an employer advocacy platform
- Creator economy
- Recruitment content as employee advocacy
- How to choose the best employee advocacy platform
Why employee advocacy content matters
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of content strategy, let’s first understand why employee advocacy content matters for your business.
As we already know, employee advocacy is an important marketing strategy when, if done right, generates buzz around your brand. Through employees sharing company content on their personal social media accounts, they become brand advocates and help to spread the word about the company to their social network.
Employee advocacy content matters because it can increase brand reach and engagement, build trust with potential customers, and ultimately drive sales. By empowering employees to share company content on their personal social media accounts, businesses can reach new audiences and tap into their employees’ networks. This is especially important in a B2B context, where building relationships and establishing trust is key to winning new clients and growing existing ones.
The most important outcomes of an Employee Advocacy Platform are:
- increase brand awareness and improve credibility
- increase the number of quality job applicants
- control brand messaging
- drive more qualified leads
- establish thought leadership
- cost-effective marketing
- networking opportunities
So, we’ve established the importance of why employee advocacy content matters. Now let’s take a look at some examples of how to do it well.
Stellar examples of employee advocacy
Here are a couple of examples of content strategy for employee advocacy platforms that have been implemented by two of the world’s leading brands.
Starbucks
Starbucks has arguably one of the most innovative examples of employee advocacy with an effective content strategy for an employee advocacy platform. The brand refers to its employees as “partners,” thereby creating a culture of belongingness and inclusivity where everyone feels valued and appreciated.
Partners are encouraged to promote the brand on dedicated social media accounts created by the company. They can showcase their personal stories and experiences, building a more authentic and engaging presence on social media.
The company also provided comprehensive social media guidelines to help partners understand how to promote the brand on social media.
Hilton
Similar to Starbucks, Hilton has an innovative approach to employee advocacy through their “A Day in the Life of” employee storytelling initiative. This encourages team members to share personal stories and experiences on the company’s Careers Instagram Page. They have essentially created a ‘digital content tribe’.
The initiative has helped to create a positive and inclusive workplace culture, leading to the company being voted as the second best place to work in the world in 2019. The hotel giant also provides guidelines for content creation to ensure that team members are creating authentic and relevant content that aligns with the company’s brand image. By leveraging social media to showcase career opportunities and turning team members into content creators, Hilton has fostered a community of engaged and motivated employees, resulting in a positive workplace culture.
Why do we like these employee advocacy examples?
- Referring to employees as “partners” creates a sense of belonging to the brand and promotes a positive culture. Employees act as brand ambassadors who are actively engaged in promoting the company’s products and their positive company culture with their own networks.
- Training and social media guidelines on how to represent the brand effectively by creating and sharing content aligns employees on the company’s goals and values.
- Effective employee training, social media guidelines, and centralising employee-generated content through the company’s social media accounts achieves a strong brand image.
- Employees are empowered to get creative and can showcase career opportunities within the company.
- Employee advocacy proves to be an authentic and cost-effective source of branding.
How to create a content strategy for employer advocacy platform?
After reviewing some industry-leading examples, let’s now take a look at a content strategy for your employee advocacy platform that will help you attain the visibility you are aiming for.
Step 1: Define your goals and audience
Before creating a content strategy for your employee advocacy program, it’s essential to define your goals and audience. What do you want to achieve through employee advocacy? Is it increased brand awareness, lead generation, or something else? Once you’ve defined your goals, you can start thinking about your target audience. Who are the people you want to reach? What are their interests and pain points?
Step 2: Create a content plan
Once you’ve defined your goals and audience, it’s time to create a content plan. A content plan outlines the type of content you’ll create and share on your employee advocacy platform. Here are some tips for creating a content plan:
Know your brand voice
Your content plan should align with your brand voice. Are you a fun and playful brand or a more serious and professional one? Your content should reflect your brand’s personality.
Choose the right content types
There are various forms of content you can create for your employee advocacy platform. Some examples include blog posts, infographics, videos, and social media posts. Choose the types of content that align with your goals and resonate with your audience.
Leverage employees as content creators
Employees can act as brand ambassadors by showcasing your company culture and values. By giving them ownership of their content, this will inspire creativity.
Create a content calendar
Once you’ve chosen the types of content you’ll create, it’s time to create a content calendar. A content calendar outlines when you’ll publish each piece of content and on which channels. It ensures that you have a consistent posting schedule and can plan ahead for important events and holidays.
Step 3: Empower your employees
To make your employee advocacy program successful, you need to empower your employees to share your content. Here are some tips for doing so:
Provide training
Not all employees are social media savvy. Provide training on how to use social media effectively and safely. This can include guidelines for posting, how to respond to comments, and best practices for engagement.
Make it easy
Make it easy for employees to share your content. This can include providing pre-written posts and images, creating a central hub for sharing, and using an employee advocacy platform that simplifies the process.
Reward and recognise
Finally, reward and recognise employees who participate in your advocacy program. This can include incentives like gift cards or company swag, public recognition on social media, or other forms of recognition.
Creator economy
The rise of the creator economy has important implications for the content strategy of an employee advocacy platform. As more and more individuals become content creators and build their own personal brands, it is important for businesses to leverage this trend and tap into the power of employee advocacy.
By empowering employees to become brand ambassadors and share company content on their personal social media channels, you can can tap into their creativity and authenticity to reach new audiences and build trust with potential customers.
- Your employees need to feel inspired as creators and feel appreciated as employees (remember the Starbucks example we presented earlier!)
- Create engaging posts for social media pages and professional platforms like LinkedIn.
- Content should be easy to share and should provide employees with opportunities to showcase their own unique perspectives and personalities.
By building a strong content strategy that leverages the power of the creator economy, you can unlock the full potential of employee advocacy and drive real business results!
Recruitment content as employee advocacy
The creation of recruitment content is an effective way of increasing brand visibility with the ultimate goal of attracting and hiring top early talent and building up a strong pool of employees. Recruitment content can include:
- job postings,
- company culture videos,
- employee testimonials,
- people stories,
- and more.
To be effective, the content should showcase the company’s values, culture, and opportunities.
Let’s take a look at an example.
You’re an Employer Branding Manager at a software company, and you’re looking to hire new tech talent. You create a recruitment campaign that includes a job posting on LinkedIn, an employee testimonial video, and a series of social media posts showcasing your company’s culture and values. One of your current programmers sees the job posting and decides to share it on their personal LinkedIn account, adding their own personal endorsement of the company and the role. This post is then seen by several connections, including a former colleague who is currently looking for a new tech job. Because of your employee advocacy program, this former colleague is more likely to apply for the job and to view your company in a positive light.
How to choose the best employee advocacy platform
Choosing the best employee advocacy platform for your business involves several key factors.
- First, look for a platform that is user-friendly and offers clear instructions for sharing content.
- Second, consider the analytics and reporting features of the platform, which can help you make data-driven decisions about your content strategy.
- Additionally, customisation options and support resources are important factors to consider when choosing an employee advocacy platform.
By carefully evaluating your options and selecting a platform that meets your needs, you can build a successful employee advocacy program that drives engagement and builds brand awareness. With a user-friendly platform, robust analytics, and customised branding options, you can empower your employees to share content and become advocates for your brand, reduce marketing costs ultimately driving sales and growing your business.
An employee advocacy platform makes managing these formal programs easy. The trick to integrating employee advocacy into your content strategy is to find the right match between your audience, your goals, and your message.
How StudySmarter could be the best choice for you
So, how does employee advocacy fit into your overall content strategy? We’ve stressed how it can reliably help you reach your content goals. If you’re seeking to increase brand awareness, build trust with consumers, or recruit early talent, employee advocacy is a must.
With industry-leading employee advocacy tools, content strategies and professional team members, StudySmarter can help your business cultivate powerful social media campaigns that use the perspectives of employees to boost both themselves and the company. StudySmarter is a learning app used by millions of young students and pupils daily, meaning that it is a great channel through which to run employer branding campaigns. We use various social media platforms to boost reach. A more meaningful social media outreach will help represent your company in its best light.
How?
- With a reach of several million pupils and students in the UK, StudySmarter can target your specific audiences through the use of powerful social media campaigns
- We can reach young talent with accurate targeting and filtering methods and inspire them for career opportunities
- Empowers the you as employer to get your message across, in the way you want, to your desired target audience.
Contact us today to book a free demo today to see what we can do for your business!
