Law firms, marketing and ad agencies, accounting firms, financial advisers, architects, engineers, and virtually any type of consultant (which we conveniently categorize as “professional services”) are different in every respect except for two:
- they all sell services based on knowledge and expertise instead of tangible products
- they are typically not highly recognizable consumer brands
One thought immediately comes to mind… since these – let’s call them “super” knowledge workers – often spend most of their time doing billable work for their clients, they’re often left with no time to allocate to brand building or awareness activities which are so important for company growth. At the same time, with the growing importance of social media marketing, forward-thinking professional services firms know that increasing social media reach can be beneficial. Boosting content engagement, growing their customer base are just two of the many examples companies can achieve through a structured social media approach.
Enter Employee Advocacy
If your professional services firm is struggling to establish an online following, your employees are the key, and an Employee Advocacy program might just be the answer. Employee Advocates are simply employees who help share company branded messages over their personal networks nowadays their public social media channels. Essentially, Employee Advocacy takes your firm’s employees and turns them into online brand ambassadors. A good Employee Advocacy solution can help you harness their influencer power while also getting them more invested and involved in the growth and success of your company.
Top 3 Reasons for Employee Advocacy
Here are 3 reasons to help convince you that professional services firms need Employee Advocacy:
1. It’s Cost Effective
Employee Advocacy is the most cost-effective way a professional services firm can widen the reach of their brand and organically increase an organization’s impressions. How so? According to LinkedIn, the average employee has 10x more connections than the company has followers. When you crunch the numbers, you’ll see that your own employees can put your firm’s brand messaging in front of an audience far greater than you could through your firm’s channels.
2. Your Employees Are Trusted More Than Your Firm
It’s hard to hear, but it’s true. According to Nielson research, only 33% of buyers trust messages from a brand, whereas 90% of customers trust product or service recommendations from their connections. In fact, this “trusted” content shared by employees receives 8x more engagement than content shared by brand channels, according to Social Media Today. Simply put, with Employee Advocacy your branded messaging can reach a larger, more receptive, and trusting audience.
3. (Almost) Everyone Else is Doing it
Ok, this technically isn’t a reason to do something. But according to a study from JEM Consulting & Advisory Services, nearly one-third of all professional services firms surveyed (30% to be precise) said they have Employee Advocacy programs in place. Clearly, they see value in such a program, so it’s worth looking into.
An Employee Advocacy program can get your brand and company messages in front of more people than you could through your firm’s own efforts. Additionally, since your brand message is reaching more people, it increases the likelihood of your brand being seen by your target audience, helping further boost brand awareness, impressions and solidifying your company as a professional services firm full top bright top tier thought leaders.
