Employee advocacy programs, when done right, can be extremely beneficial for companies. By empowering employees to share company content and messages on their personal social media channels, businesses can expand their reach, boost engagement, and showcase their brand as an attractive place to work.
But how exactly do you create an employee advocacy program that drives real results? Earlier this year, we chatted with Cami Hilberling, Senior Social Media and PR Manager Manager at Spherion, who grew the company’s employee advocacy program into an incredible success story.
In this blog recap, we’ll share Cami’s top tips for building a successful employee advocacy program.
Set Clear Goals
Hilberling started by setting clear goals for Spherion’s employee advocacy program.
These included:
- Increasing platform users by 10%
- Boosting post shares by Spherion users
- Reaching at least 20% more people
Having measurable goals is key so you can track progress and know if your program is working.
Build an Engaged Program
To drive employee adoption, Hilberling focused on four strategies:
- Ingraining social advocacy into company culture from the top, down. When employees at all levels embrace sharing content as part of their role, it breeds success.
- Leveraging influential internal validators. Identify which employees are natural social media mavens and encourage them to share their experiences using the program. They can become advocates.
- Comprehensive training. Don’t assume knowledge. Create training on the basics of social media, your advocacy platform, effective posting strategies, and more.
- Making the program cross-departmental. Give access to all employees and share varied content so everyone feels included.
Create a Turnkey Experience
According to Hilberling, the top factors behind Spherion’s high adoption and sharing rates were:
- Making the program simple and easy to use. With a user-friendly platform like PostBeyond, employees can just log in, choose a post, and schedule it.
- Keep content fresh by adding new posts regularly based on current topics and trends that resonate.
- Gamify sharing with leaderboards and friendly competitions. Hilberling shares Spherion’s top sharers in a company newsletter.
- Communicate often through newsletters, Slack, events, and more. Promote new features, training opportunities, program updates and results.
Know Your Audience
Spherion’s employee advocacy success stems from their franchisees truly knowing their local audiences. The company encourages office teams to be highly engaged in their communities, which shapes their knowledge of what resonates.
Listen to employees to find out what content and topics interest them. Segment campaigns and messaging.
Curate Engaging Content
Hilberling is constantly on the pulse of relevant topics by following news outlets and trends. She recommends:
- Subscribing to newsletters with the latest workplace, HR, and industry news
- Staying on top of trends on social media platforms
- Repurposing insights into posts tailored to different employee segments
- Mixing evergreen thought leadership content with timely, newsy posts
The more captivating and relevant your content is, the more your employees will want to share it.
Measure Results
To demonstrate her program’s impact, Hilberling tracked key metrics including:
- Post shares
- Reach/impressions
- Engagement (likes, clicks)
She also compared participation for specific campaigns year-over-year to showcase growth.
By diligently measuring and reporting on metrics, you can prove ROI and get leadership buy-in for further investment.
Conclusion
The success of Spherion’s approach proves that a strategic, well-executed employee advocacy program can pay dividends. Use these tips to rally your employees, reach new audiences, and build your brand. When done right, everyone wins.
