Your employees are one of your biggest marketing resources. Therefore, employee advocacy is your secret weapon in social media marketing.

According to GaggleAMP’s 2024 employee advocacy study:

• 73% of social media managers used employee advocacy platforms to implement their programs.
• 73% said over half of their employees regularly engaged with branded social media content.
• 73% used employee advocacy to double the brand’s social media engagement.
• 44% increased branded social media engagement by 201-250% because of employee advocacy.

An employee advocacy program can significantly increase your organic reach, enhance your candidate pools, and help you hire top talent. Since virtually everyone uses social media, you can tap into their networks and benefit from their influence.

What Employee Advocacy Is

Employee advocacy involves a staff member promoting their company. For instance, they might share job postings, blog posts, or other company content on their social media accounts. Or, the employee could share an Instagram Story highlighting your office holiday party or a TikTok video of their team practicing a dance challenge.

Importance of Employee Advocacy  

Your employees likely have social media connections who are in your target audience for job openings. Therefore, employee advocacy can help educate these individuals on your company, its culture, and job openings.

Benefits of Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy provides your company with many benefits:

• Increased brand awareness
• Enhanced company credibility
• More positive employer perceptions
• Greater candidate trust
• Elevated employee engagement
• More employee referrals
• Higher employee attraction and retention rates

Steps to Implement an Employee Advocacy Program on Social Media

Follow these steps to implement an employee advocacy program on social media:

1. Create a positive, engaged company culture to motivate your employees to share company content.
2. Develop goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for your employee advocacy program. For instance, your goals might include improving brand awareness or hiring talent. Also, your KPIs could include organic reach, traffic, and engagement.
3. Identify employee advocacy leaders. For instance, you might focus on employees who have many social media connections and are enthusiastic about your company.
4. Create employee social media guidelines. Include a social media content policy and brand style guidelines.
5. Involve employees in your social media marketing strategy: Educate on and encourage the use of your employee advocacy program.
6. Develop resources for your employees to share. Include content that makes their jobs easier or positions them as industry professionals.
7. Reward employee advocacy. Provide gift cards or other incentives for employees who participate in your social media marketing strategy.

Do You Need Help with Recruitment?

Employee advocacy is your secret weapon in social media marketing. You can significantly increase your organic reach, enhance your candidate pools, and hire top talent.

Arlington Resources can provide you with human resources professionals to help you reach your hiring goals. Find out more today.