Why Engagelyee’s employee advocacy tool more important than ever in 2020?In this hyper-competitive business ecosystem, staying at the top is a dream for all the corporates and businesses. But with the crisis landing at the most crucial time of year, businesses have had a hard time figuring out their way on the top. Let alone the top place, businesses are generating strategies to figure out ways to sustain in the market.
With competition rising in every industry, companies are creating new strategies that will enable them to stand out from competitors. From creative marketing tactics to new product releases, businesses are investing time and resources to achieve better results.
Employee advocacy is an effective method to promote the company while ensuring the budget, employee management, and proper organizational structure. As workplace communication is evolving, companies are looking into new ways to connect with their employees and turn them into active brand ambassadors.
The power of employee advocacy
There are no better advocates for a company than its employees. Organizations can take help from their employees to build identity and spread the vision and objective among the masses. Employees can benefit the organization by promoting it, and this process is Employee Advocacy. It’s a strategic approach incorporated by organizations to encourage employees to share brand values and messages organically among the target audience and prospective candidates.
Employees are an integral source of marketing for the organization. If they understand what’s in it for them and how it can help them build their brands on social media, they will eagerly become advocates. Employee advocacy is still a new concept for many, and most organizations still haven’t found the correct method of implication.
How can the organization imply employee advocacy programs?
- Documentation
The first step is to document the program to two sets of audiences in the organizations.
1) Admins: Who will run the program
Admins define goals and update the employees about KPIs, posting protocols, and tools.
2) Employee: Advocates who will contribute to the program
Employees formulate the content based on the rules and protocols defined by the admins and post it on their social media handles.
- Training and onboarding sessions
Training sessions help employees understand the goals and vision of the organization. Organizations can equip and empower employees for social media success and teach them how to use the platforms. They can enlighten the employees on the best practices to engage new candidates.
- Branding
After the organization establishes the goal and objective, they can move on to create alignment around culture, purpose, and values.
Organizations can highlight ways for employees to create their brand on social media platforms and display organic messaging through consistency.
- What’s in it for the employees
Incorporating employees throughout the program is an essential part, and each organization should make sure that all employees are on board with the activity. Employees should establish their subject-matter expertise and create easy to share content.
- Involvement of the top leaders
Organizations should make the most of the connections and position of the top management. Top leaders have an enormous LinkedIn follower base and have high-level connections, which can benefit the advocacy program.
Why is employee advocacy directly proportional to internal communication?
Employee advocacy strategy stems from good internal communication within an organization. The relationship between the company and its employees is two-way communication. To have a fruitful mutually benefited relationship between employees and management, expectations of both the parties need to be well understood.
Employees are more committed towards the organization when they:
- Know the mission and vision of the organization
- Are valued and respected within the organization
- The company appreciates and recognizes their efforts
All of this is possible only if proper internal communication is in order. Dissemination of information effectively on various hierarchical levels of an organization and the ability to listen and act right upon the given information by the employees, enhances the workflow. Well-informed employees feel much more connected, engaged, and empowered.
Employee advocacy programs nurture the most passionate employees. To avoid any confusion and discrepancies, businesses follow the 1/9/90 rule where:
- 1% of employees post the content
- 9% of employees share the content
- 90% of employees follow social media conversations
For example, if 1% of the employees are storytellers or they write a review, the other 9% can amplify the reviews by sharing. It builds a huge opportunity for the company. And this implication is only possible if the organization adopts the right internal communication measures.
Why and how employee advocacy can benefit organizations in 2020?
The whole world is working through their screens. So, the only and the best way to promote businesses is through social media. Incorporating other marketing tactics in the business is not a wise option as it involves tons of money and manpower, which no one can afford considering the ongoing situation.
Employee advocacy can act as a huge saving grace for all the organizations struggling to make a mark in these tough times. If implied, it can have a huge impact on the business as it:
- Amplifies brand awareness
- Accelerates social selling
- Help prospective job candidates to understand the workplace better
- Increase organization reputation
Most new-age organizations are recruiting Gen-Z and Millenials. These employees have grown up in the social media world and have seen social media change over the years. They know how to use it to their best advantage. Working from home can get monotonous and boring after some time. Employee advocacy can help these employees stay enthusiastic and charged up for work and in return, employees can pull out the best strategies for the company.
The content is equally divided among all the employees, so there’s no weightage of work on a particular group. Such divisions increase the efficiency of work within the organization and reduce the workload.
While implementing employee advocacy in the time of crisis, organizations should ensure that they support the employees by helping them acquire the skills they want to develop. They can run proper training programs that include workshops, webinars, or online training. These training sessions help employees feel a part of the process and keep them engaged.
Another aspect of why shifting to employee advocacy is a smart idea during a pandemic is because it helps in cutting the extra costs. Advertisements are highly expensive. Employee advocacy programs do the same job with lower costs and with trusted sources.
How Engagelyee’s employee advocacy tool is more important for organizations in 2020
Engagelyee platform is about connecting organizations and employees, with an objective to amplify brand message as well as the personal brand for the employees. The tool provides an easy-to-use platform for employees to have access to the latest & hottest content at the click of a button.
Here is all that we’ve covered on the platform:
- Connect Hub – Read your organization & fellow colleagues’ views. Engage internally and share posts on social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
- Social Hub – Have access to the latest content posted by your organization from the web. Be it a WordPress blog, an industry update or social media posts – you can find everything here.
- Learning Grid – Learning Grid is a place where employees can learn new skills and project related information provided by their managers. This is the section where you can find important documents and files shared with you by your team managers. This section is divided into different categories like internal notice, automation, business, employee diaries, travel, and technology.
- My Space – View all your activities as well as drafted & submitted posts in this section. You can also view scheduled shares here that are assigned by your team managers.
- My Campaigns – Participate in campaigns assigned by your managers to create an impact on social media platforms for a common objective.
- Groups – This is the place where all conversations happen between your team and colleagues. Create custom groups as per your department and start the conversation with your team.
- Rewards – By collecting reward points upon sharing your organization’s social media posts on different platforms, one can apply for rewards every month against reward points earned.
- Gallery – Got office trip photos or important pictures that need to be shared with your colleagues? You can share and upload your own images and PDF/Word documents in the gallery. This section can also act as your storage folder wherein you can add as many images and documents as you want, which can be downloaded anytime as per your convenience.
- The Leader Board – Collect reward points for positive engagement on the platform by completing tasks assigned by your managers, and gain recognition on the leaderboard. The more points you achieve, the better chance of winning lucrative rewards.
