One of the most common challenges for launching or ramping up a social media employee advocacy program is finding enough suitable content. You don’t want to overwhelm your users or their networks with too much branded or marketing content. And, that is assuming you are able to produce enough marketing content to keep your employee advocacy editorial calendar full.
(if you don’t have an editorial calendar for your employee advocacy program, start developing one now).
On the flip side, it can be a disheartening and momentum-sapping experience when an executive buys in to a social media activation, but their activity receives little or no traction. Not a surprising result if they are jumping into social media for the first time, but frustrating nonetheless.
Some of you have already figured out where we are headed here:
By growing these two programs collaboratively, you create a symbiotic relationship that automatically solves for the biggest challenge each program faces.
It is a rare person in an employee advocacy campaign that is not interested in sharing something like a LinkedIn article written by their boss’s boss’s boss. For one, it’s a great way to make a positive blip on an executive’s radar. Sharing a thought leadership article written by an executive also has the advantage of not being a webinar, landing page, or other transparently marketing content.
For an executive who is accustomed to garnering attention when she speaks, a quick bump in engagement around an article or post will help her understand the potential in this sort of engagement. Amplification from an employee advocacy program can also provide the momentum required for the social post or activity to “break through” and land on the screens of a critical mass of your intended audience.
It may be more useful to think of executive social activation and employee advocacy as two initiatives within the same program.
At the most basic level, these two programs are really going after the same thing. That is, elevating the authority and influence of the great people within your company. This should be true regardless of whether it is your CEO, an engineer, or junior marketer. The ultimate goal is highlighting the expertise that exists within the company.
If you are tasked with either employee advocacy or executive social media activation, take a step back and consider incorporating the other program at the same time. You will almost certainly end up with more success in each program by building them together.
