How to Start with Employee Advocacy? (Step-by-Step Guide)

Employee advocacy is a powerful way to promote your brand authentically through your employees' networks. But how do you set up a successful program? Follow this step-by-step approach to build a strong foundation.

Step 1: Define your goals

What do you want to achieve with employee advocacy? Goals can range from increasing brand awareness to generating leads and strengthening employer branding.

‍

Step 2: Develop a strategy

• Identify the type of content that is relevant to your target audience.
• Set clear guidelines to help employees share effective and consistent messages.
• Within Apostle, you can create groups within a collaborative structure that simplifies the organization and management of employee advocacy. These groups are categorized based on content topics or departments, ensuring the structure aligns with your organization’s needs. Additionally, everyone within the employee advocacy program is assigned a clear role:
  • SRO Professionals – Marketers responsible for strategy and coordination.
  • Social Creators – Employees who actively contribute by submitting content.
  • Social Executives – Thought leaders and key drivers who set an example within the organization.
  • Social Ambassadors – Employees who receive suggested posts to share.
  This approach ensures that all participants understand their responsibilities and contribute effectively to a successful social media strategy.
• Determine which digital communication tools will be used to distribute content to employees. Within the Apostle platform, organizations can push social media post suggestions through various channels, including WhatsApp, email, a mobile app, or a web platform, all of which can be white-labeled. Additionally, integrations with Teams or Slack allow for seamless communication.
• Provide an easy way for employees to submit content ideas for marketing inspiration, such as through WhatsApp, the mobile app, or the Apostle web platform. Teams and Slack integrations can also be used for content submissions.

‍

Step 3: Train and motivate employees

Not every employee is accustomed to sharing content. Start with an (online) kick-off session or webinars to introduce employee advocacy. Over time, employees may need additional knowledge, making specialized training sessions beneficial. Topics could include maximizing LinkedIn, personal branding, or other relevant areas. Additionally, provide inspiration, examples, and tools to make content sharing effortless.

‍

Step 4: Keep it simple and measurable

Use Apostle’s software to enable employees to share content easily within their personal networks while increasing and measuring impact. A personalized message has far more impact than simply liking or resharing a company page post.

By following these steps, you can build a structured and effective employee advocacy program that drives real results.