What is one of the best resources available to amplify your message on social media, and share your story with more potential clients?
The answer is right next you. It’s your employees.
Encouraging your employees to react to your company posts, invite their friends and colleagues to become fans of your company page, and share your posts to their personal timelines is an effective way to enhance your social media strategy.

Why are employees important in the social media equation?

Your employees provide a new route to potential customers and those potential customers already view them as a trusted source.
Here are some fascinating facts about employees as social media influencers*

• Employees are more than twice as trusted as a CEO.
  Employees’ social posts generate eight times more engagement than posts from their employers.
• People are 16 times more likely to read a post from a friend about a brand than from the brand itself.
• Social followers of your employees are seven times more likely to convert to follow your business page.
• Employees may have social media profiles on platforms where your brand is not.
• According to Pew Research Center, the average internet user has 200 Facebook friends and 61 Twitter followers, which means 20 employees have a potential reach of 5,000.

How to get started…

Before you start encouraging employees be active with the company’s social media, here are a few suggestions to ensure your intentions don’t backfire.

• Do you have the right workplace culture? Do your employees love their jobs, not just their paychecks? Do they feel as though they have a high-quality work life? Do they believe that there is open and honest communication? Do they feel they can contribute to the success of the company? Take the temperature on these important company culture issues to gauge authenticity and support for becoming social media influencers.

• Create a clear social media policy and make it accessible at all times.Ensure that your policy and program:
  • Is simple, direct, and to the point and encourages consistency across platforms and accounts.
  • Educates employees on social media best practices.
    • Gives thoughtful consideration to what will protect your company’s reputation and avoid legal challenges and security risks.
    • Provides answers to employees’ questions, including:
      • What’s the best way to communicate messages?
      • What kind of language should they use and not use (i.e. avoiding vulgar and intolerant language)?
      • How often should they post?
      • How should they respond to comments?

• Encourage participation but do not force it.
  • Communicate how employees can benefit from the process.
  • Be enthusiastic about and recognize the good work of positive influencers.
  • Make it easy for them to share by providing something interesting or fun to promote. A new product or good news, for example.

If you want the benefits of employee advocacy, but are unsure about developing a social media policy or encouraging positive participation, Ideal Solutions can help. We have an experienced in-house marketing team to help you build a social media community that amplifies your message through employee advocacy. Contact us today for more information.
NOTE: Sources for this include:
“Employee Advocacy on Social Media: How to Make it Work for Your Business” by Shawn Conner, Hootsuite.com, December 5, 2017.
“6 Ways to Get All Employees Active in Social Media Marketing” by Todd Kunsman, EveryoneSocial.com, February 7, 2019