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As the saying goes, people buy from people. Both studies and history show that consumers are far more likely to trust individuals over corporations, highlighting the value people place on reputable industry professionals.
It’s even more important when it comes to employee advocacy on LinkedIn, a professional platform that runs on connections and credibility. But how does employee advocacy on LinkedIn work, and how can businesses like yours use it as a tool for enhancing brand credibility?
This guide examines employee advocacy campaigns, outlining their potential to enhance brand visibility, attract customers, and drive website traffic, while also benefiting participating employees.
What Is Employee Advocacy on LinkedIn and Why Is it Important?
LinkedIn employee advocacy refers to the implementation of an employee advocacy marketing initiative on the popular business social media platform LinkedIn.
Employee advocacy is a marketing campaign concept centered on the public advocation of reputable employees who represent both their company and their passions in the same place. When it comes to corporations, consumers feel more comfortable consuming information, testimonials, and recommendations from real people — and that’s exactly what makes employee advocacy so effective.
By implementing an employee advocacy campaign on LinkedIn, your business can use the social standing, reputation, and familiar appeal of its highest-performing employees to attract high-end clients and share information about your brand and what it offers.
But employee advocacy doesn’t just benefit businesses. It has also been shown to inspire major career growth for participating employees, contributing to higher engagement and improved job satisfaction, making it a uniquely symbiotic form of contemporary marketing.
What Are the Benefits of Using Employee Advocacy on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is by far the most popular and active social media platform for professionals. This makes it the ideal place to market your brand and its employees online. There are many benefits to implementing employee advocacy on LinkedIn, including the following:
- Helps employees build their personal brand
- Drives traffic to your company’s profile or website
- Captivates customers at the top of the sales funnel
- Leads to guest appearances on LinkedIn webinars and events
- Establishes employees as subject matter experts
This platform is renowned for its boundless networking potential and ability to skyrocket small but strategic brands to new heights of success. With the right strategy, any brand can cultivate a highly beneficial relationship with LinkedIn.
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How Can Companies Initiate and Implement a Successful LinkedIn Employee Advocacy Program?
Implementing a new social media campaign can take a lot of work, and a LinkedIn employee advocacy program is no exception. Here’s how your business can initiate a program designed for success.
1. Secure Executive Buy-In
Encourage your most experienced and successful employees to participate in the program. They will set an example to the rest of your employees and allow them to grow their following to a healthy degree before making the decision to implement it companywide.
2. Choose a Channel Champion
A channel champion is someone who manages and oversees the employee advocacy program. They will be in charge of creating a brand-specific strategy, onboarding employees, working with employees to improve their content, and measuring the program’s success.
3. Establish Campaign Requirements and Policies
A good employee advocacy program needs structure. The Channel Champion must establish clear campaign requirements and policies so that employees who want to participate fully understand what is required of them and what to expect from the program moving forward.
4. Onboard and Train Employees
Not all people are natural-born brand ambassadors or corporate influencers. But if they want to be a part of your brand’s employee advocacy program, they can be. Provide training and onboarding programs for willing employees in order to avoid social media blunders and maximize success.
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Strategies and Best Practices for the Success of LinkedIn-Based Advocacy Efforts
Just like any new campaign or social media initiative, there are effective and ineffective ways to approach LinkedIn employee advocacy. In order to make the most of your campaign and to successfully use LinkedIn as an employee advocacy tool, you can follow these strategies and best practices.
Know When to Post on LinkedIn
Getting your content seen is crucial. Identifying the best times to post on LinkedIn can make all the difference in your employees' success at advocacy.
The best times to post are different for every company based on your target audience and what kind of content you are posting. Experiment with posting times to see what best suits your audience and your industry. Use LinkedIn analytics to track how posts do at different times of day and different days of the week.
Know the Reason Behind Your Action
Employee advocacy is not just about sharing corporate content. It's also about connecting people on a deep level. Make sure your employees know the reason behind the action and how it relates to the company's goals, as well as their own career goals.
Clearly define the value of engagement, such as increasing visibility in the industry, networking, and creating a personal brand. When people know the value of the "why," they're more likely to make authentic and compelling posts.
Regularly Monitor Your Progress
A periodic review of your LinkedIn employee advocacy program is vital to ensure ongoing improvement. The program's performance can be monitored via LinkedIn analytics and complementary measurement tools on a regular basis.
Monitoring engagement rates, conversations, website visits, lead generation, and employee engagement is necessary to gauge success. Checking them on a regular basis will enable you to recognize successful strategies while identifying where improvement is required. It’s also vital to provide progress reports to your team to keep them motivated and engaged.
Create Brand Guidelines and a Social Media Policy
Authenticity is important, but consistency of messaging is important too. Create solid brand guidelines that define what language, tone, and imagery to use when advocating.
Create a comprehensive social media policy that takes into account risks, like sharing personal data or making false statements. A solid set of rules enables employees to advocate without restraint, but protects the company's reputation.
Utilize a Mix of Content
Keep your employee advocacy program fresh and interesting by taking on a mix of content. Ask employees to post not just company news and blogs, but also their own thoughts, industry news, questions, and videos.
Videos are especially good at grabbing eyeballs and sparking conversations. Try LinkedIn Live, LinkedIn Stories, and short videos to mix up your strategy and reach a larger audience.
Build a Support Culture
Get your employees to support one another by liking, commenting, and sharing posts of other team members. Create a platform within the company, such as a Slack or Teams channel, where employees can share and receive feedback.
This makes them feel included and gets their messages heard. You can even implement a mentorship program where senior advocates can mentor new ones. A supportive team culture can truly give your employee advocacy program a boost.
When used properly, employee advocacy on LinkedIn can lead to great results. There are many case studies on the success of LinkedIn-based employee advocacy efforts from which to glean inspiration. For instance, enterprise tech brand Gong implemented an employee advocacy campaign on LinkedIn to grow their business eight times within a span of just two years.
Harness the Power of a LinkedIn Employee Advocacy Tool
Employee advocacy LinkedIn campaigns are only as good as the minds behind them, which is why it’s essential for emerging brands to onboard the right software before implementing any new campaigns.
Clearview Social specializes in the strategy and implementation of employee advocacy programs. By helping brands all over the world create more successful employee advocacy campaigns, it has become the go-to software for any business seeking to enhance its credibility and visibility across popular social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X (previously Twitter), and, of course, LinkedIn.
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Clearview Social is the expert in crafting winning employee advocacy programs. Let us help you build credibility, increase awareness, and drive measurable growth on LinkedIn and beyond.