An employee advocacy campaign can expand your brand’s organic reach and create deeper connections with customers. But managing this type of campaign efficiently requires time and planning, which can be demanding for already active teams.
However, there are ways to streamline and simplify the process, ensuring that your campaign is an ongoing success. Investing in employee advocacy tools is one of the best ways to reap the benefits of this effective form of marketing while still allocating enough time and energy to other projects.
If you’re ready to build a stronger brand and increase your online presence, here’s how employee advocacy software can add value to your business.
Understanding Employee Advocacy
Employee advocacy is a social media marketing strategy in which the employees of a company post promotional brand content to their individual Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), or LinkedIn profiles. It builds trust, creates engagement, and boosts leads.
With a strong employee advocacy program, your business is better equipped to:
- Organically Grow its Audience – The more employees you have sharing promotional brand content, the more your organic reach will grow.
- Share Compelling Content with Consumers – People love to hear stories and experiences directly from the employees of brands they follow. This creates more convincing and authentic content that can drive up engagement metrics on social media.
- Advocate for Your Brand’s Positive Reputation – Having a trustworthy and positive reputation is critical for any brand, and it’s something employee advocacy programs do well.
- Generate More Online Traffic – With a larger and more diverse audience, increased traffic to your website and other brand portals becomes a natural by-product.
An employee advocacy program can also improve recruitment rates and boost employee engagement. All in all, it’s a practical and increasingly popular strategy for strengthening brand awareness and helping businesses push their social media metrics to the next level.
What Are Employee Advocacy Tools?
Employee advocacy tools are platforms that help your business drive brand promotion across social media. These tools make it easy for your team members to share approved, branded content on their personal social media channels, which can improve your reach and boost engagement.
As technology evolves, so does the variety of tools to which we have access. Software tools are designed to make managing our lives or businesses easier — and employee advocacy tools are no exception. Employee advocacy tools can be a game changer for big and small teams across the board.
From automation to data analysis, this kind of tool streamlines campaign strategy and supervision.
- Automate – Your company can automate certain processes such as content scheduling, uploading, security, and general management. It can even help you find the best times to slot posts for the furthest reach and engagement possible.
- Organize – Every good employee advocacy tool needs strong organizational value. This one will help you assimilate better team communication, content creation and storing, shuffling, and more.
- Track – Tracking progress in the form of KPIs is essential for any social media campaign. Employee advocacy tools are designed to help you set the right campaign goals and monitor them efficiently and accurately.
- Amplify – Some tools allow you to receive automatic amplification for the distribution of each post. That means higher engagement, leads, and conversion rates.
From automation to data analysis, this kind of tool streamlines campaign strategy and supervision.
While some of these features can be done manually by physical employees, their focus may be more needed elsewhere in the hustle and bustle of everyday corporate tasks. Employee advocacy tools can alleviate some of the pressure involved in content strategy and result in a more accurate, optimized campaign.
Check Out Our Guide to Getting Employees Active on Social Media
Equipping your team with employee advocacy tools is the first step to getting them more active on social media. Learn other actionable tips in our manager’s guide to social media advocacy!
Signs it’s Time to Invest in Employee Advocacy Tools
If you’re unsure about whether your business needs an employee advocacy tool, we’ve created a handy checklist for you to peruse. You could benefit if:
1. Your Team Struggles with Communication
Getting everyone on the same page can be a constant struggle for large teams. Miscommunication is the root of many poor decisions and can contribute to social tension within the workplace. Clear communication between integrated platforms becomes much easier with an employee advocacy tool.
2. Your Team Is Remote or Hybrid
According to stats from 2022, roughly 16% of the world’s employees are working remotely, while 62% have committed to a hybrid workflow.
Both of these alternatives have their benefits. However, one of the few downsides is that remote or hybrid working can cause problems with collaboration between different employees and departments.
If your business is launching an employee advocacy program, a tool specifically designed to support that process can profoundly impact both the development and the outcome.
3. Strategic Decisions Are Made with Educated Guesses, Not Data
Having access to accurate data can make all the difference in the outcome of your campaign. With an employee advocacy tool, you won’t need to rely on unpredictable guesses and estimations. You’ll have the luxury of making decisions that are as informed and accurate as possible.
4. Employee Engagement Is Down
Low employee engagement is a very common problem in the choked-up corporate world of today. Fortunately, there are two ways to rectify this issue: with an employee advocacy program and a tool that supports it.
Not only does the program actively work to improve employee job satisfaction and engagement, but it’s also a great way to make work lives easier. Software optimization tools help people save time and energy while fostering a healthy company culture.
5. You’ve Never Implemented an Employee Advocacy Program
Launching a new campaign often comes with some growing aches and pains. However, the process can become much smoother when you have a tool specifically designed to streamline and supervise it. This tool can make the process less stressful if you’ve never before implemented an employee advocacy program.
6. Your Social Media Efforts Rely on Manual Processes
Manual posting is tedious and inefficient. Posting automation, in contrast, saves time and helps reduce errors. Explore employee advocacy tools with automation capabilities to save time and make the most of your program.
Furthermore, employee advocacy tools allow you to reach new customers at scale, and the best among them will also make it easy for your team members to post content, which goes a long way toward alleviating change resistance.
7. Your Employee Advocacy Program Feels Disorganized
Building employee advocacy requires a great game plan and the right tools. No advocacy initiative is going to get off the ground unless you have both pieces of the puzzle.
Don’t get discouraged if you’ve tried employee advocacy tools before and they didn’t work as you may have hoped; instead, revisit your past attempts to identify what you did right and how you can improve. Use content creation tools to keep your program organized and engaging.
8. You Don’t Have a Clear Way to Measure Employee Advocacy Success
It’s tough to tell whether your advocacy efforts are paying off without employee advocacy tools that track and report on relevant performance metrics. Start by setting clear, measurable campaign goals and then implement reporting tools that measure your results. From there, use the insights you gather to improve your program and encourage further participation from your staff.
9. Employee Social Shares Aren’t Gaining Enough Visibility
Employee advocacy tools amplify your employees’ content to help expand their visibility. These tools allow you to leverage your team members’ networks more effectively and get your brand’s content in front of thousands of users.
Pricing vs. Value: Comparing the Best Employee Advocacy Platforms
Instead of focusing on the cheapest platform available, it’s best to consider the tools and capabilities that each solution provides. The best platforms offer straightforward base pricing and clear per-user fees.
The chart below provides a breakdown of the pricing and features of various employee advocacy tools, but among them all, Clearview Social stands out by providing an entire suite of tools in a single, user-friendly platform. You won’t run into a bunch of hidden add-on fees or exorbitant pricing. Instead, you get the following:
- Employee advocacy
- Social media AI
- Reporting tools
- Automation capabilities
- Corporate posting
- Content discovery tools
Unlock the Advocacy Potential of Your Workforce with Clearview Social
Clearview Social is a platform dedicated to providing support, guidance, and solutions for social media and employee advocacy campaigns.
Through Clearview Social, your business can access many powerful employee advocacy tools and features, such as enterprise functionality and social media analytics. Better yet, you’ll gain access to multiple resources including ebooks, guides, webinars, and support.
Your team doesn’t have to navigate this road on its own.
Get Your Employees Sharing on Social!
Clearview Social is the best employee advocacy software for encouraging your employees to share branded content on social media and expand the company’s digital reach.