One possible explanation is that these companies have the resources to employ a dedicated staff of social media marketing professionals.
That’s possible, but it’s only a small piece of the puzzle.
They used an employee advocacy programme to turn their workforce into a powerful army of brand ambassadors, which contributed significantly to the company’s social media success.
What exactly is staff advocacy?
Promoting your company participation is what employee advocacy is all about.
It’s quite close to influencer marketing in many respects.
Both need working with competent men and women in their respective fields.
Both use social media to spread the word about a company’s wares to their respective audiences.
Influencer marketing and its difficulties
The biggest distinction between micro-influencer marketing and employee advocacy is that the former does not include people directly affiliated with the firm.
There may be significant difficulties as a result of this.
To begin, you’ll need to pay or provide free items to these micro-influencers in exchange for their support in promoting your brand and products to their followers.
To acquire an influencer to work with your company, you’ll have to pay a lot of money.
The amount you’ll pay a micro-influencer is determined by factors including the kind of the material they’ll produce, the size of their audience, and the length of the partnership.
Over a billion dollars will be spent by companies to collaborate with social media influencers, according to predictions.
Another issue that arises from this is measuring the effectiveness of your influencer marketing.
Because of the novelty of influencer marketing, traditional methods of allocating a marketing budget are often inadequate when dealing with influencers.
This is why calculating return on investment (ROI) is the number one difficulty for 78 percent of B2B marketers.
The FTC’s increased scrutiny of influencer marketing is another unintended consequence of the industry’s meteoric development.
The Federal Trade Commission has written warning letters to 90 social media influencers and the companies they represent since 2017.
And while the FTC has issued standards for influencers and corporations to follow, a whopping 93% of influencers’ paid endorsements on social media still aren’t properly reported.
And while the FTC has issued standards for influencers and corporations to follow, a whopping 93% of influencers’ paid endorsements on social media still aren’t properly reported.
As the FTC steps up its efforts to crack down on this, more cases are likely and stronger regulations will be implemented.
Then there’s the way customers see content produced by influencers.
While influencer marketing is on the rise, many of the people who follow influencers on social media are beginning to doubt the authenticity of the content they provide.
All of these factors point to one conclusion: companies need to rethink their approach to brand promotion in order to reach today’s consumers.
The value of employee advocacy
The benefits of turning your staff become brand ambassadors through an employee advocacy programme outweigh the fact that they may not have as large of an audience as micro-influencers.
The average number of followers your staff has on social media is 10 times higher than the number of followers your business has.
The content your workers share on social media is 25 times more likely to be shared and 8 times more likely to be engaged with than the same content published on the brand’s social media account.
Because they are an integral part of your organisation, their followers will perceive these postings as authentic and real coming directly from them.
Promoting staff members to the role of thought leader
However, business owners worry that once their staff have established their personal brands, they will leave the company.
In fact, the reverse is true.
Staff members are grateful when management takes an interest in them and helps them develop professionally.
Turning them become company representatives opens doors for them to become recognised as authorities in their industry.
They are cognizant of the fact that not all businesses are willing to do this. As a result, they are far more likely to remain.
The online reputation of your company will benefit from developing staff into industry thought leaders.
Put a face on your company
The “human touch” is something people want for in today’s digital environment, and businesses are scrambling to provide it.
Having firm workers act as brand ambassadors may help businesses connect with their customers on a more personal level.
This personal touch is what will resonate with your audience and pique their interest in what you have to offer.
Affordable advertising
Keeping your employee advocacy programme active requires offering bonuses and rewards to your staff.
You’ll still have to spend money on these, but far less than you would have to pay a micro-influencer for a single piece of content to be shared on their social media account.