As a small business owner, you know it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to keep your doors open. It can be tough to compete with the big chains, but one strategy you can use to give yourself an edge is employee advocacy. Encouraging your staff to promote your business online can result in more website visits, social media followers, and ultimately, customers. Here are five tips to create a culture of employee advocacy that will help your local business thrive.
1) Provide Tips and Training to Make it Easy
The first step to getting your team on board is to make it easy by providing tips and training on how to leverage social media to promote your business.
For instance, you can ask employees to:
- Share your latest blog posts or product announcements
- Like and comment on posts from customers
- Engage and use relevant hashtags
Additional help could include training on:
- How to create a great social profile
- How often to post
- Which social channels work best
2) Give Good Reasons to Advocate for your Company
Now that you have asked your team members to post on your behalf It’s important to be authentic and clear about your intentions. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving more website traffic, or generating leads you must connect the company goals to their individual goals. Show your team how being an advocate for your business can help them reach their personal goals.
For example, if one of your team members’ goals is to become a leader in their field, they may be more likely to share your company’s content if they know it will help position them as an expert.
3) Make Content Easy to Share
Make it easy for your employees to share your content by creating an online drive with images and videos they can download. You can also provide possible scripts or key bullet points. If you have content on your channels you know they would be excited to share, make sure to let them know!
By making it simple and straightforward to share your content, you’ll be more likely to get buy-in from your team.
One thing to avoid is having multiple people copy/paste the same comment. It looks contrived to the reader and undermines the effectiveness.
4) Encourage Sharing with Incentives and Recognition
In addition to making it easy to share, offer incentives for employees who go above and beyond in promoting your business. This could include gift cards, paid time off, or public recognition. Whatever you choose, make sure it’s something your employees value and that they can easily track their progress.
Another way to encourage your team to be advocates for your business is through peer recognition. Encourage employees to recognize each other for good work or positive actions on social media, and use this feedback as an opportunity to highlight your top advocates as well.
5) Measure the Impact of Employee Advocacy Efforts
Once you’ve set up your employee advocacy program, it’s important to track and measure the impact. By measuring things like follower growth, website traffic, or lead generation, you can see which tactics work best and tweak your program accordingly.
Some advanced tools you might consider to measure the impact of employee advocacy include social media analytics platforms, marketing automation software, and lead tracking tools. With the right tools and data, you can optimize your employee advocacy program to help your business thrive.
By creating a culture of employee advocacy, you can tap into the potential of your team members to promote your brand online. Whether it’s increasing website traffic or generating more leads, there are many benefits to encouraging your employees to be micro-influencers for your brand.
If you need some assistance in getting started, we’re always here to help!
