Employee advocacy is SO MUCH more than employees sharing just BRAND content. Once upon a time, that statement was more aspiration than reality, but that’s no longer the case.
Just check out these 10 examples of original employee-created content. 👇
Now, I spend a lot of time talking with comms and marketing teams, and employee-created content is something that still raises eyebrows.
Questions have included:
- How can this be?
- What are they sharing?
- Is it aligned with our brand?
- What can we do about it?
- Should I be excited, scared, or both!?
🤷♂️ How can this be? Simple. As younger people move into the workforce, social media usage and sharing of original content (content they create) increases. This trend is only going to continue. Embrace the trend!
👀 What are they sharing? Awesome, authentic, ORIGINAL content! They’re sharing about their work, what they’re doing, their co-workers, their office spaces, the conferences they attend, etc. Videos, photos, GIFs, role changes, etc.
👍 Is it aligned with our brand? In most cases, yes! However — and even when it doesn’t call out your brand — it’s super authentic and high-quality, which means it generates amazing results (i.e., reaches the broadest audience).
🛂 What can we do about it? You can benefit from it! Successful advocacy isn’t about getting in your peoples’ way; it’s about enabling them and benefiting from the amazing work they already do and the impressive data they generate!
🤔 Should I be excited, scared, or both?! Be excited. Seriously. When one of your people creates content, they make something special, something original, something authentic. This should be the GOAL!
Your people sharing content they create is the HIGHEST form of advocacy. It’s really as simple as that.
If everyone in your company created and shared an original piece of content every day, you’d have one of the highest-performing advocacy program in the world, as measured by any core metric (shares, engagements, impressions, reach, etc.).
