The success of employee advocacy boils down to a tightly-knit company culture–and nothing brings the team closer together than corporate events.
Nearing the end of another year, your organization is probably looking forward to the holidays. Without a doubt, it is one of the highlights of any company’s year. It is also one of the busiest times for social media networks, especially for image-sharing websites like Instagram.
In addition to the opportunity to express appreciation, holiday festivities also provide your employee advocates with great content for social media. Without further ado, here are some of the best ideas to leverage the holidays for your social advocacy campaigns:
1. Broadcast it Live
One of the latest features that Facebook offered this 2016 is Facebook Live. It is an integrated, live streaming feature that enabled users to share moments and special events in real time.
A few months after it was introduced, many companies were already seeing success with Facebook Live for social media marketing. For example, HubSpot used Facebook Live to give everyone a peek of their new office in Dublin. The feed garnered significantly more likes and positive comments than their average post.
Remember that a live stream gives the audience a sense of exclusivity since they get to see the moment as it happens. Just do not forget to keep the feed short and sweet. Your audience is probably enjoying their holidays too, so a quick tour of your venue should suffice. You can also broadcast live videos of your company as you enjoy short parlor games.
2. Use Hashtags Wisely
Using trending hashtags during the holidays is an excellent way of increase the searchability of your social media posts. You can also come up with your holiday-related hashtag but hashtags like #HappyThanksgiving, #ShareTheCheer, and #Celebrate will provide more exposure for your social media posts in this particular holiday.
Since everyone is probably already doing it, you should encourage employees to take and share photos of your company’s Thanksgiving turkey with the hashtag #Turkey. Do note, however, that using too many hashtags in a single post will make your engagement rate drop by around 17 percent. So before you load up on a ton of different hashtags, make sure everyone is well aware of the rules for successful employee advocacy. Tell your employees only to use as few hashtags as possible to maximize engagement.
3. Create a Post-Thanksgiving Album
As your staff continues to upload photos on Facebook, make sure you round them up and create an album for your post-Thanksgiving social media activities. Take note that these pictures can also be used on your blog or website in the “About Us” section. The album will also serve as a reminder for your social media followers that your organization consists of people who trust, appreciate, and enjoy each other’s company.
Don’t forget to tag your employees so the photos can be visible to their social circles. After all, employees typically have 10x more social reach than your average corporate social media account. Since the content will be seen by people they already know, you can also expect them to receive more likes, comments, and re-shares.
4. Reward Your Audience
Remember that the holidays are all about giving back. Other than your employees, your loyal social media followers also deserve your appreciation. Let them be a part of your day to maximize engagement and win their trust.
An excellent idea is to hold a social media contest such as photo sweepstakes, exclusive discounts, giveaways, and holiday-related trivia questions. Your audience may also participate in employee contests or act as judges. For example, you can let them decide which employee shared the best photo through the number of likes or an external poll. After selecting the winner, you can randomly pick one liker to receive a special prize.
5. Leverage Holiday Themed Events
Another way to boost your employee advocacy campaign during the holidays is to participate in events. For example, focusing on the Thanksgiving Day Parade—a live broadcasted event—will allow your employees to relate and participate in trending conversations.
Sporting events such as Football and Basketball also have games that stir up conversations in social media. Apart from asking your social media audience who their favorite team is, you can also consider sending an employee enthusiast to cover those events live. If that will not get your sport-loving audience’s attention, then nothing else will.
Finally, you can encourage employee advocates to engage the social media audience by providing tips related to the holiday. A good example is to provide holiday travel safety tips since many people are probably out to see their relatives. Apart from travel, employees can also provide advice on meal preparation, gift ideas, special holiday deals, and so on. To further increase engagement, your employees can try using the poll feature on social networks like Google+.
Conclusion
The holidays should bring people closer together. With the strategies above, you can take full advantage of this special time and maximize the engagement for employee postings.
Looking to start building a successful employee advocacy program at your company? Learn how to turn your company’s workforce into a social media powerhouse with this guide.
