Employee advocacy is just a trendy buzzword? Definitely not! Through ambassador programs, brands gain authenticity and visibility. But how do you build such engagement in a sincere way, and not by force? Can employees really be the best brand ambassadors in B2B? We talk about the secrets of effective employee advocacy, best practices and the most common pitfalls with Marcin Sokolowski, CEO and founder of Sharebee – the most experienced employee advocacy company in Poland.
What is employee advocacy?
MerchUp: How do you define employee advocacy and how does it differ from employer branding or personal branding of employees?
Marcin Sokolowski: Employee Advocacy is about inviting employees to become ambassadors of the company and providing them with such conditions that they want to share their experiences regarding what is happening in their company. The projects they participate in, the competencies they have and their thoughts – including those not necessarily about business life, but also about their private life.
Employer Branding focuses on building a company’s image as an employer – through campaigns, job postings, HR activities, internal and external communications.
Personal Branding is an employee’s personal brand – their expertise, personality, industry visibility, network.
Employee Advocacy bridges both worlds – employees, while developing their personal branding, at the same time strengthen the company’s employer branding.
MerchUp: What are the most common misconceptions companies have about employee advocacy programs when implementing them?
Marcin: The biggest mistake we see is the underestimation of resources – both on the part of the team that undertakes to implement the program, and the involvement of other departments/specialists, as well as the management. It can’t be the initiative of one person who “feels the topic,” but a project that is in line with the company’s other activities and supports its business and image goals.
We also see often stereotypical opinions about ambassador programs:
- “Our industry is specific, it is not suitable for LinkedIn.”
- “Just send people ready-made posts and let them pass them on,” he said.
- “Everyone knows social media, it’s not difficult.”
- “It is not appropriate for the president to write and comment on posts.”
- “We will manage ourselves, we will embrace everything internally.”
Over the years, we have observed repeated mistakes in various organizations, so the following was created The book “Employee Advocacy. How to Manage an Ambassador Program.” , where we share practical knowledge on nearly 300 pages.
Where to start with an employee advocacy program?
MerchUp: Where do you start building an employee advocacy program in an organization that has never run one?
Marcin: First of all , from understanding what these activities consist of and what benefits they can bring to the various departments within the company. We’re talking about employer branding, HR, recruitment, communications, marketing and sales. And ultimately also about employees, candidates, business partners and customers.
Preparing for the launch is crucial and can take several months, as it involves many elements, viz:
- Identify program goals (e.g., employer brand recognition, talent acquisition, engagement building, sales impact);
- Choosing a channel, or a way for ambassadors to operate – for our clients, this is most often LinkedIn,
- Mapping of current ambassadors – who is already a natural influencer and has activities that translate into recognition,
- Program promotion and communication plan (various outreach channels + leadership and board support),
MerchUp: What is key in the selection of program participants?
Marcin: We often say that we recommend acting on the principle: “will, not skill,” i.e. focusing on personality traits rather than, for example, the level of familiarity with LinkedIn.
We know of more than one example of a person who, with the launch of the program, was just setting up his profile on LinkedIn, and after a few months was one of the most successful ambassadors. Examples of desirable qualities include: communicativeness, willingness to share knowledge, ability to establish and build relationships, openness to new projects, motivation and commitment.
We should also remember that ambassadors should represent different departments and levels of the organization, then they will reach a wider audience with their message.
The selection of ambassadors should coincide with the stated goals of the program, if we want to strengthen talent acquisition, it is natural that we will invite recruiters and Hiring Managers to the program first.
MerchUp: How to motivate employees to actively participate in the program without pressuring them? How to support them in creating content?
Marcin: First of all – it is worth being a good example yourself. Encouraging others to be active, to share knowledge, to show a wider audience, when we ourselves are “hiding in the corner” will simply be unbelievable.
Second – let’s ensure proper implementation. Onboarding in an ambassador program consists of many elements, from the official ones, such as rules and regulations or social media policy, to the soft ones – consultations, 1:1 meetings, training with internal and external experts. The success of the entire project depends on good preparation.
Third – constant communication. Both between ambassadors (shared channel, chat on LinkedIn, periodic meetings) and on the company’s forum – appreciating the results and reporting more broadly on the results is both motivating for employees and gives a great foundation for the next recruitment.
Gamification will also work well here – thematic challenges, rankings, bonus points, or “races” between departments. And all this garnished with attractive rewards, for example, in the form of company merchandise. Efficient collection of results is important here, which is why the Sharebee platform has built-in intuitive dashboards, thanks to which you can easily manage the program.
MerchUp: What are the biggest challenges companies face when implementing an employee advocacy program? How do you approach them?
Marcin: Certainly the biggest challenge is overcoming the “imposter syndrome” among experts, who are reluctant to share their knowledge and have greater public visibility. However, we see that good preparation, training, materials and consultation are overcoming these fears. Well, and it’s worth emphasizing that example comes from the top, which is why it’s so important to be proactive and support people at higher levels of the organization.
What makes programs slow down over time is the lack of “fuel” which is up-to-date and diverse content. That’s why we support clients in this area by preparing materials for the company’s knowledge base (posts, graphics, videos or documents), which employees can freely edit and mix so that they have proven and attractive posts at hand. With thematic challenges and an inspiration calendar, we also motivate people to create posts of their own. Our bee assistant, mAIa, helps with this.
What to measure and what companies are implementing successful ambassador programs?
MerchUp: What metrics are worth measuring to assess the effectiveness of employee advocacy efforts? What goals are worth setting?
Marcin: This is one of the questions that comes up most often when talking to clients. We answer that it depends on the stage of the program and can look like this:
- The rate of interest in the program, or the number of applications we received from employees. This will show us how effective the communication plan and promotional activities we implemented with the program were.
- The number of active ambassadors and ambassadors in the program, i.e. those actually engaged – ideally, we look at this indicator in relation to the total number of employees. It’s also a good idea to set minimum requirements at the start, such as 5/6 posts and an increase in networking by 100 people per month.
- Board/management commitment.
- Attendance at implementation workshops and completion of tasks (e.g., completion of LinkedIn profile).
- Number of ambassador publications broken down into library posts (developed by the company) and self/author publications.
- Reach , which consists of comments, shares and reactions.
- NPS (Net Promoter Score) of ambassadors, an indicator that will show us whether the program meets the expectations of the people who joined it, and whether they would be willing to recommend it to other company employees.
- AVE (Advertising Value Equivalent) – the advertising equivalent associated with reach in a given medium. It shows us what savings are generated by employee activity.
It is worth keeping in mind that the first few months of the program are for testing and implementation. Let’s not set overly ambitious goals here, which could negatively affect motivation – ours, the company’s and the ambassadors’ and ambassadresses’ – from the start. This is the moment to build personal branding and employee advocacy work habits. Activity in the program must become a natural part of calendar planning at work.
MerchUp: Which companies are doing it really well in our market?
Marcin: I will say immodestly – certainly those that use our services or educate themselves from the materials we provide. This is evidenced by the results, the joint celebration of anniversaries (the record holders have been running the program for 6 years!) and the accolades and awards associated with running the Employee Advocacy program. Not to be overlooked here is the increased visibility for the organization, which shifts from corporate messaging to speaking by the hundreds of mouths of its employees.
Here you will find case studies from selected ambassador programs: Allegro, Autenti, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, Capgemini, STILL Polska, TAURON Dystrybucja.
Prepared brand ambassador, i.e. welcome package and first entry
MerchUp: At MerchUp, we are often responsible for gift packages for brand ambassadors and ambassadors. What, for you, should the ideal program starter kit contain?
Marcin: It won’t come as any surprise, but certainly personalized clothing, especially sweatshirts – in an energetic color, with the name of the program, as a differentiator and motivation at the start. We know of many programs in which they are the holy grail, so to speak. For example, accessories related to publishing or video recording will come in handy – phone holders, tripods, powerbanks, headphones, as well as books, one of our favorites being “Write, Publish, Act. How to create effective content on the Internet” by Klaudyna Maciag.
We also come across various smaller gadgets, such as socks, mugs, pins, pens, notebooks. One thing is certain – they should be specific to the program, so that they stand out from the corporate ones.
MerchUp: Probably the eternal question of people who start publishing: where should one start? 🙂
Marcin: Definitely start by answering the question – what do I feel I am an expert in and what format will be easiest for me to publish in. Then I recommend creating a list of topics and… just publish.
The easiest way to start is to share the knowledge you already have:
- Post about your own experience in the position/industry,
- summary of an interesting article,
- A commentary on the industry trend,
- case study from the life of the company.
You don’t have to write columns right away – a short, authentic reflection plus an interesting graphic, photo or short video is enough.
We often say that an ambassador program is a marathon, not a sprint, so proper preparation, a supportive team and regularity are important here. And for more inspiration, visit Sharebee’s company profile.
MerchUp: Thanks for the interview Marcin!
Marcin: Thanks also!
Marcin Sokolowski, CEO and founder of Sharebee, was interviewed by Karolina Chećko PR & Communication Manager at MerchUp.