15 Employee Advocacy Examples To Guide Your Own Program
Employee-shared content drives eight times more engagement than official company posts. This makes employee advocacy a powerful tool for any HR or recruitment professional looking to attract top talent to their organization.
Employee advocacy should be part of your employer branding strategy, as it’s a great way to boost your employer brand. In fact, 93% of people tend to trust content more if it comes from someone they know. This approach not only extends your organization’s reach but also helps employees grow as thought leaders, feel more engaged, and take pride in their work.
This article discusses the impact of employees as advocates, 15 real-life employee advocacy examples you can take inspiration from, and how to develop an effective advocacy program.
Contents
What is employee advocacy?
Why employee advocacy is important
15 employee advocacy examples to inspire you
7 steps to develop an employee advocacy program
What is employee advocacy?
Effective employee marketing results in employee advocacy, which refers to employees voluntarily sharing positive stories about their organization’s brand on social media and within their professional circles.
It replaces traditional ads with authentic, personal recommendations that build your company’s image and attract talent. The goal is to create a culture where sharing these stories feels natural and rewarding.
Why employee advocacy is important
Employee advocacy is essential for various reasons, including increased brand awareness and trust, enhanced employee engagement, improved talent attraction, greater social media reach, and higher sales and lead generation.
Employees sharing content adds a real, human touch that makes your employer brand more relatable and trustworthy, because employees act as insiders who truly know the business. Advocating for the company can also give employees a sense of ownership and pride, boosting motivation and retention.
Additionally, a positive organizational culture shared through employee stories sends a strong message to potential candidates, making the organization more attractive to top talent. And as more people increase their digital footprint, employee advocacy extends the business’ presence on a variety of platforms to reach a broader audience.
At the same time, authentic employee endorsements help build relationships and increase brand recognition, which can lead to more sales and quality leads.
15 employee advocacy examples to inspire you
Here are 15 real-life examples of companies with successful employee advocacy programs to help you better understand employee advocacy and give you ideas on how to encourage it.
Example 1: Adobe
Adobe’s employee advocacy program (EAP) aims to empower the company’s staff to engage on platforms like X and LinkedIn. The organization offers its employees extensive training and tools to ensure they are well-equipped to create and share business-related content aligned with Adobe’s brand values.
Example 2: Cisco
Cisco’s EAP uses Sprinklr to give its employees access to a curated library of branded content, which they can choose from to share on their personal social accounts on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Facebook. Over 3,000 employees joined the program within its first four months, generating $196,000 in estimated market value.
Example 3: Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola’s employee advocacy efforts center around its Coca-Cola Ambassador program, which encourages its employees to share their personal stories and moments of the brand with their respective social networks. The purpose of doing so is to build a deeper connection between the company and its consumers.
Example 4: Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies encourages its employees to share content related to the company’s innovation, sustainability, and corporate responsibility. With the help of dedicated advocacy tools, Dell employees are well-equipped to play key roles in extending the organization’s thought leadership and public reputation.
Example 5: HubSpot
HubSpot weaves its EAP into its company culture, encouraging its employees to post content that aligns with its inbound marketing principles. The organization has also created an internal tool and platform to make advocacy easier and more accessible to all its staff, enabling them to share content more conveniently.
Example 6: IBM
IBM’s EAP includes social media and internal communications and gives employees tools and incentives to share content highlighting its tech innovation. It also categorizes advocates into three tiers: Tier 1 consists of executives and senior leadership, Tier 2 socially active influencers, and Tier 3 anyone wanting to be an advocate.
Example 7: Informatica
Informatica’s EAP encourages staff to share content on social media, with the goal of making the company a thought leader in the technology industry. In empowering employee advocacy with curated content and recognition, Informatica has continued to see a significant boost in its social media presence.
Learn to facilitate successful employee advocacy for your company
Build your skills in driving successful employee advocacy and creating an effective employee advocacy program to boost your organization’s reputation and employer brand.
AIHR’s Talent Management Certificate Program will teach you how to deliver a positive talent experience and keep employees engaged in the long term, enabling you to develop an impactful employee advocacy program.
Example 8: KPMG
KPMG uses employee advocacy to raise awareness of its sustainability initiatives, encouraging staff to post content on corporate social responsibility. Less than a year after its EAP started, employees’ social media posts attracted over 12,900 clicks and 10,900 reactions. This has helped position KPMG as a thought leader in business ethics and sustainability,
Example 9: MuleSoft
MuleSoft promotes employee advocacy by encouraging its team members to share their experiences with the organization, whether through testimonials or by showcasing the company products they use. MuleSoft also incentivizes employees by recognizing and rewarding them for their engagement.
Example 10: Randstad
Randstad encourages employees to become advocates for their staffing services through its Randstad USA Advocates program. The program focuses on creating content that highlights Randstad’s culture in order to help the company attract top talent and new clients. It now has over 2,000 brand ambassadors across its different business lines.
Example 11: Reebok
Reebok drives employee advocacy by encouraging staff to share their personal fitness journeys on social media, aligning with the brand and the products and lifestyle it endorses. Reebok also asks staff to post brand-related content it may share on its official pages and hosts regular ’employee takeovers’ on Instagram.
Example 12: Salesforce
Salesforce provides employees with social media toolkits and encourages them to share company successes, product updates, and community involvement. The organization’s EAP has seen at least 25,000 employees become social brand ambassadors and a 2,033% return on investment (ROI).
Example 13: Starbucks
Starbucks champions employee advocacy by encouraging employees (which it calls “partners”) to share their experiences on social media to boost brand reach. The company supports this with clear guidelines and creative campaigns like the White Cup Contest, making employees feel involved and heard.
Example 14: T-Mobile
Through its DreamTM EAP, T-Mobile empowers its 50,000 employees to be brand advocates by giving them easy-to-share content and encouraging personal storytelling. The company supports this with strong employee programs like tuition assistance and a focus on inclusion, showing that employees are key to its brand identity.
Example 15: Zappos
Zappos is known for its unique company culture, which encourages employees to share “insider” content and customer service stories. The company believes good customer service and effective advocacy begins with happy employees and urges them to share their work experiences on social media to show what makes Zappos special.
7 steps to develop an employee advocacy program
In addition to building a positive reputation and employer brand and recruiting top talent, an employee advocacy program is also a great way to close the digital talent gap. If you’re ready to develop such a program for your organization, follow these seven steps to help you get started:
- Set clear goals: Establish the “why” and “how” of your program. Define the specific goals you want to achieve, such as increasing brand awareness, improving employee engagement, attracting top talent, or generating leads.
- Select the right platform: Determine where your target audience is most active and select the platforms where your employees should share content. Which platforms or industry sites you focus on will depend on your business or industry.
- Train employees: Ensure employees understand the program’s goals and how to use social media effectively to advocate for the brand. Provide training on the basics of social media, business communication, content creation, and industry trends.
- Create engaging content: Prioritize relevant content that resonates with both your staff and target audience. Provide easily accessible shareable content employees can customize, review suggested content, and offer support as needed.
- Recognize and reward advocates: Acknowledge employees who actively participate in the organization’s EAP. Offer incentives, employee recognition, and rewards to encourage participation and help keep staff engaged.
- Encourage authenticity: Encourage employees to share content that comes naturally to them, such as posts about personal experiences and insights. Personalized staff social media posts can generate 64% more engagement than non-personalized content.
- Monitor and optimize: Regularly track the performance of your employee advocacy program using engagement metrics, KPIs, and employee feedback. This is critical to refining and optimizing your strategy. Remain up to date with industry trends, employee preferences, and communication channels.
How to measure the success of your employee advocacy program
After implementing your EAP, be sure to measure its effectiveness regularly. This will help you determine how well it’s working and if it needs any adjustments. Here are some key metrics to track:
- Engagement: Look at actions such as likes, shares, and comments on content shared by employees. This helps you gauge how well the EAP is resonating with your audience.
- Reach and impressions: Monitor your content’s reach. Greater reach and impressions indicate successful advocacy, while limited reach requires you to reassess the EAP.
- Employee participation rates: Track how many employees actively participate in the EAP. High participation rates suggest it’s engaging and valuable to your workforce.
- Website traffic from social media: Determine if employee-shared content drives traffic to your website, focusing on content that attracts higher website traffic.
- Lead generation and conversions: Analyze how much company-related content employees share contributes to conversion rates (new sales or business).
- Employee sentiment and feedback: Gather employee feedback on their experience with the EAP to get valuable input and even suggestions to enhance the program.
To sum up
If your organization is not running an employee advocacy program, it could be missing out on a significant amount of potential reach. Employee advocacy is a good way for employees to share their enthusiasm for their company’s brand with their network, helping them become brand ambassadors.
It’s also an organic form of marketing that can create awareness in a way that leads consumers to naturally embrace and trust the brand. This way, you can help foster a positive company culture and drive a strategic marketing plan to support long-term growth.
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