Corporate branding is critical for any company looking to build a strong reputation and engage with customers. However, there’s an often-overlooked aspect of branding that can make a big difference: employee advocacy. Employee advocacy is the promotion of a company’s brand by its employees, both online and offline. It’s a powerful tool for building trust, increasing engagement, and creating a positive image for your company. Here are some reasons why employee advocacy is critical for corporate branding.
- Authenticity: One of the key benefits of employee advocacy is authenticity. Customers are more likely to trust messages that come from employees rather than from the company itself. When employees share content about their company, it comes across as more authentic and genuine, which can help build trust and credibility.
- Increased Reach: Employee advocacy can also help increase your brand’s reach. With the rise of social media, employees have become a valuable source of social amplification. By encouraging employees to share content about the company on their personal social media accounts, you can reach a wider audience and build brand awareness.
- Cost-effective: Employee advocacy is also a cost-effective way to promote your brand. Unlike paid advertising or influencer marketing, employee advocacy doesn’t require a significant financial investment. Instead, it relies on the enthusiasm and passion of your employees to promote your brand.
- Improved Engagement: Employee advocacy can also help improve engagement with your brand. When employees are proud of their company and are willing to share content about it, they’re likely to be more engaged with the brand overall. This can translate into increased employee retention, better customer service, and improved customer satisfaction.
- Talent Attraction: Employee advocacy can also help attract top talent to your company. When employees are active advocates for the company, they can help create a positive image that attracts new talent. In a competitive job market, having a strong brand and positive reputation can be a key differentiator in attracting the best talent.
So, how can you encourage employee advocacy for your brand? Here are some tips:
- Encourage participation: The first step in employee advocacy is encouraging participation. Make it clear that you value employee advocacy and provide training and resources to help employees get started. You can also create an employee advocacy program that rewards employees for their participation.
- Provide content: To make it easy for employees to share content about your brand, provide them with content that they can use. This can include social media posts, blog articles, videos, and more. Make sure the content is high-quality, engaging, and aligned with your brand messaging.
- Lead by example: To encourage employee advocacy, it’s important to lead by example. Senior leaders and executives should be active advocates for the brand and share content regularly. This sets a positive example for other employees and helps create a culture of advocacy.
- Measure and track: To ensure that your employee advocacy program is effective, it’s important to measure and track your results. This can include tracking the number of shares, likes, and comments on social media, as well as monitoring employee engagement and satisfaction.
Employee advocacy is a critical aspect of corporate branding that should not be overlooked. It’s a cost-effective way to build trust, increase reach, improve engagement, and attract top talent. By encouraging participation, providing content, leading by example, and measuring results, you can create a culture of advocacy that helps build a strong and positive brand reputation. So, invest in your employees and encourage them to become advocates for your brand – it’s a powerful way to take your corporate branding to the next level.
About Désiré Roberts
Brand Consultant @ TILT Creative
Désiré is a senior brand consultant obsessed with brand growth. With over a decade of experience, she has worked with all sizes of companies, from all over the world, across various industries. She’s different because she doesn’t play by the rule book and she loves the challenge of the learning curves of every industry, which has given her an unrivalled competitive edge with an incredible body of knowledge and experience. She’s laser focused, meticulous, ambitious, persevering, and self-driven.
“When you’re a medium to large company, you need a level of authority that’s divergent from the small business sector. The competition is stronger and the stakes are much higher. The same brand tactics will not work; there’s millions of pounds on the line. You have to find someone who is willing to push boundaries and not just think outside of the box, but think outside of the universe. You must change your perspective to play in this ring, else you be knocked out in the first round.
Likewise, when you’re growing a small business, you can’t use the same rule book as the big boys – you have to play the game of your own sector, just better than your competitors. The interesting thing is that not many SMEs pay attention to brand, so just by tightening that area up, you’re instantly in a much better position than your competitors.”
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