Social Recruiting: One Benefit of Employee Advocacy

My first experience with employee advocacy happened last year, before I even knew that employee advocacy existed. As it’s a relatively new market, I was one of the many people who hadn’t even heard the term before, no less had an experience with it…or so I thought.

A former classmate of mine named Sara currently works at Movember. She sends me Snapchats of her office (which are usually accompanied by a photo of an adorable Boston Terrier named Cooper), regularly posts on her LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram pages about Movember’s most recent campaigns, and she has never failed to reach out to her personal network and offer some free Movember swag. During Movember’s 2014 campaign season, she inspired me to get my friends excited about men’s health.

Was Sara doing all of this because it’s her job? Not necessarily. Sara wanted her friends and family to be as excited about Movember as she was. And there you have it: My first experience with a strong employee advocate – simple as that!

What is Employee Advocacy?

Back up…employee advocacy? Still unsure of what that actually means? Well, never fear. My definition of it goes something like this:

Employee advocacy is getting your employees excited about your brand, and encouraging them to share your message with their own personal networks.

There are endless organizations out there doing fantastic work to better their industry, to improve workplace culture, or just to give back in their own communities. So how do these companies spread the word? How do they make sure that exciting news isn’t doomed to the office newsletter? How can they maximize their social recruiting?

This can be done in a variety of ways, but perhaps the most common method is through social media. Think about it – all of your employees’ friends, acquaintances, and relatives are most likely connected to them on social media. That’s a huge network! And what’s more, this network trusts your employee.

After seeing Sara’s enthusiasm for Movember’s mission across her social channels, I am fully convinced that they’re a great organization to work with. Hearing first hand how Movember operates gave me greater insight as to what they value, and how they treat their employees and volunteers.

It’s a great perspective to have! It makes me feel that I have an inside scoop on Movember’s culture, and perhaps even more importantly, that I’d like to hear about what they’re doing in the future. Employee advocacy had it worked its magic on me, and I didn’t even know it.

But that’s not where my experience ends.

My Own Experience With Employee Advocacy and Social Recruiting

Enter Dan, Digital Marketing Manager at PostBeyond. Dan and I met in April through mutual friends, and we quickly got to chatting about our current roles. He told me what PostBeyond does, what the team is like, and what they value.

I followed PostBeyond on social channels, and kept in touch with Dan over time. Eventually, I met a few members of the team and decided that I not only admire PostBeyond as a company, but I’d be overjoyed to work with them in the future. Dan’s advocacy for PostBeyond simultaneously made me aware of their cause and enticed me to join their team.

Having this social recruiting experience with PostBeyond made me realize what a profound impact employee advocacy has for companies. It’s a largely untapped resource, and it’s my belief that if enterprises can harness this resource, it can lead to great strides in both brand awareness and attracting talent.

How Can Employee Advocacy Work For Your Enterprise?

Employee advocacy isn’t always as simple as having employees post a Facebook update. At PostBeyond, we’ve found that in order to run a successful advocacy program that can help with social recruiting, you’ll need a combination of things:

  • Content Strategy: Providing your employees with strategic brand and industry content ensures that your company’s message is accurately communicated in the voice you’d like. Keep your content relevant, engaging, and on target. The balance here is allowing your employees to be themselves while still maintaining your brand messaging.
  • Personal Experience and Trust: Your employee’s personal network trusts them. When an advocate shares an update, their network trusts that the information is accurate, instead of getting the feeling that they’re having a brand “sell” to them.
  • Passion for the Brand and Culture: If Sara had shared a Movember media release with me, do you think I would have been as excited about their campaigns? Most likely not. Even if she posted a hilarious video captioned “my company made this video. I thought it was kind of cute.”, it doesn’t scream “I love where I work!” No matter how great the content is, your employees need to be truly excited about your culture.
  • Technology, Systems, and Infrastructure: With different levels of social media experience becoming the norm, it makes sense to have a uniformed way of approaching social sharing. A social business infrastructure can make this process easier for your employees – often as simple as clicking a button to share. The CEO on the go and the newbie to Twitter can have the same opportunities for sharing, and offer the same experience to their networks.

When implemented effectively, employee advocacy can have a huge impact on the bottom line. Frankly, employees are generally motivated to engage for reasons other than financial reward – and that’s a great thing!

More Information: Learn more about advocacy and what employee advocacy is.

If your organization can provide employees with the right messaging, they’ll be empowered to share this content with their friends and family and be your ultimate advocate – like Sara and her Mo mission, or Dan and his excitement to share PostBeyond with me.

Do you know any great employee advocates? Let us know in the comments! Or better yet, share some of their content with us – we’d love to see it!

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