5 Ways You Can Participate in Social Media Advocacy

Participating in Social Media Advocacy

Below, you’ll find out how you can get involved in social media advocacy and why it benefits you and the company you work for.

If your business is positioning itself to enter the world of social media, or if you’re seeking to make a difference in your business’s social media efforts, then the biggest impact you have as an employee is to get involved in social media advocacy (also called employee advocacy).

This means sharing on your social media accounts and becoming an employee advocate.

Employee advocates are among the most powerful assets any business has on social media.

When employees develop a strong social media voice and use it to talk convincingly and personably about their employer among their personal social media followings, they exponentially increase the reach their employer has on social media.

And besides reach, you can help your company drive more quality leads, web traffic, and help HR generate a substantial talent pool.

But what does it take to get involved in social advocacy and become a high-quality social media advocate in the eyes of your employer?

Here are the top 5 ways to become a valuable employee advocate on social media.

1. Develop a strong, passionate voice on social media

It’s easy to share, like and retweet, but the secret to success as an advocate for your company is to add your own original writing to the conversation.

Your voice should be passionate about the company you work for and the industry you work in, and you must cultivate and optimize that personality for social media.

For example: Are you funny, wry, serious, provocative? Do you inject strong opinions into the conversation, or are you more of a moderator who empowers others to share their opinions?

Once you develop your voice, you must stick to it – because the people who become your followers will be attracted to this personality and over time will identify you (and your employer) by it.

2. Practice writing clearly and with sophistication

The caliber of the people you attract on social media will be directly proportional to the clarity and sophistication that you bring to the social media content you share.

Conversely, if your writing is amateurish and riddled with typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors it will reflect poorly on the employer you’re advocating for.

The best way to learn to write effectively on social media is to emulate folks who have built loyal followings by penning thoughtful, sophisticated content.

They are pretty easy to find, but you can always Google influencers on social media, you’ll find plenty of articles of people to follow and study.

3. Become a thought leader

Advocates who become subject-matter experts within their industry not only gain a loyal following on social media but also can leverage that following to advocate more effectively for their employer.

To become a thought leader, you’ll want to start by researching what other thought leaders are writing within your industry, and then build your writing niche around trying to fill the holes and deficiencies within the industry.

As you read what others are saying, what you’ll find is that you think of ways to communicate your messages better and differently – and that will be the basis for how you’ll set yourself apart as a thought leader.

4. Promote social media activity among your peers

Social media is all about building connections – and not just with an outside audience.

You also want to build a strong social network of fellow employees who, when working together, collectively strengthen each employee’s individual social media value to your employer.

By following each other on social media and interacting continuously with each other, you can share others’ company content, start conversations about your industry or product line, and steer and shift chatter into a more positive light for your business.

5. Understand the demographics of your business’s target audience

If you take the time to develop a solid understanding of what type of people your business is trying to reach, you’ll instinctively figure out how to communicate with them more effectively on social media.

In fact, you’ll find yourself adapting your content to resonate with their tastes, and finding ways to mimic their sensibilities. This will add tremendous value to your social employee advocacy efforts.

While you may like a particular topic or have interest, you are not the target audience.

You have to figure out what the audience of your company cares about and post material related to that.

Does Your Company Use A Social Advocacy Platform?

The above main points are key to helping you participate in social media advocacy on behalf of your company. And more companies are also encouraging the organization to get more involved as well.

Yet, while you may be doing these above things or interested in doing so, it may seem a bit time-consuming.

Additionally, your company may not be able to monitor or get the best reporting to show you are making good use of your time on social.

You may have heard of employee advocacy platforms, your company may have one, or it’s brand new to you.

To accomplish the above tips more effectively, a social advocacy platform like EveryoneSocial can save you a ton of time and headaches.

Everything is organized in one location, you can see your personal stats on your social shares, leave comments and feedback to other employees, all while growing your own personal networks.

Naturally, that is only scratching the surface.

Some results from our platform:

• Employees who participate in a social media advocacy can organically grow their social networks by 10%+ per year.
• An employee advocacy program costs 1/10 of paid advertising.
• A social media advocacy program can drive 16% better win rates, 2x pipeline, and deliver 48% larger deals.

If your company values being a social business or you see your colleagues very active on social media on their own, then a social advocacy platform like EveryoneSocial may be a great fit for your company.

Interested in how other companies encourage employees to be active in social media advocacy? Learn how Dell got over 10,000 employees actively sharing on social media through EveryoneSocial.