The Definitive Guide to

Employee Advocate Marketing

A SEVEN STEP GUIDE

TO ENSURE SUCCESS
 The Definitive Guide to
Employee Advocate Marketing
A 7 STEP GUIDE TO ENSURE SUCCESS

Overview Page 2

Step 1: Make Your Plan Page 4

Step 2: Identify and Invite Your Most Social-Savvy Employees Page 9

Step 3: Train the Core Group of Advocates Page 12

Step 4: Launch the Program and Engage Your Advocates Page 15

Step 5: Raise Internal Awareness About the Program Page 18

Step 6: Measure Success Page 20

Step 7: Grow the Advocate Marketing Program Page 23

Conclusion Page 27

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 1

 Overview:
What is an Employee Advocate?
An advocate is one that argues for a cause, a supporter or
defender. Advocates are passionate about your brand and
talk it up to anyone who will listen. When it comes to your
brand, your employees fit the advocate description better
than anyone else. Its likely theyre already promoting your
brand on their own social media accounts and providing
their friends with insider knowledge about how awesome
your products or services are. However, when it comes to
formal Advocate Marketing programs, employees can often
be overlooked.

Employee Advocate (n.):

A socially engaged employee who creates and shares their
employers brand content on their social networks.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 2

Why employee advocates?
When your employees share content, they reach ten times as
many people as the posts on your brands social pages do. This
expanded reach is powerful, because 77% of consumers are
more likely to purchase a product when a friend recommends it.1
Since employees are more familiar with your brand, their friends
and other consumers consider them trusted resources. In fact,
employees are trusted more than company CEOs.

77
of consumers are more
likely to purchase a
%
product when a friend
recommends it1

Advocate Marketing programs have great benefits for employees too. These
programs can empower and engage employees, improve their personal brands,
as well as help them build new skills. Your employees are already your greatest
asset; by empowering them to advocate for your brand, you can make them
more engaged, knowledgeable and skilled while improving communications,
marketing, sales, human resources and other company goals.

Part of piloting a project like this is trying new things. Youll soon discover
what works and what doesnt, and you can improve the program with this
knowledge. Plan to the start the program small, with a select group of savvy
employees, and scale slowly to new groups.

1 Nielsen. A Multi-Mix Media Approach drives New Product Awareness. 2 December, 2013.
www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2013/a-multi-mix-media-approach-drives-new-product-awareness.html.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 3

 STEP 1
Make Your Plan

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 4

Create Social Media Policy

Before you jump into an employee Advocate Marketing program,

you need to have a solid plan in place. Regardless of how socially
savvy your company is, the first step will be to create a social
media policy to ensure compliance with the program. This
resource will outline the rules of what employees can and cannot
post. Its also important to note that all employees who participate
in the program should indicate in their social profiles that they
work at your company. The policy should be written in everyday
language that is easy for all your employees to understand.

Identify Goals

Next, identify your goals for the Advocate Marketing program.

With an employee Advocate Marketing program, your company
has the potential to reach new audiences, drive leads for sales,
demonstrate thought leadership and make your brands identity
clearer. Your goals can be internal as well. Perhaps you want to
build your employees social media skills and foster a sense of
community and pride. Be realistic about the goals you can achieve
and understand that different parts of your company will want
different outcomes from the program.

Reach new audiences

Drive Leads for Sales
Demonstrates thought Leadership
Establish Brand Identity
Build Employee Social Media Skills
Foster a sense of community and Pride

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 5

Get Executive Buy-in

Getting internal buy-in may also be an important part of the

process, depending on the size of your company and the scope
of the project. Use the goals you identified to justify the program
internally. With support from executives, the project will unroll
more smoothly and achieve greater success in the long run.

Employees already have a lot on their plates and without

management buy-in, staff are less likely to participate in the
program. When executives support employee Advocate Marketing
from the beginning and are proponents of implementing a
company-wide social media program, there is greater potential for
growth. Having this executive support amplifies the chances that
employees will also buy into the program.

Find a Champion

Finding a champion is essential. Your employee advocacy

champion is going to spearhead this initiative company-wide.
This champion either needs to be an executive or have executive
sponsorship to ensure that he or she has the pull to make things
happen. This person will own and be responsible for the employee
advocacy programs internally.

EMPLOYEES CAN REACH AN AUDIENCE

10 TIMES LARGER
THAN WHAT YOUR BRAND IS REACHING2

2 Technorati. Engaged Employees Build Engaged Customers - How does Addvocate Help you Engage? 8 October, 2013.
technorati.com/business/advertising/article/engaged-employees-build-engaged-customers-how.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 6

Create a Content and Engagement Plan

Next, create a content plan that outlines the types of content you will
include in the program. Make sure you have a strategy to refresh the
materials weekly, with six to 10 pieces of short-form content, and vary
it so that it will be engaging to all your employees, not just a few.
Align the employee Advocate Marketing program content to your
marketing calendar to ensure future updates align with important
company initiatives.

Were pulling content for our employee Advocate Marketing

program from upcoming events, product launches and
marketing activities. Look at what you already have planned
on your social calendar and pull the most engaging topics and
posts and ideas for your employees to share.

DeShelia Spann, Digital Marketing Strategist at Eaton

The content you will want employees to share will depend on the
goals you identified. If your goal is to recruit new employees, your
content should focus on company culture, like video interviews of
current staff. If the goal is to raise awareness of your brand, you could
share press coverage from third parties that relate to your brand
or its products, content from brand partners and relevant industry
information, such as how the company has aligned itself with
corporate social responsibility initiatives.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 7

The next aspect of the planning stage is determining how often
you will be in contact with your employee advocates and what
the form of communication will be. Will you send weekly emails
or post biweekly on an internal social media platform? Align your
choice with how the companys employees conduct their day-to-
day activities.

Next, come up with a strategy for thanking your advocates.

Without a plan for recognizing your employees, it may be hard
to keep them engaged. Try scheduling meetings with company
leaders so they can personally thank employee advocates. Give
top advocates access to career building seminars or training.
Supply brand-aligned gift cards or other giveaways to the top
advocates. Even smaller measures like sharing advocate content
on the company site or an executive shout out for those who
are the most engaged with the program can be a great way to
highlight employees for their success.

Without a plan for recognizing

your employees, it may be hard
to keep them engaged.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO MOTIVATE AND REWARD
YOUR EMPLOYEE ADVICATES HERE.

Finally, you will need to come up with a program hashtag for

Federal Trade Commission compliance and transparency. Try to
be intuitive when creating a hashtag, like #[companyname] or
#[companyname]insiders. Dont make it too long or you may run
into issues with character limits on certain social platforms. You
can learn more about the FTC guidelines here.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 8

 STEP 2
Identify and Invite
Your Most Social-Savvy Employees

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 9

To build a solid foundation for your new
employee Advocate Marketing program,
its a good idea to start with a small group
of socially savvy employees.
Use social listening platforms to identify staff members who
are most active on social media. Look for departments that are
accustomed to conveying the company message and are already
active on social media. Departments like public relations, marketing,
corporate communications and sales are all likely to contain rising
social media superstars who are comfortable expressing the
brands identity publicly and sharing on social networks.

At first, the program should be invite-only. You want a select

group who will be comfortable with social platforms and able
to experiment with new ideas to give the program a strong
start. Between 10 and 50 people is a good number to begin the
program with, depending on the size of your company.

BETWEEN 10-50
PEOPLE IS A GOOD NUMBER TO BEGIN THE PROGRAM WITH,
DEPENDING ON THE SIZE OF YOUR COMPANY.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 10

Recruit the First Group

Invite the employees via email and inform them they have
been selected to assist with the launch of the program.
In this message, let them know their feedback will
influence the future direction of the program. The invite
email should include a program overview, expectations
and an explanation of how employees will benefit from
participating. The invite should be sent or signed by
an executive program sponsor. This information will
empower them to participate and feel like theyre part of
something new and exciting. The invitation should be sent
in tandem with an invitation to start training.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 11

 STEP 3
Train the Core Group of Advocates

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 12

Once your first group of advocates
has been recruited, its time to start
training them.
These training sessions can be in-person or through a
webinar or video. Crucial to this step is to ensure the
training is simple and straightforward. The initial training
sessions will be centered on the program itself, how
advocates will participate and compliance. Communicate
the importance of employee advocacy, how to take part
in the program and social media best practices, as well as
FTC and employee guidelines.

We provide video training that lasts six and a half minutes and
focuses on the fundamentals around how to be an advocate.
We also provide supplementary tools and one-page resources
so that as our employee advocates want to learn more about
social media on their own, they have resources available.

Lee Diaz, Senior Manager of Emerging Communications at AT&T

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 13

Be sure employees understand the value of their contributions,
both on personal and company-wide levels. Their participation
in the program can help them build new skills and boost the
companys visibility at the same time. The next step is to teach
employee advocates to be advocates for their company. Give
your advocates tips about what kinds of content to share, how to
expand their personal networks and how to keep their followers
engaged. Even the most socially savvy staff members can learn
some new pointers. When designing training methods, keep in
mind that participants may have different levels of knowledge you
will need to accommodate.

Be sure employees understand

the value of their contributions,
both on personal and
company-wide levels.

Ensure advocates sign terms & conditions.

Before allowing your advocates to post freely, you should
draft a list of terms and conditions regarding what type
of brand-related content is permissible to post on social
media. Make sure employees sign off on this document
before moving forward. Its important to trust your
employees, but also to verify they are staying within
guidelines youve established by tracking the materials
they are sharing.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 14

 STEP 4
Launch the Program
and Engage Your Advocates

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 15

After the core group understands
the goals of the program and how
to make it work, its time to begin
sharing content.
Start out by providing approved messages and content for the
advocates to share, and make sure to update these materials at
least once a week to keep advocates and their followers fully
engaged. Send regular content update emails highlighting the
latest content. Think of this like any other social network. If theres
nothing new to see or share, people will stop coming back.

Think of this like any other social

network. If theres nothing new
to see or share, people will stop
coming back.

Grow the program slowly. Start out with prewritten messages that
employees can tweak to match their personal styles. After an initial
period, you can start letting employees write their own unique
content. Giving employees creative license helps let their individuality
shine and gives them a certain amount of ownership over the
materials they create.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 16

To ensure the success of this new project, make working on the
employee Advocate Marketing program part of your routine. Check
in every day to see how your advocates are doing. Keep in touch
with them and make sure you act on the feedback they give you,
including providing follow-up training when they need it.

Once youve launched,

keeping advocates engaged
will be the primary goal.

Asking for feedback from employees is a good way to ensure

they still feel a sense of ownership and creative contribution. Find
out what they would like to see in the program and its content.
Utilize their ideas and add fresh material to share on a regular basis.
Encourage advocates to create content to share with their audience
using the program hashtag. Put the best advocate-created content in
the program for other advocates to share.

Demonstrate appreciation

Demonstrating your appreciation for the participation of your

employee advocates can help them stay engaged in the program.
Be sure to thank your advocates, using specific thank-you messages
on internal networks and in emails. Providing increased access to
executives, as well as other perks, is an additional way to thank
employees for their involvement.

Ongoing training is another important part of the continued success

of an Advocate Marketing program. Hold office hours to provide
support for employees to come in and discuss any issues they may
have. Once you start inviting more employees to the program, you
may need to increase certain training initiatives.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 17

 STEP 5
Raise Internal Awareness
About the Program

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 18

Once youve been up and running
with a small group of advocates for
two to three months, you should
have a pretty good handle on what
works well for your goals and
employees.
Youve likely figured out the kind of content employees
are most interested in sharing and what their audiences
are engaging with the most frequently. Youve got the
basics down and youre ready to grow, which means
its time to start raising internal awareness about the
program to scale it. Promote the program using internal
social channels, email newsletters and at department- or
company-wide meetings. Dont wait for the word to get
out on its own; continue to push it internally. As the first
group of employees become champions of the program,
allow them to encourage and even help train others.

The next step is to put together a small team to champion

the program in their departments. These members should
cover a range of departments in your company, including
public relations, marketing, internal communications and
human resources.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 19

 STEP 6
Measure Success

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 20

As with any marketing initiative, its vital
that you find a way to measure the ROI
of your program. Use a social listening
system and your program hashtag to
measure advocate participation and
determine how these individuals are
engaging their audiences.
The key metrics to monitor for employee programs are the
number of active advocates, total engagements and reach.
The number of active advocates is a vital metric for the ongoing
success of your program. This number will rise month-over-
month in a successful program, as employees participate on
an ongoing basis. The total number of engagements will equal
the total number of shares plus the total number of audience
engagements, such as comments and shares. This number will
equate to overall advocate and audience engagement. The final
metric to measure is reach, which represents the total possible
audience reached. Once baseline metrics are in place, brands can
start monitoring their performance against these benchmarks.
Continuous improvement is key.

TOTAL ENGAGEMENTS
=
+
TOTAL SHARES TOTAL AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENTS

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 21

There are also a series of soft benefits that you should be paying
attention to, including employees feeling more engaged, sales
people having better conversations with customers, better quality
of candidates being recruited and increased overall company and
employee alignment. Find stakeholders and departments that are
looking to improve goals like these, include them in your program,
and talk with employees and managers about ways to measure
the impact of employee advocacy based on these goals.

Review these metrics and soft benefits biweekly to assess progress

and implement necessary optimizations. Report success monthly.
Meet with key stakeholders for a detailed review quarterly to
discuss success, key learnings, optimizations and planning for the
next three months.

HOW OFTEN TO ASSESS PERFORMANCE

Detailed Review
Review Metrics Report with Key
& Soft Benefits Success Stakeholders

WEEKLY MONTHLY QUARTERLY

In short, always make sure the numbers are growing and

employees remain engaged in the program. Consistently check
to determine that the program is still meeting the goals outlined
by the company.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 22

 STEP 7
Grow the Advocate Marketing Program

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 23

Eventually, you may appoint a
manager who is fully responsible
for the success of the employee
Advocate Marketing program.
As the program begins to expand, keep revamping and revising
the training for new advocates as they come on board. Continue
to leverage feedback and integrate new ideas as employees join
to keep the program fresh and exciting. After a while, you will be
able to segment employee advocates based on the topics they are
most interested in. Keep in mind that different employee segments
will respond to different content.

Keep in mind that different

employee segments will respond
to different content.

While other employees may be aware of the program, they may

need additional information before they want to join in. Leverage
internal champions to host social hours to answer frequently
asked questions about participating. Hosting mythbuster
sessions is a fun way to dispel myths about participating in the
program. For instance, employees may think the company can
post on their behalf if they choose to participate. Assure them this
is not the case.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 24

Here are some additional strategies
for growing the program and gaining
more advocates:

Incentivize sign ups. For instance, give the first 100 people who sign
up free T-shirts with their sign-up numbers on them.

Define a part of your program that has a positive impact on the

advocates community and aligns with the companys stance on
corporate responsibility, for which employees can feel they are making
an impact through their participation. Public service campaigns work well
for this, such as spreading awareness about the dangers of texting and
driving.

Promote the program on employee communication channels and

include quotes and success stories from current advocates. Continue
reminding employees about the benefits of participation. You can also
call out weekly top advocates in these communications.

Grow awareness with LinkedIn ads that target company employees.

Put up signs about the program around the office, at employee events
and in break areas.

Talk about the programs success metrics and participation during

company meetings and events.

Keeping advocates engaged is a key part of maintaining the program.

Ask for feedback from participants to make the program the best
it can possibly be. Leverage employee focus groups or conduct
surveys to determine which content and thank yous resonate best
with employees. Ask advocates what they would change about the
program if they could. Your employees may have some great ideas for
expanding content and goals.

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 25

Employee Advocate Marketing Program Launch Checklist
1. Make Your PlanWeek 1 Date:

Create a Social Media Policy
Identify Goals
Get Executive Buy-in
Find a Champion
Create a Content and Engagement Plan
Determine type of content
Align with marketing calendar
Determine communication strategy
Plan how to thank advocates
Create a program hashtag

2. Identify and Invite Your Most Social-Savvy EmployeesWeek 4 Date:

Determine size of select group
Recruit the first group

3. Train the Core Group of AdvocatesWeek 5 Date:

Determine how you will conduct training
Communicate the program goals
Convey the value of participating to your advocates
Establish guidelines for sharing
Ensure advocates sign terms & conditions

4. Launch the Program and Engage Your AdvocatesWeek 6 Date:

Provide approved messages and content
Refresh content weekly
Grow the program slowly
Encourage message creativity and content creation
Add advocate-created content in the program
Demonstrate appreciation
Hold office hours for ongoing training

5. Raise Internal Awareness About the ProgramWeek 10 Date:

Promote the program on internal channels
Empower advocates to spread the word
Assemble a team to champion program

6. Measure SuccessWeek 11 Date:

Identify key metrics
Analyze participation and engagement
Review metrics and soft benefits (weekly)
Report success (monthly)
Detailed review with stakeholders (quarterly)
Make sure numbers are growing

7. Grow the Advocate Marketing ProgramWeek 15 Date:

Continually revamp program and training
Segment advocates based on interest
Leverage champions to inspire and educate others
Leverage all internal channels to promote the program
Employ additional strategies for growth
Expand goals

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing 26

Conclusion
Using this step-by-step guide, you can
create employee Advocate Marketing
program that successfully accomplishes
your outlined goals.
If you start with an in-depth plan and follow each step,
the result will be a growing employee Advocate Marketing
program that will inspire with the results and direction it goes
in. If youre ready to start empowering your employees to
speak out for your company, dont wait. Get started today!

SocialChorus powers tens of thousands of brand advocates employees, consumers

and bloggers to experience, create and share authentic content about brands they love.
We call this new marketing category Advocate Marketing.

Our award-winning Advocate Experience solution makes Advocate Marketing easy. We

combine a comprehensive SaaS platform with a dedicated, expert team and best practices
to deliver measurable social engagement with millions of people every month.

Leaders in every industry, including consumer packaged goods, retail, technology,

telecommunications, travel, automotive and financial services have chosen SocialChorus,
the recognized leader in Advocate Marketing.

Learn more at socialchorus.com.

415.655.2700 info@socialchorus.com
socialchorus.com blog.socialchorus.com

The Definitive Guide to Employee Advocate Marketing

copyright 2014 SocialChorus, Inc. All rights reserved. 27