Employee advocacy for the company matters to you and the company
By: Sarah Scott
Why should a company start an employee advocacy program?
A company may get consumer interaction on their own social media accounts, but they can take advantage of their employees and their social media accounts as well. Forbes quotes a study by The Marketing Advisory Network that says, “brand messages reach 561% further when shared by employees versus the same message shared by the brand’s social channels (Fisher).” This is a high percentage and should be utilized to gain more customers through engagement with the company’s employees. This message is perceived as more authentic than if they came straight from the company itself.
According to Hootsuite, “More people trust a regular employee than a CEO (Newberry).” Interacting with the company’s employees will help to build a reputable brand image on social media as it’s giving the company more visibility than they would have if they used only their social media accounts. It will also build the employees’ image and visibility on social media. If employees really care about the ideas, products, services that their company sell, then they will be just as enthusiastic and genuine online when they share on social media. The Chicago Tribute had this to say, “Posts from employees can also help with recruitment by giving outsiders a window into a company’s culture that feels “more authentic” than official statements from the company.”
Onalytica.com says, “According to LinkedIn, employee-shared content is regarded as being three times more authentic and therefore typically sees a click-through rate that is twice as high as when the corporate mouthpiece shares the same data (Russell).”
Why should Kennesaw State University have an employee advocacy program?
Kennesaw State University should employ its employees, many of whom are teachers, to become brand advocates on social media. Since many of the employees are teachers, the target audience should be those ranging from teenagers to young adults, who are looking to get a higher education. Many of these users are likely to be found on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.
Pew Research Center lists Snapchat and Instagram as the most popular social media platform for those aged 18-24 years old (Perrin & Anderson).
According to another article on Forbes, 12.8 million teens are using Instagram (Fitzgerald). So, these platforms would be an ideal place to promote Kennesaw State University. The professors could use their platforms to advertise campus related activities that are open to the public, share student work, post educational material, and perhaps even start a blog where they write about their field of expertise or experiences teaching. Starting a blog would establish the teachers at Kennesaw State University as reputable, causing students to want to take classes. It would also give the teachers a fan-base.
The posts that teachers share should include the hashtag KSUShare so that the university is included in the content being shared, so that people who see other posts can find other related posts, and also so that those looking for Kennesaw State University related posts can find the teachers and follow them.
The following is an example of a post a professor might share to drive people to a blog about academia:
Communication Investigation 