In 2019, almost all businesses are embracing the benefits of sharing online content on social media. Maintaining an online presence on social channels brings an increase in traffic, brand awareness and sales conversions, and is an integral piece of modern business marketing. Now with these aspects of sharing your content online mastered, it’s time to take it a step further with employee engagement. Implementing this strategy can take the benefits of social media marketing and multiply them.
According to LinkHumans, employee engagement is “is a term used to describe the exposure that employees generate for brands using their online assets.” The goal of these programs is to leverage employees’ social networks for the benefit of the employer and also for the employees themselves (Source). Employees sharing company content through their personal network produces advantages that social media marketing on its own could not. Keep reading to find out how your company could benefit from employee engagement.
Why having employee engagement and support is important!
This one starts pretty simple. More shares means broader reach and a bigger audience. It starts with an initial share to an employee’s unique circle of connections. Posts on a variety of social networking sites, discussion boards, blogs, and more gets your content in the hands of a wide audience who otherwise wouldn’t have seen it. Now factor in that brand messages are re-shared 24x more frequently when distributed by employees, and it’s clear how many more people you can influence with a little help from your team.
People trust info from their friends, colleagues, and connections. They’re interested in what they have to say and share. In fact, 84% of consumers’ value recommendations from friends and family above all forms of advertising. Their reception of content from these sources is different from than when it’s from a businesses directly as they see their contact as a trusted source. In fact, according to LinkedIn, only 3% of employees share content, and yet they generate 30% of content engagement on shared content!
Sharing your company’s content helps your employees sell more. LinkedIn recently studied a number of sales rep who actively participated in employee engagement. Their findings included this: the most successful sales reps shared 23% more content than the others. The same top reps also created 45% more opportunities per quarter and were 51% more likely to hit their quotas. Sharing information from the business showed their expertise and understanding, starting a discussion and leading to sales conversions, 7x more conversions, in fact, according to IBM! Customers referred by advocates also have a 37% higher retention rate. All from a simple social media share!
Credibility is a two-way street with employee engagement. On one hand, your published material becomes more credible when employee vouches for it. On the other side, sharing the material actually makes the employee appear more credible and engaged in their job and industry as well. In fact, 86% of employee advocates believe that sharing their company’s content has had a positive effect on their career. This credibility growth has an even greater effect on both sides when the employee’s personal LinkedIn brand is well done.
Overall, “employee advocacy spreads ownership of your content strategy across your organization, enlists skills and influence from everyone, and rewards them by increasing their own reputation and effectiveness in return.” (Source) Having an active employee engagement plan creates a whole new playing field when it comes to attracting customers and growing your businesses. For help on starting employee advocacy in your businesses, check out these resources:
