Employee Advocacy might be a buzzword that many leaders are investing in and trying to better understand by we're far from making it a trend that makes a difference in today’s business world. The idea of a social employee isn’t something a brand or leader needs to authorize because no matter the industry or business, employees are active on social if the brand knows it or not. The key is empowering, training and encouraging employees to collaborate, share, build communities and help amplify the brands content, culture and story. In my recent post “Employee Advocacy, The Secret to Social Business Success!” I highlighted that employee advocacy is essential for success with social business initiatives such as social selling, influencer marketing and customer service. Although some companies are embracing this fact too many leaders and brands are going through the motions or attempting to automate employee advocacy to the point of eliminating the employee element completely. This takes the social out of social business and in my opinion does more harm than good. Here are 8 signs a company is doing employee advocacy wrong... Employee Advocacy is difficult to implement for many because it requires change across every department and trusting, transparent, employee focused culture. Although these changes are difficult if brands attempt to find an easy button or are currently implementing any of these 8 actions above not only are they wasting their time but they’re driving themselves further away from becoming the social business they hope to be.

1. Employee Advocacy Done Wrong! 8 signs a company is doing employee advocacy wrong!

2. 1. Leaders are talking about “Employee Advocacy” as a project or task that they aren’t an active part of.

3. 2. You have social accounts with employees names on them but they’re automated by a social media team.

4. 3. All employees share the exact some post at the exact same time.

5. 4. The only content that your social employee accounts share are advertising, marketing and sales content from the brand.

6. 5. Vanity Metrics like number of posts, Klout score or number of followers are being incentivized and rewarded above valuable social actions like engagement, collaboration and community involvement.

7. 6. Employee Advocacy is a task or job assigned to one department instead of being a company wide change that creates new experiences while redefining the culture and company philosophy.

8. 7. Employee Advocacy is setup to only benefit the brand without an investment in the employees personal brand, training or thought leadership.

9. 8. Software and company politics are blamed for the programs failure, instead of focusing on the culture and philosophy changes needed.

10. The great social businesses of the future will invest, empower and utilize employee advocacy programs, focusing on creating a collaborative, social and transparent culture that creates new community experiences! Embrace Change! @iSocialFanz