Read in blog format here: https://www.socioadvocacy.com/blogs/what-is-employee-advocacy-why-is-it-important/ When making a purchase decision, an increasing number of people today rely on the opinions of their peers over most modes of advertising. In fact, studies show that the ‘social media generation’ is less trusting of traditional marketing methods. In times like this, advocacy marketing – especially, employee advocacy.

2. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Table of Content
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………….…… 3
Brand Loyalty vs Brand Advocacy ……………………………………………………………………..……….…… 3
The Importance of Engaged Employees ……………………………………………..…………………….….... 5
What is Employee Advocacy ..………………………………………………………….……………………….......... 5
How Social Media and Brand Ambassadors Impact Buyer Decisions ……………………....... 6
Benefits of Employee Advocacy …………………………………………………………………………………....... 10
Uses of Employee Advocacy ………………………………………………..…………………………………........... 13
Applications of Employee Advocacy to Your Brand …………………………………………………....... 14
Things to Remember When Implementing Employee Advocacy ………………......…………... 16
Paid Advertising or Employee Advocacy ………………………….…………………………………………….. 22
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3. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
When making a purchase decision, an increasing number of people today rely on the
opinion of their peers over most modes of advertising. In fact, studies show that the
‘social media generation’ is less trusting of the traditional marketing methods. In times
like this, advocacy marketing – especially, employee advocacy – stands out as one of the
best ways to promote and market your business.
So let’s get down to it. What is brand advocacy, and more importantly, what is
employee advocacy?
To understand the unique concept of employee advocacy, we’ll first have to delve into a
few basics.
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4. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Brand Loyalty vs Brand Advocacy
Every marketer worth their salt knows that even though a consumer may love their
product, the struggle, to get them to talk positively about it, is real on a whole new level.
That’s the difference between loyalty and advocacy in a nutshell.
When someone chooses your brand over others, every single time, they show brand
loyalty.
But when the same person goes a step forward and talks positively about your brand to
friends and family, they become brand advocates.
It’s important to understand that a brand advocate may not be your best customer and
similarly, those who are loyal to your brand may not necessarily be brand advocates.
There is tremendous potential in converting this lot though; careful monitoring and
direction is all it’ll take.
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5. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
The Importance of Engaged Employees
Your employees are the cogs and wheels that keep your company running smoothly.
The more engaged they are, the higher their job satisfaction and thereby their
productivity. In fact, productivity is increased by nearly 38% when employees are
engaged. The likelihood of such employees being brand loyalists and brand advocates
also increases.
Surveys show that today’s customers are likely to hold a company employee’s opinion
in higher esteem than even that of the company’s CEO! So in reality, employees are the
company’s most influential brand advocates. Unfortunately, few realize the potential
and even fewer use this untapped potential to their advantage.
What is Employee Advocacy?
At its heart, Employee Advocacy is the promotion of a product, service, or brand as a
whole, by employees of the said organization, through personal social media channels
or word-of-mouth.
The organization could instruct and direct employees to show support by sharing brand
content on their personal social networks, but the most compelling kind of employee
advocacy is rooted in freely offered communications from the workforce.
“A well thought out employee advocacy program is the best way to
incorporate the direction and motivation required to begin and sustain
employee advocacy within an organization. The aim of such employee
advocacy programs is to educate and inform the employees while also
keeping them engaged and entertained.”
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6. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
How Social Media and Brand Ambassadors Impact Buyer
Decisions
What used to be the place for catching up on the latest gossip and staying in touch
with friends and family, has now moved on to be the go-to place to make your business
grow. One that has opened the doors to a global market more than you can imagine.
But when the entire world has looked to go digital, can there be any real impact found
in social media? Can purchase decisions really be altered and influenced?
A ​Deloitte​ report showed that a staggering 47% of millennials confirm that their
purchases are impacted by product reviews on social media. Including Gen-Xer’s and
Baby Boomers, it works out to be 19%.
Given that Millennials now make up almost 2/3rds of the current workforce, the
significant amount that the age group has on that statistic proves how much buyer
behavior can be altered with social media.
If you aren’t convinced yet, the same survey goes on to say that those who referred to
social media were 4x more likely to make a purchase and moreover, 29% wouldn’t wait
till the next day; they’d just buy it on the same day.
Among the many benefits that social media offers both marketers and consumers,
we’ve listed a few –
● Better brand awareness and visibility
● Better product descriptions
● Simpler product searches
● Product recommendations and reminders
● Past surveys, reviews, and statistics
The Psychology of the Social Impact
If we go back to the origins of social media, it’s core function was to remain in touch
with friends and family. From that, it moved to being a place people went to keep up
with the latest trends, new services and products. Ever so often though, these functions
of social media coincide with each other.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for friends and family to share and recommend products that
they use to their networks. To add some perspective, this ​Forbes article says​ that nearly
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7. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
80% of all consumers say that they are more likely to make a purchase if a friend
recommends it, while 81% say their purchase habits are directly impacted by friends.
Think about it, if a bunch of your friends have iPhones, you are more likely to purchase
an Apple product over an Android device. Mainly because you’d be able to share
functions like Facetime, but also because of the sense of being “one with the gang” that
comes with it.
If you apply the same logic to advertising a product, you need only imagine the impact
your employees can have on sharing your brand message with friends and family; their
personal networks. They’re more likely to have an impact on direct conversions than
any other form of paid advertising.
Brand Ambassadors and the Consumer Bandwagon
The crowd mentality is the majority of the individual consumer mentality. To get the
individual onboard with your product or service, you need to convince a few influencers,
and let the word spread like wildfire.
While Micro influencers don’t really have large followings, they bring in high levels of
engagement that will easily be targeted to a particular niche. Look at the rise of the
iPhone if you don’t believe us.
So don’t underestimate the power of social media. And more importantly, don’t
underestimate the power of employee advocacy. It might just surprise you.
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8. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Can Employees Really Stand Up to Paid Macro Influencers?
The value of influencer marketing in social media marketing can’t be disputed. It’s
worked too many times, in too many ways, for anyone to question it. Macro-level paid
influencers can bring in the quick results you were looking for.
In case you’re wondering what we’re on about, you need only visit a Kardashian’s social
feeds and get a glimpse of the latest watches, outfits, or waist trainers, they are now
endorsing.
Besides the celebrities though, there’s a whole section of influencers that are yet to be
tapped into. These people are the average joe or jane on social media. They are the
friend you went to school with or the colleague from your previous workplace – they are
real people, with real followers.
These are advocate marketers. They love the brand and as a result, they’re continually
engaging with it. They can be a formidable force. They can be satisfied customers,
business partners, or even employees.
So how do these two marketing approaches match up to each other? We weigh them
against each other to see which one wins over the other.
1. Passion
Paid influencers will only endorse a brand or product for the monetary compensation
they get out of it. They will probably have very little brand loyalty and passion once the
payments stop. A written contract is the only way of getting them to fulfill their part of
the bargain.
Your employees, on the other hand, have a passion for what they are endorsing. For
engaged employees, the brand is not just their livelihood but also a joy. When it
succeeds, they become part of the success. It’s their genuine passion that makes them
true brand ambassadors.
2. Network
Paid influencers have big followings, and will usually have an equally large network of
other influencers they can collaborate with. Of course, their endorsement can give your
brand more visibility quickly. But the problem remains that not all influencers play the
game fairly. There are several who are able to buy followers and such bought followers
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9. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
aren’t very connected to them. Audiences are aware that the influencer’s endorsements
are advertisements, so in a way, skepticism always remains.
Employee advocates have smaller followings but these followings are more connected
and engaged. Friends and relatives are more likely to believe what they say about a
certain product than they would if they heard it from an influencer. In the long run, the
collective network of employee brand ambassadors gives the brand slow, but ever
expanding visibility.
3. Access
Gaining access to an influencer can be quite a challenge. ​Technorati​ reports that
influencers get solicited 10 times a week on average. In addition to asking huge
endorsement fees, exclusive favors are a norm when it comes to hiring an influencer.
They will also have no reason to continue endorsing the brand after the contract is over.
Employee advocates will willingly spread the word about the brand in the course of
daily interactions with family and friends. They have a stake in the brand and will keep
playing brand ambassadors as long as they are in the company, making advocate
marketing a more sustainable approach.
So there! If quick, attention-grabbing results are what you’re looking for, then a macro
influencer is probably your best bet. But, if a more sustained visibility and awareness on
social media are what you’re on the lookout for, then there’s no need to go elsewhere;
your employees will have you covered.
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10. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Benefits of Employee Advocacy
It goes without saying that the application of employee advocacy brings about benefits
for the entire organization. Although some may be obvious, others may surprise you.
1. Better Employee Engagement
Employee advocacy and employee engagement go hand in hand. By empowering and
having faith your employees, you are literally passing them the torch to light up your
brand! Engaged employees want the company to grow; they want to see it prosper.
2. Create Thought Leaders
It is important to let your employees know you are interested in their personal and
professional development. Employee advocacy can help communicate the ‘WIFME’
(What is in it for me) value proposition to your most trusted brand advocates by
providing interesting brand content for them to share on their personal and professional
pages, thereby increasing their credibility.
3. Amplify Social Reach
We may have covered this already, but the importance and benefit can’t be stressed
enough. Say you post content via your brand’s social pages regularly. You get a few
likes, comments, shares, and everything’s great! But imagine what 10X those numbers
would look like. It creates a cost-effective channel that’ll reach thousands.
In addition to these clear-cut organizational benefits, employee advocacy also offers
benefits that can elevate a brand name to new heights.
How an Airline Used Employee Advocacy to Lift Off
“If you show that you treat your employees well, and your
employees talk about it, people are going to trust them, and they are
going to trust you”
– Jamie Rutter, United Airlines.
This, from someone who’s had to deal with the first-hand experience in
dissipating the fires of bad publicity, this advice is golden.
Back in 2017, the Twittersphere was up in arms after United Airlines had a
rather unfortunate overbooking incident. The situation by all measures could
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11. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
have been handled better in a million different ways, and the fiasco that followed
was a PR nightmare for the airline giant.
So naturally, United was painted as the big bad wolf who took on a helpless
sheep. And obviously, the oaths and pledges to never fly United were rampant.
No matter what they chose to do, the company had little choice in the matter and
decided on pleading their case in a way that the social media universe would get
them.
Playing the Employee Advocacy Card
United is a large conglomerate with employees in all corners of the globe.
Boasting a 90,000 employee count – with a little of any and every function within
that number – they decided to use the full force of their employees to combat the
negative press that all the world, and their competitors as well.
Jamie Rutter, Manager/Digital Engagement & Advocacy Programs at United
Airlines, says, “Since we have such a large company, [and] people working
different shifts, in different time zones, communication is sometimes a bit of an
issue. But social media, of course, is 24/7.”
Employees who are passionate about working with you will want to have their
say to defend their brand.
All you need to do is empower them with the right platforms and content to
spread your brand message and point of view.
Why Employees?
A billboard, Facebook ad, or magazine story can’t create a meaningful discussion.
Yes, it will distribute your message, but if someone has a different opinion, how
are you going to respond with an equally valid side to the story?
According to the ​Edelman Trust Barometer​, your employees are even more trusted than
even the CEO of your company,
So if people actually value and respect the opinion of your employees even more than
your official brand page, it only makes sense to strategize that army and use it to your
advantage.
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12. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
The Way Forward
United Airlines wasn’t the only one to ward off the wrath of the Twitterati with the
power of employee advocacy.
Employee advocacy can lead big businesses to benefit internally and externally besides
of course being an invaluable PR strategy.
Be it in the marketing, recruitment, or sales sphere, choosing employee advocacy can
give you an upper hand when you need it the most.
Even with the curveball that Facebook threw at businesses and publication houses
earlier this year, employee advocacy still wins out as the more feasible option as
compared to any other sources of advertising.
Why?
Because People listen to People.
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13. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Uses of Employee Advocacy
From Sales, Marketing, Recruitment, and many others, the uses of employee advocacy
are immense. Let’s take a closer look below:
1. Improve Brand Image
Leveraging your employees as brand advocates helps increase your social reach
tremendously. This, in turn, increases brand visibility and sets you on the path to
building, or improving your brand image. Baby steps; you’ll get there.
2. Recruit Amazing Talent
Through employee advocacy, people on your employees’ personal networks are given
insights into the company’s culture and work ethics. For example, a Facebook post such
as – “Had an amazing trek to the national park with the office crowd this weekend – just
one of the reasons I love working at SocioAdvocacy!” – will probably be the deciding
factor for millennials on a job hunt.
3. Grow Your Network
Surveys reveal that employees have 10x more followers than some brand channels.
Can you fathom the number of connections that can be made? This, in turn, can help
generate brand awareness, a wider social media reach, more traffic, and increased
conversion rates.
4. Generate Leads and Increase Conversions
If an employee of the company uses a product or service and loves it, they’d be might
be tempted to share it on social media. Even if they don’t use it, they know the ins and
outs of the product or service and any talk of said product or service can influence
family and friends to make a purchase decision way more than any other mode of
advertising. It’s that simple!
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14. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Applications of Employee Advocacy to Your Brand
1. Student advocates for Universities
From relatives, friends, and juniors, existing students have access to prospective
applicants who may otherwise be difficult to reach using traditional mediums of
advertising. Student brand advocacy allows students to share posts, placement
brochures and news and updates, which leads to increased engagement and improved
recruitment numbers.
2. Guest advocates for Hospitality chains
Only a small percentage of guests actually go online to say positive things while they’re
on holiday. However, this doesn’t diminish the opportunity for guests to engage with
their hospitality chains. Offer free Wi-Fi as part of a “Post Your Opinion” promotion that
allows guest to share the hotel’s social media content as well as post their reviews on
various platforms.
3. E-commerce Seller Advocacy
Besides the Amazon’s and Flipkart’s of the world, there are several e-commerce brands
that don’t necessarily get the visibility they deserve. As such, e-commerce seller
advocacy provides sellers a custom panel that allows them to see their store and share
products from the store directly on their social networks, leading to a more controlled
promotion and increased social media reach.
4. Reseller Advocacy for Insurance companies
Insurance providers typically move door to door to generate leads. This process is tiring
and slow. Social media and brand ambassadors empower employees to share the
brand message on their personal networks. The result is an amplified conversations rate
from increased leads.
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15. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Challenges of Employee Advocacy
We’ve probably converted you to an Employee Advocacy believer by now. But before
you dive headfirst into working out your own employee advocacy program and setting a
launch date, you might want to read our take on the ​6 mistakes to avoid when
launching an employee advocacy program​.
So you see, running a brand advocacy program may sound simple, but there’s a lot that
could go wrong. Marketers should always keep in mind that each brand advocate is
unique.
In an attempt to create a uniform style of communication, marketers may
end up creating advocacy puppets that won’t bring anything fresh to the
table. Recognize your brand advocates’ likes and strengths; it will only help
you run and execute the brand advocacy program more efficiently.
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16. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Things to Remember When Implementing Employee
Advocacy
1. Quality over Quantity, EVERYTIME
Employee advocacy is an indispensable marketing technique in today’s ever competitive
business environment. Compared to the past, things are marketed very differently than
the way they were. Now, it’s all about thinking digital or going home. Yes, traditional
marketing will still float the boat, but that’s all you’ll be doing – surviving.
Several studies show that the employees within a company garner more traction with
customers than previously thought. So, a message from an employee is more trusted
than the same message from senior management, or even a dedicated sales team.
In simple terms, employee advocacy programs thrive on the opportunity by
empowering employees to speak positively about their workplace on their personal
networks in their digital voices, through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram.
Now even though the concept is strong, ensuring that your employee advocacy
program lures in more traffic and leads isn’t always a walk in the park. One thing is sure:
choosing quality over quantity wins every time.
1.a Quality of Content
Most employee advocacy programs will have a ton of content uploaded on a
daily basis. Forcing employees to share a certain percentage of said content just
to reach a goal isn’t going to cut it. Mandating employee advocacy is only going
to create puppet advocates.
Now if you gave your employees the chance to add their own views on brand
content, instead of forcing their hand, you’d probably have a better chance at
forming a connection with their personal networks.
When they go for quantity over quality, you run the risk of spamming your
employees, and subsequently their followers too, with posts that mean very little
to them. That is why it is paramount that they share only when they have
something valuable to add. Both the readers and sharers need to find the content
appealing. Personalized, high-quality content will certainly be read and shared
much more. And the more they share, the further your message gets.
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17. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
1.b Quality of Employee Advocates
One other part of the employee advocacy program that you need to keep a keen
eye on quality over quantity is the number of employees you choose to be a part
of your pilot batch. A select few socially savvy employees can do more for your
brand than a whole lot of clueless employees who can’t work their way around a
social media platform.
You want a group that knows how to leverage visual content (videos, memes,
photos, infographics, and GIFs) to create a buzz about your business.
The last thing you want is a group of employee advocates who cannot connect
with your audience on a personal level!
1.c Quality of Incentives
It’s no big secret that rewarding your employees can motivate them to
participate in your advocacy program and in an honest way too.
An employee advocacy program that chooses quantity over quality will most
likely pick monetary incentives. But if you want to kick it up a notch, you can try
quality incentives like allowing employees to take an extra day off, or paying for a
weeks’ worth of lunches.
A well thought of incentive will get your employees on social media where they’ll
soon be promoting your fantastic work culture.
2. Incentivize the Program Creatively
We’ve hopefully moved past the stage where we have to explain the value of employee
advocacy for small, medium, and large businesses alike. Let’s all just for the record state
that it’s value is absolute. By placing workers in the driver’s seat, employee advocacy
program work best if employees are inclined to do their part.
But how does one motivate employees to share brand content on their personal digital
networks?
The right kind of incentivization of employee advocacy programs can be the real game
changer and has proven to be a fantastic motivator. But, caution must be maintained, as
unregulated incentivization can actually be quite counterproductive.
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18. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
When done incorrectly, it could cause morale and performance to plummet and
unfortunately, many businesses fall victim to this common employee advocacy mistake.
By learning from experiences, here are a few fresh ways to keep brand ambassadors
motivated.
2.a Monetary Compensation
The first thing that probably comes to your mind when you think the incentive is
probably financial bonuses – a little bulge on the paycheck. Now although this is
a fantastic motivator, you might not want to become too dependent on it.
Spruce up the motivation of your employee advocates with quintessential gifts
like shopping vouchers, gift cards, and even free taxi rides back and forth to the
office. Keep in mind that this type of indirect monetary compensation will sit well
with junior-level employees, who will honestly appreciate the money.
For more senior level executives, pushing for a free upgrade on their LinkedIn
account to “Premium”. Such kind of compensation offers a touch of quality and
consideration.
2.b Winner Based Rewards
Junior-level employees might find a gift voucher or a boost of $100 on the
paycheck sizzling, but that might not do the trick for seniors. That’s why you
need to prioritize your incentives based on the employee’s rank in the company.
For the more experienced lot, consider paying for training seminars, conferences,
and workshops that the employee has been wanting to attend. This will add
more value for those who want to add to their skills.
2.c Corporate Picnics
Who doesn’t like a day off from the daily grind of the business world? Employee
advocates will definitely love the idea of having a day off to kick back and relax.
These outings can incorporate recognition speeches. Besides, corporate picnics
are networking havens.
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19. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
By offering an extra day off, a day picnic, or a day at the spa, brand ambassadors
will be incredibly motivated share your brand message.
2.d C-Level Q&A Sessions
Employees understand that moving up the corporate ladder can be an uphill task
if they don’t have adequate training.
That is why training sessions or simple one on one Q & A sessions by seniors will
be appreciated. Not only will it give them a sense of what it’s like up the
corporate ladder, but they also find a sense of belonging. These work great as a
way to promote recognition and also give employees at all levels a chance to
learn something new. This way, employee advocates have an opportunity to
network and learn the ropes at the same time.
3. Incorporate Employee UGC for Social Selling
The average employee is capable of generating tons of content for a brand on any given
day. This content is relatable and trustworthy can be harnessed to improve your brand
visibility, spruce up sales, create more traffic, and generate more leads. Although most
businesses don’t see the value in such content, several have already taken advantage
by building some fantastic campaigns merging User Generated Content (UGC) and
employee advocacy.
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20. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
What is User Generated Content?
UGC is exactly what the name says: content generated by your fans for your fans. The
scope of UGC is so vast that it can virtually cover any subject. Plus, the type of content
and the medium of distribution can vary too. It can be just about anything, from video to
blog posts to comments to images and much more. Whether the user is a customer, a
social media follower, or just a site visitor, his or her contribution can be crucial to your
brand.
How Does UGC Fit In the Inbound Marketing Cycle?
In inbound marketing, creating or overseeing content generation (graphics, video, blog
posts, etc.) is probably one of your main tasks. But, what if you empower every
employee with the chance to create the content for you? For one, it definitely takes a lot
off your plate, but more importantly, it gives you a whole new perspective. From
attracting customers to converting and closing leads and delighting promoters, UGC
plays a key role in every step of the inbound marketing cycle.
Enhanced Engagements: Research by comScore showed that UGC increased user
engagement by 28%
● Enhanced Credibility: Brand-created content is less trusted by people than
that created by fellow consumers
● Improved SEO Ranking: User-generated content can help you increase traffic
searches by more than 25%
● More Leads and Sales Conversions: A consumer is 4.6% more likely to make
a purchase after viewing user-generated content
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21. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Leveraging UGC to Drive Engagement
3.a Create Content that Engages
A user-generated campaign can draw a lot of attention to your brand, and your
employees are sure to get the ball rolling. Moreover, the engagement factor for
your employees and prospective customers with such campaigns cannot be
compared to any other. Obviously, since user participation is the key factor here.
Once you’ve got the attention of your audience, you can then generate content
that is relatable, actionable and in line with the running campaign.
3.b Improve Brand Awareness
User-generated content has tremendous potential to go viral – they can be
shared and re-shared, improving your brand awareness. The Starbucks White
Cup Challenge and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge are just a few to be named. In
fact, surveys can come in handy here. Use EverNote, Google Forms,
SurveyMonkey, and TypeForm to collect feedback and take go next level with
your brand.
3.c Leverage Reviews to Get More Leads and Sales
We’ve already established that people trust customer reviewed products way
more than those without a customer review or paid reviews from influencers.
That’s why it’s actually worth the time and effort invested in employee advocacy.
Harnessing user-generated reviews from your brand ambassadors can garner
more sales and leads.
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22. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Drawing up the Numbers: Paid Advertising or Employee
Advocacy
We’re willing to bet that any marketer worth their salt would ask one, very important
question –
What’s the difference between Employee Advocacy and Paid Marketing?
Super valid question. With global internet advertising spends going up by a whopping
42% in the last 2 years, it’s on its way to being a $330 billion dollar market by 2020,
clearly companies and those that run them see the benefit in spending their marketing
dollars here.
We may be a little biased, but we truly wanted to see which one won out over the
other. So we decided to put our money where our mouths are (figuratively, of course)
and run a little experiment.
Because what matters most at the end of the day is what gives you maximum return on
the dollars you put in.
For the purpose of the experiment, we’ll analyze costs for one month and work with a
group of 250 employees. We’re also considering –
● The clicks generated by employees
● The cost-per-click (CPC), per social network
● The cost of an employee advocacy program
We’re going to keep the formula simple –
Engagement generated from employees x CPC = Total Savings
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23. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Here goes nothing,
Twitter costs
Typically, Twitter promotion costs can range from $0.5 – $4 per engagement. We got
4451 retweets from our lot of 250 employees in one month. Punching in the numbers
considering an average cost of $2, we save -
4,451*2 = $8,902
That’s just under $9K saved on Twitter alone, and we’re nowhere close to finished.
Facebook Costs
For Facebook, we’re taking two routes. One, where we only consider Engagement
boosts and the other considering targeted click to website ads.
The former runs about $0.8 to a dollar. We’re feeling generous, so we’ll go with the
lower number.
We got about 10,368 engagements, including Likes and Shares, so that amounts to…
10,368 * 0.8 = $8,294.4
Click-to-site ads run a tad bit more expensive, with the average targeted ad running
at $3 per click. We achieved 1033 in click-to-site numbers, so that saved us –
1033 * 3 = $3099
That brings our total Facebook savings up to a massive $11,393
Costs on LinkedIn
We saved the mother of them all for the very last. LinkedIn targeted ads can run as
steep as $5 per click. For the purpose of our little experiment, we’re going to go with a
very reasonable $2.
So, considering the modest 2,498 engagements we saw on LinkedIn, we saw a
saving of–
2,498 * 2 = $4,996
So adding up, ​we saved $8,902 + $11,393 + $4,996 = $25,291
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24. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Now taking away the $749 (based on a yearly plan) you’d spend on the
SocioAdvocacy program, you’re still saving upwards of a whopping $24,000! Every
month.
That’s over a quarter of a million dollars annually.
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25. What is Employee Advocacy and Why Is It so Important?
Conclusion
In case you’re still on the fence about the effectiveness of employee advocacy, interest
in the concept increased 587% in the last year alone, as reported by IDC.
While both Paid and Advocacy marketing may have their clear benefits, identify the
method that works best for you as a brand. One that optimizes your marketing efforts,
captures the interest of your target audience and maximizes the ROI.
If you need help finding a starting point, SocioAdvocacy is a best-in-class brand
advocacy tool that simplifies the process. It makes it easy for your employee advocates
to discover and share brand content, and its touch of gamification makes it engaging for
those involved.
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