Employee advocacy and employee-generated content (EGC). Whilst it might be perceived as a bit of a buzzword, It’s been around for years, partly in thanks of the advent of platforms such as LinkedIn. It really came into it’s own when the world went remote during the pandemic and it became a global connectivity tactic (for better and for worse) for bringing the world together.
It really is possibly the best proven tactic to tap into employee networks and build credibility to attract and retain good talent. Having said that, let’s call a spade a spade, driving employee advocacy and the creation of EGC can be a daunting task. How to do it, how to convince stakeholders to do it, data to support why to do it, and who really cares!
Here's an honest look at why it’s often easier said than done. We live and breathe these conversations everyday and feel your pain. So we want to take a red hot minute to address how we hope The Martec can help you navigate the sharky waters by overcoming some of the hurdles you are likely experiencing in your journey.
Stakeholder Engagement
We know you believe in Employee Advocacy and EGC - we don’t know any Employer Brand practitioner that doesn’t! But how on earth do you persuade your stakeholders to believe too? We’ve created some pages for Talent Acquisition and Human Resources that we think might help them to believe.
We haven’t included one for Marketing as they’ve been using this strategy for donkey’s years and know it’s value - it’s even got it’s own channel now - influencer marketing. Using people, to reach more people that care about the same things as they do and share how wonderful it is - reach, engagement, scale and cost-effectiveness - tick!
AI Governance
Honestly? You don’t have a choice. AI is here and you learn to make it work with you to make your better at your job. Save time, incremental costs, agency costs, be able to pivot, be inclusive - you name it, AI supports it.
A year ago organizations were talking about how and when AI was going to come into play, now they’re talking about what. What tools, what functions, what talks, what is most efficient etc. And yes, it can be scary but it can also be incredibly exciting and liberating in moving the parameters of what an EB practitioner can achieve! Like how much time it can save you!
Authenticity vs. Control
One of the biggest challenges is finding the balance between authenticity and control.
Whilst you might aim to present the company in the best possible light, authentic employee stories can sometimes be raw and unpolished.
Allowing employees the freedom to share their true experiences means relinquishing some control over the messaging, which can be uncomfortable for organizations accustomed to tightly controlled narratives. And, let’s face cause much angst between employer brand, corporate comms, brand and marketing.
However, content shared by employees receives 8 times more engagement than content shared by brand channels (Forbes), so it’s not just us who believe it’s worth the effort.
The beauty of The Martec platform is that you can leverage the AI model to build a safe house, so to speak. That is, a custom AI model that allows your employees to share their authentic perspectives and insights, within the guardrails of your EVP and brand guidelines:
Engagement Fatigue
Once you’ve got your stakeholders over the line, you need to find and engage your advocates and, quite frankly, getting employees to actively participate in advocacy programs can be tough. Many employees may feel overburdened with their regular workload and see advocacy efforts as an additional task or tool to use.
Without genuine enthusiasm, the content can come off as forced or insincere, or it can be a s**t fight getting it off the ground altogether! Encouraging participation requires more than just mandating posts; it necessitates creating a culture where employees are genuinely excited to share their stories.
We see our customers' employees get excited when they look and sound good as advocates! Our proprietary AI asks employees/advocates questions that are relevant to them - their career stage, their function, their expertise and more, so that they feel like they are doing something for themselves. Because let’s face it, otherwise you’re just asking them to do it for you and then what’s in it for them?
However, that in itself tends to be the issue as there isn’t a hope in hell of you being able to know what questions to ask every talent segment in your organization - you’re an expert in talent attraction, not necessarily cyber security!
Thankfully, The Martec’s Topic & Questioning Engine (powered by our Audience Research) is definitely smarter than a 5th grader and does all that hard work for you.
The platform will ask the smart questions for you depending on the story you want to create. Leadership, early career, culture, DE&I - it doesn’t matter! The inbuilt workflows will create trending topics, with relevant questions that you don’t need to know anything about, that your employees will love answering!
Creating a content culture
Let’s face it, we love the idea of creating valuable content to drive talent attraction, but oftentimes it’s pushed to the bottom of the pile. Which is frustrating, as job seekers are 3 times more likely to trust company information shared by employees than by the CEO (Edelman Trust Barometer)!
So, engage someone in your leadership who is already active on LinkedIn for example, to carve the way by creating their own EGC that’s easy for you to collaborate with them on, and create a top-down, bottom-up approach simultaneously with a few good leaders and a few good advocates at once.
You don’t need to boil the ocean straight away, start small, prove value and get the business comfortable with how easy and impactful the process is.
Measuring Impact
Quantifying the impact of employee advocacy and EGC can be challenging. Unlike traditional marketing metrics, the benefits of employee-generated content are often more qualitative, such as increased trust, improved company culture, and enhanced employee engagement. Identifying the right KPIs and proving ROI to stakeholders requires a nuanced understanding of both marketing and human resources.
Regardless, a survey by Hootsuite found that organizations with active employee advocacy programs saw a 24% increase in the volume of job applications. Not to be sneezed at.
Our Customer Strategy team will work with you on your key goals to set out what success metrics you can measure both on and off platform. Our view is to be clear about what you have to achieve and measure the steps involved to get there!
Diverse Voices
Every employee’s experience is unique, and it’s essential to capture this diversity to truly reflect the company’s culture and attract talent beyond the usual suspects.
However, this also means managing a wide range of perspectives, some of which might not always align perfectly with the desired brand image. Let alone trying to find diversity of voices amongst a sea of employees who often yell the loudest (you know exactly what we mean).
Navigating these diverse narratives while ensuring the overarching brand message remains coherent and positive can be overwhelming. The Martec’s People Intelligence enables you to a) bring all your employees into one space and b) find, engage and elevate people you wouldn’t otherwise be able to leverage!
Training and Support
Not every employee is a natural storyteller or content creator. Providing the necessary training and resources can be a significant investment which often requires time, effort, and often, a shift in organisational priorities.
Luckily for you, The Martec has some of the smartest content strategists you could hope to work with, to help our clients all over the world. They are multilingual, and speak employer brand too, bringing a little bit of magic to your world and extending your team a bit.
Aligning with Broader Business Goals
Ensuring that the content shared by employees supports overall business objectives without feeling contrived or forced can be a delicate balancing act. This alignment often requires close collaboration between different departments, including HR, marketing, and leadership which is usually a headache across email, spreadsheets, slack, Google drive etc. So you just don’t bother which leaves you at square one again.
That’s why our content planner comes in so very, very handy. Being able to share the love of how you’re able to support your stakeholders most pressing objectives in real time will mean less wasted time creating content that is outdated in a week! And far easier to prove the impact of your efforts in a collaborative and ongoing way.
