And if you’re not doing all you can to support your employees with their LinkedIn presence, you’re missing a big opportunity.
Before founding Social with Ryan, employee advocacy is something I worked on for three years while I was social media manager for law firm Shoosmiths.
That programme I led saw the firm sit in the top 10 UK firms for % of employees that are active on LinkedIn.
You can read about how I run employee advocacy in this case study.
It’s DSMN8 – The Employee Advocacy and Influence Platform who pull that data together.
And I was sent a book by DSMN8 founder Bradley Keenan (thank you, Bradley!).
Bradley’s book includes 101 cheat codes for employee advocacy.
I’ve picked out three ideas from the book that resonated with me instantly.
➞ Employee advocacy does work in regulated industries
Yes, it does! But your strategy and approach may need adjusting to make it work.
In the legal profession, I found writing suggested posts, designing visuals, and sending them directly to people for them to post, worked well.
In other, less regulated industries, people may wish to write their own posts.
➞ Good things come to those who wait, so be patient
This is true for advocacy but also for social media in general.
It’s a long game!
The customer journey is never: See social media post > buy product/service.
Invest in social media, maintain consistency, and results will come over time. Trust me.
➞ Monitor advocacy performance v company socials
Shoosmiths’ LinkedIn page grew from 22,000 followers to 47,000+ in the three years that I managed it.
There’s no doubt that employee advocacy had a huge contribution to growing the LinkedIn company page.
Social media employee advocacy: FAQs
What is employee advocacy in social media?
Social media employee advocacy is when employees share and promote their employer’s content and brand on their personal social media profiles, particularly LinkedIn. It amplifies reach far beyond what a company page alone can achieve.
Does employee advocacy work in regulated industries?
Yes. In sectors like law or finance, the approach needs adapting – pre-written suggested posts, approved visuals and clear guidelines tend to work well. The key is making it easy for employees to participate without risk.
How do you measure employee advocacy success?
Track metrics including number of active employees posting, total post reach from employee activity, and company page follower growth. Compare these against your company page stats to understand the relative impact.
Grab Bradley’s book, make employee advocacy part of your overall social media strategy, and you’ll be onto a winner.
