How To Turn Your Employees Into Your Top Social Media Advocates
Almost every business today is on social media. Whether you’ve opted for a Facebook or LinkedIn company page, are active on Twitter or even post videos on YouTube, you’ve most likely bought into the need to have an online presence.
But have you considered how a social media strategy that includes online employee advocacy can drastically impact your brand?
Research shows that employees are the most powerful advocates a company has, and should be invited into the process of raising brand awareness. Let’s look at L’Oreal as a recent case study. Their digital marketing team implemented the use of the hashtag #LifeatLoreal in an effort to familiarize corporate with local level employees by documenting interesting or humorous happenings at the office.
The benefits went beyond expectation – employees generated interest among their personal networks in employment with the company and along with another similar hashtag campaign, it increased L’Oreal’s unique Instagram impressions to 200,000.
Other examples of companies doing social media employee advocacy programs well are Starbucks, who brought in $180,000 in direct sales in less than a month with their Tweet-a-Coffee campaign, and Zappos, who offer special social media training to their employees and have a leaderboard to show which employees have the most followers.
Think about it this way, when your social media manager shares content on your company channels, your reach (how many people see your post) is limited to your followers. When your employees start to actively share, your reach is then increased to their networks as well. This can quickly add up to more impressions and ultimately – conversions.
In fact, leads generated through employee advocacy on social media convert seven times more frequently than any other leads.
Convinced yet? Here’s where to start.
Create an Engaging Company Culture
Employees need to believe in what they’re selling. Social media advocacy programs should be voluntary, and to attract the most possible employee brand ambassadors, you need to create a culture of trust and authenticity. Be real with your employees about why you need them and how their advocacy makes an impact on achieving important sales or marketing objectives. If employees enjoy where they work, feel appreciated and understand their value, they will willingly share your content with their personal following.
Develop a Social Media Policy and Explain How It Works
Too often companies resort to the negative when implementing social media policies at work. Instead of focusing so much on what can’t be said on social media, highlight the positive ways sharing appropriate content can have an invaluable impact on growing and engaging new audiences. Help employees who aren’t tech-saavy by outlining liking, sharing and commenting etiquette and if necessary, provide periodic, pre-drafted copy for them to include when sharing. Of course the best shares are organic as employees get excited about a new service, special campaign or company outreach event. Give them the freedom to share their own content as well as what you make available.
Start Small With Sharing
Implementing a social media advocacy program doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start small with your initiatives. If you already post regular content on your blog and to your company social media channels, ask employees to share these on their personal accounts. For special campaigns, consider creating some extra Tweet copy and emailing these to your staff as options for sharing. Make it fun! Send email reminders when new blogs are posted and or create a hashtag specifically for your next company event or retreat that employees can use when they share photos.
Set Goals and Track Your Results
As an employer or manager, you need to know what’s working and what isn’t. Set reasonable goals. What do you want to get out of an employee advocacy initiative? Do you want to promote a certain product or service? Are you looking to expand brand awareness and turn leads into new clients from a previously untapped audience? Understand what you want employees to share about first. Then, identify key metrics that you will use to track the results. Examples of top metrics to follow are traffic driven to the website from social media, increased post reach, increase in sales, employee conversions from passive to brand advocate, a change in your customer base’s perception of your brand and any demographic change in customers.
Share Your Success
Finally, share your success with the people who made it happen! Did you meet a sales goal because of increased employee advocacy? Did you hit record high website traffic? Tell your employees. It’s important that employees see the impact of their advocacy, understand their role and contribution to the brand and that they also understand what works and what doesn’t. Top influencers should also be rewarded. Always recognize the people who are doing an awesome job at representing your company in front of their peers. Not only does this inspire further action, it brings you full circle by contributing to an engaging company culture.
Want to learn more about engaging your employees as social media advocates? Set up a call with our team!
By Kate McGaughey
New Website Launched for Synergy Solutions Group of Virginia
Here is our latest website redesign, just launched for Synergy Solutions Group of Virginia.
The new SSG website was recently launched with rotating home page images creating a professional, modern feel that is easy to navigate. The site is mobile-responsive, clean and concise, and provides a one-stop resource for potential and current clients.
Visit the new SSG site at http://synergysolutionsgroupofvirginia.com/.
4 Easy Ways to Get More Out of LinkedIn | Employee Benefits Technology
As employee benefit agencies, we know it can be hard to figure out the best way to leverage social media for your company, so we’ve made it easy. Follow these four steps to get more out of LinkedIn today!
Want to learn more? Go in depth with our post 5 Ways to Optimize LinkedIn for Your Benefit Agency.
New Website Launched for Beacon Advisors Group
Here is our latest website redesign, just launched for Beacon Advisors Group.
The new Beacon website was recently launched with an iconic home page image creating a local, modern feel that is easy to navigate. The site is mobile-responsive, clean and concise, and provides a one-stop resource for potential and current clients.
Visit the new Beacon site at http://beaconadvisorsgroup.com/.
New Website Launched for Strategic Services Group
Here is our latest website redesign, just launched for Strategic Services Group.
The new SSG website was recently launched with iconic home page images creating a local, modern feel that is easy to navigate. The site is mobile-responsive, clean and concise, and provides a one-stop resource for potential and current clients.
Visit the new SSG site at http://strategicservicesgroup.org.
Employee Spotlight: Rachel Hartke
Rachel Hartke joined our team last Fall as our newest Benefit Technology Specialist! We’ve asked her a few fun questions to get to know her a little better:
Q: What is your title at eTekhnos?
A. I am a Benefit Technology Specialist. I build Employee Navigator sites for clients.
Q: Do you volunteer?
A. I volunteer at my children’s elementary school. I get to spend a little time in the classroom and make copies, organize items for future projects, sharpen pencils, help out in the library and plan class parties.
Q: Any favorite line from a movie?
A. “No one puts baby in the corner” from Dirty Dancing. And I love that movie to this day – 30 years later. I use that quote almost on a daily basis because there always seems to be the right opportunity!
Q: If you could meet anyone in the world dead or alive who would it be and why?
A. Princess Diana. She was an amazing person with a big heart. She was just beautiful inside and out. I have looked up to her since I was a little girl. She has was such a great role model in so many ways.
Q: What is something people may not know about you?
A. I was on the talk show Jerry Springer when I was in college (just the audience but for some reason the camera would ALWAYS pan on me. I had family members and friends from all over calling me and saying they saw me on TV).
Something else people might not know about me, that is, if you have never heard me talk, is I am definitely from Chicago. My husband and I were both born and raised in the Chicago suburbs and moved here to Texas about 3 years ago. I love the weather. A pool definitely helps!
How to Write an Engaging About Page for Your Website
Does your About page grab potential clients’ attention or does it leave them yawning? We’re sharing tips on tone, content and format for creating an engaging About page that will make people want to work with your agency today!
Tone
When a potential client reads your About page they should feel like they are meeting you face-to-face for the first time. You have the chance to make a good impression by adopting a conversational and human tone while still communicating what makes your services unique and superior. An easy way to do this is embrace the use of “I” and “we” rather than writing from a formal, third person perspective. Your tone should be authentic and relatable while remaining professional.
Content
What should you talk about? Focus on telling your story with simplicity rather than filling an About page with industry jargon or fluffy descriptions. People want to know where you came from, what you can do for them and why you are a credible choice. Show that you understand your potential client’s challenges and use examples of things you’ve done in the past to let them know you can solve their problems.
Finally, always include a call to action. What do you want them to do next? Your goal with your About page should be to motivate potential clients to contact you about your services. Place contact information visibly on the page. Include several ways to get in touch including a contact form, email, phone number and physical address.
Format
Your About page offers a glimpse into who you are as a company – your history, the principles by which you do business and the people who make up your team. It is your first chance to establish trust with a client by showing who the people behind the brand are. Don’t be afraid to move away from the traditional corporate About page format and get a little creative with what makes your company unique. Include images of your team that put a face to the name. We like what Brio Benefits has done to showcase their team by incorporating a corporate portrait and a funny, personable candid photo along with each employee bio. To view their About page, click here.
Think your About page needs a revamp? Contact us today and we’ll get you started!
New Website Launched for EBS
Here is our latest website redesign, just launched for EBS.
The new EBS website was recently launched with a single long-page design for a clean, modern feel that is easy to navigate. The site is mobile-responsive, clean and concise, and provides a one-stop resource for potential and current clients.
Visit the new EBS site at http://selectebs.com.
5 Ways to Optimize LinkedIn for Your Benefit Agency
Photo by Sebastiaan ter Burg
LinkedIn is fast proving to be the foremost social media site for B2B marketing. Employee benefit agencies that rely on cultivating relationships in order to market a product or service may find utilizing more fast-moving social platforms like Twitter or Instagram challenging, but LinkedIn provides a space for professionals to interact with one another, share original industry content and create brand awareness for their company that results in leads and network growth. We’ve put together a list of five simple ways you can start optimizing LinkedIn for your business today:
- Create a Personal Profile
Even if you don’t plan on doing much posting of your own on a personal profile, this step is imperative because right now LinkedIn requires that you have a personal account in order to make a company page. Your profile should contain a professional photo of yourself, your name, job title and ideally your work and educational experience as well as any relevant accomplishments or projects.
- Set Up a Company Page
Now that you’ve created your personal page, you are able to set up a page that specifically provides information about your company to LinkedIn users. This page should contain your company name, logo, a link to your website, and a short description of your business that includes relevant keywords that are specific to what you do. Keywords can be in the form of phrases such as “Maryland insurance broker” but should shy away from staying as vague as “insurance company.” This helps your page receive a higher ranking in search engine results. Finally, ask employees who have personal LinkedIn profiles to list your company in their work experience, helping ensure that you can be found easily when people search for your business.
- Share Quality Content
Sharing content ensures more opportunity for people to visit your company page and then hopefully website to follow up! Posts can be a mix of your original content and outside articles, videos or podcasts that are relevant to your industry. Recent studies show that the best time to post on LinkedIn is Tuesday through Thursday between 7-9am, noon and between 5-6pm. In addition, data revealed that posts made on Tuesday between 10-11am have the most clicks and shares. For best engagement results, companies should make it a priority to post on their LinkedIn page once a week, but no more than once a day.
- Join or Create a Group
LinkedIn Groups provide a place for professionals to connect with peers working in their field or with similar interests where they can share helpful content, reviews, ask questions, post job openings and make new connections. You are able to either search for groups to join or create your own group based on your topic of choice where you can invite people to become members. These groups are useful for connecting with prospects and establishing your company as an industry expert.
- Make Personal Connections
By utilizing not only your company page but also your personal profile, you can enrich your business’s success by connecting with prospects and clients. Start slow by inviting 3-5 people to connect with you per week. Follow up with a thank you message and a quick introduction when they accept your invitation. Did you write a blog for your company or on an industry topic? Post it to you profile. As you continue to share content, consider submitting it to LinkedIn Pulse’s editors to have your blog post featured. This translates to much more visibility for your company! Finally, don’t be afraid to engage with others. If you see content you like, write a comment or send a quick message to the author. Other LinkedIn members are interested in the same thing you are – building mutually beneficial relationships!
Generating brand awareness for your company on social media is becoming more and more important in our highly digitalized economy. LinkedIn offers the perfect space for your company using a B2B marketing model that is based largely on relationships to thrive and establish yourself as an industry expert while expanding your network of prospects and future business connections.
New Website Launched for 247 Telamed
Here is our latest website design, just launched for benefit technology vendor 247 Telamed.
The 247 Telamed website was recently launched with simple, clean design and embedded videos, contact forms, and admin portal login. The site is mobile-responsive, easy to navigate, clean and concise, providing a one-stop resource for potential and current clients.
Visit the new 247 Telamed site at http://247telamed.com.
