What’s next for this ever-expanding concept?
By now, you’ve probably heard about employee advocacy. In the most basic sense, it’s when companies give their employees social media content to disseminate on their accounts in the hopes the messages will resonate with and reach new audiences. But there’s so much more to the concept, and it’s ever-evolving. Let’s go beyond the buzzword and look toward the future of employee advocacy.
Here are some trends and predictions to watch as you move and grow with the changing social media landscape. It’s time to meet employee advocacy’s cool little sister—she’s the future face of the concept!
More than just your message
Early efforts and employee advocacy have shown us that clients and prospects respond well to personal messages they receive from actual workers they follow on social media. The authentic nature of human-to-human interaction, as opposed to business-to-human interaction, helps establish meaningful relationships and a sense of connection. Traditionally, these messages are crafted by a marketing department following tone and style guidelines. Then, an employee is free to re-post pre-approved content to their platforms. Maybe it’s time to loosen the reins a little bit and let your employees post content within the realm of their expertise while still linking it back to your company. Having a clear social media policy can allow for this kind of freedom while still adhering to your marketing guidelines.
This freedom empowers employees to build their brand and bolster yours in creative ways the marketing department might not think of. Their unique messages can also reach untapped audiences. Move beyond making team members act as mouthpieces and encourage customized (within reason) posts. You’ll get increasingly genuine content that consumers can better connect with. People can tell and feel the difference between a corporate missive and a heartfelt message crafted by your employees.
Embrace AI
Tools like chatGPT are here to stay. While they’ll never replace real and thoughtful writing, AI tools help generate content ideas, catchy hooks, and sparking inspiration. Learn how to use AI to its full potential—research and resources are available online to coach your team on what prompts to use or the best information to feed AI for favorable outcomes. Remain authentic and unique by harnessing AI as a jumping-off point. From there, content creators can craft their posts and develop their voices. It’s quite apparent when a post is entirely AI-generated, so continue to encourage inspired thinking. ChatGPT is creativity, not a crutch.
Employee-generated content
All your advocates are unique in how they want to communicate their messages and build their brands. That’s the beauty of employee advocacy—it can be tailored to an endless amount of platforms. Whether team members want to write blogs, snap photos, create Instagram Reels, or post to TikTok, let them! Offering fun training opportunities like writing workshops, photography walks, or photo editing classes can help them tap into their passions and up the quality of their content.
That doesn’t mean everything has to be perfect and shiny, though. Part of the charm of employee-generated content is that it’s real. Opt for feeling and authenticity over the perfect product to make these creative pursuits low-pressure and appealing to the consumer.
Enter the new era
Employee advocacy and influence are likely to stick around for now, but social media changes so quickly. Change with it! Ghostit can help you create a comprehensive plan for implementing EA programs, and we always have our ear to the ground on what’s next. Get in touch with our team today!
