I work in marketing and I love running
Some of my best ideas come when I’m pounding the streets letting my mind wander
Today’s idea about “Employee Advocacy ::: Like A Relay, It’s A Team Effort” came when I was running in the glorious sunshine that has engulfed the UK ahead of tomorrow’s heatwave
You might want to read my other running / business blogs right after this one
Social Media Personal Trainer – Why A Small Business Needs One?
As today’s blog is about Employee Advocacy, it makes sense to remind people what Employee Advocacy actually is
Sprout Social state it’s “Employee advocacy is the promotion of an organization by its staff members”
It’s one of the areas we focus on every week helping organisations and particularly employees to get more active on social media and actually promote the organisation / business
Let’s dive into all things Employee Advocacy, Relays and flesh out what we actually mean
1. You can’t just rely on one person
90% of the businesses we train on LinkedIn has one superstar on social media
One person who understands the power of social media and lives and breathes the brand
They often have anywhere from half a dozen employees to 50+ that hardly ever touch social media. These people don’t touch it for various reasons, but often down to lack of understanding, lack of confidence or lack of ideas.
Now I want you think of your business vs your nearest competitors’ business
All other things being in equal ,the business that is more visible and more effective in promotion is going to be the one that wins long term. And visibility is helped by more than one person being active on the platform. It’s a team effort
It’s exactly the same with a relay. It’s pretty hard to win a relay with one superstar runner and 3 other people who are hardly moving.
Employee Advocacy is spreading the risk and not relying on just one person to promote your brand because the promotion is spread equally. If it’s in the companies culture and DNA and one person leaves the business, you still have the visibility and promotion in place
Question to ask: If you number 1 sales person / promoter left how would your business be impacted over the next 12 months?
2. Everyone Needs To Know Their Role
Think about all the roles in your organisation
MD; Heads Of Department; Sales; Marketing; Admin Teams, Customer Service
In terms of employee advocacy everybody needs to know their role and their key part in the process
They need to understand why they are doing what they’re doing and how it makes an impact
They have to know how what they’re doing supports others in the organisation
It isn’t just barking an order that “We need to be more active on social”
Think about a relay team – they all have a specific role and they know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and are positioned in the team accordingly
Question To Ask: What are your teams strengths and weaknesses and how can they be used to your advantage?
3. Consistency
It’s rare I deliver a training session without mentioning the word consistency more than once
It tends to flow out of the mouth with such ease
Consistency is an important part of social media
It’s not about getting everyone on board because of the big product launch next month and then everyone drops off the radar until next year
It’s not just about training a team once and then never mentioning social media in team meetings ever again
Now when it comes to a relay team, they’ll all train as individuals and as part of a team throughout the year
They’ll turn up and train during heatwaves, rain and snow
They’ll keep in touch, motivate and support each other
Question To Ask: When was the last time social media was mentioned in a team meeting as a key agenda point?
4. Personal Development Plans
Group workshops are fantastic for so many organisations in terms of social media training
Everybody has the same training
Everybody gets a chance to ask questions
Everybody is on the same page
But there’s the stage after that that so many organisations don’t do and it’s personal development plans for each member of the team
Individuals may need extra support with certain areas of social media be it the technical aspects, the idea generation or analytics
When it comes to the relay different members of the team will have different training plans to support the group’s overall goals
Sometimes it will be endurance, sometimes it will be speed, sometimes it will be hill work etc
Question To Ask: Have you asked your employees which area of social media they need to support on, to help improve their efforts?
5. Analysis
Train – Action – Analysis – Adapt
I’m a big fan of measuring what you’re doing in terms of social media
I’m also a realist as well and always tell people social media isn’t an instant win
After a social media training session don’t expect immediate results and complain that social media doesn’t work if you don’t get extra sales in 24/48 hours or even 7 days
Start to measure the impact of what happens 30 days / 90 days / 180 days / 365 days after your team are consistently posting on social media
The actions of many deliver a compounding effect where results multiply
Now what happens in a relay race where every single relay race for a year each runner shaves 2 seconds off their part of a relay
They’ve achieved that because of Train – Action – Analysis – Adapt
12 races later you could go from being the last on the field to finishing with a world record
Question To Ask: What are the small improvements you could make right now that long term could lead to big wins?
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Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
