One of the most powerful brand marketing techniques is employee advocacy, where the people who do the work to make a company what it is extolled its virtues, often through social media. It's a powerful tool because it leverages the people that do what it is the company does, rather than some uber-obvious paid spokesperson or executive that no one believes.

Employee Advocacy Examples

Anyone will say anything for C-suite money, and everyone knows it. Not that people can't earnestly believe in a company and its mission, of course, but when someone is getting paid more than 90 percent of the population...it's hard to take what they say as gospel in that regard. How does it work? Let's have a look at these 5 examples of powerful employee advocacy in action.

Cisco Uses Social Selling For 8X The Engagement

Social selling is the use of social media to sell products or services or to sell consumers on a brand. Cisco leverages social selling and employee advocacy by having employees post on social media. Cisco is one of the largest brands of consumer electronics and software support, and also one of the major players in business software and technology. They found over the years that their B2B and B2C customers trusted traditional marketing materials and messages from leadership a whole lot less than they thought they did. They also found a lower engagement rate with social media posts. So they integrated their employees into their social media strategy. Cisco found that employee posts have 8 TIMES the engagement rate as typical corporate messages.

EA Insiders Changes - Pardon The Pun - The Game

One of the best examples of employee advocacy in action is EA Insiders, the social media brand that was launched by, for and comprised only of Electronic Arts employees. These guys make some of the most popular video games in existence; if you or someone you know is a gamer, they probably play an EA game. The "Madden" game that all the sports fans talk about and curses NFL players? EA. The company knew a change in corporate culture was needed. They knew players had to come first - that's who buys their product! - and since their workforce was shot through with them, they created channels for the people who make the games, to begin with, to communicate to the gaming public. EA Insiders have multiple channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube reaching thousands of consumers in the process. The program was launched in 2013, and the effects were such that CNET labeled them "no longer the worst company in America" by 2015, a dubious honor EA had "won" in voting on The Consumerist for three years running. People hated EA more than Bank of America, and that was only a few years after the housing market crash. In two years, their minds were changed. You can't buy better PR than that. The worst company in America after EA was no longer wearing the crown of shame, according to Consumerist voters? Comcast. Hopefully, your internet doesn't go out while reading this.

Kelly Services Goes Social To Amp Up Recruiting

Kelly Services is a nationwide staffing and recruiting agency. They place a lot of people in a diverse array of fields, everything from laborers to welders to general office staff to accountants. You name it, they get people to it. But they knew they needed to do better in the 21st Century. According to this case study - it's a PDF - they hired the Altimeter Group for a hard look at their social media strategy. What they found was a company behind the times. You see, about 3 percent of a company's posts on LinkedIn are usually from employees rather than run-of-the-mill corporate messages, brand ambassadors or executives. However, that 3 percent of posting accounts for about 30 percent of engagement. So, Altimeter recommended Kelly Services start using employee advocacy on social media channels. What did they get? A 1,000 PERCENT increase in social reach and a 1,150 percent increase in web traffic from social sources. If that isn't a win in social selling...no one knows what is.

United Airlines Uses Horrible Incident To Adopt Employee Advocacy

We all probably remember the 2017 incident where a man was bumped from a United Airlines flight, and he was unfortunately injured when airport police had to remove him from the plane. There were a number of reasons for it, and most were actually valid - airlines have to have personnel available to keep flights going and sometimes passengers have to be bumped if a flight crew calls in sick - but the public being the public, the initial perception is all they care about. What did they do? The CEO issued a statement. And it went horribly; no one was convinced. So he issued another one, and no one bought that one either. In response, they started an employee advocacy program, where actual United Airlines personnel post to the public, according to WARC. This put them in a much better position to get their message heard and for any PR disasters to be tempered by the reality of running an airline, the intricacies and challenges of which are usually totally lost on the average person. It's an example of a company that awakens to the importance of social selling and social media. They got the message that you need to be better connected to customers. Unfortunately, they didn't need ALL the lessons. Some people just have to learn the hard way.

Starbucks Is Brewing Up Some Powerful Employee Advocacy

You might think Starbucks is content to rest on their laurels as the leader in lattes, the monster of mochas and macchiatos, the epitome of espresso purveyors. But they aren't. In fact, they are a leading example of a company that uses employee advocacy to broadcast their brand messages. In 2008, Starbucks was faced with flagging sales and the prospect of being a victim of a recession-related mauling. Instead of accepting their supposed fate, the company decided to start engaging with consumers directly by leveraging their employees - whom Starbucks calls "partners" - on social media. They speak with consumers, talk about life at Starbucks stores, and get customers and followers engaged in polls, contests and other initiatives.

The results?

36 million "likes" on Fastbook as of 2015, according to Fast Company. 10 million Twitter followers. Their "Tweet A Coffee" initiative, which got people to buy $5 gift cards over Twitter, resulted in almost $200,000 in revenue, with nearly 37,000 gift cards being bought by 27,000 users in October 2013 alone, according to Keyhole. As you can see, Starbucks is a master of employee advocacy. Such is the power of harnessing your company's greatest asset, your employees, to connect with your audience on social media.