LinkedIn is the first social platform that pops up in conversations about networking, customer relationships, thought leadership, and jobs. Over the years, LinkedIn has become the go-to platform for both industry leaders and job hunters to find leads and discover talent.
And employee advocacy through LinkedIn is the easiest, most effective way to do this. It simply works because people are more likely to buy from actual humans on a social platform than from companies they don’t know much about. This fact makes LinkedIn employee advocacy one of the best marketing tactics for your business.
Although using the power of employees brings monumental results, executing it effectively is certainly not easy. A lot has to go right to benefit from the increased brand awareness, higher sales leads, and top talent.
Read on to learn how to execute not just any advocacy program but one that brings tangible results.
What is LinkedIn Employee Advocacy?
LinkedIn employee advocacy is the practice of encouraging your employees to share value-driven, quality content in their LinkedIn networks. Your employee networks, on average, have 10x more connections than you have followers as a company.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, people are three times more likely to share something that is shared by a company employee than by the CEO. Even an analysis of LinkedIn network activity revealed that the click-through rate on content increases twice when shared by an employee versus when shared directly by the company.
Among the perks of an employee advocacy program on LinkedIn, the biggest ones are:
- Increased brand visibility as a result of higher organic reach to personal networks
- Higher levels of trust emerge from authentic and relatable content shared by real people
- More engagement opportunities from potential clients or partners
- Boosted employee engagement resulting in a deeper connection to the company’s mission and higher morale
- Positioning the company and its team as thought leaders
Steps to Launch a LinkedIn Employee Advocacy Program that Brings Results
It takes a lot of careful planning, execution, and monitoring to ensure that your advocacy program on LinkedIn brings positive outcomes. Follow these steps to implement a successful program:
1. Define clear objectives
Start by identifying what you want to achieve through the advocacy program. Some of the common goals include:
- Expanding your brand’s reach through employees’ networks.
- Directing more visitors to your website
- Identifying and nurturing potential clients.
- Encouraging employees to become brand ambassadors.
Clear, measurable goals will help align the program with business needs and allow you to track its success over time.
2. Optimize the company's LinkedIn profile
If you want to encourage employees to share more on LinkedIn, your company page also needs to make a great impression since they’re linked to it. After all, employee-shared content drives extra company page views, attracts new followers, and generates more interest in your careers page.
Here are a few easy updates you can apply right now:
- Review your branding: Your profile picture and cover photo should both be current and visually engaging
- Highlight achievements: Showcase company awards, milestones, or industry recognition to build credibility and attract more attention
- Complete your profile: A fully filled-out profile is a must—an incomplete one may look unprofessional
- Stay active with recent content: Keep your page active with recent posts, and take the time to engage with posts from your employees to show your support
- Post updated job listings: With LinkedIn hiring at a pace of 8 hires per minute, make sure your job listings are fresh and remove any outdated positions
Even these small changes quickly enhance your presence and help you stand out on LinkedIn.
3. Bring your key advocates together
Advocacy is all about teamwork, and team collaboration has a big role in the success of your program.
Start by determining which stakeholders need to be involved at a minimum and who can contribute the most to the effort. Here are some to consider:
Project Leads
While an advocacy program thrives on collaboration, there must be someone to take ownership and ensure everything runs smoothly. The project leads will handle responsibilities such as:
- Selecting content for employees to share
- Writing or approving copy for that content
- Distributing internal newsletters with ready-to-share posts
- Offering training and onboarding for employees
- Tracking performance metrics and reporting results
Assign a project lead, and identify advocates within each department who can help with data collection, content curation, or simply encouraging their teams to share pre-prepared content.
In-House Influencers
When you think of influencers, those with mega-follower counts often come to mind, but you likely have influencers within your company—your socially active employees.
Look for team members who are already engaged on social platforms or have a large LinkedIn network. Once identified, introduce your advocacy program to them.
Tools like Highperformr come in handy here. Highperformr’s social media analysis tools automatically identify the employees with the most followers on LinkedIn, and other sites.
Starting your program with a small, eager group lets you refine your process before rolling it out company-wide. Over time, you will spot more top performers by tracking who consistently shares the most advocacy content.
4. Create quality content that stands out
From quick shares to long-form storytelling, there’s no shortage of ways to post on LinkedIn—but that variety is overwhelming.
Even employees with the best intentions get stuck in analysis paralysis, unsure of what to share. The fix? Equip them with ready-to-use content, saved videos and pre-written copy to take the pressure off. This makes posting easier and ensures your brand messaging stays consistent.
Think about the kinds of posts your employees are likely to share. Employee achievements, team celebrations, or valuable industry insights are always a hit. People love sharing personal milestones and useful information, which has the added bonus of enhancing your company’s image.
Having great content is one thing, but you also need a system to easily distribute it. Highperformr’s employee advocacy suite simplifies this by providing a central location where employees can access ready-to-publish content.
Even with the best content team in the world, consistently putting out high-quality content to all your internal teams is time-consuming. Highperfomr uses AI and automation to write, schedule, and share quality content across multiple social channels.
5. Train your employees properly
Sucessful employee advocacy feels easy and effortless.
Whether you offer live training sessions, recorded webinars, written guides, or a mix of all three, these are the things that should be made absolutely clear:
- What not to post: If your advocacy program allows employees to share their own content, this is especially important. Make sure to provide clear guidelines on brand language, values, and a list of dos and don’ts
- What to post: Give employees direction on what type of thought leadership, insights, or resources align with the company’s goals.
- Social media writing tips: Train participants on using hashtags effectively, crafting engaging LinkedIn posts, best practices for emoji use, and other social media writing tips.
- How to use the advocacy tools: If you’re using an employee advocacy platform like Highperformr, train both admins—who will manage and approve content—and employees on how to access and post content directly from the tool.
6. Implement an internal promotion plan
Just like with any social media campaign, you can’t rely on a single announcement to get the word out.
When launching your employee advocacy program, promote it across multiple channels like email, internal newsletters, team messaging apps, and even during company meetings.
To keep the momentum going, establish a regular schedule for internal promotion. Consider:
- Sending out a recurring newsletter filled with ready-to-share content and copy
- Posting reminders in Slack or Teams when new content is available
- Sharing leaderboard updates to recognize top advocates
- Providing updates on how employees' advocacy efforts are benefiting the business
A consistent promotion plan keeps advocacy at the forefront and encourages ongoing engagement from your team.
7. Gather support from higher ups and management
Having leadership buy-in is a big advantage for securing resources, but it can also boost your advocacy program in a unique way. While employees play a crucial role in building trust, hearing directly from top executives, like your CEO, can significantly increase brand credibility. In fact, 70% of consumers feel more connected to brands when the CEO is active on social media.
Encourage your leadership team to contribute by creating posts or content that employees can share with their own networks.
Not everything shared by employees has to link back to a blog or video. You can also provide pre-written posts that they can personalize and share with their own insights. If you’re using a tool like Highperfomr’s Employee Advocacy platform, you can easily share executive-generated for employees to repost.
8. Continuously monitor your advocacy efforts
After launching your program, you also need to revisit your goals and assess progress. Are you on track? Does your strategy need tweaking?
Also, review the performance of the advocacy program itself, knowing that it won’t be perfect right out of the gate. Gather feedback from employees, analyze performance data, and consult with key stakeholders to figure out what’s working and where adjustments are needed.
Remember to keep employees in the loop. Share updates on the program’s success and highlight how their efforts have contributed to boosting your company’s LinkedIn presence and achieving business goals.
9. Lead by example
Don’t just talk the talk—walk the walk!
As a leader, you are expected to set the example. It not only encourages participation but gives you firsthand experience with your advocacy tool, helps you shape your strategy, and refines your process.
By being an active participant, you’ll gain valuable insights while also inspiring your employees to engage.
Let Your Team be the Voice of Your Brand with LinkedIn Employee Advocacy
And that’s a wrap! We’ve covered a lot of things–from content publishing to tracking employee engagement. For the best employee advocacy program outcomes, you and your employees need to use a dedicated employee advocacy program.
Highperfomr’s employee advocacy tool simplifies each phase of your strategy—from curating and distributing content to evaluating your outcomes. It facilitates employee participation, eases the initiation process, and helps you save on advertising costs.
