Get started with Social Media Advocacy

What is Social Media Advocacy?

Social media advocacy means leveraging the social networks of the people who like you and/or are invested in your continued success: your customers and employees. For many companies, these two groups are their biggest untapped resources as well as their biggest fans.

By turning as many of these people as possible into brand advocates—people who proactively talk up and advocate for your company to their own networks—you can extend your reach and generate greater brand affinity.

Why Invest in Social Media Advocacy?

Employee advocacy is far more effective than official channels

According to recent stats, marketing through employee advocacy has 561% greater reach when promotional messages are shared through employees’ social channels compared to official brand digital channels.

Advocacy marketing humanizes the brand

A humanized brand is incomparable to actual humans when it comes to engagement.

A Social Toaster survey found that 76% of individuals are more likely to trust content shared by “normal people” compared to content by brands.

In addition, the survey also discovered that peer-to-peer marketing is the leading driver behind 20-50% of all purchasing decisions.

Maximum ROI with minimal effort

A brand advocacy program on social media has a high long-term ROI, an average of 650% for every dollar invested.

That’s as effective as influencer marketing, but with much less effort.

Brands with empowered employees and happy customers will find social media advocacy to come almost naturally.

How to get started with social media advocacy?

Start by setting goals

Any great marketing strategy starts with knowing what you want to accomplish with your efforts. Before you start finding social advocates, you need to ask yourself what you want to achieve with your social media program. What kind of advocates do you want to give a microphone to in your community?

Choose the right platform

There are two common schools of thought in the social media world that can negatively impact brand awareness. The first is that you should only ever use one social channel at once to share your message, and the second is that you should use every channel possible. While sticking to a single platform gives you limited reach online, spreading your message too far and wide can waste your budget.

The best way to make sure that you’ve picked the right platform for your social media advocacy marketing strategy is to look at your buyer personas.

Identify and nurture influencers

Convincing any customer to speak out on the behalf of your brand is an incredible thing and an important aspect of a social advocacy strategy. However, when you’re just getting started in a new space or trying to strengthen awareness for your brand, it can be a good idea to look for shout-outs from people who are most likely to connect with your target audience.

Constantly engage your audience

Success on social media, whether you’re boosting brand authority, investing in a social advocacy digital strategy, or simply trying to improve your online presence – relies on engagement. Social media is powerful because it allows for conversations between brands and customers. This means that you need to constantly look for ways to connect with your audience.

If someone retweets your marketing blog, thank them. If someone asks you a question on Facebook – respond!

Empower your audience to use their voice

One of the most common forms of social advocacy you’ll see online today is the humble review or testimonial. Today’s customers want to know what other people have to say about a brand. Pew Research indicates that around 82% of adults read reviews before purchasing something for the first time.