Employee advocacy, which in itself is a kind of influencer marketing, is becoming more widely adopted by companies wishing to embrace social media for marketing and communication.

There are 3 main use cases, or objectives, which one can align to an employee advocacy program: (I’ve stolen these definitions from the Customer Benchmark Report on Employee Advocacy, by PostBeyond, because they explain them very eloquently)

1. Thought leadership

Thought Leadership is distributing interesting, news-worthy and innovative content that customers would not have likely discovered on their own. Thought leadership provides new ideas, perspectives and data that teach and shift your audience from their status quo.

2. Social selling

Social selling is the process of building, nurturing and engaging potential customers on social media before buying your product or service. It encompasses finding the right people, sharing relevant content, building relationships directly with potential customers and personal branding.

3. Talent acquisition

It is a strategy used to attract potential candidates using social media and personal networks.

Employees within an organisation are undoubtedly the best (potential) advocates for the business, and a structured employee advocacy program is a really effective manner in which to harness their expertise and passion, and make that value accessible to your target customers.