Measuring the Success of Employee Advocacy Efforts

Key takeaways:

• Define success collaboratively: Success in employee advocacy hinges on defining measurable goals in alignment with organizational objectives and leadership collaboration.
• Start with quantitative metrics: Initiate advocacy programs with a focus on quantitative indicators like user growth and shares-per-user to gauge effectiveness.
• Embrace qualitative insights: Capture shifts in social media attitudes and use anecdotes to inform strategy adjustments, complementing quantitative data.

During a recent SocialMedia.org panel discussion on leveraging employee advocacy to build brand affinity, industry leaders shared insights into how they measure the success of their employee advocacy programs and effectively communicate their impact to stakeholders.

We take a look at the best practices shared and how social media leaders at the world’s largest brands say you can successfully track your advocacy program to increase your brand’s reach.

Understanding the Importance of Measuring Success in Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy programs are only as valuable as the results they deliver. It’s crucial to determine what success means in the context of your organization’s goals.

As Hillary Hill, Social Media Manager at Nutanix, pointed out, defining and measuring success is a collaborative effort between the advocacy team and the organization’s leadership.

Start with Quantitative Metrics

Hillary emphasized that when starting a new advocacy initiative, it’s wise to keep the quantitative metrics relatively narrow. Begin by focusing on fundamental indicators, such as:

• User growth: Track the number of users engaging with your advocacy tool. After all, the more participants, the broader your reach.
• Shares per user: Measure the frequency and quality of engagement by examining how often each user shares content. This metric provides insights into the effectiveness of your program.

Capture the Attitude Shift with Qualitative Metrics

In addition to hard numbers, don’t underestimate the power of qualitative data. Hillary highlighted how people view social media changes.

“The attitude toward social media and advocacy seems to be shifting over this past year,” Hillary said about how implementing more advocacy tools helped their efforts.

She also said collecting anecdotes and observations from employees to gauge these changes is necessary to understand where to make adjustments in your strategy.

We found that a lot of people will hesitate to start using social media more because they’re like, ‘What if I say the wrong thing? Am I going to get in trouble? Is this something I’m allowed to say?’

Hillary Hill, Social Media Manager at Nutanix

Case studies: Making Data Relatable

To effectively communicate success, our members discussed the importance of creating case studies.

These real-world examples provide tangible evidence of how advocacy efforts impact your brand. Sharing these stories on your intranet page or social media can inspire and educate employees to know how to effectively advocate for your brand.

Recognizing Contributors of Content

Ryan Boyles, Senior Manager of Social Media at AMD, stressed the significance of recognizing content contributors.

“We’re in the midst of identifying how we can recruit more moderators and curators of the content on our platforms,” Ryan said. “Right now we’re just a team of me and another employee. So what we want to add is rewarding or recognizing contributors of content just as much as folks that are sharing.”

He added that balancing your content mix is key to keeping your advocacy program vibrant and inclusive.

What we want to add is rewarding or recognizing contributors of content just as much as folks that are sharing.

Ryan Boyles, Senior Manager of Social Media at AMD

Focus on How Employee Advocacy Helps Other Lines of Business

When it comes to advocacy, it’s essential to align your metrics with the specific goals of different teams within your organization.

For example, if you’re targeting your sales team, as Ryan mentioned, focus on metrics that demonstrate how advocacy helps them in their day-to-day work. This might involve tracking metrics like the Social Selling Index (SSI) and other scores relevant to their role.

Use Examples to Boost Engagement

To address the frequently asked questions of “when” and “how often” to engage in advocacy, Ryan and Hillary said organizations should encourage their employees to lead by example.

They also noted showcasing success stories of employees who have incorporated advocacy into their routine offers a practical roadmap for others to follow.

Gain More Actionable Insights on how to Enhance Employee Advocacy Efforts

Measuring the success of employee advocacy efforts involves a blend of quantitative and qualitative metrics. Start by setting clear goals and tracking user engagement, and don’t forget to capture the shifting attitudes toward advocacy.

SocialMedia.org members said you should also leverage case studies to make your data relatable and encourage contributors of content.

If you lead social media at a large organization, you can gain even more insights on your employee advocacy efforts in our confidential, vendor-free community.