By , Meghan M. Biro
Published May 11, 2016
Businesses are getting on board with social advocacy programs today. Many companies are beginning to leverage their most valuable spokespeople: Their employees. Employees will share their enthusiasm and promote products and services -- if they feel empowered to do so. Employees are perceived as more credible, and often have wider social reach than the company brand does. And in truth, according to a study by Weber Shandwick, 50 percent of all workers are already updating social media with messages about their employers.
An employee advocacy program can yield tremendous benefits for your brand, including helping to humanize the business, creating emotional connections, building out competitive advantages, demonstrating thought leadership, supporting new product introductions -- and so much more. To that end, more and more companies are implementing employee advocacy programs to harness their employees’ social connections and online reach.
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Unfortunately, many companies get frustrated and feel their efforts fall short, which I think boils down to one common problem -- focusing on the wrong things. For an employee advocacy program to succeed, you not only need to know what you hope to accomplish and to develop a strategy; you must monitor and measure the right key performance indicators (KPIs).
Any advocacy program will falter over the long term if you can’t report on its results -- not just to the executive team, but also back to your employees. So, how do you determine which are the right KPIs for your employee advocacy program?
Start by asking why does a particular metric matter? And, if it doesn’t have measurable value -- as in, it can’t be connected directly or indirectly to a particular dollar value -- or to accomplishing the stated goals and objectives -- that particular metric probably isn’t important.
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In a social campaign, like an employee advocacy program, we track certain common performance indicators such as:
Your program’s KPIs may differ and may or may not include the ones I have described. The important thing to keep in mind is that your KPIs should track the data you need, to be able to know how your program is performing. This data is important for you and your team, for the employees who are participating and for the company’s management as justification for the program’s implementation.
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As your campaign progresses, your KPIs will show you what’s working and what isn’t, and you can make changes to improve its performance. At the end of your employee advocacy program, by having monitored and measured the right KPIs, you will have meaningful data and be able to report back on the program’s success. Everyone, from the C-Suite to your employees will appreciate knowing their activities on the company’s behalf have been successful.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/your-employee-advocacy-program-measuring-the-right-kpis