When you empower your employees to share the good things about your company and even become brand ambassadors, you unlock a level of authenticity that no traditional marketing campaign can match.
Why? Because people trust people.
Engaged employees who genuinely believe in a company’s brand are the best salespeople on the planet. They become experts in your brand, products, and services. They share their experiences and influence how others perceive you. Crucially, they're authentic.
Doing this boosts brand awareness and trust, making it easier to convert target audiences into customers.
This guide explores ways to use employee advocacy to your advantage while giving something back to those who support you. We’ll also walk through best practices for rolling out an employee advocacy program and show you how to measure its success. Let’s dive in.
What is employee advocacy?
Employee advocacy is when a company’s own workers talk up the business. They advocate for the company’s brand, products, or services. It’s a really effective way of marketing a brand because, surely, no one knows a company better than the people who work for it, right?
Instead of relying solely on traditional ads or PR, an organization’s team members become employee advocates.
They usually do this via their own social media channels, but advocacy also comes from word-of-mouth, review sites, blog posts, and published interviews.
When employees, as brand advocates, speak from personal experience, they resonate with audiences far more than a faceless corporate logo would. As they share their experiences, they bolster the company’s brand and their professional profiles.
And this is a particularly pertinent aspect of employee advocacy in 2025. More than 5.2 billion people have access to social media. Our personal and professional lives play out on platforms like X, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Publicly advocating for your employer might earn you a promotion or improve your chances of getting a better job elsewhere.
Employee advocacy is, therefore, a two-way street where both the brand and the worker seek to benefit.
Why is employee advocacy important?
It’s often hard to beat the competition and get noticed. Brands can spend a lot of time and resources on campaigns that simply don’t work or don’t achieve the return on investment (ROI) they were hoping for.
While all brands need some form of marketing strategy, employee advocacy is becoming an increasingly important aspect of that plan.
The reason for this is authenticity. Employees involved in an advocacy program are authentic voices with firsthand knowledge and experiences that ring truer than any ad ever could.
Companies can use this authenticity to increase brand awareness and reach. Each employee’s personal social media network, whether a LinkedIn group of trusted colleagues or a circle of friends on X, can introduce company messages to new audiences.
Employees are also rewarded for being their authentic selves. Brands can establish advocacy programs that help employees communicate the right messages and reward them for doing so. This, in turn, creates a more positive work culture where employees feel more connected to their employer.
In an era where practically everyone is on social media, brands must keep employees sweet. Advocates can swiftly become critics if they’re treated badly, so it’s best to be proactive and establish an advocacy program that benefits workers.
How an employee advocacy plan works in 9 steps
There are nine core steps to establishing an employee advocacy program. The program works by allowing employees the freedom to post or spread positive news and stories about your brand. However, it needs structure. You can’t simply ask employees to “talk up” your company and expect to achieve increased sales a few weeks down the line.
Here are the core steps you need to take to develop and implement
1. Establish your objectives
Like any marketing strategy, your employee advocacy program needs some well-defined goals. It could be to drive more website visitors, increase brand reach, or simply promote your latest product. Your goals will probably overlap with other marketing activities, even if the execution differs.
By pinpointing clear objectives, you make it easier to gauge the success of your employee advocacy efforts over time.
2. Segment your advocates
Not everyone on your team has the same interests or social networks. Segment your employee advocates by department, location, or perhaps even skill set. Then, tailor the content you share with each group.
To do this, you need to understand your employees. Conduct surveys and workshops and get to know them intimately. If your employees are young and highly engaged on TikTok, then this is where they should advocate for your brand. If they are connected with local institutions, then perhaps word-of-mouth advocacy is a smarter option.
3. Connect your target audience to your advocates
Determining who you want to reach allows you to tailor your advocacy program, just as it does for any marketing campaign. Once you know who your advocates are, you can align them with your target audience.
You’ll need to do some audience research here, which is where a consumer research tool like Brandwatch comes in handy. The aim is to align your advocates with your target audience.
If there’s no crossover, then there's no point in launching an advocacy program because your employees won’t carry any influence with those you’re trying to reach.
4. Set up an employee advocacy platform
Let’s assume there is a crossover between your employees and your target audience. The next step is to create a platform to enable content distribution, track social shares, and measure engagement.
Sociuu is an ideal place to oversee an employee advocacy campaign. Users can create advocacy content about, say, Brandwatch and distribute it to Sociuu, where employees pick up content to share on their social channels.
Having a centralized platform ensures employees can quickly find shareable resources and easily post on their personal social media accounts.
5. Create core messages and content
A platform like Sociuu is perfect for housing all your content, making it easy for employees to pick up and distribute on their social media feeds. However, before you get to that stage, you must create your core messages and ensure your content accurately reflects your brand.
You could share resources from other areas of your marketing campaign or repurpose images and videos to suit advocacy posts. Or, you might need to start from scratch.
Just make sure your content and messages accurately reflect your brand and your advocates.
You can then send your newly-created content over to your advocacy platform. Employees can then easily incorporate them into their social media posts or conversations, with a few personal twists if they choose. This ensures consistency while giving advocates the freedom to be authentic.
6. Educate employees
A foundational step in building a successful employee advocacy program is ensuring that teams understand the dos and don’ts of social media usage.
This starts with outlining your brand’s social media policy and the expectations of using social media as an employee. From here, you can then share guidelines so employees know what style of posts align with your brand values.
You also need to give them insight into broader brand messaging to ensure each shared update feels cohesive with official channels.
Employee training is crucial when implementing a new program. It also offers a space to address concerns or questions about brand guidelines.
7. Encourage participation through incentives and recognition
People respond to recognition and clear benefits. Encouraging employees (or entire departments) to share posts that highlight your company’s brand can include friendly competitions, rewards, or shout-outs in internal newsletters.
When you encourage employees, they’re more likely to stay motivated and keep up the momentum, leading to a successful program in the long run.
Of course, you still need an element of authenticity in their posts to avoid suggestions that you’re bribing employees to lie on your behalf. They need to believe in your brand – but that doesn’t mean you can’t reward them for being positive.
It’s also important to gather employee feedback to learn what resonates and what feels forced. If employees feel the content library doesn’t speak to their interests or expertise, adjust accordingly. They’re more likely to contribute if they feel they’re being listened to.
8. Collaborate with HR
Remember, employee advocacy doesn’t just benefit marketing. It can enhance recruitment and company culture efforts.
Coordinate with your HR team to share content about company culture, employee benefits, or open roles.
9. Track performance
A formal employee advocacy program isn’t complete without data. Use metrics like reach, engagement, traffic, and lead generation to evaluate what’s working and what’s not.
A tool like Brandwatch is perfect for tracking individual employee accounts to see which are performing and which need improvement.
This allows you to refine your social media strategy, build on your strengths, and address any weaknesses. After the initial rollout, check engagement metrics and listen to employees’ experiences to make further adjustments.
How to encourage employees to participate
One of the biggest hurdles organizations can face is getting employees involved. You have to hope your employees want to advocate for you. Keeping them involved over time is another issue.
There is a two-step approach to encouraging employees to participate. The first is about company culture, while the second focuses on the benefits employees receive for joining in.
Company culture
Senior leaders need to lead by example when it comes to employee advocacy. If you don’t believe in the brand, why should others? This top-down buy-in validates the importance of the advocacy program.
Companies also need to apply a sense of community in any advocacy program. You could develop small groups or pods where employees can support each other’s posts, share tips, and brainstorm content ideas. This sense of community can sustain the program even when enthusiasm wanes.
It’s also crucial to create feedback loops where employees can speak their minds and suggest ways to improve brand messaging. People are far more likely to engage long-term if they feel listened to.
Employee benefits
Employees participating in advocacy programs want to see how it helps them. There are plenty of paths to walk here. You could offer bonuses for those who hit targets and attract new business leads – almost as if your employees are salespeople.
You can emphasize the value of personal branding, especially if employees are posting on a site like LinkedIn. A couple of advocacy posts and their professional and personal profiles can rise swiftly.
You could issue awards, like “Social Media Advocate of the Month,” or reward those who hit certain targets with an out-of-hours experience – perhaps a day out or even after-work drinks.
Just make sure your benefits align with HR.
Measuring employee advocacy impact
It’s one thing to ask employees to advocate for you and another to understand whether it worked. Analyzing the success of employee advocacy is crucial when planning your next steps. After all, if you didn’t achieve your original goals via employee advocacy, then you need to make strategic changes.
This is where data comes in. A tool like Brandwatch enables you to track reach and engagement across all employee advocacy posts. You can also run sentiment analysis to gauge how social media users responded to each advocacy post.
Pull in all the data, and you’ll thoroughly understand what post types, content styles, and messages resonate with audiences.
You should also evaluate employee engagement and satisfaction levels. Have employees enjoyed advocating for the company? What could be done better? What issues have arisen?
By comparing the results of your advocacy program with employee sentiment, you can measure its effectiveness and what you need to address going forward.
Using Brandwatch for employee advocacy
Employee advocacy goes hand in hand with robust social media listening, monitoring, and management. Tools like Brandwatch Consumer Research can help you go beyond surface-level metrics, providing deep insights into how your social media advocacy is performing and what audiences truly care about.
Brandwatch also partners with Sociuu, a third-party platform that allows brands the freedom to create structured employee advocacy programs. Sociuu allows you to add your assets from Brandwatch’s Publish tool to the Sociuu Content Hub.
By integrating your company’s employee advocacy efforts with Brandwatch and Sociuu, you can:
- Track in-depth analytics to see which topics spark engagement
- Identify key influencers among your own employees
- Monitor sentiment shifts in real time
- Refine your social media strategy based on audience behavior and feedback
When you align your employee advocacy platform with an advanced analytics tool, you get a 360-degree view of your brand’s digital presence.
Overcoming employee advocacy challenges
There’s no guarantee your employees will advocate for your brand or that you’ll generate success when they do. Being aware of the challenges that come with employee advocacy is crucial to understanding how to overcome issues and create a better process.
Lack of buy-in from leadership figures is a big issue. If bosses don’t want to share their company stories, why should other employees? Then there is the issue of authenticity. A tool like Sociuu gives employees access to the sort of messages brands want to put out but with the additional option to personalize content.
If the content looks too corporate and inauthentic, then an employee advocacy campaign can swiftly turn sour.
Employees can also fear oversharing. Send out too many company-related messages, and it might feel like spam. Employees don't want to annoy their own followers on a brand's behalf. Brands need to encourage them to share in moderation and focus on quality over quantity.
Finally, time and resources are always an issue for employees. They have busy jobs and might not have the time, energy, or capacity to share brand stories on social media. This exposes a brand to risk if an employee simply ‘copies and pastes’ a message without giving it the personal touch.
Being aware of pain points in the employee advocacy process means you can work proactively to prevent issues rather than responding to problems when it’s too late.
Build your employee advocacy strategy today
Crafting an employee advocacy strategy that aligns with your company culture is one of the best ways to stand out in 2025. When done well, employee advocacy programs benefit both the company and the employees.
From expanding personal brands and professional networks to driving increased brand awareness and revenue growth, the upside of tapping into employees’ voices is immense.
However, you’ve got to do it strategically. Audiences spot inauthenticity on social media. The art is to encourage employees to share content that reflects your brand and to reward their personal initiative.
Brandwatch’s integrated solutions can help you streamline, measure, and optimize your employee advocacy efforts. Explore the advanced insights and features offered by Brandwatch Consumer Research and Sociuu.
If you’re ready to take the next step, contact our team to request a demo or learn more about our suite of social media management tools. We’re here to help you turn employees into the most powerful advocates for your brand – starting today.
