10 Stats That Prove the Importance of Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy has become a buzz word in today’s digital world due to the rise of social media landscape. Social media opens up a new world of advocacy opportunities for modern marketers. For example, online reviews can make or break any businesses today. Many companies are beginning to leverage employees’ personal social channels for evangelizing its brand messages. Understanding the latest employee advocacy statistics will help you become a believer in its power.

As a modern marketer, I am hugely passionate about employee advocacy and its emergence as an ‘Always on’ marketing channel to improve company’s brand awareness and bring qualified inbound leads.

Employee advocacy statistics suggest that a program can result in a 5x increase in web traffic and 25% more leads (Source). In my opinion, it has a strategic business potential to become the ‘next stage ‘of marketing. No surprise!

1. World of work is changing
2. Social media is the power behind this BIG opportunity
3. New generation of employees feels more empowered
4. Rise of a multigenerational workforce

From the front office to CEO, many companies are tapping its key marketing assets – Employees are your valuable spokesperson and secret Digital PR weapon to boost your social brand reach across their personal social channels.  Here are 10 employee advocacy statistics that prove Employee Advocacy is important in today’s modern marketing world:

1. 84% of consumers value recommendations from friends and family above all forms of advertising – and additionally, 77% of consumers are likely to make a purchase after hearing about it from someone they trust (Source: Nielsen).

Trust plays a pivotal role in today’s digital world. People only trust family, friends, and peers. Hence online reviews can make or break any businesses today. Nurture your potential employee brand advocates with the help of an effective employee advocacy program to transform them into trusted brand advocates. Unleash the power of digital word of mouth marketing to give a human touch to your company’s brand by enabling them to share more contextual content online.

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2. Brand messages are re-shared 24 times more frequently when distributed by employees’ through employee advocacy vs the brand (Source)

Recent studies enumerated that employees have great marketing potential to increase company’s brand awareness. Tap your key marketing assets (your employees) with the right content and tool to spread a positive word of mouth recommendation about your company’s brand and offerings. Employee brand advocates have a huge potential to amplify your brand messages with a wider reach.

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3. Leads developed through employee advocacy convert 7x more frequently than other leads (Source: IBM).

Identify, encourage and nurture your employee brand advocates for generating more inbound leads through their personal social channels. Go ahead and train them how to use social media and employee advocacy tool for your business.

4. Employees of socially engaged companies are more likely to stay at their company, feel optimistic about their company’s future and believe their company is more competitive (Source)

Employees are untapped marketing resources in many organization till date. As you aware, disengaged employees are always a threat to any organization. So, start encouraging and empowering both engaged and disengaged employees to become social savvy using employee advocacy tool. The business leaders should tap this new marketing trend as a part of employee engagement initiative to transform into a socially engaged organization. This reinforces the confidence among your employees to stay longer and further promote your company’s brand online.

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5. 98% of employees use at least one social media site for personal use, of which 50% are already posting about their company (Source)

Today employees are digital savvy and are always connected. Without any encouragement, your potential employee brand advocates have started sharing positive messages about your company and brand. Go ahead and tap them to boost your brand’s social reach in real-time. Trust me; they are the marketing engine of your business in future.

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6. Content shared by employees receives 8X more engagement than content shared by brand channels (Source)

Many companies are struggling to amplify its relevant content online because the responsibility lies currently with Marketing line of business (LoB) today. So, tapping the employee brand advocates across your organization would generate high social engagement for your content as compared to brands’ social channels.

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7. Customers referred by advocates have a 37% higher retention rate (Source)

Trust has become a new marketing currency today. Start identifying your potential advocates and nurture them to bring more qualified referrals for your business. They are your social superstars who bring new customers with higher retention rate. This in turn, reduces your customer acquisition cost.

8. Nearly 31% of high-growth firms have a formal employee advocacy program, more than double the average of all other firms. Almost 86% of advocates in a formal program said that their involvement in social media had a positive impact on their career (Source)

Employee advocacy has a strategic business potential. It has garnered a significant importance in marketing strategy in today’s dynamic business world. Organization with successful employee advocacy programs has trusted employee brand advocates who evangelize its brand online. These organizations have empowered its advocates to build a strong personal brand and become an industry thought leader in their respective domain. It’s a win-win situation for both employee brand advocates and organization in reaping overall benefits from a successful employee advocacy program.

9. Referrals are one of the top sources of external hires, and employee advocates are perfect referrers. A recruitment campaign driven entirely by advocacy can have an on-cost that’s close to zero (Source)

Many organizations are finding all possible avenues to engage employees in a productive manner. Because it’s a big problem in today’s modern business world. So, tap your employee brand advocates who address your talent needs, improve social recruiting and employer branding with the help of an effective employee advocacy program. No surprise! It boosts your employee engagement that empowers them to become your trusted brand advocates and thought leaders. Unleash the power of employee brand advocates to boost your social recruiting!

10. 60 million American employees share positive comments about their workplace online (Source: Ad Age).

Today’s modern workforce is always connected due to the proliferation of digital technologies. Without a formal employee advocacy tool, your digital-savvy workforce has started sharing positive messages about their organization online. Hence the onus lies with the business leaders to tap these potential employee brand advocates with the right tools and training to spread its brand message online.

In summation, the above employee advocacy statistics highlight that your employees are one of the most valuable and untapped marketing assets today. Identify your social superstars, nurture and train them to hop on to your employee advocacy program – a cost effective marketing channel. Unleash the power of employee brand advocates to build your brand awareness!

Further Reading: Social Media in the Workplace: 5 Reasons to NOT Friend Co-Workers

Author Bio

Dr. Venkatesh Raman is an expert on Employee Advocacy. Venkatesh is a competent technology marketing professional with hands-on experience in human capital management (HCM), marketing communication, community engagement, social media, content and product marketing across IT, Automotive & Pharmaceutical verticals. He is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about emerging technologies in Marketing and HR. Venkatesh is an experienced advocacy marketer, institutions branding enthusiast, and avid blogger on emerging technologies in HR and Marketing domain.