Award-Winning Content Strategist and Social Media Strategist ★ Digital Communications Pro ★ Brand Storyteller ★ Employee Advocacy Program Champion
What motivates colleagues to share company posts on their #socialmedia channels? It's a topic I know a fair amount about. I conceptualized and built Pfizer's #employeeadvocacy program 5 years ago and remain radically obsessed with this space. When we first launched our program, which back in 2019 was a weekly email to colleagues rather than a robust digital platform, a survey of participants revealed that the main reason for sharing was to attract the attention of their leaders. Whether it was a like, a comment, or even just a 👍 , they wanted higher ups to acknowledge that they were seen. Recently, we asked colleagues the same question. Having a program in place for a while made what I think is a substantive difference in the results. This time around, the top reason colleagues shared company posts was to be seen as a leader in their respective spaces. In effect, to build their personal brands. This evolution is fascinating to me. When we first started talking to colleagues about sharing corporate posts, many didn't even have a LinkedIn account or saw it just for job hunting. It's important to gather this type of feedback on a regular basis, to make sure the content you are providing colleagues is what they want to share. How are you thinking about what your employee advocacy program should focus on? #EmployerBranding #ExecComms #PersonalBranding
Julissa Viana
2mo
Thanks for sharing Ellen and it’s really great to read about some of your learnings and the evolution that you are seeing from employees on why they share company content. I think it is important, as individuals and employees, that we think about how we want to show up on these platforms. The cookie-cutter approach of sharing company content is fine, but I tend to ignore the post if I see the same thing by the company and 3 or 4 employees I am connected to. I am always striving to figure out how much flexibility we can give employees to provide some additional thoughts/personal point of view on company content (of course compliantly given our regulated industry). How do you view this in light of your experience and feedback from employees?
Jordan Shultz
2mo
Ellen, it's great to see the continued obsession. The evolution of personal brand building as a primary objective for employees is something I've seen in many advocacy programs - but Pfizer had to start from a place that was all the way on one side of the possible spectrum so the hill that needed to be summited was very steep. You and team overcame many challenges to give your Pfizer colleagues the opportunity to build their brands while also amplifying the voice of the company. I'll always remember the extraordinary circumstances of partnering on your program in the midst of COVID in 2020, it was a remarkable catalyst and experience with so many learnings. Keep up the great work!
Ashley Hall
2mo
I'm motivated to share when the posts are showing that my company is aligned with my values - mission-driven work we've done, partnerships and programs we support, etc.
Such valuable insights on what motivates colleagues to share company posts. Building personal brands through employee advocacy is truly a game-changer. 📈
Stephanie Schwab
2mo
Employee advocacy, including executive personal branding, is the last growth opportunity in organic social. Any company who doesn’t have this in place or on their radar yet is way behind. Love seeing your thinking on this Ellen.
Brett Janecek
2mo
Great post. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I’m excited to see what others post.
CEO & Co-Founder at EveryoneSocial
2moCongratulations on the success of Pfizer's advocacy program, Ellen! The #1, highest level thing our customers are focused on is activating employees who are already active on social. 10 years ago, when we launched EveryoneSocial, Linkedin had 90M registered users. Today they have over 1B. So, unlike 10 or even 5 years ago, the vast majority of employees are already active on Linkedin, X, and other networks. And as everyone knows, the younger the generation (Y, Z, Alpha) the more they use social at work. Edelman has some great data on this. So, the key is 1) identifying people who are already active on social and 2) supporting them as advocates without getting in their way. This is such an exciting time to be building an advocacy program and it's only going to get better. And it's something that the senior most leaders care about, which of course is key to everything. A number of our largest customers report their advocacy results to their board (talking about public, global, Fortune 500 companies). So, advocacy FTW. Especially in an environment where efficient growth is the priority.