Employee advocacy: What it is, why it matters and how to get your team on board
You've spent weeks planning your company's latest LinkedIn campaign. The copy's been approved, the graphics look great, and you've finally managed to get everyone to agree on the messaging. You hit publish, sit back and wait for the engagement to roll in.
Three likes. One from the marketing manager, one from the CEO and one from someone who left the company two years ago.
Meanwhile, your colleague in sales posts a photo from an industry event with a few thoughts about what they learned, and suddenly half your target audience seems to be joining the conversation.
Annoying? A little. But it's also a pretty good demonstration of why employee advocacy deserves a place in your marketing strategy.
People are interested in hearing from other people, particularly when those people have useful knowledge, interesting experiences or something worth saying. And for B2B businesses, that's an opportunity that's often sitting right under their noses.
What is employee advocacy?
Employee advocacy is when employees voluntarily share information, insights and experiences that help raise awareness of the business they work for.
Traditionally, this might have meant sharing company announcements, celebrating business achievements or posting photos from team events. And while those things still have their place, employee advocacy has evolved into something much more interesting.
Today, it can involve employees sharing their professional expertise, discussing industry developments, offering opinions on emerging trends or talking about the work they're doing.
For example, a cyber security specialist might share their thoughts on a recent data breach, a financial adviser could explain a regulatory change, or a software developer might discuss a technical challenge they've recently overcome.
All of these activities help build visibility for the individual while also strengthening the reputation of the business they represent.
And importantly, good employee advocacy doesn't mean asking everyone to copy and paste the same carefully approved corporate message onto LinkedIn. Nobody wants to see 15 identical posts about how delighted everyone is to announce the company's latest achievement.
Why is employee advocacy important for B2B businesses?
In industries such as finance and technology, buying decisions are rarely straightforward. Prospective customers often spend considerable time researching their options, comparing providers and trying to establish which businesses they can trust.
Your website, case studies and company content all have an important role to play, but so do the people behind your business.
1. It helps you reach new audiences
Your employees have their own professional networks, built through previous roles, industry connections, customers and colleagues. Those networks may include people who have never encountered your company page or engaged with your marketing.
When employees share relevant insights and contribute to industry conversations, they create opportunities for your business to become visible to new audiences.
2. It builds credibility and trust
There's something reassuring about seeing knowledgeable people openly discussing the work they do. It gives prospective customers a better understanding of the expertise within your business and the people they might eventually work with.
This can be particularly valuable when you're selling complex products or services that require specialist knowledge and a high degree of trust.
3. It supports thought leadership
Most businesses have people with interesting things to say, but their expertise doesn't always make it beyond internal meetings or customer conversations.
Employee advocacy gives those people an opportunity to share their knowledge more widely. Over time, this can help establish both individual employees and your business as credible voices within your industry.
4. It helps employees build their own professional profiles
Employee advocacy should benefit the people taking part, too. By sharing their expertise and participating in relevant conversations, employees can develop their professional networks, build confidence and become more visible within their industries.
That personal benefit is important, because advocacy is far more likely to succeed when people genuinely want to participate.
Why do employee advocacy programmes fail?
I've seen plenty of businesses recognise the value of employee advocacy, launch a programme with great enthusiasm and then wonder why everyone stops participating after a fortnight.
Usually, it comes down to a few familiar problems.
Employees don't know what to post. They might have years of industry experience but feel uncomfortable sharing their opinions publicly. Without guidance, it's easier to say nothing than risk getting something wrong.
The content feels too corporate. If everyone is expected to share the same company announcements using the same approved wording, there's very little room for personality or genuine conversation.
People don't have time. Employees already have jobs to do, and posting on LinkedIn probably isn't at the top of their priorities. If advocacy feels like another complicated task, participation will quickly drop.
Nobody explains what's in it for them. Telling employees that advocacy will increase brand awareness might be useful to the marketing department, but it's unlikely to get everyone else particularly excited.
The good news is that these challenges are all manageable, provided you approach advocacy as an ongoing activity rather than a one-off campaign.
How to build an employee advocacy programme that actually works
1. Start with a small group of willing participants
You don't need to convince your entire workforce to become LinkedIn enthusiasts overnight. In fact, I'd recommend starting with a handful of people who are already interested in building their professional profiles or sharing their expertise.
This might include senior leaders, salespeople, technical specialists or anyone who regularly interacts with customers.
Work with them to develop their confidence, understand what content resonates with their audiences and establish a process that feels manageable. Once you've got some momentum, you can invite others to get involved.
2. Give people ideas, not scripts
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is treating employee advocacy as an extension of their company page.
Instead of providing everyone with identical captions, give them interesting topics, useful resources and opportunities to share their own perspectives.
For example, if your company publishes a report about emerging cyber security threats, your technical team could discuss the findings they consider most significant, while your sales team might explore what those findings mean for customers.
It's the same underlying content, but approached from different perspectives.
And while AI tools can help employees organise their thoughts or overcome the dreaded blank page, I'd avoid encouraging everyone to publish generic AI-generated posts. The whole point is to hear from the people behind your business.
3. Provide practical LinkedIn training
Not everyone understands how LinkedIn works, and even people who use it regularly might feel uncomfortable creating their own content.
A little training can make a huge difference.
Show employees how to optimise their profiles, identify relevant topics, write engaging posts and participate in conversations. Explain what good content looks like and help them understand how LinkedIn can benefit their own professional development.
It's also worth covering the practicalities, including confidentiality, company policies and any industry-specific compliance requirements.
This is particularly important in regulated sectors, where employees need to understand the boundaries around sharing information and discussing their work publicly.
4. Get your leadership team involved
If your CEO and senior managers never engage with company content or share their own insights, it's going to be difficult to convince everyone else that advocacy is worthwhile.
Leadership involvement helps demonstrate that the business genuinely values employee participation.
That doesn't mean your CEO needs to start publishing inspirational posts every morning. Sharing an interesting perspective, commenting on an industry discussion or recognising a colleague's work can be a perfectly good place to start.
5. Make participation easy and enjoyable
Employee advocacy shouldn't feel like homework.
Provide a regular selection of content ideas, encourage people to share interesting experiences from their working week and make it easy for them to find company resources worth discussing.
You could also organise occasional sessions where employees share ideas, discuss what's working and help each other develop content.
And remember, participation should always be voluntary. Some people will love posting on LinkedIn, while others would rather do absolutely anything else. That's fine. You want willing advocates, not hostages.
How do you measure employee advocacy success?
Like any marketing activity, employee advocacy needs to be measured against what you're trying to achieve.
If your goal is greater brand visibility, you might look at the reach and engagement of employee content, alongside growth in relevant professional connections.
If you're focused on thought leadership, consider the quality of conversations employees are having, whether they're connecting with relevant decision-makers and whether their expertise is attracting attention from the right audiences.
You should also monitor participation within your programme. How many employees are actively involved? Are they posting regularly? Do they feel confident and supported?
For businesses focused on lead generation, you can look at referral traffic, enquiries and opportunities influenced by employee activity, although attributing every result directly to a LinkedIn post isn't always straightforward.
The important thing is to focus on meaningful outcomes rather than treating likes and impressions as the ultimate measure of success.
Ready to get your team involved?
Employee advocacy can be a brilliant way to build visibility, demonstrate expertise and make your business feel more human. But it works best when employees have the confidence, support and freedom to participate in a way that feels natural to them.
And that's where a little guidance can go a long way.
I'm Sarah, the copywriter and content strategist behind Popcorn Content, and I help businesses make better use of LinkedIn through content strategy, management and employee advocacy training.
My training sessions are designed to help your team understand the platform, develop their confidence and create content that sounds like them, rather than a corporate communications department.
If you'd like to get your employees more involved in LinkedIn, find out more about my LinkedIn advocacy training or get in touch to have a chat.