The role of digital influencing, in the purchase decision, is rapidly increasing. It is remarkable, that social media recommendations induced an average of more than 25% in purchases across all product categories, as cited on a McKinsey report.
As businesses look to maximize returns from their social media strategies, 2 observations can be made:
- Having an audience in social media does not imply that you can actually reach it, let alone engage meaningfully with it. This is because social media platforms prioritise, through their respective algorithms, the content we see. Hence we end up seeing more content related to our family, friends and acquaintances vs content related from companies. In consequence, companies cannot reach effectively, through organic posts, their respective audience (as it used to be the case in the past); to do so they need to pay. Paid social media is important for reach and a must for a company’s social media strategy. Consumer reach though does not guarantee consumer engagement.
- Today’s consumer is seeking authentic relationships with brands, using them as a platform to improve his/her life. The consumer has more trust in peer-to-peer conversation and this is where the untapped opportunity of engaging a company’s employees come into play. It pays to identify employees who are naturally communicative and influential. You can then create the necessary framework of assets & guidelines, from where employees are sharing company content directly from their personal accounts vs the company one. Employee advocacy humanizes the brands, entices consumer attention making content more credible, amplifies company news, outperforms traditional digital advertising – 14x to 24x more reach and 8x more engagement vs the established brand channel –and brings better internal collaboration & positive social buzz within the company.
Connecting employee advocacy with social media, not only strengthens brand equity but has also an immediate effect in a company’s sales performance, as well as, internal employee engagement and satisfaction.
