Changing Behaviour and the Barriers to Social Employee Advocacy
I was talking about behaviour the other day with a new client of the Antelope Social Club. And how sometimes it takes some stakeholders longer to believe in the power of social as more than endless chitter chatter but as a real way to engage with potential customers, adding value to your brand, credibility and showcasing those who work for you.
At Antelope we know this as we been supporting professionals with their communications for decades and have seen how platforms such as LinkedIn are now working effectively as social selling vehicles, especially if your employees are actively advocating on it. Only recently a client of ours emailed me to say that one of their posts had had over 8,500 views. Now of course some of those views will be from colleagues, some from friends and some competitors. But there will still be a few, if not a lot, that could be potential clients, or are clients and by reading that post, will be influenced, even if subconsciously, with what you are saying.
So, what are the boundaries for stopping companies and key stakeholders in increasing their profile on social media. In our experience, they mainly boil down to:
1. Fear. Fear is the biggest obstacle to action. Worrying that what they write won’t reflect who they are, won’t show them in the light they want. Fear, like in other situations, paralyses them, so instead they do nothing.
2. Lack of skill set. Where many have the desire, they feel they don’t have the skill set. They might be able to write a tender document, or an email to a client, but don’t feel they have the ability to draft a few paragraphs that reflect something that happened at work, their professional values or reflect on an event they have been to.
3. Lack of confidence. Hand in hand with lack of skill set and fear comes lack of confidence. When people aren’t scared about how they will be perceived, sometimes it is their confidence that holds them back. Surprisingly, this is often the more senior stakeholders than younger, digital natives team members.
4. It’s someone else’s job. We see this a lot at Antelope, where social media traditionally has fallen under the remit of marketing and comms departments, some stakeholders feel like it is not their responsibility, and leave it to others in their team.
5. Lack of understanding the benefits. And then there are the naysayers.
All these boundaries are easy to overcome with education, training, hand holding and of course showing the benefits of social employee advocacy. Which is why we set up the Antelope Social Club to help those who want to have a presence on socials and those whose role would benefit through having one.
Yet changing behaviour generally takes time. The old marketing rule of 7 - that someone has to see or hear something seven times before they get to purchase stage - was the cornerstone of many advertising campaigns. The rule of seven of course was created pre-digital days when the amount of promotional ‘noise’ that people heard, or saw was confined to their radio, TV and newspapers (and possibly a passing billboard). Today, there is no doubt the cacophony of noise can be overwhelming. Which is why a voice that you trust, that talks your language, that talks about things you are interested in, can make you stand out from the crowd.
And that’s why having a voice in socials is so important. And that’s also why we believe that employee advocacy or having a robust content strategy through your social platforms that is tailored to key senior stakeholders, is so important in the customer journey. And yet many organisations, although have a corporate presence and strategy, still haven’t aligned their stakeholders’ socials with this strategy. Instead of a ‘nice to have’, it is now a ‘must have’ in your arsenal of marketing disciplines and one that can amplify your brand credentials, bring credibility to your individuals and hand-in-hand support new business development.
Photo with thanks by Thought Catalog on Unsplash