Social Media Advocacy
Empowering Employees in the Digital Age
Welcome Uplevelers to another content-packed newsletter! And today we talk about Social Media Advocacy - a marketing strategy that involves enlisting people to promote a brand on social media. These people, known as brand advocates, are passionate about the brand and want to promote it.
And why employees make great brand advocates, which is why companies are increasingly recognizing the potential of their workforce to share their experiences, insights, and passion with their personal networks. One such company with whom we did this was Reckitt (formerly known as Reckitt-Benckiser).
Reckitt: A Global FMCG Leader
Before we dive into the details of the program, let's take a moment to appreciate the scale and impact of Reckitt:
- Founded in 1840, Reckitt has been making the world cleaner and healthier for over 180 years. Today, their products are sold in more than 200 countries worldwide.
- The company's portfolio includes iconic brands such as Dettol, Harpic, Durex, Mortein, Air Wick, Lysol, Vanish, and Strepsils.
- In 2023, Reckitt reported a global operating profit of 2.5 billion British Pounds.
With such a diverse and expansive range of products, Reckitt recognized the untapped potential of its employees to share authentic stories and experiences related to these household names.
The Challenge: Empowering Employees as Brand Advocates
Despite Reckitt's global success, the company faced a common challenge in the modern corporate world: how to effectively engage employees in brand advocacy, especially in a remote work environment. The specific hurdles included:
1. Lack of confidence: Many employees felt unsure about sharing work-related content on their personal social media accounts.
2. Inconsistent posting habits: Even those willing to participate struggled to maintain a regular cadence of social media activity.
3. Need for upskilling: Employees required training in social media best practices, storytelling techniques, and personal branding.
4. Remote work constraints: The shift to remote work made it more challenging to foster a sense of community and shared purpose.
Reckitt realized that simply providing training opportunities wasn't enough. They needed a comprehensive, sustainable approach that would not only teach employees the necessary skills but also instill the confidence and habit of regular social media engagement.
The Solution: A Comprehensive Social Media Advocacy Program
To address these challenges, Reckitt developed a holistic Social Media Advocacy program designed to empower employees and create lasting behavioral change. The program was built on four key pillars:
1. Continuous Engagement: Rather than a one-off training session, the program was structured as an ongoing journey of learning and practice.
2. Storytelling Focus: Employees were taught how to craft compelling narratives around their work experiences and the company's products.
3. Confidence Building: The program emphasized personal growth and provided a supportive environment for employees to find their voice.
4. Habit Formation: Through gamified challenges and regular prompts, the program aimed to make social media advocacy a natural part of employees' routines.
Key Components of the Program
The Reckitt Social Media Advocacy Program incorporated several innovative elements to ensure its success. While we won’t dig into each, here’s a broad outline:
Active Storyteller Canvas
Remote-friendly Training Sessions
Gamified Social Media Challenges
Personal Brand Building
Flexibility and Adaptability
Results and Impact
Beyond the quantitative results (which we wouldn’t want to disclose here), the program had several qualitative impacts:
1. Increased digital presence: Reckitt saw a noticeable uplift in its overall social media visibility, with employees' posts extending the company's reach into new networks.
2. Authentic storytelling: The content produced by employees provided genuine, behind-the-scenes glimpses into life at Reckitt, enhancing the company's employer brand.
3. Skill development: Participants gained valuable skills in digital communication, storytelling, and personal branding that benefit both their careers and the company.
4. Community building: Despite the challenges of remote work, the program fostered a sense of community among participants, united in their goal of sharing Reckitt's story.
5. Confidence boost: Employees reported feeling more confident in their ability to represent the company and share their experiences publicly.
Lessons Learned and Best Practices
The success of Reckitt's Social Media Advocacy Program offers several key takeaways for other organizations looking to implement similar initiatives:
1. Sustainable change requires ongoing engagement: One-off training sessions aren't enough. Lasting behavioral change comes from consistent practice and reinforcement.
2. Provide structure, but allow for creativity: The Active Storyteller Canvas gave employees a framework, but still allowed room for individual expression and creativity.
3. Make it relevant and rewarding: By focusing on personal brand building alongside company advocacy, the program offered clear value to participants.
4. Leverage gamification: The challenge format and point system helped maintain engagement and made the process enjoyable.
5. Adapt to the remote work reality: Designing the program to be fully accessible and engaging in a virtual environment was crucial to its success.
6. Encourage peer learning: Creating opportunities for participants to share and learn from each other fostered a supportive community.
7. Measure and celebrate success: Regular tracking of engagement metrics and sharing of top-performing content motivated continued participation.
The Future of Employee Advocacy at Reckitt
The success of this initial program has laid a strong foundation for the future of employee advocacy at Reckitt. Potential next steps could include:
1. Scaling the program: Understanding that different regions might have unique needs, the program was implemented across multiple cohorts: India, Europe, Middle East & Africa.
2. Advanced training: Offering more specialized modules on topics like video content creation, LinkedIn article writing, or leveraging emerging social platforms.
3. Employee-led initiatives: Empowering program graduates to mentor new participants or lead their own social media projects.
4. Integration with other marketing efforts: Aligning employee advocacy more closely with broader marketing campaigns and product launches.
5. Cross-functional collaboration: Encouraging participants from different departments to collaborate on content, providing a more holistic view of Reckitt's operations.
6. Measuring business impact: Developing more sophisticated analytics to track how employee advocacy efforts contribute to brand awareness, recruitment, and even sales.
Why You Should Transform your employees into Brand Ambassadors
Reckitt stands as a shining example of how companies can harness the power of their workforce to amplify their brand message. By providing employees with the tools, confidence, and motivation to share their stories, Reckitt has not only enhanced its digital presence but has also fostered a more engaged and connected workforce.
In an era where authenticity is highly valued, the voices of employees carry tremendous weight. They offer a genuine, human perspective on a company's culture, values, and impact. Through this program, Reckitt has effectively turned its employees into a powerful army of brand ambassadors, each with their own unique story to tell.
As we look to the future, it's clear that employee advocacy will play an increasingly important role in brand building and corporate communication. Companies that invest in empowering their workforce to share their experiences and insights will find themselves with a competitive edge in both the marketplace and the talent pool.
In the end, the success of Reckitt's program reminds us that a company's greatest asset is its people – not just for their skills and expertise, but for their passion, their stories, and their ability to connect with others. By giving employees the tools and confidence to share their experiences, companies can create a ripple effect of positive engagement that extends far beyond their office walls.
If you loved this newsletter and wish to uplevel
Yourself: Watch our YouTube Playlist & join CTQ Compounds.
Your Team: See our Case Studies & connect with us