The value of social media: employees as advocates

Fact: a high proportion of your employees are social media addicts.

Fact: a high proportion of your clients are too.

Fact: large scale (B2B) purchasing decisions are made by groups of people, not individuals or machines.

Conclusion: social media is a powerful way to influence your clients and prospects!

Encourage your employees as advocates, and you will clearly reap the rewards.

It’s cheaper than advertising and less risky and hard work than lead generation campaigns

Here’s why you should be doing it:

• 98% of employees use at least one social media site.
• Content shared by employees receives 8 times more engagement than content shared by brands
• Brand messages are re-shared 24 times more frequently when distributed by employees versus the brand.
• Leads developed through employee social marketing convert 7 times more frequently than other leads.
• 84% of people trust recommendations from friends and family above anything else.
• Customers referred by advocates have a 37% higher retention rate.
• It’s easy to do and fun for everyone involved so it’s a win-win for you and the business.

And let’s face it, it’s dependent upon good business and HR practice – so you should be doing it anyway!

I’m indebted to the Creative Communications Community of CIM for their input on this. Read their tips on what to do (and not to do!), the tools that are available, and what other companies are doing about it here sigs.cim.co.uk