Marketers have decried the demise of organic reach on social media for years. But is there really no way of getting visibility for your posts without paying? The truth is that social media organic reach is declining, but far from dead. While you should not rely on it as your primary source of traffic for your website, you shouldn’t abandon it completely.
And in this article we will show you how to get your employees vested with the drive and the power to generate organic reach for your social media pages.
Employee Advocacy – Because People Make Friends with People, Not Brands
The basic form of interaction on social media is friendship. People add friends on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. They will also follow celebrities and brands. But what they really crave for is personal interaction with another human being.
This poses a problem for businesses and brands: they are abstract entities. And one of the key marketing efforts made by companies across the globe is to give their brand a human face. It involves a rich mix of tactics, from the brand voice used across all channels to the images and videos promoting the products.
But at the end of the line, customers want to engage with actual people on social media. And the best people to create the link between your customers and your brand are your employees.
Here are just a few ways in which you can empower your employees to boost organic reach on your social media channels:
1. Identify Influencers in Your Company
Did you know that one of your sales agents is a successful YouTuber? Or that one of the regional logistics managers has loyal followers on Instagram? Have you looked at the read count of your accounts manager’s LinkedIn Pulse articles?
Such people within your company are influencers. They have a lot of followers who like their posts and trust their recommendations. Among these followers, many of them fit your customer persona. Thus, you should reach out to these employees and encourage them to become brand ambassadors.
2. Encourage Employees to Share Your Content
There are companies, like Fujitsu, that rely more on content shared by their employees than by their official social media channels. The Japanese company experienced a significant growth (29%) in clicks to their digital properties coming from their employees’ social media accounts.
What is the secret behind this level of organic reach? They key ingredients are:
- Loyal employees who feel comfortable sharing brand content on their personal pages;
- A company culture that promotes employee advocacy and rewards top performers;
- The level of trust the employees’ followers have in them.
You cannot achieve such an ecosystem overnight, of course. It needs time, so the sooner you start, the sooner you will start reaping the rewards.
3. Celebrate Your Employees on Your Social Media Accounts
The rule of reciprocity is one of the basic rules in human interactions. You do something nice for me, I do something nice for you. This is how you get subscribers using lead magnets. And this is how you get your employees to help raise your organic reach on social media.
What is your part of the deal? Make them the stars of your social media accounts. Share stories of their promotions, of the successful projects they completed and their anniversaries as members of your team. Create videos and interviews featuring them and putting the spotlight on their work for the success of your brand.
4. Share Employee Generated Content on Your Social Media Pages
You already know about the importance of collecting and sharing user generated content. It has a huge value as testimonials for the quality of your products. And so does employee generated content.
It can be anything from the creative ways they use your products to the innovative ideas they have to improve these products. It can be something as simple as their creatively organized workspace and the hobbies they enjoy. Whatever it is, this kind of content creates strong communication bridges between your brand and your customers.
5. Create an Incentive Program
Last, but not least, consider setting up a program of rewards (financial or otherwise) for the most active brand advocates within your company. You can use the backbone of your employee referral program for this and adapt it accordingly.