How to Choose the Best Employee Advocacy Platform for Your Organization

When looking for an employee advocacy solution, finding the right one for your organization is crucial.

The last thing you want to do is onboard hundreds of employees to a platform, provide training, and then find it’s not the right fit for your company’s needs.

Follow our step-by-step guide to find the best employee advocacy platform for your company, based on your goals and requirements. Here you’ll also find a comparison of the most popular employee advocacy tools in 2024.

Disclaimer: We are an employee advocacy software provider ourselves, but we’re not here to pressure you into using DSMN8! We want to find clients that are the right fit, and we’re more than happy to recommend alternative solutions based on your needs.

The first step in finding the right employee advocacy software for your organization is to establish your goals.

Are you already running an advocacy program and looking to make it easier to participate? If so, you’re already off to a great start and need a solution to streamline the process. Saving time when creating and sharing content is your main goal.

Alternatively, your company may be too large to manage without a platform. In this case, ease of setup and the ability to segment users by department and region is crucial. Training and ease of use for employees is also essential, as not everyone will be an experienced social media user.

Perhaps your primary goal from advocacy is to drive traffic to your website – to book meetings or make sales. Tracking this activity is important for you to demonstrate ROI and understand what’s working and what isn’t. In this case, a comprehensive analytics suite is a must-have for you.

When comparing any software provider, it’s easy to get bogged down in lists of features.

Instead, create a list of features that are must-haves for your company. That way, you can streamline comparing any solutions.

Here are 4 questions to ask yourself to discover your must-have features:

Will it be your entire organization, or a select group of individuals in marketing, sales, and HR?

This will help you determine feature requirements, for example:

1. If you’re looking to onboard users in different regions, your advocacy platform may need support for multiple languages.

2. If you want to onboard users in different departments, you’ll need a way to segment users to get the right content for them.

3. Does your CEO want a hands-off approach? If so, you’ll need a solution that enables you to create and share content for executives, and/or use automation.

4. Are you looking to onboard employees who aren’t office-based? If so, a mobile app will be needed for employees who don’t use a computer in their day-to-day.

Knowing your approximate number of users also makes it easier to compare pricing packages offered by providers.

Is your sales team too busy on calls to find time to share content?

Automation and AI can keep their profiles active, nurturing prospects and establishing themselves as thought leaders.

Does your organization have a lot of content and no way to get it to the right employees?

The ability to recommend particular pieces of content to your engineers and different pieces to your HR team will help you stay on top of your program.

Are employees sending in content recommendations, leaving your social media manager overwhelmed with messages and emails?

A tool that enables employees to submit content for marketing to review will streamline the process, and avoid notification overload. Collating employee-generated content in one place will enable social media managers to feature employees in authentic brand channel posts with ease.

Many employee advocacy tools include internal communications features, and some are add-ons to internal comms platforms.

The last thing you’ll want is to pay for features and services that you’re already getting from another platform!

Likewise, if you’re looking to sunset your existing internal communications solution, you’ll need to ensure that your employee advocacy solution offers all the functionality needed, e.g. employee polls, newsletters and internal posting.

For those in regulated industries like finance, pharmaceuticals, or law, security will be a critical concern. Ensure that your provider has certifications such as ISO-20071 and that they manage your data correctly.

You’ll also need to consider if there are particular integrations that your organization needs, such as Slack or Teams, or a mobile app for employees who aren’t office-based.

Now you’ve established your goals with employee advocacy, and have an understanding of which features are must-haves for you. Let’s dive into a platform comparison and hopefully you’ll discover the right one for your organization!

Below, you will find an overview of DSMN8, our employee advocacy platform, and several other popular employee advocacy tools.

These are separated into 3 categories:

1. Marketing tools with advocacy add-ons or features.
2. Internal communications tools with advocacy features.
3. Dedicated employee advocacy solutions.

Scores presented are from G2, based on user reviews, and are accurate as of writing.

These tools are primarily social media marketing platforms for managing brand channels, offering some employee advocacy features. While we recommend a dedicated solution for managing an employee advocacy program, these marketing tools may be the right fit for you.

Hootsuite is a social media marketing tool, and Amplify is their employee advocacy extension.

It enables employees to share content and admins to monitor social media analytics but doesn’t offer many of the features that dedicated employee advocacy platforms do.

For example, advocates can schedule content through Hootsuite Amplify, but they cannot automate it. Time is saved compared to copy-and-pasting content, but a hands-off approach for your executive leaders and busy salespeople isn’t possible here.

If you need any internal communications features, Hootsuite Amplify isn’t the solution for you. The purpose of this tool is solely to distribute social media content.

Another factor to consider is the size of your organization: Hootsuite Amplify is only available to enterprises.

For those using Microsoft Teams, Hootsuite Amplify does have an integration, but this is not available for Slack.

If you’re already an enterprise company using Hootsuite, it might make sense to look into Amplify. However, the features are limited, and Hootsuite is a marketing tool at its core – your employee advocates may not find it user-friendly.

Platform users rated Hootsuite Amplify at 8.7/10 for aspects such as meeting requirements and quality of support, but they were less positive about the product direction and ease of setup.

Compare Hootsuite Amplify with DSMN8.

Sprout Social is a social media marketing platform that offers employee advocacy features in their Enterprise level plan.

For organizations already using Sprout Social to manage their social media channels, their employee advocacy add-on is one to consider.

With Sprout’s advocacy solution, admins can track the analytics from employee shares, send out newsletters, and incentivize participation with gamification (leaderboards).

However, you are unable to curate multiple images for each piece of content. This will limit your ability to make each employee post look unique on social media.

Your busy C-Suite executives and salespeople won’t be able to take a hands-off approach, as each piece of content will need to be manually shared or scheduled with Sprout.

Users found Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social easy to use, but there was not enough data regarding other advocacy features like user segmentation or KPI tracking.

Compare Sprout Social with DSMN8.

Oktopost is a B2B social media management solution.

The key difference between Oktopost and the solutions by Hootsuite and Sprout Social is that employee advocacy is part of their platform, not an add-on.

If you’re a B2B marketing team looking to manage all areas of social media including brand channels, take a look at Oktopost.

However, if you’re already managing your brand channels successfully with alternative solutions or natively on social media platforms, consider a dedicated employee advocacy platform.

Unlike Hootsuite Amplify, Oktopost includes gamification features. Like Sprout Social, admins can curate multiple captions for each social post, but not images.

Oktopost integrates with Microsoft Teams, but not Slack.

Platform users rate Oktopost well for ease of use and ease of admin, but there was not enough data to evaluate their gamification and multiple language features.

Compare Oktopost with DSMN8.

Clearview Social is a social media management platform for corporate communications and employee advocacy.

Employees can suggest and share content, and admins can monitor results with analytics.

If you’re seeking a tool to manage your company social channels, perhaps Clearview could be the right fit for you.

On the other hand, if you’re managing corporate social successfully with other methods, there’ll be some features here that you don’t need.

Clearview’s advocacy features focus on employees sharing content provided to them, or employees suggestions moderated by admins.

This is great for getting employees active on social, but for advocacy to be truly game-changing for your organization, encouraging employee-generated content is key for authenticity.

Clearview Social users said that the platform meets their requirements, but they were less happy with the product direction, integrations, and and KPI tracking available.

Compare Clearview Social with DSMN8.

If you’re seeking an employee advocacy solution as part of an internal communications platform, here are some options to consider. However, if you’re already using an internal communications platform and not looking to migrate, choosing one of these may be confusing for advocates.

Haiilo describe themselves as a modern intranet focused on employee communications.

Employee advocacy is an add-on to Haiilo’s core internal communications platform. It allows employees to share content, admins to view the analytics, and encourages user engagement with gamification (leaderboards).

If you’re looking for a new intranet software with employee advocacy capabilities, Haiilo is a great option. But if you already have a suitable internal comms tool and only need an employee advocacy solution, this one isn’t for you.

Haiilo is rated just below DSMN8 for categories such as ease of setup, product direction, and meeting requirements.

Compare Haiilo with DSMN8.

Firstup is an employee communications platform that offers an add-on solution for employee advocacy.

If your organization already uses Firstup, their employee advocacy add-on might be a good option. It includes gamification for employee engagement and analytics for admins.

However, there are three key elements to managing a successful advocacy program that are missing from Firstup:

1. The ability to segment content by department, region or language. Getting content to the right employees is essential.
2. The ability to curate multiple images and captions for each piece of content. You’ll want to prevent employees all sharing the same thing and their content looking identical in the feed.
3. Firstup’s solution only enables employees to share pre-approved content. If used alone, prewritten content can appear inauthentic and limits your ability to leverage employee stories for talent acquisition.

Users rate Firstup well for ease of use and quality of support, but were less happy with the analytics and reporting available.

Compare Firstup with DSMN8.

Sociabble is an employee engagement platform, featuring internal communications and employee advocacy features.

For those looking for a solution to replace their existing internal comms platform, Sociabble is a good option with more features than Firstup.

However, for running an employee advocacy program, it does lack some functionality that a dedicated platform brings.

Firstly, the ability to curate multiple images and captions for every social post. Providing employees with options makes them more likely to share content, and prevents their posts all looking identical on social media.

Secondly, making it easy for admins to demonstrate ROI to leadership with earned media value.

G2 users rated Sociabble and DSMN8 highly for both ease of use and ease of admin, but they were less satisfied with the ease of setting up Sociabble, and meeting requirements.

Compare DSMN8 with Sociabble.

Now we’ve covered marketing and internal communications software with advocacy features or add-ons, let’s dive into solutions focused solely on employee advocacy.

A platform specifically for advocacy will create a ‘space’ for your program, removing any distractions or confusion about the purpose of the new tool.

Aside from additional features that may not be present in employee communications or marketing solutions, dedicated platforms have another benefit we haven’t discussed:

Employee advocacy expertise. The ability to provide training and support for managing and scaling your advocacy program, driving results and demonstrating ROI.

DSMN8 is an all-in-one employee advocacy platform that empowers employees to create, curate, and share content.

I won’t go into all the platform features and integrations here, instead I’ll highlight 6 specific features and benefits that make DSMN8 shine.

Watch the 90 second platform tour below to see CEO Bradley Keenan take you through how DSMN8 works👇

With over 500 5 star reviews, G2 users consistently rate DSMN8 for ease of use, ease of setup, and best ROI.

EveryoneSocial’s employee advocacy platform includes standard advocacy features such as gamification, analytics, and user segmentation. 

Employees can suggest, share, and create content, though employee-generated content has to be approved by an admin before posting.

In our experience, this creates additional work for admins and doesn’t promote authenticity. Empowering your team through trust and social media training leads to enthusiastic advocates keen to share their original content.

There is functionality to provide content to executives to help manage their social media presence. However, you cannot ‘boost’ your leadership team or company page posts to encourage employees to like and share them.

Employees can schedule shares, or add them to a queue for later, but this cannot be entirely automated in EveryoneSocial for busy employees who prefer a hands-off approach.

G2 users rate both DSMN8 and EveryoneSocial highly for ease of use and meeting requirements (9.1/10).

However, EveryoneSocial users were less satisfied with aspects like ease of setup, admin, and quality of support, as well as features like employee-generated content and engagement tracking.

Compare DSMN8 with EveryoneSocial.

Postbeyond is an employee advocacy software by Influitive, a customer engagement platform.

For those in the B2C space already using Influitive, Postbeyond could be the right fit for getting employees active on social too.

However, Postbeyond is not available for organizations with less than 100 employees. Advocacy can be a game-changer for small-to-medium businesses, so it’s a shame to exclude them.

Postbeyond’s advocacy platform includes gamification functionality, analytics, and Slack/Teams integrations. It lacks advanced user segmentation and the ability to curate multiple captions and images for every piece of content.

G2 users rated Postbeyond for meeting requirements, but they were less happy with the product direction, ease of setup and ease of admin.

Compare DSMN8 with Postbeyond.

We’ve guided you through establishing your goals with employee advocacy, understanding your ‘must-have’ features, and provided an overview of the top employee advocacy platforms on the market.

Hopefully this has made your buying journey a bit easier, and you’re closer in the process of finding the right employee advocacy solution for your organization!

More resources you may find helpful:

• Top 10 DSMN8 Features Our Clients Love
• Get a free Employee Advocacy Health Check to see how active your employees are on social, and how this compares with your competitors.
• Employee Advocacy Metrics for Measuring Success

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