If you’re reading this.
You’re probably a little frustrated.
You did all the research.
Read every whitepaper available to you.
Selected a vendor.
And successfully launched an employee advocacy program.
You badass 🔥
But then what happened?
After the initial launch.
And breathtaking results.
Things slowed down somewhat.
Maybe your program’s performance plateaued.
Or, worse yet…
Employees have stopped using your platform altogether 😰
So, where to go from here?
Fortunately, all is not lost.
Far from it!
In fact, it’s something we see all too often!
Organization launches program.
Employees get excited.
Program launch goes well.
Clicks come flying in.
Employees lose interest.
Results suffer.
We call it the “post-launch dropoff”.
Jump to:
The Post-Launch Dropoff
Okay.
This sounds alarming.
Don’t stress.
This is 100% normal and is expected from all employee advocacy programs!
So don’t panic! 😌
After launch, what you tend to see is a spike in usage followed by a slight dropoff in performance after the onboarding process.
Why do we call it “the dropoff”?
Because we don’t like to think of it as a decline in performance.
Really, it’s just the less engaged/motivated few dropping off.
The plan is usually to onboard as many employees as possible so that you can generate the best results. So, naturally (as is often the case when organizations try new things), some people lose interest or simply don’t have the time to continue taking part.
And that’s okay! 👍
But how do you limit the damage?
Dropoff Prevention
Of course…
The best way to avoid having to reignite a program is to recognize this possibility from day one and put measures in place to ensure the “dropoff” is minimal.
Here are our two top tips:
1. Communicate the employee benefits from day one.
Hands down, the best way to ensure continued participation is by communicating the employee benefits right out the gate!
Your employee advocacy program should be a two-way street. In that, it should benefit both the employee AND the company alike 👏
If you spend all your time speaking about what this will do for your content reach or your brand awareness, then employees outside of marketing (maybe even those in marketing) will lose interest fast. After all, it doesn’t immediately benefit their role or even their department.
Instead, communicate the importance of personal branding and why this is important for EVERY employee.
Consider offering anecdotal feedback from employee advocacy case studies or from your own research. For example, when communicating the benefits to salespeople, you might want to include an anecdote from a salesperson who used an employee advocacy tool to assist with their social selling.
Plus, whether you’re in sales, tech, or customer success, having a strong personal brand can be incredibly beneficial to your career, no matter your field.
Check out how accounting firm Kreston Reeves did this to tremendous effect!
2. Automating Posts
DSMN8 users have the luxury of being able to automate their social media activity.
It’s not for everyone, and there’s no question that the most authentic employee advocacy is when employees share and offer their own input.
HOWEVER, there’s no denying that some people are simply too busy to take part 🤷♂️
DSMN8’s automation feature effectively means that those busy bees would only ever have to log in to the platform once…
They would choose how many posts they want to share per week (or per day/month), and then they would begin sharing pre-approved and pre-written content that’s been curated by the program admin.
In fact, the mere mention of this might help get more people on board from the start. Once they’re in and the automation is set up, they’re good to go! 🙌
Not bad, ‘ey?
How to Reignite Activity and Boost Performance
Right.
Needless to say.
Doing the above doesn’t make your program bulletproof.
And your performance might have still taken a hit.
If you’re going to reignite your employee advocacy program.
You’re going to need a spark 🔥
Generally speaking, this is something new.
Something to get people excited again.
For example, an incentive or a new notification that catches their attention.
Here are our top tips:
1. Get Senior Leaders Involved
Ideally, this is something that you would have tried to do during the launch process, but the more the better!
Your Senior Leadership Team HAVE to lead by example and have tremendous influence over their teams and the wider workforce.
If, after launch, your employees notice a lack of activity from senior individuals, they may be inclined to believe that the program is either losing traction or is less important than they initially thought 😱
“The more, the better” is key to remember here. More often than not, senior members of staff will have a team of people that they manage and influence, so don’t stop with your CMO!
Let’s imagine your Head of Sales, or maybe just a sales manager, is using your employee advocacy platform to boost interest and drive sales from social…
Would any SDR want to say no to using it? 🤔
2. Make it competitive!
If you’re a larger company, you might have grouped your employees into various teams within the platform (e.g. Sales, Marketing, etc.).
Leverage this to create some competition! 🙌
If, like DSMN8, your platform offers an internal communications/announcements feature, then you can use this to drive competition between teams within the platform.
If, say, the sales team were leading the way in terms of shares and clicks that month, you could create an internal announcement celebrating the accomplishments of the sales team and start a fire under other departments for the next month!
Getting more senior leaders involved will help bring more teams into the platform, which helps make this process a possibility.
You might be surprised to see what a little internal competition can do! 😉
Which leads us to our next suggestion…
3. Gamification!
Gamification, in the form of leaderboards and rewards, can be a fantastic way to drive more activity within the platform.
At DSMN8, we typically don’t suggest that clients incorporate gamification from day one as it can be a great way to get people excited about the platform all over again!
Of course, the most authentic form of employee advocacy is when employees share because they want to and because they know what’s in it for them, but there’s no denying the prospect of “winning”, whether there’s a reward or not, will generate some interest! 🏆
The DSMN8 platform, when using leaderboards, will show the leaderboard in a widget on the home screen when users log in. This not only reminds them of the incentive but also lends additional visibility to top performers as their names and faces are included.
Some of our best-performing clients have actually staggered the use of gamification within their platform. In that, when activity started to drop off a bit, they introduced a leaderboard and a reward over a set time period and then removed the leaderboard once it had finished 👏
The goal in these instances is to bring people into the platform and form a habit of opening the app and sharing long after the leaderboard has expired.
BONUS: Cheat codes!
Here are a few easy to implement ideas that can also go a long way in reigniting internal interest in your employee advocacy program:
1. Get people using the mobile app
If your employee advocacy platform has one, suggest that employees download the mobile version of the app.
I don’t need to tell you how much time we spend on our phones these days! 😉
A mobile app makes the platform more accessible at any time and makes sharing easier and more convenient.
Not to mention that employees will receive notifications from the app that should catch their attention.
2. Tag people in internal posts
If you’re able to create internal posts within the platform, then utilize this to engage your employees!
DSMN8 even allows you to tag specific users. This should pique their interest as they’ll be notified and encouraged to check out the post.
3. Set the default page on their browsers to your platform's home page
If it’s possible, and if it doesn’t interfere with the activities of any other department, then consider setting your platform’s home page as the default page employees see when they open their browsers.
4. Bookmark your platform's home page for employees
You might need help from IT with this one, but adding the platform’s home page to your employees’ bookmarks in their browsers is an excellent way to increase visibility and create habits.
5. Tagging people in internal posts
If you’re able to create internal posts within the platform, then utilize this to engage your employees!
DSMN8 even allows you to tag specific users. This should pique their interest as they’ll be notified and encouraged to check out the post.
Ready to get started with employee advocacy?
But not sure if you’re ready for an employee advocacy platform?
Take our short quiz to see if you have the foundations in place!
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Lewis Gray
Senior Marketing Manager and Employee Advocacy Program Manager at DSMN8. Lewis specialises in content strategy, growing brand visibility and generating inbound leads. His background in Sales lends itself well to demand generation in the B2B niche.
