8 Game-Changing Social Media Advocacy Examples

Last Updated: 21st December 2023.

Looking for some game-changing social media advocacy examples?

We’ve got you!

Whether you’re considering starting an employee advocacy program, or need a boost to your social media advocacy strategy, here are some brands that are absolutely killing their advocacy campaigns.

First of all, let’s cover the basics.

Social media advocacy is employee advocacy… on social media. So, what is employee advocacy?

It’s a form of word-of-mouth marketing, where employees share and create company content.

The reach of official brand channels can often be limited, and we all know that paid advertising is expensive!

Employee advocacy on social media allows you to reach more people, share your company values, and recruit the best talent.

💡 Want to learn more? Check out the ultimate guide to employee influence.

Employee advocacy programs work for businesses in SO many ways.

Let me break it down for you with just a few benefits…

📈 1. Brand awareness, increasing your share of voice.

💰 2. Advocacy tools and programs have a much higher ROI than advertising.

🌍 3. Helps with recruitment, showing your company culture to the world!

👑 4. Thought leadership from senior staff shows expertise.

🙋‍♂️ 5. People trust employees over brands. People = authenticity.

OK, so that all sounds great for a brand, but what about the staff? What do employees get out of employee advocacy? 🤔

1. They can build a personal brand, and have the potential to become a thought leader. Incredible opportunities can come from this, like speaking at conferences, interviews, and growing their social media following.

2. Developing skills in writing and content creation. Advocacy isn’t just for the marketing department! Teach your employees how to effectively use social media – it’s worth the time spent.

3. Rewards. From gamification with points, leaderboards and prizes, to recognition from senior leadership, recognize those championing employee advocacy! A personal email or a shoutout in your team chat can really make your brand advocates feel rewarded.

Let’s get into some examples of companies winning at advocacy! 👇

In no particular order…

Sky are Europe’s biggest entertainment and communications network, and they’re totally on board with employee advocacy.

With 3000 employees and 23 million customers, Sky are a household name.

So what do their employees post on social media? 💬

They show the human side of working for a huge company like Sky.

#LifeAtSky is full of joyful posts from staff, featuring fun extra-curricular activities like ice skating, parties and awesome events! ⛸

Sky also use employee advocacy for talent acquisition. 🎉

Here’s a great example:

In 2018, Sky began a recruitment campaign to attract more women Home Service Engineers.

Aiming to improve diversity in the engineering field, Sky’s recruitment campaign focused on visibility: showing female Home Service Engineers at work inspired more women to consider a Sky career.

The results?

Life At Sky reached 10 million views on social channels in 2019. Incredible! 👏

Sky are also keeping up with the changing landscape of social media… Their TikTok @LifeAtSky shares ‘day-in-the-life’ content, follows trends, and shows their employees genuinely having a good time at work.

💡 Top Tip: Don’t be afraid to share behind-the-scenes content… not everything has to be corporate and official all the time. Sky’s employee-generated content often includes funny blooper videos, food pics on Instagram, and fun parties.

We all know who Google are, so why does this tech giant with 100k employees bother with employee advocacy? 😏

This is why:

1. They’re always looking to recruit top talent – what better way than current employees talking about how much they enjoy working for Google?
2. Google is an industry leader, and wants to highlight their company values and all the great things they’re doing!
3. Many of their senior staff are thought leaders, making them ideal employee influencers.

Here’s what Google does well:

They have super clear branding, using @LifeAtGoogle / #LifeAtGoogle across platforms and on their blog.

They feature stories from Google staff members and interns, all about their roles and career paths. They even share interview tips, providing value to potential applicants.

#MyPathToGoogle showcases people from all different backgrounds and cultures, emphasizing the diversity at Google.

Employees share causes that Google stand for, including helping veterans and LGBTQIA+ Pride events. 🏳️‍🌈

💡 Top Tip: show how diverse and inclusive you are. If you get involved in community outreach or charity programs, make some content about it!

The result?

@LifeAtGoogle has over 500k followers on Twitter, and over 700k on Instagram 🤯

Their ‘office spotlights’ show great employee perks, and Google employees often share their remote working spaces too.

FYI, #PetsofGoogle is the cutest! 😍

Monzo are an online bank who skyrocketed to success in recent years. 🚀

They’re all about community. It’s how they built their brand. 🤝

Monzo listen to their customers, involve them in decisions, and reward them for referring friends and family. 🎉

In fact, 80% of Monzo’s growth is down to word-of-mouth marketing. 💬

They know the power of social influence and brand advocacy. ⚡️

So it makes sense that Monzo employees are smashing it on social media.

Whether sharing pics of their day-to-day at the office, or highlighting new Monzo features, you can tell that employees love working there. Monzo employees regularly share job openings, and a little peek at their social channels showcases their company culture.

The @MakingMonzo Twitter account boosts employee advocacy efforts, curating a feed of employee content.

Their senior staff are onboard too. 🙌

Co-founder Tom Blomfield shares valuable insights on his blog about startups, Fintech, and how Monzo grew. A big YES to founders sharing their knowledge! 👏

💡 Top Tip: create clear social media guidelines. Have a read of read Monzo’s social media policy, it’s easy to understand and written in their brand voice. Not sure where to start? Grab our free social media policy template!

One thing I love about Shopify’s online presence is how much they champion their employees. 🏆

Shopify encourages employees to showcase their expertise, by featuring them in case studies, interviews and guides. Employees also create blog content, not just social media posts!

These staff champions are known as ‘Shopify Gurus’. They create easy-to-digest content like Instagram reels, and share marketing tips for Shopify customers.

💡 Top Tip: feature your employees on your branded social channels. If they’re a pro at something, have them create a how-to video, or write a guest blog post.

AWIN is a top affiliate marketing company, with over 1000 employees.

One of the ways they manage a large scale social media advocacy program is by creating an abundance of unique content variations for their employees to share.

For every article, adding 5 different images, titles, and copy creates 125 unique posts. This means your colleagues won’t be sharing identical posts across social feeds. 🙌

More than 40% of AWIN’s employees now use DSMN8, enabling them to build personal brands as well as grow AWIN’s social presence.

In fact, employee advocacy is now “one of the highest referrers of traffic” to AWIN’s site, according to Sarah Ruzgar, their Global Communications Lead. 📈

💡 Top Tip: try using gamification to encourage employees to participate. DSMN8’s leaderboard feature increased AWIN’s user engagement by over 3X!

Read the case study to find out more about AWIN’s results with DSMN8’s advocacy platform.

Boeing are the world’s biggest aerospace company, and the leading manufacturer of commercial jets. ✈️

#TeamBoeing is spread all over the world, and they’re really passionate about their work.

Using the hashtags #TeamBoeing and #OneBoeing, employees share informative content about Boeing, as well as volunteering and charity events.

You might not have heard of AkzoNobel, but you’ve definitely seen their work.

AkzoNobel are the experts in paint and coatings. I mean, they do paint for everything from yachts to fire engines to buildings! 🖌

Oh, and they’re the parent company of Dulux too. You know, the paint company with the adorable dog? 🐶

AkzoNobel have been around for 140 years, and they’re known for innovation. While implementing a social media marketing strategy, they realized that a lot of their employees weren’t pros at Twitter or LinkedIn. AkzoNobel knew it was important to keep up with new technology, so they made time to teach their employees all about social media! 🙌

What happened when AkzoNobel implemented an employee advocacy program with DSMN8?

They quadrupled their LinkedIn audience size, all with only 272 people using DSMN8!

They got more than 35,000 website visits- worth over $100,000 in comparative media spend.

AkzoNobel’s content now reaches 6.7 million people. 🤯

💡 Top Tip: if some of your employees aren’t familiar with social media, one of the important parts of starting a social media advocacy program is to get them up to speed! This worked well for AkzoNobel, who used DSMN8’s employee advocacy platform to suit all their users’ needs.

Read the case study to find out more about AkzoNobel’s success with employee advocacy.

OK, so this is one of my all-time favorite examples of employee-generated content.

Working at a Disney Park is more than a job, it’s a lifestyle.

And the Cast Members thrive in it ✨

#DisneyCastLife has blown up on social media, from aesthetic Instagram shots to exciting TikTok videos.

This happened organically by the way.

What was Disney’s response?

They leaned into it 🤩

Following what their cast members were already doing, Disney Parks made #DisneyCastLife official, with an app and everything.

Their employee advocacy success came from communication: listening to their employees, and creating unified brand messaging with clear values.

The app is the icing on the cake, a streamlined solution to both internal communications and employee advocacy.

It all comes down to trust. Cast members are empowered to create content, and the DisneyCastLife hashtag has now reached 125m views on TikTok.

That’s not all! 🤯

Many of Disney’s Cast Members have become influencers, sharing their daily routines, fun Disney events, and tips for getting the most out of a Disney visit.

Disney are all about storytelling, and they do this incredibly well on the Disney Cast Life blog. Telling employee stories from Disney Parks across the globe, they’ve successfully created a thriving company culture in the digital space.

💡 Top Tip: trust your employees. Disney saw organic employee-generated content, and empowered them to continue.

As you can see, employee advocacy works for companies in any industry.

Each brand does things differently, and we love to see innovation! ⚡️

You could empower your employees to become influencers like Disney’s Cast Members, or start a diversity recruitment campaign on social media like Sky.

Simply sharing a pic of your #workfromhome office provides an authentic look into your company culture… even better if you’ve got a dog! 🐶

How active are your employees on social?

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Learn More About Turning Employees into Influencers

• The Pyramid of Employee Influence
• The Ultimate Guide to Employee Influencers
• The First 60 Days: Set Up for Employee Advocacy Success