I've just read that Lush Cosmetics have decided to stop using social media.

It's a problem that many brands face.  We are so locked into using old style broadcast methods (interruption marketing) that we continue to think that world is all still about push marketing.

Cold calling, unsolicited emails and advertising is all about interrupting buyers and hoping that you make an "emotional connection" and a person says, I want to buy.  The problem is we are all too busy and your message just comes across as everybody else's message and it's all just noise.  One of the things we are really good at in the modern world is filtering out noise.

Our filtering can be from simply ignoring your message to using technology such as ad blockers.  It is really easy now to block cold callers on an iphone.  Or even legislation like GDPR is there to help us combat the onslaught of "branding".

There lies the problem with employee advocacy, it's seen as a broadcast channel.  You buy a tool, hitch the employees social feeds up to it and start pumping out content.  The same content everybody ignores through the other broadcast channels.  Employee advocacy becomes just another broadcast channel. 

Of course, we all know that is crap.  I know it, you know it, your employees know it and your prospects know it.

In today's world there is only one thing that differentiates us as a company, it's our people.  All products are the same, or as far as I am aware (you are an expert, I am not) all products look the same.

Employee advocacy is the battleground of the modern time.  Empowering and activating your staff to talk about where they work, your products and services and to do it in a non salesy, authentic way is really hard.  But the benefits are off the scale.