Sunday Riley, the founder of the eponymous skincare brand, has been reprimanded for telling staff to write fake product reviews to boost sales.
A recent article from the BBC (link below) has highlighted another company using 'fake reviews' in order to raise the credibility of the brand.
This is not 'employee advocacy' this is naivety at best, and fraud at worst.
An employee advocacy strategy isn't about getting employees to promote the same corporate message that no one ever reads, it's all about creating an authentic trusting relationship between your employees, your company, and potential clients/customers.
Sunday Riley employees, including the founder, also created multiple accounts on Sephora using fake identities on a virtual private network in order to hide their company email addresses, according to the FTC.
If you want to better understand what an 'employee advocacy' strategy is by all means send me a short message, let's talk.
An investigation by the FTC - which was sparked by a whistleblower's post on social news site Reddit - found that between November 2015 and August 2017 managers at the firm, including Ms Riley, submitted fake, positive reviews of its products on Sephora's site.
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